One Final Masters Tune-Up

We did it. We’ve reached Masters week.

The tournaments this weekend held some degree of importance in and of themselves, but the final weekend before the Masters tends to serve as a barometer for where contenders stack up entering one of the biggest weeks of the year. The top two Masters favorites – Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy – each took the weekend off, but with LIV Golf in action and a decent field at the Valero Texas Open, we had one last chance to take stock of a handful of contenders entering Masters week.

Brian Harman won a challenging edition of the Valero Texas Open, closing with a mediocre final round 75 on a day the field averaged 74.8. The 2023 Open champion is in the Masters field, though his chances of contending are slim. The short-hitting Harman has finished in the top 40 at the Masters just once in six starts, but never say never?

I’d characterize Jordan Spieth’s T-12 in San Antonio as encouraging but not inspiring. His ball-striking was inconsistent, while he gained more than seven strokes to the field around the green and with the flatstick. Entering the Masters, Spieth’s form is…fine. He’s nowhere near prime Spieth, but he is playing well and has quite a track record at Augusta National.

Both Hideki Matsuyama and Ludvig Aberg missed the cut in San Antonio. Matsuyama struck the ball well and lost 3.5 strokes putting to miss the cut by three. We’ve seen that movie before. Similarly, Aberg hit the ball fine and struggled on and around the greens. I have some concerns about Aberg’s short game entering one of the most demanding tests of the year.

Marc Leishman captured his first LIV win at Doral. His chances of contending in the Masters are low, as he is not in the field.

Multiple high-profile LIV golfers flashed some form at LIV Miami. Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, and Jon Rahm all hung around the top of the leaderboard for most of the three days. All four should be feeling confident about the state of their games. Dustin Johnson hung around the first two days before bombing out with a final round 79. I have no idea how confident DJ should feel about the state of his game. It’s trending in the right direction, but it still has not been good!

Brooks Koepka finished T-18 at Doral. A T-18 on LIV isn’t particularly impressive, but Koepka’s last eight months – dating back to a win on LIV in August – haven’t been terrible. With two LIV wins and a runner-up finish since last year’s Masters, the five-time major champion can’t be ruled out headed into the sport’s premier iron test this week.

A name you may hear cited as a sleeper for this week’s Masters is 2017 champion Sergio Garcia, who is playing consistently high-level golf at age 45. Needing a birdie on his last hole to force a playoff, Garcia found the penalty area en route to a third-place finish at Doral. Since finishing T-12 at last year’s U.S. Open, Garcia has won twice on LIV and nearly won again this weekend in Miami. The Spaniard has missed five of his last six cuts at the Masters, but he’s still one of the preeminent ball-strikers of the 21st century and enters the tournament in strong form. Stranger things have happened!

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.