The Masters is one of the most exciting golf tournaments of the year, largely because it is the first of the four Majors and is therefore one that we’ve been looking forward to the most.
When it comes to what you can expect from the competition, it is all about the ability of the players to cope with the Augusta National course, and those that do so successfully can expect to be in the conversation for the win at the end of the weekend.
Golf is a cruel mistress, however, so even a good Masters doesn’t guarantee a solid season. Who is well-placed to enjoy both the tournament and the year as a whole?
Looking Across the Past Decade
If you want to get a sense of who could do well in the upcoming Masters, then you need to have a look at what the evidence says from the past ten years or so.
The reason we can learn a lot from the past is the fact that Augusta National is the only course in the world to host a Major every single year, with the rest of the Majors moving from course to course every 12 months. In other words, we can look at how players have done on the course previously as well as how they have got on in the build-up to the start of the Masters and get a sense of how they are likely to do this time.
@themasters Good Morning and welcome to the Masters! #themasters #golf #drone #augustanational ♬ original sound – The Masters
The Masters isn’t a course that favours older players, with most of the recent winners being under 30 and only Tiger Woods having won it aged over 40 since Jack Nicklaus did as a 46-year-old nearly 40 years ago. Having said that, experience is important, as only three players have won the tournament at the first time of asking.
Around 70% of recent Masters winners had finished in the top-five in their careers and 100% of the last ten winners had previously enjoyed a top-40 result. Since 2015, every single Masters winner had finished in the top-15 of a PGA Tour or DP World Tour during the previous 12 months.
The Top Three Will Fancy Their Chances
At the time of writing, the best golfers in the world on form are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Colin Morikawa. You could maybe make an argument for Xander Schauffele to be in that list too, but it is the former three who tick all of the boxes when it comes to what we can learn from winners of the tournament across the previous decade.
For British and Irish golf fans, the hope is that Rory McIlroy’s victory in the Players Championship, for which he required a play-off to defeat J.J. Spaun, will be the win that he needs to finally win the fourth Major of his career and pick up the Career Grand Slam.
Masters Week is here!
Gotta start by reliving the greatest shot in modern golf history.
Tiger Woods chip in on 16.
This vid has the whole moment. It’s so much more special with the buildup setting the stage.
Still insane. Chills.https://t.co/GyKrDaLMmu
— Rick Golfs (@Top100Rick) April 6, 2025
The best that he has done in recent times is his second-place finish in 2022, but can he go one step further in 2025? He is certainly well-fancied for the tournament, but Scottie Scheffler will almost certainly have something to say about it.
The current world number one is also the defending champion, having seen off the challenge of McIlroy to win it for the first time three years ago before getting his second green jacket last year. Then there is Colin Morikawa, who won the PGA Championship in 2020 and the Open the following year but has won nothing of note since. Can he get back into winning ways?
A Thrilling Season Ahead
One thing that the Masters Tournament always heralds is the arrival of the season proper, having been teased with the likes of the Open in Hawaii and the aforementioned Players Championship.
It is the Majors that the golfers all think about and the watching world isn’t far behind them, with everyone desperate to find out who will win the biggest competitions in the sport. For McIlroy, the hope is that his Players win will see him finally get over the hump of being a perennial also-ran, after looking as though he could go on to challenge some of the biggest names in the sport when he first broke through.
After the joy of the Masters, the next Major on the list is the PGA Championship, which is being hosted by Quail Hollow Club this year. Then comes the US Open, with Oakmont Country Club being the setting for the third Major of the season before things are drawn to a close, at least as far as the biggest competitions are concerned, with the Open Championship.
That will see the eyes of the golfing world turned to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, where there is little question who will be the favourite of the locals. As the battle between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour rumbles on, the Masters reminds us all why we fell in love with the sport in the first place.
