No golfer has won the Masters Tournament again, which begins Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club, since Tiger Woods defended his crown in 2002.
That’s the challenge facing Spain’s Jon Rahm, who won his second major title last year by closing with a 69. He also won the 2021 US Open.
Lahm, who signed a contract with LIV Golf at the end of 2023, will be one of the promising players.
Here are five other players to watch:
Scotty Scheffler
The favorite to win would be Scheffler, who was extremely accurate from tee to green. When putting, he looks as invincible as he has recently.
Scheffler, ranked No. 1 in the world, won the Arnold Palmer Invitational last month with a 6-under-par 66 in the final round. A week later, he shot an 8-under 64 to win his second consecutive Players Championship, something no player has won since the tournament, unofficially considered the fifth major, began in 1974.
But the true test of his greatness will be how he fares in his formal majors. Schaeffler, 27, who tied for second at the Texas Children’s Houston Open in March, has only one major title: the 2022 Masters.
Brooks Koepka
Koepka, 33, wore a green jacket last year, but shot a final round 75 and finished tied for second, four strokes behind Rahm.
The following month, he won his fifth major, the PGA Championship. One more time and he’ll be as good as Phil Mickelson, Lee Trevino, and Nick Faldo combined.
Koepka said failing to close a deal at Augusta National last year helped pave the way for his PGA victory.
“I think failure is a way to learn,” he told reporters at the PGA. Failure allows you to become better. You realize what mistake you made.”
Phil Mickelson
It would not be surprising if Mickelson, 53, a three-time Masters champion, missed the cut. He missed the cut at the US Open and British Open last year and tied for 58th at the PGA Championship.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see his name on the leaderboard late Sunday afternoon.
That’s what happened last year when he shot 65 and tied for second behind Rahm. In 2021, Mickelson won the PGA Championship at age 50, becoming the oldest golfer to win a major.
Could another magical week unfold on the course Mickelson knows so well?
Hideki Matsuyama
First of all, Matsuyama (32 years old) is a former Masters champion. In 2021, he became the first Japanese man to win a golf major title, beating Will Zalatoris by one stroke.
On the other hand, he has played very well in recent months.
In February, he shot a 62 on Sunday to win the Genesis Invitational by three strokes.
In March, he tied for 12th place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Then, Matsuyama, who won 9 times on the tour, tied for 6th place in the Players Championship. And on Sunday, he tied for seventh at the Valero Texas Open.
Jordan Spieth
Putting his recent performance aside (he hadn’t ranked in the top 25 for nearly two months until he tied for 10th at the Valero Texas Open), keep in mind that Spieth, still only 30, often comes alive when he gets off the tee. He came up to Augusta National.
Last year was no exception.
Spieth, currently ranked 18th, tied for 4th with a 66. In 2021, it ranked tied for third place. In 10 appearances at Augusta since his Masters debut in 2014, Spieth, the 2015 winner, has six top-five finishes.
“From the moment I got here,” the three-time major champion told Golf Digest in 2023. “I was always very excited, I wanted to learn and I wanted to fall in love.”