Masters 2015: Latest Chatter Surrounding Golf's 1st Major of the Year
The Masters starts on Thursday and Tiger Woods is making his return to the game, but it seems no one is picking him to win. Case in point: Ryan Ballengee of Yahoo Sports posted an article with the opinions of three resident experts and his own.
Kevin Kaduk, Jay Hart, Jay Busbee and Ballengee's picks were littered with the the usual suspects. Ballengee likes Jordan Spieth, Busbee tabs Adam Scott and Hart likes Dustin Johnson.
The most interesting prediction came from Kaduk, who picked Jason Day. After a near-miss in 2013, Day is hoping this is his year to win his first green jacket. He's already won twice this year, and the 27-year-old looks to be playing as confidently as he has in his career.
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Of all the contenders who haven't won at Augusta, a win from Day might be among the most intriguing. It would solidify him as a real player in the potential rivalries coming for the sub-30-year-old talent currently in the game.
Tireless Tiger
How hard did Woods work to get himself back to a point where he believes he's ready to contend and potentially win at Augusta? Really hard. Per Bob Harig of ESPN.com, Woods said:
"People would never understand how much work I put into it to come back and do this again. It was sunup to sundown, and whenever I had free time; if the kids were asleep, I'd still be doing it, and then when they were in school, I'd still be doing it. So it was a lot of work."
Golf—like every other sport—is a results-driven business. All the work in the world won't matter unless Woods can produce better results than he did in his injury-riddled 2014. Woods completed just two tournaments last year with his best finish a 17th-place effort.
Attention is high, but from the looks of the predictions around the net, expectations are not.
Ailing Stenson
One of the top international threats to win the 2015 Masters will be at less than 100 percent to begin the tournament. Per Alex Miceli of Golfweek, Henrik Stenson is battling the flu as the year's first major approaches.
Stenson is clearly one of—if not the—best active players over 35 to have never won a major. The 39-year-old Swede's best performance in a major came at the 2013 Open Championship when he finished second.
His best performance at the Masters was his tied-for-14th-place result in 2014. We'll see if he can come up with his own take on the flu game.
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