Lee Westwood with his caddie and wife Helen Storey during Monday’s practice day. Gregory Shamus

By John Huggan

AUGUSTA — At the age of almost 49 — his birthday falls on the 24th of this month — Lee Westwood will this week compete in his 21st Masters. The Englishman, a former World No. 1, has played 72 rounds at Augusta National and is 32-over-par for the journey. Six times he has finished in the top 10, twice he has been runner-up, in 2010 and 2016. In 1999, he led walking down the 10th fairway on the final day, only to fall back into a tie for sixth. On only four occasions has he missed the halfway cut. It’s a formidable record, missing only a victory.

Still, all good things must end. It’s a rule. So, chances are, this might be Westwood’s last appearance in golf’s youngest major. He is, after all, at an age where, even in the modern era, drives are getting shorter and courses are getting longer.

“I’m not going to lie, this course is starting to feel really long,” he says with a smile. “There would come a time when it wouldn’t be enjoyable for me to play in the Masters. I’m not there yet, but I can see it coming. I’m hitting 5-iron into the last green to a back flag. Most guys will be going in with 8-irons. That may not sound like much, but I guarantee that, come Sunday night, I’ll be aching. I’ll be flat-out this week.”

Experience is going to be the 15th club in the Westwood bag his wife Helen will carry this week. That’s important anywhere. But perhaps nowhere other than at the Old Course is it more important than at Augusta National. Westwood is hoping so anyway.

“There are benefits to having been here so often,” he says. “I know how, when things change, you have to play differently. The best preparation for this event is not practice rounds; it’s having played here before. You see that because there have been so many multiple winners here. There is a lot of strategy out there. And you learn that by playing competitively.

“Besides, I’m starting to swing well,” he continues. “My driving feels good, as does my short game. The rain today will make a difference to how the course plays. For those who haven’t played it before, any practice on Sunday or Monday is now irrelevant. After playing for, say, 10 yards of release, we’ll see balls pitching and stopping dead. Which is not all bad. This course tends to play easier when it is soft and trickier when it is firm.”

Westwood’s long tenure at Augusta won’t be much help on one hole though. The par-4 11th has been altered in a more dramatic fashion than is the norm at Augusta National.

“They’ve pushed the tee left and taken a load of trees out down the right,” notes Westwood. “It’s a less demanding tee shot and a more demanding second shot. There’s no bail-out on the right side anymore. Which makes me smile. If you were to ask me which holes at Augusta need to be made harder, I’m not sure the 11th would have been high on the list.”

Lee Westwood shakes hands with Danny Willett after Willett won the 2016 Masters. David Cannon

Elsewhere, however, memories will abound. But no regrets. Westwood is not one for whom near-misses are a source of chagrin. While the winning of a major remains the only significant gap in his CV, he remains philosophical about what might have been.

“I can’t say things linger with me particularly,” he claims. “When Phil [Mickelson] won in 2010, I shot 71 on the last day with the lead. That would have won a few Masters. And when Danny [Willett] won in 2016, I three-putted the 16th when he made birdie. But I had chipped-in for eagle on the previous hole. Then, when Jordan [Spieth] made a mess of the 12th, we sort of stumbled into contention. So, I’m not someone who has regrets about anything. They are pointless. All you can do is what you feel right at the time and stick with it.”

Speaking of which, Westwood is one player who has been mentioned multiple times in connection with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational circuit. Asked if he will be teeing up in the first event at the Centurion Club north of London in the week before the US Open, Westwood’s smile is enigmatic.

“It’s an exciting prospect, one I will have to consider,” he says. “My future plans are not to play as many tournaments. My days of playing enough to go for a FedEx Cup are gone. I’m not going to tee up 25-30 times. I’ll play maybe 20-22. I’ll be selective.”

In the meantime, he has a Masters to play in. And it is one Westwood intends to enjoy.

“I still feel lucky every time I come here,” he says. “There are so many good players miss this tournament. So it’s always nice to be involved. I love coming here. This is my favourite course and my favourite place to play golf. It offers different challenges every day. You never stop learning here. I can still land in spots and think, ‘I’ve never been here before.’ Only two or three yards can make a huge difference in how the next shot plays. That’s Augusta. It just creeps up on you.”

A bit like age really. But if this is to be Westwood’s last visit to Augusta National he’s had a decent run.

