The Masters 2015: 10 bold predictions
Ladies and gentleman, the moment you’ve all been waiting for is finally here. It’s officially Masters week after 22 PGA Tour tournaments this season headlined with winners like Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and more. Now, it’s time to take what we know and make some predictions for the first PGA Tour major tournament of the season.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are dominating headlines leading into the Masters.
McIlroy has four major victories, but he hasn’t won the Masters. He’ll look to complete the “grand slam of golf” this week at Augusta National joining a short list of great players who have done it in the past including Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen and Gary Player.
Tiger Woods, who was on an indefinite leave of absence until his game was “tournament ready” since February, announced last week that he would play in the 2015 Masters after much speculation that we wouldn’t see Tiger play in the tournament he’s won four times in his career. Tiger has played in two PGA Tour events this season since undergoing back surgery last year. Woods missed the cut at the Phoenix Open and then withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open after stress to his back.
When Woods missed the Masters last year, TV ratings went down by over 30 percent marking the worst ratings since 1993. Now, Tiger’s return creates an incredible atmosphere at Augusta National and as more attention falls on him, less attention falls on dark horse candidates to win the Masters.
Other storylines include the fact that Jordan Spieth is coming in as one of the favorites to win the Masters after a great year so far. If Spieth wins, he would be the second youngest player to win the Masters at 21 years and 259 days just behind Tiger Woods’ record of 21 years and 104 days that he set in 1997.
Big hitter Bubba Watson has won twice in the past three years and now we wonder if he can be stopped at Augusta National in 2015. Fellow big hitter Dustin Johnson returned from his leave of absence/suspension and won the WGC-Cadillac Championship as he looks to win his first major. Jimmy Walker comes into the Masters ranked first in FedEx Cup points with two wins already this year.
With all the commotion buzzing around the 2015 Masters as the week begins, it’s time to make some bold predictions for the first major tournament of the year.