I tipped him at the start of the year and while he’s not firing on all cylinders yet I’m not about to change my prediction that Rory McIlroy will be donning the green jacket at Augusta National on Sunday evening.
The difficulty with golf, and majors in particular, is that choosing one guy to beat the rest is a near impossible task. I can make a case for a half dozen or so genuine contenders, some dark horses and can pinpoint reasons why others won’t win, but if I have to pick one man it’s Rory.
He found his form at the Arnold Palmer Invitational but he must to two things if he wants to win this week. He has to keep his putter under control and take the silly mistakes out of his game.
He’s prone to silly shots now and again and at Augusta in particular, they can cost you dearly. Keep those to a minimum this week and I honestly believe he is the man to beat.
Rory’s my pick but I’d be lying if I said it was with 100% conviction. There are a handful of men who, if you fancy a flutter, are worth a look this week.
Let’s start with defending champion Sergio Garcia and whether, having waiting so long to break his major duck last year, can he now go on and become only the fourth man behind Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods to retain the title?
Sergio has had an eventful year since winning at Augusta in 2017. He is married now and looks much more relaxed on the golf course. The pressure’s off now too which means he has a real chance of playing without fear this week.
Justin Rose was in the lead a year ago until losing it at the end but he has won three times since October. He seems to be hot and cold but when’s hot he is a force. He’ll go close.
Another Masters favourite is Bubba Watson and crucially it will be a confident and in-form Bubba pitching up this week. The course set-up suits him nicely and his confidence is high.
Another man in form in Englishman Paul Casey. If you like your statistics here’s one for you – Casey has never finished lower than sixth in the Masters so he has to have an outside chance. He possibly will fall short but he’ll be in the mix. I like the look of Justin Thomas though. He has got the all-round game, has won six times in the last 15 months , drives the ball well, his iron play is great and he is putting well.
As for the other dark horses, I’ll go for Matt Leishman, Tommy Fleetwood and Alexander Noren. All three are worth keeping an eye on this week.