It’s Masters week, the most exciting days of the year for golf fans (sure) and even for some sports fans who occasionally care about golf. And last Friday, Tiger Woods made the big announcement that he would in fact be teeing it up this year at Augusta National, a surprise to some considering we haven’t really seen a competitive Tiger since his own event at the end of 2013.
While most media outlets will be discussing Tiger for the better part of three days, I am a golf nut who loves golf, and the PGA Tour has been as exciting as ever for the first three months of the year. So Tiger aside, here are the questions we’ll want answered when the Masters gets going Thursday.
Not since Tiger have we seen a 21-year-old do these types of things on a golf course. He’s a young, fiery kid who has a golf game decades older than his birth certificate would indicate and now has the wins to prove it.
Spieth nearly won the Masters last year, giving Bubba Watson a run on the front nine before fading on the back. He then went on to have a very solid season, highlighted by two big non-PGA Tour wins at the end of the year — at the Australian Open and with a 10-shot victory at the Hero World Challenge. (Hello, world.)
The best part about Spieth is how, at 21, he isn’t content with anything he’s doing. In eight 2015 events, Spieth has finished outside the top seven just two times, winning once at the Valspar and giving himself a good chance at winning three other times. But check out this quote from last week in Houston when Spieth was asked about his recent run of great play.
“Honestly, ideally I don't look (at this as) a run,” he told reporters. “I look at this as this is the way I should be playing. If I look at it as a run, it means the normal me is something lesser than I am right now. I can't think of myself that way.”
Goodness. A reminder, he's 21, and he's talking like a veteran who has been through the highs and lows of professional golf.
So let's chat about Spieth's upside. First, the best part about his game is putting, one of the reasons he was in contention at Augusta National a year ago. This year, he's fifth in strokes gained putting, first in putting average and first in putts per round. Leaning on the flat stick when the swing goes is as important at major championships as anything in the bag, and that is something Spieth has done a lot this year when the nerves got to his full swing.
The other good thing is the acceptance of the situation. On Sunday, Spieth got knocked out in a playoff at the Shell Houston Open. His first tweet out after that?
Yes, I would guess that Spieth has been thinking about this tournament for 51 weeks considering how close he came last year. And I think the way he moves the ball, he has to love the way Augusta National sets up for his game.
Now, the not-so-great stuff about Spieth. He tends to wear his emotions on his sleeve, berating himself for bad shots and poor decisions, and it seems to get to him late in the day. Spieth does have a victory already in 2015, but he could have three.
At the Northern Trust Open, Spieth needed a par on the 72nd hole to join Dustin Johnson, Paul Casey and James Hahn in a playoff, but he made a sloppy bogey from just short of the famed 18th hole at Riviera. At the Valspar Championship, it took a lengthy par save on the 72nd hole to land in a playoff, which he eventually won. He needed a par on the 18th Sunday in Houston to force a playoff, and it was again the putter that saved Spieth after a very loose second shot into the tough 18th. He then nearly hit his drive in the water on the first playoff hole, getting lucky it stayed up but putting himself in a tough position that led to a tournament-ending bogey.
In all three of those situations, Spieth failed to hit the 18th green in regulation, never giving himself a look at a winning birdie putt and forcing him to make lengthy par putts.
Trust me, it's tough to nitpick a 21-year-old who is ranked fourth in the world, but it does seem that when the pressure mounts, Spieth's full swing can get a bit loose. That said, when you are rock-solid on the greens with your putter, it doesn't really matter. But coming down the stretch at Augusta National, Spieth will have to be precise on 16, 17 and 18 if he wants to give himself birdie looks Sunday, and if he can't get the ball close to the hole in those moments, it could cost him a green jacket.
But, come on, he's the face of the PGA Tour right now, and he's playing the best golf of anyone in the world. Pointing out a flaw here or there is reasonable, but if you aren't putting Spieth's name down in your office Masters pool, you're just not paying attention.
The only argument I'll hear about Spieth not being the best golfer in the world right now is if you bring up this man. Jimmy Walker wasn't a household name by any means until 2014, but at this point, he's sneaking up on superstar status.
