The Masters golf LIVE: Previews, predictions and odds as Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods prepare for Augusta

What a distinction a 12 months makes.

Twelve months in the past Jon Rahm headed to Augusta Nationwide because the winner of three of his first eight tournaments of the 12 months, began with a four-putt double bogey and nonetheless went on to win the Masters.

One 12 months on, Rahm will make the drive down Magnolia Lane as a member of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League and with simply 5 of their 54-hole occasions underneath his belt earlier than defending his title.

The change is all of the extra startling given Rahm’s earlier publicly acknowledged opinions on LIV’s format and his declare that he performed golf to win titles, not cash, claims strengthened by his feedback instantly after slipping on the inexperienced jacket.

Pleasure is constructing at Augusta with Tiger Woods on web site this week and able to compete in one other Masters

The fractured sport of golf holds a brief truce this week when the world’s greatest gamers come collectively for the primary main of the 12 months.

Jon Rahm returns as the best profile of the 13 LIV golfers enjoying at Augusta Nationwide, bidding to turn into the primary participant to efficiently defend his Masters title since Tiger Woods in 2002.

Rahm has but to win since final 12 months’s four-shot victory over Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, however is priced at round 12/1 so as to add a 3rd main to his identify behind scorching favorite Scottie Scheffler and 10/1 shot Rory McIlroy, who’s attempting to turn into the sixth participant to bag a profession grand slam.

Forward of Thursday’s first tee-off, we’ve taken an extended exhausting have a look at golf betting websites to pick three Masters suggestions from the outright winner market.

It has been almost a half-century since a Masters debutant slipped on the Inexperienced Jacket however American veteran Wyndham Clark and Swedish younger gun Ludvig Aberg might ship a significant shock at Augusta Nationwide this week.

Not since Fuzzy Zoeller beat Ed Sneed and Tom Watson in a playoff to win the 1979 Masters has a rookie walked away with the coveted title.

However Clark and Aberg usually are not your typical Masters newcomers.

A beautiful Masters custom is the Champions Dinner on Tuesday night, the place all former champions collect to have a meal along with the menu chosen by the earlier 12 months’s inexperienced jacket winner.

Thus, Jon Rahm hosted this 12 months’s and each dwelling champion was current bar Sandy Lyle, who stayed at house to be with spouse Jolanda who has an interior ear downside, and Angel Cabrera – who was unable to get a visa to enter the US after being launched from jail in Argentina.

The portrait of all of the champions is all the time a incredible picture and this 12 months was no completely different

Chosen Masters spherical one tee occasions

First group – 1300: Erik van Rooyen, Jake Knapp

1348: Gary Woodland, Thorbjorn Olsen, Bryson DeChambeau

1436: Phil Mickelson, Sepp Straka, Tony Finau

1518: Hideki Matsuyama, Will Zalatoris, Justin Thomas

1530: Jon Rahm, Matt Fitzpatrick, Nick Dunlap

1542: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele

1554: Wyndham Clark, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Smith

1800: Keegan Bradley, Matthieu Pavon, Tyrrell Hatton

1824: Tiger Woods, Jason Day, Max Homa

1836: Brian Harman, Brooks Koepka, Tom Kim

1848: Jordan Spieth, Ludvig Åberg, Sahith Theegala

Last group – 1900: Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood

There has all the time been a way that the Masters is a fairytale or fantasy for golfers and maybe subsequent week’s first main championship of 2024 most resembles The Wizard of Oz. There are the extremes of color (Augusta Nationwide loves inexperienced), a fabled route (onto the property alongside Magnolia Lane and round it through Amen Nook), peculiar custom (the Butler Cabin), a wierd however beguiling prize (the inexperienced jacket) and a forged of characters desperately attempting to beat their flaws.

However this 12 months, there may be an added function for the Augusta fairytale and it’s the sense that one thing malevolent and threatening is hanging over this other-worldly location.

Learn Matt Cooper’s full preview of the 2024 Masters:

Shane Lowry has revealed {that a} inexperienced jacket ranks extremely on his “bucket record” as he bids for Masters triumph.

The Irishman’s victory at Portrush stays his sole main triumph, however Lowry is assured that his greatest golf stays forward of him and he can nonetheless problem within the greatest occasions.

The 37-year-old was part of Europe’s profitable Ryder Cup in Rome final 12 months and wish to style victory on American soil, too, whereas an Olympic medal can be in his sights.

Tiger Woods reiterated his perception that Rory McIlroy will certainly win the Masters throughout his profession to finish the grand slam as McIlroy stored his personal media duties to a minimal.

McIlroy was the final participant to register at Augusta Nationwide round half-hour earlier than his scheduled press convention, which began early and noticed the world No 2 reply simply seven questions.

A type of was in response to Woods having earlier insisted it was only a “matter of time” earlier than McIlroy earns a inexperienced jacket to hitch Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Participant, Jack Nicklaus and Woods himself in having gained all 4 main titles.

“It’s flattering,” McIlroy mentioned. “It’s good to listen to, in my view, the most effective participant ever to play the sport say one thing like that.

“Does that imply that it’s going to occur? Clearly not. However he’s been across the recreation lengthy sufficient to know that I a minimum of have the potential to do it. I do know I’ve bought the potential to do it too. It’s not as if I haven’t been a reasonably good participant for the final couple of a long time. However, yeah, it’s good to listen to it when it comes out of his mouth.”

Tiger Woods insists he can win a sixth inexperienced jacket and sixteenth main title, regardless of detailing the ache he faces on the overwhelming majority of pictures at Augusta Nationwide.

Woods has performed fewer than five-and-a-half aggressive rounds since present process ankle surgical procedure in April final 12 months after withdrawing from the Masters throughout the third spherical. The 48-year-old returned to motion within the Hero World Problem in December and accomplished all 72 holes, however was pressured to withdraw from the Genesis Invitational in February as a result of sickness after six holes of the second spherical.

Woods had additionally suffered a again spasm which led to a dreaded shank on the 18th gap in spherical one, however caught to his tried and examined reply when requested what he thought he might obtain this week. “If all the things comes collectively, I believe I can get yet another,” Woods mentioned, including with a smile: “Do I want to explain that any greater than that, or are we good?”

But that query and reply got here simply minutes after Woods had candidly described the problems that the litany of accidents he has suffered over time – together with nearly shedding his proper leg following a automobile accident in 2021 – trigger him on something however a superbly flat lie.