The five pairings to watch on the first day of The Masters
Unlike other tournaments, The Masters shies away from big-name or cutesy pairings (except for one traditional one). You won't find a Dustin Johnson/Jason Day/Jordan Spieth group like you might at the U.S. Open or a group consisting solely of J.B. Holmes-like big hitters. It's also a smaller event with threesomes teeing off No. 1 over a span of five hours. Here are the groups to watch for the first two days of play.
1. Jordan Spieth, Paul Casey, Bryson DeChambeau (A) (9:48 a.m. Thursday/12:44 p.m. Friday) -
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
The defending champion, who set and tied dozens of records at Augusta last year then came within a bad swing of winning the first three legs of the Grand Slam, hasn't had the sky-is-falling season you might have expected after all the sky-is-falling reports. Still, following a win in January, Spieth's started what most consider the "real" 2016 season with T21/CUT/T17/T18/T17/T13/T9. The main concerns are swing issues but five top-20s is hardly a bad way to enter Augusta. With Spieth is amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau, who won an NCAA title at SMU and is best known for his physics background, Hogan cap and zero-shift swing, which is adapted from a book that's about as well regarded on the course as The Da Vinci Code is at your strictly religious aunt's house. Usually this is a group of Masters winner/U.S. Open winner/U.S. Amateur winner, but since Spieth won the U.S. Open too, here's Paul Casey for some reason.
2. Phil Mickelson, Marc Leishman, Henrik Stenson (10:43 a.m. Thursday/1:38 p.m. Friday)
(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Phil is always a draw at Augusta, whether he's missing the cut (like in 2014), finishing T2 (2015) or winning the whole thing (2004, 2006, 2010). Now he's almost older than Jack Nicklaus was when he won his sixth Masters but is still a threat given his soft touch around the greens and scrambling ability. Stenson is 40, possibly the best player to never win a major, and surely he and Phil would love to be the old guys crashing the Big Three's party. And here's Marc Leishman for some reason.
3. Adam Scott, Kevin Kisner, Brooks Koepka (11:05 a.m. Thursday/2:01 p.m. Friday)
(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
All eyes might be on this group Friday afternoon as they finish up the round, possibly bringing the cut line with them. Scott, of course is a former champion and Koepka has been a darkhorse choice here the past two years. Also, here's Kevin Kisner for some reason.
4. Bubba Watson, Brenden Grace, Ian Poulter (12:44 p.m. Thursday), 9:37 a.m. Friday)
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
There's another intriguing group including former Nos. 1 Martin Kaymer and Rory McIlroy, but given that Kaymer's game has settled and I picked McIlroy as my tournament bust, we'll look elsewhere. (But you won't miss them; they're last off on Thursday, which basically means they're ESPN's featured group.) Instead, we go with two of the most, uh, interesting personalities in the sport, one of whom happens to be a two-time champion at Augusta. Poulter sneakily has three top 10s at The Masters in his last six starts. And here's Brenden Grace, for some reason.
The world No. 1, a Georgia boy who stole the show in 1998 then had three top 10s in a row from 2012-2014 and then here's Ernie Els, for the reason that he's four-time champion Ernie Els, dammit, and it doesn't matter how low his ranking is, looking at that sweet, sweet swing is a reason to stop what you're doing and watch.
(Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
