2. The Big Three starting off the 2015 Masters tournament will be must-watch television. With Arnold Palmer skipping the Par 3 Contest this year, we are (sadly) inching toward a retirement from the opening tee shot by The King. He promised he would be on that first tee this year alongside Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, and with these legends only getting older, each time the three are together with golf clubs in hand, you better be in front of a television. One of the coolest moments in all of sports is watching Arnie, Jack and Gary start the major season, and the Masters, each year at Augusta National.
5. Dustin Johnson will end his struggle at Augusta. One of the most consistent golfers on the planet, and a guy coming back from an absence in golf who already has a win under his belt in 2015, Johnson has never finished in the top 10 at the Masters. I don’t think I’m breaking any sort of news here, but that will change this week. Johnson hits the ball a kilometer, turns it over just like you must at Augusta and is one of the few out there who turns all the par-5s at this golf course into par-4s. If Johnson can get the short stick rolling, he will be in contention, but even if his putter isn’t red-hot this week, it’ll still be a good showing for the 30-year-old.
6. So will Henrik Stenson. Another guy without a top-10 finish at the Masters, Stenson has been trending in the right direction over the past three years here (T-40 in ’12, T-18 in ’13, T-14 last year). In Stenson’s past four starts on the PGA Tour, he’s finished no lower than fourth, so yeah, expect the No. 2 player in the world to keep the momentum going and shake the Augusta troubles he’s had in the past.
7. All of Rory McIlroy’s success will come down to how he plays the par-5s. For a guy who hits it about as far as anyone in the field, it’s strange how much trouble Rory has had with the par-5s at Augusta. A year ago he was eight shots worse than eventual champion Bubba Watson on par-5s, and guess how many shots Bubba beat Rory by (yep, you guessed it, eight). Rory bogeyed the 13th twice in 2014 and bogeyed both par-5s on the back in his final round (and still managed to shoot 69). For a guy who ranked fifth in par-5 scoring last year on Tour, it’s strange to see him struggle so much with the scoring holes at the Masters — especially considering the mid-irons he has into the ones on the back nine — and that will have to improve if he really wants to make a run at a third straight major championship. Speaking of …
8. This won’t be the year for Rory. With loose play this year and a lot of big numbers on his scorecard, it just doesn’t seem like the year McIlroy leaves with the green jacket. What a lot of people don’t realize when comparing Rory to Tiger Woods in his prime is the difference in the rest of the players. Tiger had to battle Phil, Ernie and Vijay in their primes, sure, and faced runs from a lot of randoms in majors, but the level of talent on the PGA Tour in 2015 is far greater than anything Woods faced. There are 80 or so guys this week who could walk away with the green jacket, and probably a few names not in the field who could easily contend. (How we doing, Harris English and Graham DeLaet?) Rory winning two majors in a row is extraordinary given the names he had to fend off, but considering how some of the other names in this field have been playing this year, it will have to be a near-perfect week for Rory if he wants to win this thing, and his game just doesn’t seem in that A+ category right now. Rory will win a green jacket (or three) by the time his career is over, but not in 2015.
9. If Adam Scott gets in the hunt and wins, people are going to say really, really dumb things. The 2013 Masters champion is going back to his long putter this week, the same tool he used to win at Augusta two years ago. It’s totally, 100 percent legal to use that long putter until the start of 2016, but that won’t stop haters and commenters from going crazy if he snags another green jacket. Let’s all say this together so we don’t get crazy: There is nothing wrong with Adam Scott using a long putter this week. OK, one more time: There is NOTHING wrong with Adam Scott using a long putter this week. Now, remember that come Sunday if Scott is making another run on the back nine.
10. Roller Coaster Phil will be in full effect this week. For two rounds in Houston, it looked like Phil Mickelson might win the week before the Masters, something that has worked for him in the past (two of his five major wins have come the week after a victory by Mickelson). Then came the weekend, and the up-and-down golf game of Mickelson we’ve come to see far too often. Mickelson and Augusta are friends, so even a bad week will be a top-30 for Phil, but I expect we will see good runs by Mickelson with some high numbers, too, and a few short putts missed when he tries to knock the back of the hole out. The one thing Mickelson has going for him is the lowered expectations. Think about the names you’ve heard all week. Has a single person mentioned Phil as a possible victor? Not really, and though his game has shown up only once in the last 16 months (at the PGA Championship last season), it’s at least worth it to go visit a similar year that Phil had heading into the Masters. In 2010 and 2015, he entered Augusta with identical numbers: seven starts, two top 20s and zero wins. Phil went on to win that Masters in 2010, and despite two missed cuts this season, the numbers are fairly close. I don’t think Phil’s game is as sharp as it was five years ago, but, like with Couples, this golf course can do something magical for players who know it.