The 36-year-old might have taken time to develop, but golf is a sport in which peaking in your mid-30s isn't abnormal. Walker has done just that, winning five PGA Tour events since October 2013, including two so far in 2015.
Why is Walker becoming such a stud on Tour? Because he has that rare ability to totally forget the negatives. At the opening event of 2015, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Walker held a four-shot lead over Patrick Reed with four holes to play, only to end up in a playoff after going 1-over in the final four holes.
Reed made a birdie on the first playoff hole (we will get to Mr. Top Five in a minute), which means Walker had to deal with a crushing defeat at the event reserved for 2014 PGA Tour champions.
Some might take that loss poorly. Walker did the opposite, coming out the very next week and winning the Sony Open by nine shots.
It's those bouncebacks that are so tough in this game, and it's those moments over anything else that show just how confident a player really is. The way Walker moves the ball, he has to be a favorite this week at Augusta National, especially considering that in his one and only start at this event a year ago, the Texan ended tied for eighth.
More than Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson or anyone mentioned above, the most important golfer on Tour right now is Patrick Reed.
Why? Because of whatever facial expression you golf fans just made after reading that. So many emoticons on your iPhone can cover what people think of Patrick Reed, the villain to all the heroes on Tour.
Reed has done plenty of things that make you shake your head, and some you didn't even know about, but the kid has serious, serious game and isn't afraid of anyone. And when I say that, don't take it as some throwaway sentence. He isn't afraid of a single person on Tour, going so far as to wear red on Sunday to emulate his childhood hero, Tiger Woods. He's the type of player who wants to step on the throat of his competitor instead of helping him up.
The knock on Reed's chances this week are apparent: no top-10s in any majors, missed the cut here and at the U.S. Open a year ago and was a non-factor in the other two majors. But he is only 24, and it seems he's a different player this year than he was even a season ago.
Reed is coming in playing solid, with a playoff loss to Spieth at the Valspar and a tie for 17th last week in Houston, and it simply seems he's the type of player who lives for the moment.
Oh, and a reminder, he played his college golf at Augusta State, so Augusta National isn't an unfamiliar location for him. Reed is another young guy who can roll the rock. Oh, to be young and have no nerves with the putter! When the full swing isn't there for a day at the Masters and you can trust the putter, you might just hang around long enough to contend.
This week could be Reed's breaking-out party in the majors. If he walks away Sunday with a green jacket, we will all owe him an apology for overreacting to his comments a year ago about being a top-five player in the world. Right now, Reed is, and I think more than anything else, he knows it, and loves it.
The good news on Phil: He's won the Masters three times, and seems to come from that Fred Couples camp of, "When I get to Augusta, something clicks."
Annnnddd, that's about it.
Phil has played horrible golf the last year and a half. He has just one top-10 finish on the PGA Tour since Aug. 25, 2013 (a second at the PGA a year ago, mind you) and has seemed lost with his swing and very questionable with his short game (especially those sure-fire 3- to 5-footers he used to knock the back of the hole out with).
Last week at the Houston Open, it looked like Phil might turn it around after opening rounds of 66-67, but an ugly finish on Saturday turned his Sunday into one of those, "How fast can I get out of here, and is the private jet warmed up and ready to go?" final rounds.
The Masters will always be Phil's best chance at a major, but something will have to click between now and Thursday if he really wants to contend. He still is missing too many short putts, and his swing is just too loose at times to have a serious shot at this title, but seeing a little bit of the old Phil early in the week in Houston at least made him a talking point.
Yes, yes it is. No golf course in the history of golf courses has set up better for one player than Augusta National does for Bubba.
Forget the two wins in three years, why don't we focus on that drive he hit on 13 in last year's final round? Most guys are trying to squeeze a drive between the bunch of trees to the right (the place Mickelson famously hit out of on his way to a third win in 2010) and the creek to the left, but Bubba just said, "Screw it," blasted it over all the trees and had a flip-wedge into the par-5.
We've heard the term, "overpowering a golf course," but nobody has ever done it the way Watson does at Augusta. The defending champion is flying under the radar this week, crazy considering how he has dominated this tournament in recent years, but not many would be surprised if we saw the lanky lefty slipping on another green jacket Sunday night.
