2026 Masters

Don Wassall

Don Wassall

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My favorite sports event (along with the Stanley Cup playoffs) begins Thursday, a wonderful tournament run the same way it was during America 1.0 on a beautiful course and filled with tradition and sentiment, not to mention The Masters almost always delivers great drama on Sundays.

Scottie Scheffler is the heavy betting favorite to win his third green jacket, followed by Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, defending champion Rory McIlroy, and Ludvig Aberg. There are a number of other players who wouldn't be a surprise if they win. The weather is supposed to be great, with no rain forecast for the four rounds, which is a rarity for spring in Georgia. Can't wait to see how it unfolds!
 
Great leaderboard already after just one round. Very few surprise names, which is usually the case in the first round or two. The weather was perfect and should remain so for the next three rounds.

-5 Rory McIlroy
-5 Sam Burns
-3 Patrick Reed
-3 Jason Day
-3 Kurt Kitayama
-2 Scottie Scheffler
-2 Justin Rose
-2 Xander Schauffele
-2 Shane Lowry
 
Came home early from work to watch ESPN’s Masters coverage. Very good leaderboard. Strangely, I find myself rooting for Patrick Reed, who is -6 one shot behind the leader Rory McIlroy. I also like Sam Burns at -5 to break through and win a major. The weather is great and the course is pristine. Should be a great weekend. I also like Justin Rose and would be glad to see him win.
 
Don Wassall said:
My favorite sports event (along with the Stanley Cup playoffs) begins Thursday, a wonderful tournament run the same way it was during America 1.0 on a beautiful course and filled with tradition and sentiment, not to mention The Masters almost always delivers great drama on Sundays.

Scottie Scheffler is the heavy betting favorite to win his third green jacket, followed by Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, defending champion Rory McIlroy, and Ludvig Aberg. There are a number of other players who wouldn't be a surprise if they win. The weather is supposed to be great, with no rain forecast for the four rounds, which is a rarity for spring in Georgia. Can't wait to see how it unfolds!
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I have noticed that there has been a ceremonial changing of the guard as a few older champions have retired from playing the course and the two biggest recent legends who are in the 50's are absent this year.

At the moment it's Rory possibly shooting a Woods type scorecard at the conclusion of Sunday's round, but we have moving day and Sunday to go but -11 on Friday is impressive.
 
Rory birdies six of the final seven holes to follow up his first round 67 with a sizzling 65 and a six shot lead, the largest after two rounds in Masters history. Rory is known for having a lot of downs to go with his ups, but it would be really unexpected if anyone catches him as he's clearly so much more relaxed after finally breaking through last year and getting rid of the pressure that had been building year after year as he tried to win The Masters for the first time and finally ended an eleven year drought in the majors.

Only Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods have won The Masters back to back. Woods won by 12 strokes as a 21 year old in 1997, the all-time record victory margin. I would truly love to see Rory equal or break that record, but first of course he still has two pressure packed rounds to play.

After two rounds:

-12 Rory McIlroy
-6 Patrick Reed (in the process of leaving LIV to return to the PGA Tour, in the meantime has been great on both LIV and the European Tour of late)
-6 Sam Burns (had the lead at the U.S. Open last year after three rounds before falling back in the bad weather of the final round)
-5 Justin Rose (if McIlroy loses I'd love to see Rose win as it would be almost as popular a victory as Rory's last year)
-5 Tommy Fleetwood (would be another very popular winner)
-5 Shane Lowry

Cameron Young and Jason Day are among those at -4. Young was +4 early in the first round but has gone -8 since so the winner of The Players a few weeks ago is someone to contend with.

More perfect weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday. There wasn't a cloud in the sky today, not even a chemtrail, and very little wind.
 
The only way this isn’t a Rory blowout, is if Rory shoots even par on Saturday, and a couple guys go -3 or -4 and get within 3 or 4 shots for the final round. Rory is capable of imploding, But, not likely.
 
Rory off to a stumbling start with a bogey on the first followed by a par on the easy par 5 second hole before birdying the third. Meantime a bunch of players are now in contention. Patrick Reed birdied his first three holes and is now three behind Rory at -9. Scottie started the day in 24th place at even par but is six under so far today and is sixth at -6. Burns is -8, Cam Young -7, and Li the sole Chinese player in the field is -7. Lots of others at -5 and -4.
 
Rory birdies 10 and gets to -13. I mentioned Cam Young yesterday as someone to watch and he's been on fire today and is now at -11 just two shots behind. He's an incredible -15 over the last 42 holes after being +4 after seven holes in the first round.

Day, Lowry, Burns and Li are all -8. Rose and Scheffler are -7.
 
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