Rory Mcilroy has seven Masters Top 10, but he is still looking for his first green jacket.
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control each week For the unjustified thoughts of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest themes in this sport, and join in the conversation by tweeting us to us in @golf_com. This week, we look at the masters of 2025 and break down the completion of the national women’s national amateur of 2025.
Welcome to the Masters Week, where there is no shortage of story scenes: Rory Mcilroy will (again again) try to complete the Grand Slam career; Stars like JT and Xander will try to win their first green jacket; Scottie Scheffler will try to win his third; and champion twice Bernhard Langer I’ll say goodbye. Although until Rory wins this tournament, will his search for Slam always be the main scene? Does a master need to win more?
Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_berHow) :: While Scottie or any future star is looking to win something like a third straight – or until a sending of Tiger Woods Masters – Rory going to Grand Slam will always be the main main scene in Augusta. But this is only because of the layers for him – the way he lost the 2011 masters and the main drought that now reached a decade. He has some good years even though he will win one. He is very good for not.
Josh Schrock, Associate Editor (@Schrock_and_Awe) :: I agree with Berhow. Rory will be the main scene of the masters until he either gets one or have a golf eclipse type scenario for everyone else to concentrate. Augusta National has become adapted for Rory’s game and the various ways he came out short-from the 2011 blow to not postpone Patrick Reed in the last group in 2018 in a backward race in 2022-Make that story 1A and 1b unless Tiger is in the field.
Jack Harsh, editor of associate equipment (@Jr_bresany) :: I have nothing to argue with those two answers. Add to the fact that Rory has probably the best superiority for the masters of his entire career, and there will be great pressure this week. I agree on the rumor mill on the social media that he mentioned his elbow was disturbing that last week, so some of the expectations could be removed, but I think most have forgotten this.
graft: Why do he? Because he is playing some of the best golf of his career. He has been won twice this year and already emerged from a high stress situation (playing player championship) at the top. No, he did not win the masters, but he has completed 10 balls seven times. He is likely to be in quarrel at one point, and if you get enough on the stick, one of them will work in your favor, especially for one of the five most talented players in the game. Golf gods work in mysterious ways. Time is the time that some of that heart stroke (like his loss of pinhurst) even outside. Why won’t he win? Because golf (and life) is not right and nothing is promised Sunday in Augusta.
Jumper: He claims to be the most complete golf player ever and statistics support him this season. The work done in offseason to re -recover his receipt, coupled with a focus on course management and a new golf ball, has it hunting almost all cylinders. Rory has suffered so many wounds in recent years as he tried to break this drought. He arrives in Augusta not looking or hoping, but playing the best golf of anyone in the world. If not now, when?
Pond: Easy is easy to see how he wins. The driver gets the cooking and we see it hit by spots that we haven’t seen players play after they tried the course (and then they build a bunch of new tees and make the course 8,000 yards next year). How he is lost is that he starts playing well and then goes to no. 10 and begins to feel the demons of 2011 return. He can simply break down in Augusta.
What is a story that no one is talking about what deserves the most attention?
graft: I don’t have any sub-radar scenarios to offer, but I have a casual thought to suppress: is crazy We have reached the 10-year anniversary of the victory of Jordan Spieth’s masters (which was immediately followed by his Chambers Bay Open’s victory). He has won only one big since two in 2015 – Open 2017 at Royal Birkdale – and he continues to become a difficult player to predict. His last four masters start – MC, T4, MC, T3. Sport is much more fun when it is in quarrel. I hope he is in the mix this week.
Jumper: I would have gone with spieth and expect Augusta National to promote old spieth next week. I’m going to go with Jon Rahm. His first major season as a member of Liv Golf was a father outside a T7 in the open. The protection of his masters dropped last year and he followed him with a lost cut in the Championship PGA. He remains one of the most talented players on the planet, but will this appear in the biggest stages this year?
Pond: I will follow Schrock’s lead and go with another Liv Golf player in Joaquin Niemann. I will say that people who call it the best player on the planet is now overloaded, but he must have so much waiting for him this week as anyone who is not called Scottie or Rory. He has never ended better than T16 in a big championship and if that goes on, this will not be a good look at the Liv Golf’s competitive balance.