This is his tournament to lose, and even a B-game from Bubba will put him near that final group come Sunday. If Watson wins a third Masters in three years, we might see some serious overhauling at Augusta National, and the term Bubba proofing might sneak into our vernacular.
After the PGA Championship, the biggest deterrent to Rory's chances at a Grand Slam was time. Say he had played the Masters and U.S. Open the way he played the British and PGA last year, he would have had two more chances at a major before the season ended. Winning those two tournaments a year ago was impressive, but it left months between the last major of '14 and the first shot at one in '15. Since then, Rory has filmed more commercials than Peyton Manning (looking at you, Omega), dealt with a lawsuit and finally started playing golf like a mortal.
Now, the mortal label should be taken lightly. Rory has played in two PGA Tour events in 2015, finishing in the top 11 in both, but he has moved into that scary place of "win or we think you failed." In the NBA, that's one thing, but in golf, that's a tough spot to be in. The competition is insane these days, and if Rory has a down week, it means we all are left scratching our heads wondering what went wrong with the No. 1 player in the world.
As for Rory's game this week at Augusta, he must avoid the big numbers. Bogies happen at the Masters, but the doubles and triples are what cost you a chance at a green jacket. McIlroy has made far too many over the years here to leave with one more piece of outerwear in his carry-on. But lean on that driver of his, and it should be a solid week for McIlroy.
And if he does win, Chambers Bay is going to be amazing.
Rickie Fowler had one of the most incredible major seasons ever last year, finishing in the top five at all four, joining Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to ever do that. But finishing in the top five makes for a colorful Wikipedia page, and winning one changes the way you're perceived. As solid as Rickie was last season, he still has only one PGA Tour win, and he is another player who seems to make those big numbers far too often.
Fowler will win majors, but I'm not sure this is the week it will happen.
As for some of the others, I like that Adam Scott went back to the long putter this week. He has only four more majors where he can use it, and though he has been fiddling around with the short putter, he might as well get as many under his belt with the one that worked while he can. Scott, like Bubba, is flying far under the radar, but magical things seem to happen when he shows up at Augusta.
Speaking of Australians, don't sleep on Jason Day. After a win already this year at Torrey Pines, Day is healthy, and he seems molded to win a Masters (two top-three finishes in his last four starts at Augusta).
As I mentioned last week on Twitter, this Masters seems set up for a first-time major winner, with names like Spieth, Walker, Day, Fowler and others in a great spot.
A couple of other names not to forget are Henrik Stenson and Dustin Johnson. Both have the game to win majors, both will likely win majors, and both seem to have the power to dominate Augusta National. Stenson has been battling health issues of late, but the moment you step on these grounds, the only thing making your head cloudy is the pollen from the azaleas.
As for a sleeper, Louis Oosthuizen could have a big week. He missed the cut in Houston but has played solid golf for most of this year and has obviously come close in the past (losing to Bubba's hero wedge in 2012). Lee Westwood is always a popular pick at the Masters, considering he always seems to be in the hunt come Sunday, and I think Ernie Els could have a special week, as it would be a shame for him to end his career without a green jacket (Thanks a lot, Tiger!).
But as we all know, the best part about the Masters is the uncertainty. The tournament is famous because of the traditions, but it's the four days in April that we can't predict. Maybe we see Jordan Spieth slip on a green jacket over his Under Armour gear. Maybe Patrick Reed looks Tiger-like with green and red majestically clashing together Sunday evening. Maybe it's Phil that ties Tiger with four Masters titles.
But the fun is, nobody knows. There is no predicting this game, on this golf course. For every Tiger victory, we've had a Mike Weir. For every Mickelson moment, we’ve had a Charl Schwartzel. For every Nicklaus last gasp, we've had a Larry Mize.
What we do know is, in just a few days, the best week of the golfing season gets going, where goosebumps don't exit your forearms for an entire weekend. It's Masters week, baby! Let's get this thing going.
Shane Bacon will be a regular contributor to FOXSports.com's golf coverage. Follow him on Twitter at @shanebacon.
