Breaking down the favourites to take out the US Masters

With Tiger Woods out, there’s a hole to fill at Augusta. Rory McIlroy looks primed to take over as the sentimental favourite, but can he end his 11-year drought?

Even on one leg, knocking on the door of 50 and senior tour eligibility, the biggest galleries and loudest roars were still reserved for Tiger Woods at last year’s Masters.

Golf has had a hard time letting go of Tiger, a 15-time major champion whose days of contending realistically ended after he suffered horrific injuries in a car crash outside Los Angeles in February 2021.

But Tiger’s not here this year (courtesy of a ruptured left Achilles), clearing the stage for Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy to take the lead role of sentimental favourite.

McIlroy, 35, has had a tortured history at Augusta.

It’s the one victory he’s chased (16 times) for membership to golf’s most exclusive group – the grand slam club as a winner of all four majors.

Only Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen have ever achieved the feat.

For the first time, the only place to watch the Masters live is Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports and Foxtel.

Tiger Woods was the main attraction at last year’s Masters. Picture: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

McIlroy would become the first European to do it, but hasn’t saluted at a major championship since 2014 – 38 attempts ago.

History also beckons for world No.1 Scottie Scheffler, hunting a third green jacket in a four-year span, something only Nicklaus has ever achieved.

Just eight players have won three or more Masters, including LIV defector and three-time champion Phil Mickelson, who was tied for second at Augusta just two years ago.

Age does not weary them at Augusta National, a course of guile and recall where even the likes of Freddie Couples, a winner here in 1992, can still find a way to go low.

Fellow LIV player Brooks Koepka can join Mickelson, Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino in rare air as a six-time major winner with a victory on Sunday.

Koepka, 34, goes under the radar but is already an all-time great, while Xander Schauffele, who won last year’s Open and PGA Championship, would (incredibly) hold three of the four golf majors with a win at Augusta.

Seeking to upstage the old guard are a band of up and comers led by Swedish sensation Ludvig Aberg and Australia’s Min Woo Lee.

Aberg, 25, was in contention in the closing round of his Masters debut last year before drowning his hopes in the pond to the left of the 11th green at Amen Corner.

Former European Ryder Cup captain and Masters broadcaster Paul McGinley last year declared Lee as “the most exciting young player in the game”.

“I think he’s got everything,” McGinley said.

“He’s simply sensational – the hottest prospect that we have in golf.”

The 26-year-old West Australian is already in the Augusta National record books for a front-nine six-under 30 during the final round in 2022 – the equal lowest of all-time.

But until last month’s breakthrough PGA Tour win, it was consistency over four rounds that had eluded Lee, whose fifth placing in the 2023 US Open remains his best major championship result.

Australia’s Cameron Smith boasts an outstanding record at Augusta, but admitted last year the clock was ticking on his Masters dreams.

Smith, 31, had the golfing world at his feet when he stared down McIlroy at the 2022 Open Championship at St Andrews. Then he took the money and moved to LIV.

And while it’s worked for the likes of US bomber Bryson DeChambeau, Smith has fallen out of form and the world top 100.

Asked immediately after his sixth place finish in last year’s Masters about suggestions LIV players had less of a competitive edge than their PGA Tour rivals, Smith responded flatly: “No. No, that’s BS.”

But legendary caddie Steve Williams, who carried the bag for Woods, Greg Norman, Adam Scott and Raymond Floyd across 30 consecutive Masters tournaments, insists it is a factor.

“There’s no question that if you play against the best players in the world on the best courses in the world – that is the best way to keep yourself sharp,” Williams said.

“On the LIV tour – no disrespect to it – there are quite a number of players that would probably struggle to keep their card on the PGA Tour.

“There are some guys on the LIV tour who are coming to the end of their playing careers, and that’s fine, that’s great – those guys deserve that, they’ve earned the right to do that, but if you want to be competitively sharp when it comes to the majors, you’ve got to compete against the best players in the world.”

Chilean Joaquin Niemann, who has dominated the current LIV season, looms as the barometer as golf’s civil war drags on.

Niemann received a special exemption from the Masters committee to play this week – one of just 12 LIV players in the field.

US president Donald Trump says a peace deal between the #PGATour and #LIVGolf is proving harder to strike than an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict. And there’s 12 stars about to be caught in the crossfire ▶️ https://t.co/XOPzAv2Bo2pic.twitter.com/fYgNArLNAy

— CODE Sports (@codesportsau) April 8, 2025

McIlroy trying to block out the noise

Rory McIlroy says he’s trying to block out “the noise and the narratives” amid another outbreak of “this is his year” at the Masters.

Every April the Northern Irishman is predicted to win at Augusta, and every time - since 2009 - he’s come up short.

But McIlroy, 35, who has already won twice on the PGA Tour this season, declared he was “better equipped than I ever have been” to break an 11-year majors drought.

The world No.2 said he had also learnt how to better cope with “heartbreak” and “disappointments” in big tournaments.

“Once you go through those heartbreaks, as I call them, or disappointments, you get to a place where you remember how it feels and you wake up the next day and you’re like, yeah, life goes on, it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be,” McIlroy said.

“I’ve had chances to win some of the biggest golf tournaments in the world and it hasn’t quite happened. But life moves on. You dust yourself off and you go again.

“I think that’s why I’ve become a little more comfortable in laying everything out there and being somewhat vulnerable at times …

“You sort of just learn to roll with the punches, the good times, the bad times, knowing that if you do the right work and you practice the right way, that those disappointments will turn into good times again pretty soon.”

Rory McIlroy is looking to complete golf’s grand slam. Picture: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

Asked if he was feeling the pressure to claim an elusive green jacket - and join golf’s exclusive grand slam club as a winner of all four majors, McIlroy said: “It’s just narratives. It’s noise.

“I know it’s there (but) it’s just trying to block out that noise as much as possible. I need to treat this tournament like all the other tournaments that I play throughout the year.

“Look, I understand … there’s a lot of anticipation and buildup coming into this tournament each and every year, but I just have to keep my head down and focus on my job.”

McIlroy said he had overcome an elbow injury that hindered his swing at last month’s Houston Open.

He will play alongside Swedish young gun Ludvig Aberg and Akshay Bhatia in the first two rounds.

Masters chiefs said Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson will again serve as Honorary Starters on Thursday.

The trio are the combined winners of 11 green jackets.

Originally published as Breaking down the favourites to take out the US Masters