It’s the magical time of year for weekend golfers to climb over the mountain of cardboard boxes in the garage and dig out their hibernating golf clubs
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The following is an excerpt of this week’s Monday Morning Golf newsletter Presented by Callaway Golf. You can subscribe here.
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AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Masters Tournament is here and there is absolutely nothing like it.
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It’s the week sports fans turn into golf fans, golf fans melt into puddles, and golf writers run out of words. Well, hopefully not the last part.
But what is it about the Masters that’s so special?
Shakespeare wrote of “proud-pied April dress’d in all his trim. Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing.”
Maybe that’s what this week is all about, both the spirit of renewal that Old Billy Bard speaks of as well as the amazing fact that a golf tournament has the power to get a middle-aged sportswriter making his high-school teacher proud by digging up Shakespeare quotes.
While they won’t teach this in English class, it’s just a fact that almost nothing goes hand-in-hand as well as springtime and the Masters. Neither ever disappoints. Which come to think of it, might be inching closer to the secret of it.
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Over time most things have a way of dulling, like taste buds, or reflexes, or the desire to hit the town — or even leave the house — on a Saturday night. Life has a way of rounding off the harsh edges as we age, it’s easier that way.
But even the numbest among us can’t help but feel the stir of springtime, it’s in our soul. And for those who love the game of golf, the same can be said about Masters week. For many, it’s not even the tournament itself, but what it represents. It’s the magical time of year for weekend golfers in temperate climates to climb over the mountain of cardboard boxes in the garage and dig out their hibernating golf clubs.
It’s the spark that ignites the golf season for so many of us.
When it comes to the action at Augusta National, in recent years the storylines have been more soap opera than Shakespeare. Not in a bad way, but in the sense that nothing ever seems to change.
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Whether you’ve somehow missed one year or five, Rory McIlroy will still be the star-crossed golfer believing this is the year he joins golf immortality by adding a green jacket and completing the career grand slam. If only he could get through Thursday, or the 10th hole, or avoid a bad drive, or a bad bounce, or a bad night’s sleep.
Jordan Spieth will bounce across Augusta National like part Peter Pan and part Jack Sparrow barking orders to both golf ball and caddie, somehow looking convincingly like he should win every green jacket while at the same time making you wonder how he ever won one.
Tiger Woods will have your heart dreaming of another magical week while your brain’s busy praying he can simply finish four rounds.
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A recent addition to the plot is the April reunion of the world’s best players after nine months apart on separate tours. The PGA Tour-LIV Golf split has been awful for basically everything to do with golf but great for the Masters, which is actually the most Masters thing ever.
There is however a new obvious leading man in Scottie Scheffler. Since winning his first green jacket two years ago, the Texan with the fancy feet has danced in front of his co-stars, but not without adding some mystery. Whether or not his putter will show up on Augusta’s treacherous greens is a storyline with the potential to repeat year after year.
There are, of course, other great tournaments in the world of golf. There are bigger tournaments, there are older tournaments. But the Masters comes first. Every year. Every spring.
Green jackets, pink azaleas, Jack Nicklaus hitting a drive on Thursday morning getting us ready to watch eighty-nine players tee it up for a lifetime pass to eternal springs.
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