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By Joel Beall
AUGUSTA — For all that he owns this is the week, Rory McIlroy is noted for what he lacks. This can be a cruel reality, but it is not unfair or irrelevant. What he doesn’t have, a green jacket, doubles as the final piece of a puzzle only five men have put together. His skills and successes, including his relative success here, convey what he needs can be his, so until McIlroy wins the Masters why he hasn’t will be perennially asked.

But rather than pose the annual dilemma of when or if that will come to pass perhaps there needs to be another question: Can Rory McIlroy still be considered an all-time great without a Masters victory?

On the surface McIlroy is that rare athlete that can make an impossible game look impossibly easy. It is a marvel, the catalyst for his immense popularity, yet also the bane of his existence, for anything short of this stupidly high bar is viewed as a disappointment. If there is solace to be found, it is that Rory’s burden is shared. The best NBA players are supposed to win a championship. The best quarterbacks are supposed to win a Super Bowl. The best Olympains are supposed to win gold. That is the price and curse of talent.

In golf that baseline is technically a major championship, any major championship, and while most sports have one championship this beautifully dumb game has four, somewhat muddying the parallel. Conversely, that curse takes on greater significance at the Masters. This is golf’s biggest tournament, where golf’s biggest stars are supposed to shine, and when they don’t it warrants a certain degree of scrutiny.

To do that we need to define the standard for greatness, and that standard is higher than the criteria for the World Golf Hall of Fame, which is just slightly harder to get into than your local library. A good benchmark is four career major championships, the amount of majors McIlroy has and a feat just 15 other golfers have achieved since the end of the Second World War. Of that number, just two have won more than McIlroy without a Masters: Lee Trevino and Peter Thomson. The latter is an interesting study: all of Thomson’s five wins were claret jugs and he never had a top-three finish at the other majors. He rarely travelled to the United States and never played in the PGA Championship, and his Open wins were in an era when most of the top Americans passed on making the trip overseas. This is not to knock on Thomson or his career, but his is the case that does not necessarily compare to the modern era.

Trevino is not the easiest for comparison’s sake either. On the surface, his record is ripe for inspection: He boasts six majors (two each of the US Open, Open Championship and PGA), 29 career PGA Tour victories and five Vardon Trophies as the tour’s leader in scoring average. He also had his share of Masters chances, 20 starts to be exact, and never finished better than T-10. But Trevino also boycotted the event in his prime on four occasions, and the reasons for his no-shows varied from his disdain for the course to battling a sense of unwelcomeness from some club officials due to Trevino’s Mexican-American heritage. Though he would later call his boycott “the greatest mistake of my career”, the external factors prohibit a Trevino-McIlroy comparison.

In truth, the best analogue, and maybe the only analogue, for McIlroy is Ernie Els. Like McIlroy, Els has four majors, part of 74 global wins. Like McIlroy, Els had close calls at Augusta — five finishes of T-6 or better, highlighted by two runner-ups. Like McIlroy, Els was considered a lock to eventually win a Masters … until he didn’t. Els has now transitioned to the Champions circuit, and while his career is indisputably very, very, very good, the absence of a Masters victory creates a sense of ‘what if’ and unfulfillment and argues that “great” cannot be applied.

“When a thing stings you it keeps stinging you,’’ Els said in 2019 after his days of Masters competition were over. “When it gives to you it keeps on giving … I’ve got a love-hate relationship with the place. It was always almost like a curse to me. It was not a romantic deal to me. It was a nightmare for the most part.”

A quick glance at those under the four-title prerequisite doesn’t offer much of a dispute. Certainly there are stars — Nick Price, Greg Norman, Johnny Miller — and those who held the sport’s conch for a brief period of time. Yet those names only reinforce the notion that the Masters separates the immortals from men. As does who has won a Masters: Nicklaus, Woods, Hogan, Palmer, Player, Sarazen, Snead, Watson, Mickelson. McIlroy was and remains on a trajectory to reach those heights but that requires scaling the cliffs they already have.

To McIlroy’s credit he’s already the first European to win three different major championships. He has a Players Championship which continues to grow in stature and prestige. He is just 32 years old and he reiterated on Tuesday that he has time, although this is his 14th Masters and only three Masters winners have won their first Masters on or after their 14th appearance. There’s also the assertion from McIlroy himself that he doesn’t need this tournament to feel complete.

