The Masters starts its 90th anniversary staging on Thursday. This major championship in Augusta, Ga., always gets world-wide attention, but this one may not get as much as most of the others – and for good reasons.
Tiger Woods won’t be playing. Neither will Phil Mickelson. It’s the first time since 1994 that both of those popular stars will miss the Masters, Woods because of a recent auto accident and Mickelson because of a“serious medical issue’’ that has limited his competition to only one event of the five played on the LIV Golf Tour this season. Woods has won the Masters five times, Mickelson has three titles, and both will be missed.
Another factor is that Scottie Scheffler, a two-time champion and the game’s No. 1-ranked player, has had an uncharacteristically slow start to this season. He had seemed distracted, which could be unstandable given that his wife was pregnant. Scheffler announced the birth of their second son, Remy, on Sunday though the birth was on March 27. Scheffler missed the last three weeks of tournaments on the PGA Tour and may be rusty.
And then there’s Rory McIlroy, whose win in the 2025 Masters completed his dramatic completion of golf’s Grand Slam. His start to the 2026 season was not ideal. He’s made only four starts and one of those was a withdrawal at the Arnold Palmer Invitational when he developed a sore back. McIlroy’s last start was at The Players and he could do no better than a tie for 46th when that tourney ended on March 15.
That leaves quite a few top stars in limbo, so this staging can’t possibly come close to the first one I covered in person. The 1986 staging is marking the 40th anniversary of what may be the most memorable Masters. Jack Nicklaus won his record sixth title at the age of 46, making him the oldest winner in tournament history.
Somebody will win the 90th Masters on Sunday, however. It’s an annual rite of spring to pick the champion and I’ve done it three times – Fred Couples in 1992, Scheffler in 2022 and McIlroy last year.
This one figures to be a battle of the hottest current players on both men’s tours – Bryson DeChambeau of the LIV circuit and Matt Fitzpatrick on the PGA Tour side. DeChambeau won his last two LIV starts and Fitzpatrick had a runner-up finish, then a win in the Valspar Championship. Neither played last week, and neither has won a Masters.
I’m making DeChambeau my choice this week. His best finishes in the Masters were in the last two years – a tie for sixth in 2024 and a tie for fifth last year.
A couple others rate an outside chance – England’s Tommy Fleetwood, who earned his first PGA Tour win at last year’s Tour Championship on a Georgia course (East Lake), and J.J. Spaun, who won last year’s U.S. Open with a 64-foot putt on the final green at Oakmont. Spaun also captured last Sunday’s Valero Texas Open so has some good momentum going in his favor.
LOCAL HOPEFUL: While no Illinois-connected PGA Tour players qualified for this year’s Masters, the field will include Brandon Holtz. The former Illinois State basketball player, now 39, works in real estate in Bloomington. After contending in several Illinois Opens Holtz qualified for the Masters by winning the U.S. Mid-Amateur title last September in Arizona. Jeff Holtz, Brandon’s now 65-year old father, was his bag-toter in the U.S. Mid-Amateur win and will also be on the bag at Augusta National.
BITS: Two Chicago area qualifiers did well in the Drive Chip & Putt finals, an annual prelude to the Masters. Patricia Kittivat, of Schaumburg, finished second in the Girls 7-9 category and Hinsdale’s Carter Bird tied for third in the Boys 14-15.
Northwestern’s Diana Lee tied for 19th in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, another pre-Masters attraction. She was 2-under-par for that tourney’s 54-holes and was even par in the final round – the only one of the three played on the Augusta National course.
Andrew Langan, of Winnetka, is the new chairman of the Western Golf Association. He’s been a member of the WGA’s board of directors since 2016.