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The Augusta Masters Tournament began Thursday, the first of four men’s golf majors held each season. The Major tournaments are the most prestigious in professional golf: the other three are the PGA Championship, the US Open and the Open Championship, also known as the British Open (it is in fact the only Major that is not played in the United States, but in United Kingdom).
The Masters Tournament has been held since 1934 in Augusta, Georgia, and this year is scheduled for April 11-14. It is the only Major that is played on the same course every year. The winners of the last two editions were in 2022 the American Scottie Scheffler, current number one in the world ranking, and in 2023 the Spaniard Jon Rahm, in third place in the ranking. The second golfer in the world ranking is the Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, who has won all the most important tournaments in his career, except the Augusta Masters (as the Masters Tournament is also called).
In the media, especially the British ones, we are therefore wondering if this could finally be the good year for Rory McIlroy to wear the green jacket, the green jacket that is traditionally given to the winner of the tournament. McIlroy has participated in the Augusta Masters fifteen times so far and is considered a credible contender for the final victory, not only because of his talent in general, but also because on that very course he has often achieved good results and on several occasions has come close to victory but without ever reaching it. In seven of the last ten participations, so to speak, he finished in the top ten, out of around one hundred participants.
McIlroy is almost 35 years old and is considered one of the best golfers of his generation, perhaps the most popular ever, after Tiger Woods. In his career he has won 17 tournaments in Europe and 24 in the United States, but the fact that the Masters Tournament is not yet among these is a reason for some not to take him into consideration when discussing who is the best of all time.
The Masters Tournament is the only one of the Majors that he misses, because he won the US Open in 2011, the PGA Championship in 2012 and 2014 and the Open Championship in 2014. If he manages to win it, he would become the sixth golfer ever to win reach the Career Grand Slam, that is, win all four Majors during your career. Before him, only five players succeeded: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Two years ago, in the 2022 edition, McIlroy finished second at the Masters Tournament. The edition in which things went worst for him, however, was undoubtedly 2011. That year McIlroy was the main talent on the rise in world golf: in the following three years he would win his four Major titles and would become the second youngest number one ever after Tiger Woods. At the Masters, McIlroy played very well in the first three days and showed up with a four-shot lead on the final, decisive day (in golf the player who completes all the holes on the course in the fewest number of shots wins).
On April 10, however, he played the worst round ever for a golfer leading after the third round at Augusta, squandering a chance at a victory that had seemed very close. In the end, South African Charl Schwartzel won, and McIlroy didn’t even make the top ten. McIlroy said he has learned a lot from the many editions of the tournament he has played and that today he is more patient and confident.
In the final round of 2011, Rory McIlroy missed several shots and ended up playing a lot off the golf course (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
BBC News has published a long article in which he tries to analyze McIlroy’s possibilities, to answer with data and statistics the question that golf fans ask themselves every year before the Augusta Masters: that is, whether it will finally be McIlroy’s turn. The answer that was given BBC is that yes, McIlroy can tend to do it, but there are some aspects of his game that could make him less suitable than others for this tournament. Some believe that he has now passed the period in which he was at his best level, also because he hasn’t won a Major title since 2014. McIlroy, however, is still among the elite of the best golfers today and is not even old enough to play or win.
The average age of those who have won at Augusta is 32.6 years (just under McIlroy’s 35) and there are players who have won the tournament when they were over forty (the record belongs to Jack Nicklaus, six-time winner of the Masters, the last at 46 years old). In the press conference to present the tournament, Tiger Woods, according to many the best golfer ever (who won the Masters in 2019 at the age of 43), said of McIlroy: «Have you seen how talented he is? He will play this tournament many more times, and he will definitely win, it’s just a matter of when this is farà.
(Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Second BBC the central issue concerns the game, rather than age: in recent years, in Augusta the best players have almost always won in the approach shot to the green, the green area surrounding the hole where the grass is mowed to allow golfers to roll the ball towards the hole. In this, in the last two years Scheffler has been the best, and therefore he is considered the favorite to win this Masters Tournament (he already won it two years ago).
However, the thing in which McIlroy is probably the strongest in the world are the shots taken at the beginning of the hole, the longest ones, which however according to the statistics analyzed by BBC they will not be decisive for the final victory of the Masters. Despite this, however, McIlroy is a strong and complete golfer in all shots, and this year too he can compete for the final victory. In an article asking more or less the same question, the US sports site ESPN wrote that in recent years Rory McIlroy, despite failing to win a Major, has played the best golf of his career, even better than he showed between 2011 and 2014, when he won four Majors.
– Read also: The green jacket that all golfers want
2024-04-11 15:17:36
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