8 APRIL 2018|golf australia
BYBRENDAN JAMES| GOLF AUSTRALIA EDITOROUR MASTERS TRIO HAS STRONG CLAIMS
TEEING
OFFPHOTO:GETTY IMAGESREMEMBER back in 2013 when Australian
golf fans were bemoaning the fact that our
smallest contingent of players in many years
would contest the Masters and, as such, had
little chance of breaking the hoodoo that
had seemingly stopped one of our own ever
slipping on the green jacket?
Our foursome of Adam Scott, Jason Day,
John Senden and Marc Leishman were
given little chance of changing the course of
Masters history. How wrong we all were as
Scott rolled in THAT putt in the dark to win
the Masters.
Not much has changed in fi ve years.
Three of the aforementioned Australians
(correct at the time of going to press) will
tee it up at Augusta this year. Scott, Day
and Leishman will be fl ying the Aussie fl ag
among the dozens of Americans, seven
Englishmen, four Spaniards and South
Africans staking strong claims for the title.
‘Sendo’ has been on leave from the game
for almost a year as his son, Jacob, wasdiagnosed with a brain tumour.
Perhaps our meagre numbers checking
into Augusta National should be seen as an
omen. After all, Scott, Day and Leishman
dominated the leaderboard for four days in
2013 when there were just four Aussies in the
fi eld. There were more Aussie journalists than
players at Augusta that year.
Five years on and we’re hoping a second
green jacket will head home for Christmas.
All three Aussies have genuine claims on
the green jacket. The recent form of Leishman
and Day suggests they will ensure the
large throng of Australians who make the
pilgrimage to Augusta will have something to
cheer about.
Scotty has been struggling but you can
never write off a champion. Perhaps, with
lower expectations, he can fi nd his game
on the hallowed turf at Augusta and win the
green jacket for a second time.
The Aussies aside, it will be fascinating to
see how Tiger Woods goes in the fi rst realtest of how ‘2018 Tiger Woods’ measures up
to the twenty and thirty-somethings looking
to bring him down.
All eyes will be on Woods and rightly so.
It’s great to have him back playing and to
have golf grabbing some newspaper space
and TV coverage. I tend to think much of
the golf industry, including the media, took
Woods for granted before his indefi nite
break and, now that he’s back, they can’t get
enough of him.
This year, the Nine Network will broadcast
the Masters live on one of its channels, while
FoxSports will also televise the tournament.
If, for some reason you can’t be near a
TV, you can follow what is happening at
the Masters via our website. Golf Australia
magazine will be on the ground at
the Masters and will provide daily
wrap-up stories, previews leading into the
tournament and photo galleries. You can
also follow our tweets @GolfAustMag or
@BrendanJames