1 Red Flag for Each of World's Top 10 Players at 2015 Masters

This Masters field is so deep that it's not out of the realm of possibility for anyone inside the top 50 to earn the right to have Bubba Watson slip the Green Jacket over their shoulders.

But the best players are the best players for a reason, and no one would be surprised if a top-10 golfer wins, including one guy—Jordan Spieth—who makes the 25-year-old Rory McIlroy look like a seasoned vet.

“Not since Tiger have we seen a 21-year-old do these types of things on a golf course,” wrote FoxSports.com’s Shane Bacon. “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, at No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking, is on this list, and yes, he does have a weakness, as does everyone else.

Read on to find out what could derail the world's top 10 players at Augusta National.

No. 10: Jimmy Walker

Darren Abate/Associated Press

The Red Flag

Jimmy Walker, solid as he is, has little major golf experience. He has just one start at Augusta—in 2014 when he finished in a respectable tie for eighth.

He’s the only two-time winner on tour this season, and his game is sharp as a diamond.

Shane Bacon of FoxSports.com posed, “Why is Walker becoming such a stud on tour? Because he has that rare ability to totally forget the negatives.”

How Costly Will It Be?

Maybe not so much. At 36 years old, he’s not devoid of experience. In fact he doesn’t have the pressure on him to win this tournament the way Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Reed, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia do. All their legacies will be tied to majors won or not won.

Walker? Why do you think he’s been able to play so well? Sometimes, age brings about a sense of calmness. There’s no urgency with Walker. He’s not in the conversation of “the next Tiger Woods.”

He ranks No. 1 in birdie average this year and No. 12 in par four scoring average. That makes him a contender—not necessarily a sexy contender—but one with serious winning potential in the Masters.

No. 9: Sergio Garcia

The Red Flag

Sergio Garcia is his own red flag.

He’s had some epic breakdowns over the years. He may have completed the apotheosis of fan-favorite-because-he-can’t-win-the-big-one. There are worse positions to be in.

If you ask Garcia, he’s cool with that. He told USA Today's Steve DiMeglio as much:

"

I'm not saying that winning a major is not important but it's not the most important thing in the world. … At the end of the day, the most important thing for me when I quit playing golf is to leave the game better than when I started. Hopefully I can put my little fingerprint on it and help it a little bit.

Obviously it's something nice to have and if I get it I'm not going to give it back but that is not the main thing in my life.

"

Maybe since Tiger Woods is over 100 spots below him in the world rankings, Garcia can put his game together and win one of these things.

How Costly Will It Be?

It has cost him for his entire career.

Even as recently as last year’s Bridgestone Invitational when Garcia was paired with Rory McIlroy, he lost the lead faster than you can say, “Remember the scissor kick?”

If anything will save Garcia, it will have to be his putter. He ranks fourth in three-putt avoidance. However his efficacy with long putts has been dismal, so while he’s avoiding the three-putt, he’s not exactly gaining much on the greens.

No. 8: Jim Furyk

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

The Red Flag

Jim Furyk’s crimson flag is his Round 3 scoring average. It's that moment when it’s time to get serious and win tournaments and his number doesn’t cut it.

In 2014, he ranked 68th in Round 3 scoring when his other three days were respectable: second (Day 2), 24th (Day 1) and 27th (Day 4). In 2015, he’s fallen off the cliff on Day 2 with a scoring average of 72, good for 168th.

He’s unable to garner any kind of momentum. Furyk, the 2003 U.S. Open champ, hasn’t won a tournament since 2010, the year he won the Tour Championship and, by extension, the FedEx Cup.

How Costly Will It Be?

If by costly you mean he has no chance to win because he's in the midst of a throat-parching drought, then yes, it’s costly.

Amazingly, despite going winless the past four years, he’s still a Top 10 golfer. He’s like the Ryan Newman of golf—winless-ly consistent to the point of boredom. 

