By TERRY LYONS
AUGUSTA – The 2023 Masters Tournament is the first major championship of the 2023 pro golf season and second event that offers 600 FedEx Cup points to the winner. In 2022, Scottie Scheffler earned his first career major championship title and fourth win of the 2021-22 season with a three-stroke victory over Rory McIlroy. Scheffler went on to win the Jack Nicklaus Award as PGA TOUR Player of the Year while McIlroy captured his third career FedEx Cup title. They enter this year’s Masters as the two highest-ranked players in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Scheffler has two wins this season, including THE PLAYERS Championship.
Three players have successfully defended a title at the Masters Tournament: Jack Nicklaus (1966), Nick Faldo (1990) and Tiger Woods (2002). Scheffler is 1-for-3 in title defenses on Tour this season, with a victory at the WM Phoenix Open and Top-5 finishes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational (T4) and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (4th).
The only player to win THE PLAYERS and the Masters in the same year is Tiger Woods in 2001. Woods is also the last player to successfully defend multiple titles in the same season, doing so four times in 2007.
The Masters 2023 | Special Discount | Best offer of the PGA Tour Season
Preview | The Masters
COURSE: Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia
ARCHITECT: Dr. Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones Jr.; Perry Maxwell in 1937
YARDS/PAR: 7,475 yards/Par 72
2023 PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: At least $15,000,000/$2,700,000
DEFENDING CHAMPION: Scottie Scheffler
PAST RESULTS: (link)
PAST CHAMPIONS: (link)
FEDEx CUP Points to Winner: 600
SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @The Masters
TV COVERAGE: Special coverage of the Par Three Tournament today from 12:00 Noon (ET) on The Masters site. ESPN will provide tournament preview coverage 3:00pm to 5:00pm (ET).
Tournament Info and How to Watch/Stream The Masters: (NBC Boston)
How to Watch Par 3: In case of changes, visit: (Masters.com)
The Basics:
Tournament site: The Masters
The Masters – Tee Times start Thursday at 8:00am (ET) and go to 2:00pm (ET).
Weather: Thursday’s forecast is for cloudy skies. Temperatures range from 67-to-84 degrees with a 17% chance of rain. Winds at 8mph. Weekend forecast is calling for rain with a 64% chance of rain on Friday, a 96% chance on Saturday and 79% chance on Sunday.
Notes:
Three-time FedEx Cup Champion Rory McIlroy will try to become the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam with a win, joining Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen. McIlroy was the only player to finish in the Top 10 at all four Majors in 2022 (2nd/Masters, 8th/PGA Championship, T-5/U.S. Open, 3rd/The Open).
2015 Masters winner Jordan Spieth holds the lowest scoring average of any player in tournament history (min. 25 rounds) at an average of 70.71 (Others: Second-lowest: Tiger Woods, 71.05). Spieth also holds the tournament records for low opening 36-hole score (130, 2015) and low opening 54-hole score (200, 2015; tied with Dustin Johnson, 2020). Spieth has three top-10s on the season, highlighted by a T3 at the Valspar Championship.
Six players have six or more PGA TOUR wins in the last five seasons, including Patrick Cantlay (seven wins in that span) and Max Homa (six) are the only two among the group that have not won a Major championship in their careers. At No. 4 (Cantlay) and No. 5 (Homa) in the Official World Golf Ranking, they are also the two highest-ranked players in the world without a win in a major. Cantlay has made six starts at the Masters and earned low-amateur honors in 2012 (T47) while Homa is making his fourth appearance after making the cut for the first time in 2022 (T48).
Although they went to great lengths to avoid controversy during Masters Week, the LIV Golf tour and the PGA Tour managed to make some waves when Augusta National decided against inviting former multi-time Majors winner and Masters runner-up Greg Norman to the tournament. Norman is currently serving as Commissioner of LIV Golf. (link)