There are no shortage of talking points ahead of the 87th Masters, which gets under way at Augusta today.
The main topic which is gripping me is Rory McIlroy’s attempt to win the only major to have eluded him in his effort to complete the grand slam.
There are only five other guys who have done it, so it would be magic if he could do that this weekend.
Rory is such a good lad – and a great player – and I think he’s got a great chance.
He struggled a little bit at the Players, but then he played well at the Matchplay.
I heard him this week saying he has done a lot of work with Bob Rotella on the mind games.
Reading between the lines, it looks as though Rory is trying to take a little bit of pressure off himself, and to not try too hard to do this.
It’s not just about winning the Masters for him – it’s about taking the clean sweep.
I think the key for him is to try and stay out of his own way, and just play golf.
I have heard people saying Rory needs to get off to a good start. The feeling is he has not had a good start for a while, and I heard him saying he’s going to try hard to get a good round under his belt to get him going.
It’s also great to see Tiger Woods back playing.
The only thing that could muck Tiger up is the same thing that happened last year, as I think it’s going to be really cold on Saturday and there is to be quite a lot of rain.
The course will be long, and it will be a tough walk.
It’s everything that Tiger doesn’t in the wake of his lower leg injury – I think he’s struggling to get around the courses.
But you never know, it could change.
The defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is playing great. I fancy him to do well again, and it’s the same with Jon Rahm.
You can never rule out anybody that has won around Augusta, they always seem to do well. There are the likes of Jordan Spieth and even Brooks Koepka who won one of the LIV events a week or so back. He’s coming in with a bit of form, so there will be plenty of contenders.
LIV players will be eager to perform
It is only natural many eyes will be fixed on the LIV golfers, and how they will perform on this stage.
The thing with the LIV guys is that some of them are really brilliant when they speak, but for others it’s as if everyone is against them.
It’s quite split down the middle – guys like Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen and Cameron Smith spoke really well, as did Phil Mickelson.
There are other guys griping a little bit about the circumstances around the game coming into the event.
At the end of the day, you don’t want it to detract from the super spectacle the Masters is.
Cameron has acknowledged he might be a wee bit rusty, just because he has not been competitive enough, given the LIV schedule.
But he also acknowledged he made his bed and he’s lying in it.
There have also been reports the DP World Tour has won its court case against LIV golfers.
It would allow the Tour to impose sanctions on players who compete in LIV events without permission.
I’m on the tournament committee and we have not had confirmation yet that we have won it.
For somebody to break a massive story like that, you wouldn’t want to get it wrong, though.
If it’s true, it could be massive.
That has been one of a number of detractions ahead of the tournament, along with Gary Player’s comments about not being made to feel welcome at Augusta.
At the end of the day, you just want to watch the action.
It’s just a great tournament to watch. It’s the start of the golf season for all the amateurs.
Whenever you watch the Masters, it gets golf to the forefront of people’s minds and makes you want to grab the clubs and go out for a game.
I watched quite a lot of the press conferences earlier in the week and everybody is up for it.
Bring it on.
A fitting finale for Lyle
I also want to make a mention of Sandy Lyle playing in the Masters for the final time.
It’s just magic to have watched Sandy over the years – I think everyone can remember his bunker shot when he won in 1988.
It was right in the midst of when I was golf daft.
His Open victory was when I was around 11, but when it came to the Masters I can 100% remember almost every shot – and to see him do that was phenomenal.
Sandy has been one of the best golfers Scotland has had since the likes of Old Tom Morris.
He’s a double-major winner,which puts him right up there.
Hopefully, they have a celebration of how well he has done, and he laps it all up for the last time, as he deserves it.
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