“I think, as well, I’m maybe at a different stage of my life where back then golf was everything,” McIlroy said on Tuesday of his original grand slam and Masters pursuit. “Obviously, look, it’s still very, very important, but maybe back then I would think that — I don’t know if I would feel like I was fulfilled if I didn’t win one or whatever it is, but it’s less pressure.”

McIlroy does not traffic in falsehoods and redirects. But while that may be his personal feeling, the game’s history says otherwise. To reserve a spot in the game’s celestial plane requires a dress code, and it calls for a green jacket.

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By Dan Rapaport
Tiger Woods’ private jet was spotted in Augusta on Tuesday morning, ostensibly ahead of a practice round at Augusta National as he decides whether to play in next week’s Masters.

Woods, who sustained traumatic injuries in a single-car accident in February 2021, remains on the official list of participants on the Masters website but has not yet announced whether he’ll play. The 46-year-old has not competed on the PGA Tour since the Masters in November 2020.

Fans and media tracked Woods’ private jet on Tuesday morning and posted screenshots to social media that appeared to show the plane en route from South Florida, where Woods lives, toward Augusta. Eureka Earth then posted a video showing a plane with Woods’ foundation logo and tail number on the ground at the Augusta airport.

?THE GOAT IS HERE!!!?

TW is wheels down at AGS!!!#TigerWoods #TheMasters

(? ©29MAR2022 EurekaEarth)#EurekaEarth #NotDrone #DiscoverThePresent pic.twitter.com/hJUc6Ns9sx

— Eureka Earth® (@EurekaEarthPlus) March 29, 2022

Over the weekend, a video surfaced showing Woods playing a round at his home course of Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla., and various reports have suggested Woods has ramped up his practice in recent weeks with a goal of teeing it up at Augusta National. Woods is a five-time winner of the Masters, and this year’s tournament marks 25 years since his first major championship victory there. He has said that while he will return to golf, his time as a “full-time” golfer are over and that he will have to play a limited schedule moving forward.

Spending Tuesday at Augusta would seem to suggest Woods is testing whether his surgically rebuilt right leg can withstand walking the famously hilly course for four straight tournament rounds. Woods competed alongside his son at the PNC Challenge in December but rode in a cart between shots and didn’t have to hit every shot due to the scramble format.

He has maintained that his return will depend on his ability to walk courses and reiterated a long-held position that he will not enter a golf tournament if he doesn’t feel he can win it.

“I don’t want to come out here and just play,” Woods told CBS in February. “That’s how I am. I need to feel that I’m confident that I can beat these guys, and I got to do the legwork at home. It’s on me.”

Woods has historically announced his decision on whether to play the Masters on the Friday before tournament week. In 2015, he announced on that Friday that he would play, while in 2016 and 2017 he waited until the Friday to announce his withdrawal.

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By Alex Myers
Two of Augusta National’s most famous holes have undergone alterations ahead of the 2022 Masters.

Both the par-4 11th and the par-5 15th hole will play longer than ever before this April. The club made the changes official on Wednesday when it released its annual media guide.

For No. 11, the “significant hole changes” are described as, “Masters tees moved back 15 yards and to the golfer’s left. Fairway recontoured and several trees removed on right side.” And for No. 15, “Masters tees moved back 20 yards and fairway recontoured.”

The media guide also mentions on No. 18, “Thirteen yards added to the back of the Masters tees without necessitating a change in length to the hole.” The par 72 will play to 7,510 yards total, reflecting the combined 35-yard increase on Nos. 11 and 15.

Changes to those two holes were believed to be in the works last summer when Eureka Earth shared overhead photos showing construction on those two holes. There also appeared to be some activity on No. 13, but Augusta National didn’t mention any official changes to the iconic par 5.

According to the media guide, these are the first significant course changes since the par-4 fifth hole was lengthened by 40 yards in 2019. Of course, these two new changes don’t seem to be major, but any tweaks to the Masters venue are certainly newsworthy.

Historically, No. 11, AKA “White Dogwood,” has played as the course’s second-most difficult hole, just a fraction easier than No. 10. Ben Hogan once famously said of the long par 4 with a pond guarding the green, “If you ever see me on the 11th green in two, you’ll know I missed my second shot.”

On the other hand, No. 15, AKA “Firethorn,” has played as the second-easiest hole, behind only No. 13. However, the extra yardage should affect how many players go for the shallow green in two.

The 2022 Masters will be played April 7-10.

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