11. Lee Westwood will continue to do great things for your Masters pool (if you pick him). If you fill out one of those Masters pools at the office, let me help you out for a second; put Lee Westwood on it. In his last five starts at Augusta, Westwood has finished outside the top eight just once, and that was a tie for 11th in 2011 (what a hack). Westwood is 41 and has had plenty of chances to finally win a major. Though it might never happen for him, he seems to be good for a top 10 at the Masters each year.
12. Nobody will look sharper than Morgan Hoffmann. Say what you want about his outfits, but those Friday pants mean even if he misses the cut, he wins.
13. Jordan Spieth will continue to golf like he’s lying about his birth certificate. Spieth may be only 21, but his golf game is as veteran as anyone’s in the field. In nine starts in this wraparound season, Spieth has six top 10s including a win and two seconds (not to mention his Australian Open win and how he lapped the field at Tiger’s tournament). With the way Spieth rolls the rock, it looks like he could become one of those players who routinely is in the hunt at the Masters, but I just worry about his full swing coming down the stretch.
I don’t think Spieth wins this week, mostly because I’m not picking him against this talented of a field, but I do think he has as good a shot as anyone, next to Jimmy Walker and the man I’m going to pick in a minute here. But let me just say, it’s rare that a 21-year-old athlete can impress an entire group of people, but that’s what Spieth continues to do.
Camo pants on Thursday, floral print pants on Friday, @TheMasters rookie @Morgan_Hoffmann is coming in hot pic.twitter.com/bixMAENIDn
— SkratchTV (@skratchTV) April 6, 2015
The way he speaks, the way he jokes, the way he goes about his business on and off the golf course; maybe he isn’t out jumping four-wheelers during his downtime, but if the Tour is going to attach itself to someone over the next decade, this is the kid. If Spieth does put on that green jacket Sunday evening, it will take an act of God to wipe the smiles off the members’ faces at Augusta National.
14. It will be a struggle for Tiger Woods. It’s easy to come off as a hater of Woods when you write things like this, so let me just say, I hope Tiger plays great. I hope he has a solid week and drums up memories of the past and finds himself with putts on the back nine on Sunday to give himself a chance at the lead. But it just isn’t going to happen.
Tiger has this incredible ability before tournaments begin to make us forget what happened previously, speaking of how he’s ready and he’s here and he expects to win. “Competing is still the same. I'm trying to beat everybody out there. That hasn't changed. I prepare to win and expect to do — to go and do that.” Tiger said that during his Tuesday news conference, ignoring the fact that he hasn’t really been under the gun in a PGA Tour tournament since the Barclays in 2013, and between that event and now, he’s struggled more with his golf game than we’ve ever seen.
Woods can proclaim a worst-ball 66 during practice, and people can say he pitched in four straight times during his Masters prep, even going as far as saying he shot 30 on the front nine during a practice round, but there is practice and there are real golf tournaments, and when Jack, Gary and Arnie hit those tee shots to get things going in the opening round, all the foul balls count. No more practice, just play, and when Woods has been between those ropes, counting all the shots against the rest of the PGA Tour, it has been really, really ugly.
Fans hope that Tiger can get back to some level of competitiveness on the PGA Tour, and in major championships, and I still believe he can at some point, just not his first start in more than two months on a golf course that can force players in a groove to struggle to break 75. If Woods makes the cut and plays four rounds of healthy golf at Augusta National, we should all chalk that up as a win. His best chance at a major win in 2015 is across the pond in July, so while this is a major, I don’t think you can reasonably expect much more than a top-30 if he plays well.
15. Bubba Watson is going to win again. The golf course just sets up too good for Bubba, who for whatever reason finds another gear during this week in April. He’s won two of the last three Masters, he’s playing solid enough going in to have the confidence he needs (his worst finish this year is a T-14 at Riviera), and the green jackets haven’t decided to add Dikembe Mutombo left of the 13th tee to knock down Bubba’s tee shot when he tries to just take the left trees out of play. The field plays a par-72 golf course at Augusta. Bubba plays a par-68 with his length and his ability to take angles nobody else can. There is no advantage like distance in golf, and this golf course was built for Bubba Watson. I guess the good news for everyone is we will at least know what Bubba is eating this week, and I think we can guess what he will serve next year at the Champions Dinner.
Shane Bacon is a regular contributor to FOXSports.com's golf coverage. Follow him on Twitter at@shanebacon.