Most likely to win a green jacket first: Morikawa, Xander or JT?
graft: Xander and Collin both played very well here, but I will give the light knot Morikawa, who has the perfect game for this golf course. He has also had a wonderful season so far and two racing endings, a T10 and pair of T17. Oh, and its last three beginnings in Augusta? All 10 of the ball. His ball hit is back to be one of the best of the game (currently 1 in strokes won: Access), he is safe and he has a small chip on his shoulder looking for that other victory. Heck, maybe he wins this this year?
Jumper: I think the possible answer is Xander but I will make the issue for JT. In the Age of Trackman and Dome Golfers, JT is a true artist. When he is playing to his maximum, his game and imagination must fit the Augusta perfectly. He is finally out of the desert and played as a Top-10 player for six months. Don’t be surprised if he is slipping into the green jacket on Sunday.
Pond: It’s Morikawa. He is just because. He would surely be my choice if it weren’t for Mcilroy. While he does not have the extraordinary length, his elite ball hit is adapted for Augusta, which is one of the few courses played by the tour where the angles still matter. I like it very much this week.
While some of the main PGA Tour received last week, a dozen players associated with Augusta competed in Liv Golf Miami. List your contenders of the top-pest masters from the group that just played a tuning in Florida.
graft: My subjective ranking goes 1) Bryson, 2) Rahm, 3) Brooks Koepka, 4) Phil Mickelson, and 5) Cameron Smith. Joaquin Niemann looks like a boy ready to explode in a major at one point, but we haven’t seen him yet. Smith is a curious – five 10 on the ball on his last seven trips here, but he did not do much (T63, T32, MC) in his other major beginnings last season. Is this the week that he is thrown back on everyone’s radar?
Jumper: Man, that’s difficult. I will go 1) Bryson, 2) Rahm, 3) Brooks, 4) Sergio Garcia, 5) Tyrrell Hatton. I think the first three are quite clear. Sergio Garcia has played really good golf for the best part of a year now and has good history in Augusta National. Feels like a week where he can fight. I know that Joaquin Niemann has lit Liv, but until he cards a top-15 on a major, I cannot see it as a legitimate threat to make noise in Augusta. Hatton was hit in the teeth by Doral, but he has played well over the past six months. He finished T9 in Augusta last year, and I think he will continue to start the weekend. Phil can very well return the clock once again, but it is a pass for me.
Pond: 1) Rahm, 2) Niemann 3) Sergio 4) Brooks Koepka 5) Bryson. Call me crazy, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Bryson doesn’t make the cut. He did not make the cut in 2022 or 2023. The concept he understood something last year seems foolish. No one really understands Augusta National except Tiger. Rahm is clear Dawg High here as he has to show that he can compete in diplomas still after an incorrect show last year. As I mentioned above, Niemann wants to shake the suspects of his main perspectives. The late game of Sergio Garcia really makes me think he could do something special in his 40s.
Spain Carla Bernat Escuder I held Lottie Woad and Asterisk Talley to win the national amateur of Augusta women on Saturday. What impressed you most about Bernat Escuder’s game, and what did you learn in the latest edition of Anwa?
graft: Her fearless game. Keeping that supremacy in the nine rear is not easy to do and she did it as she hit some shots in a big time, like that street tree from a hard-green lie to the 13th that raised a two-putt bird (and three strokes). This tournament has quickly become one of the parts you surround the calendar in the amateur and Pro Golf. It is a pleasure to see how they play the best of women and to introduce themselves to the golf world. It is a perfect snack of the masters. Although I still want more on TV.
Jumper: She was so stable in the boiler. As the pressure retreated to the nine back, it never crashed. She had that mass money in no. 10 and the second shot at 13 to set a main bird. I want to give a cry to Asterisis Talley, who probably had the two most impressive deeds of the day with Eagle Hole-Out at no. 1 and that funny birds in no. 17. She is so cursed impressive.
Pond: I love how she refers to the label “masters begins at Back Nine Sunday” during her press conference. I think she was at her press conference herself instead of becoming tough and hard with the lights (and green jackets) was really impressive. We also learned this week that Asterisis Talley did not just have a hot season last year – it will be a contenders for the years to come no matter which level plays. As for Anwa, why aren’t we playing more in Augusta National? It is called Augusta national women’s amateur, but only 33 percent of it is played in Augusta National. We also agree that we need more television coverage for him.
