McIlroy takes aim at Grand Slam; Scheffler goes for another green jacket

AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Masters has its largest field in 10 years, and yet the first major championship of the year still feels like it’s mainly about two players.

Expectations have followed Rory McIlroy down Magnolia Lane for the last decade, each trip to Augusta National giving him a shot at finally getting the last leg of the career Grand Slam and joining the most elite group in golf.

He has gone 0 for 10 at Augusta since he won the third leg. He hasn’t been particularly close.

Scottie Scheffler is coming off a year so astounding that he drew comparisons with peak Tiger Woods. Now he tries to join Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only back-to-back winners of the Masters. Another green jacket would be his third in four years, a dominance not seen at Augusta since Nicklaus some 60 years ago.

“Why does my game fit so well at Augusta National? It’s a good question,” Scheffler said. “The best way I could describe is when I’m in control of my golf ball, I have very good strategy for playing the golf course. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to hit the shots.

“And the last few years, I’ve been pulling off the shots I’m trying to hit.”

The stage is the most familiar in golf, minus some trees lost when powerful and deadly Hurricane Helene roared through town last September. Those who have played Augusta in the last few months say it is in immaculate condition, with more open views of the course from the loss of trees. The club has not said how many, still sensitive to the destruction around it.

CBS, in its 70th year televising the Masters, plans to move forward. Sellers Shy, the CBS golf producer, said there would not be any before-and-after images to show the difference.

“That is not in the plans,” Shy said. “We’re covering the tournament the way it is presented to us and the way the club would like to present it.”

What makes this year feel different is McIlroy has never looked more equipped to claim a Masters green jacket that once looked inevitable. For the first time in his career, he has started the season with two wins before getting to Augusta National, beating two strong fields at Pebble Beach and The Players Championship.

All that did was crank up the expectations, which McIlroy is embracing.

“I went through my fair share of losses, criticism, expectations,” McIlroy said on the Golf Channel set before leaving the TPC Sawgrass.

Not winning a major in 11 years was one thing. Even more startling was he had only four good chances, and there was one stretch of 10 straight majors when he did not finish closer than eight shots of the winner.

“You have to be willing to get your heart broken, and I think I went through a few years of my career where I wasn’t willing to put myself out there,” he said. “But I feel like I’ve figured it out.”

He went to Augusta National before going to the Houston Open for his final start. He stopped by Augusta again on his way home from Houston. This feels like his best chance, also because the two players who outperformed him last year are coming off injuries.

One of them is Scheffler.

Two moments late last year illustrate where McIlroy and Scheffler are heading into the 89th Masters, which starts April 10 with a 96-player field, still the smallest among the four majors.

McIlroy spent part of his offseason in a studio simulator, hitting balls into a blank screen to keep from looking at the flight of the ball and to concentrate on regaining the feel of his swing. In the eight tournaments he has played since then, he has three wins and three top-5 finishes.

Scheffler spent Christmas Day making ravioli.

Scheffler was coming off a nine-win season, including a 62 on the final day to win the Olympic gold medal in Paris, when he used a wine glass to cut the ravioli. The glass punctured his right palm, requiring minor surgery. That led to him being away from competition for two months.

He is healed. He is pain-free.

He also is without a win going into the Masters for the first time since 2021.

“Did it set me back a little bit? Maybe some,” Scheffler said. “But each day, my hand continues to improve. My body continues to get back to where it needs to be. And I think my swing is coming around.”

In his final start before his title defense at Augusta National, Scheffler had rounds of 62 and 63 in the Houston Open and finished one shot behind.

Xander Schauffele last year at the Masters was regarded among the best to have never won a major. He returns trying to get the third leg of the Grand Slam at Augusta, after winning the PGA Championship and British Open. He was Scheffler’s biggest threat until he quietly stepped away in January for two months because of a rib injury.

The return has been slow going, save for Schauffele extending his cut streak to 60 tournaments on the PGA Tour.

But is he Masters ready? He has yet to register a top 10 in three starts since his return.

“Competition golf is not the same as trying to play golf at home,” Schauffele said. “High bar was set after last year, and coming off of that season I expected a lot of myself, and I still do now, even though it hasn’t really looked like that.”

Of course, the idea of this being a two-horse race even before the gates open is insulting to the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League. They are back among the best for the first time since the British Open last July.

Rahm blew a back-nine lead at the Olympics, which would have been a gold feather in his cap with LIV getting so few opportunities on big stages. With only four such opportunities a year, Augusta National has become a real proving ground for them, particularly since any deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi supporters behind LIV seems to be at a standstill.

They are among 12 players from LIV in the field, a group that includes Joaquin Niemann of Chile, who received a special exemption for the second straight year. He already has won twice this year, but his goals are higher.

“I know I’m going to win a major. I know it’s going to happen,” Niemann said after he won in Singapore. “Maybe not at the Masters, maybe yes. I have no idea. I just know it’s going to happen. … The way my game trending, I know it’s going to happen eventually, so I’m pretty calm knowing that.”

Believing and doing are different. No one knows that better than McIlroy.