Furyk will hover near the leaders and maybe flirt and grind his way into contention. Despite being ranked in the Top 10, he’s kind of a sleeper. At least that’s how it feels when giving Furyk any sort of thought at Augusta.

No. 7: Dustin Johnson

The Red Flag

Would you look at that driving distance: No. 1 at 318.8 whopping yards!

Would you look at that driving accuracy: No. 199 at 50.54 percent. 

All the distance in the world doesn’t matter a lick if you can’t keep your Titleist between the hazards. That said, Dustin Johnson’s play has been quite good ever since he came back from his suspens—pardon, leave of absence.

The man can scramble, and he owns par threes and par fives.

How Costly Will It Be?

Length is great, but length without accuracy could hurt Johnson and his bid for his first career major.

He ranks 18th on tour with a 2.98 scoring average on par threes and seventh in scoring on par fives with a 4.53 average. Augusta National has four par fives and four par threes. Johnson needs to clean house on those eight holes to contend.

No. 6: Adam Scott

The Red Flag

The inability to sustain his hold on the No. 1 ranking. Adam Scott ceded control of the No. 1 ranking to Rory McIlroy last season and has since slid down to sixth. This isn’t exactly like Woods falling out of the top 50 and then the top 100, but Scott couldn’t prove worthy of a sustained run atop the pyramid.

As the defending champ a year ago, shooting a nasty 76 on Saturday effectively took him out of contention.

Still, looking at his 2014 season, he played like a World No. 1; it was just that McIlroy played some of the most absurdly good golf this side of 2000. 

After finishing tied for 38th at the Players Championship, he finished out of the top 10 only three more times the rest of the year: two tied-for-15 efforts in back-to-back tournaments, the PGA Championship and Barclays, and 16th at the Deutsche Bank Championship.

How Costly Will It Be?

Eh, not too costly. All Scott has to do is picture that incredible putt in the rain to win the Masters back in 2013. Former champs have a certain swagger around this course.

Maybe the real red flag should be the see-sawing back to his belly putter.

Sporting Life’s Ben Coley wrote, “The concern for Scott backers would be the putter. The Aussie switched to a shorter model on his return to action this year and while initially successful—he finished fourth at Doral—a rare missed cut at Innisbrook and a poor putting week at the Arnold Palmer started the alarm bells ringing.”

The belly putter is Scott’s proverbial bicycle, so he can worry about switching to the short stick in 2016 for now.

No. 5: Jason Day

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

The Red Flag

Peaking too early.

Jason Day came out in the 2014-15 wrap season downright venomous.

He finished with five top fives out of the first six events with two first-place finishes. In his last two events—the Cadillac Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational—Day finished tied for 31st and tied for 17th.

Day has played exceptionally well in the majors and has the proven makeup to win when the light burns brightest.

How Costly Will It Be?

Day faltered in his last two tournaments, but that’s only natural given how well he performed in the early going. He has taken a few weeks off and looks primed to challenge the favorites at Augusta.

Ben Coley of Sporting Life wrote:

"

I believe he is the biggest threat to McIlroy rather than Jordan Spieth and Bubba Watson, who sit second and third respectively in the betting.

This Australian quite simply has the ideal game for Augusta. He hits the ball as high as just about anyone on the PGA Tour, loves to shape it right-to-left off the tee and has an exquisite touch - better, even, that McIlroy's.

"

So, no, not too costly.

No. 4: Jordan Spieth

The Red Flag

Jordan Spieth has been on an amazing run this spring. He was once outside the top 10 in the OWGR, and he’s ascended to the No. 4 spot. He’s like Dread Pirate Richard climbing the Cliffs of Insanity.

His problem will be the pressure when he’s supposed to win. The Shell Houston Open was his tournament to lose, and he lost it. J.B. Holmes won in a playoff that Spieth dutifully earned (see video of his clutch up-and-down to join the playoff twosome).

On the first playoff hole, Spieth drew his drive way left and nearly bathed it. With the ball almost level with his knees, he took a baseball swing and missed the green wide right. The ensuing chip came up extremely short and his long par-putt never had a shot.

Holmes went out and won the SHO and stole it from Spieth.

How Costly Will It Be?

He finished tied for second at the 2014 Masters and announced himself as the next great young player on the tour. He’s lived up to that billing, winning the Hero World Challenge and the Valspar Championship and finishing second at the Valero Texas Open and the SHO.

Spieth is hungry, and he has the moxie to extinguish pressure.

No. 3: Bubba Watson

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

The Red Flag

Bubba Watson’s red flag this season has been his appallingly sour rate of greens in regulation. His greens-in-regulation percentage is 64.62, good for 130th on the tour. Look up and down his list of approaches and you see he’s below average from just about every distance.

His saving grace is that closet with two Green Jackets. This course is tailored to his build just like those blazers.

How Costly Will It Be?

Sort of a coin toss. It could be his undoing, or he could bury this hiccup for four days at Augusta.

Watson is second on tour in scrambling, so even though he needs a navigation system to find the green, he manages to recalculate just fine.

No. 2: Henrik Stenson

Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press

The Red Flag

You have to break out the fine-toothed comb in order to find a red flag in Henrik Stenson’s repertoire right now.

His game has no true flaw. Maybe you can point to his 1.776 putting average (114th on tour), but even that’s a stretch.

No, his biggest red flag is the clock: As in, will he be told to hurry the smorgasbord up?

Being put on a timer cost him a chance to win at Bay Hill. Did it affect him? ESPN.com’s Bob Harig said:

"

Very legitimate. Whether it should have impacted him is another question. But the fact is he got rattled. He knew he had to get moving for fear of getting a bad time, which can eventually lead to a penalty stroke. He admitted to rushing putts on the 15th and 16th holes, where he essentially lost the tournament.

"

How Costly Will It Be?

Even if there’s a looming threat of an official telling him he’s got to get a move on, that will be enough to take Stenson off his game and potentially out of contention.

ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman said:

"

I think it is in poor form that the PGA Tour would put anyone on the clock with four holes to go. It's kind of like an official in the final minute of a big game: Swallow your whistle. You should understand the situation and where you are in the tournament. A player teeing off at 9 a.m. on a Sunday should not be treated the same as a player in the final group with a chance to win a million bucks. I absolutely think it could have changed Stenson's flow, probably more mentally than it did physically.

"

Hopefully Stenson has been practicing his two-minute drill so as not to coax the time warden out from his roost.

No. 1: Rory McIlroy

The Red Flag

Rory McIlroy needs to keep his cool. Ever since romping through the latter part of 2014, there’s a sheen of invincibility around him.

When he came over to the States for the Honda Classic, he missed the cut by shooting 73-74. Then, he finished tied for ninth at the Cadillac Championship and helicoptered his three-iron.

"Felt good at the time," said McIlroy, according to Harig. “I don't feel good about it now. It's frustrating when you feel your game is close and you keep hitting shots like that in the water, things I rarely do.”

Pressure will only ratchet up at the Masters as he tries to complete the career Grand Slam at the age of 25.

How Costly Will It Be?

Very costly.

He needs to clear the mechanism, put on the blinders and keep his eye on the pin at all times. In an interview with The Telegraph's James Corrigan, he expressed how he lost that childlike love of golf, how it’s more of a job now than ever.

McIlroy appears to have lost his lust for the game of golf. Without passion, no amount of talent will win you these tournaments, not with Spieth on his heels at No. 4 wanting nothing more than McIlroy’s coveted spot atop Mt. Olympus.

McIlroy is entirely capable of tuning out the static, but there are those moments where his game unravels. Will that be this year, or will he keep it together?

That's why we'll tune in.

All stats come courtesy of PGATour.com.