It goes without saying that Masters week is one of the most memorable on the calendar. Similar to an Ashes Test at Lords or Wimbledon, it is rich in tradition … it just feels different, it’s a purist’s haven.
For the players it’s no different. There is something about the green jackets, pimento cheese sandwiches and the scent of pine straw that is like being in another dimension.
An Augusta ambush is seemingly on the horizon. The small but elite four-prong squad of Aussies embarking on golf’s most exclusive event is arguably the strongest we have seen across the board in years.
ADAM SCOTT
Only one Australian knows what it feels like to open up his closet and see a green jacket hanging there, and that hasn’t been given enough credit in recent times.
What Scott did in 2013 was remarkable, and 11 years on, he still believes he can rewrite the record books and claim a second title on the hallowed turf of Augusta National - even if others may have written him off. It is still a week he looks forward to, and it’s never long into the new year before the trip down Magnolia Lane starts to cross his mind.
Indeed, it starts on day one.
“Thinking about it (The Masters), I guess first from planning a schedule into where you’re going to play and which boxes you need to tick,” Scott said.
“That kind of influences where you need to play, how much work you need to do to think you’re going to be ready to win the Masters, where your game’s really at, and trying to work a schedule of practice and play and travel and everything else into that. So, I’ve had that in the forefront of my mind since January 1.”
As time drifts on, a collection of Scotty barrackers south of the equator have admittedly been dealt a series of disappointing results since 2017 (T9) at the year’s first major.
Firstly, those more recent results can’t be ignored. Fact is he hasn’t played to his lofty standards at Augusta for a while now. That said, despite lacklustre weekends, the Queenslander has made the cut at the Masters every year since 2009.
So, although the last few years have been tough, you’re always a sniff if you are teeing it up on the weekend. Chances are, Scott will have a Saturday tee time. And hopefully a late one Sunday.
The 43-year-old had a great finish to 2023, finishing T5 at the PGA Tour’s Bermuda Championship before a sensational Christmas back home, where the veteran finished sixth at the Australian PGA and T4 at the Australian Open before winning the two-day Cathedral Invitational.
Scott has carried that form into a solid start to 2024 on the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. He didn’t finish outside the top-20 in his first four starts, finishing T7 (Dubai Desert Classic), T20 (Pebble Beach Pro-Am), T8 (Phoenix Open), T19 (Genesis Invitational) and a solid showing at the Valero Texas Open (T14) the week prior to Augusta. The 2013 Masters Champion admits his ball striking hasn’t been where it once was, but believes he has found what is needed to be a proper force in 2024.
Ball-striking has not historically been the issue for the silky-swinging former champion. What he does around and on the greens has been the cause for concern for his fans over the years.
Scott has started the year with a bang with the flatstick, gaining shots on the greens all but twice (Pebble Beach and Bay Hill) – according to Data Golf.
His form line is solid; he knows how to win at Augusta; if he can keep it together for four straight rounds, it isn’t far-fetched that Scott will be in the mix of players doing their best in that compelling stretch of final holes late in the tournament.
CAM SMITH
Cam Smith has not missed the cut in seven starts at Augusta and recorded T5, T10, T2 and T3 finishes. Few people on the planet putt better than the Queenslander, and he plays the game with his imagination as opposed to some of the cookie-cutter target golf players that make up a higher percentage of professionals than the PGA Tour would like to admit.
Has the defection to LIV been a good thing for Smith?
When he first made the jump, he was razor-sharp, a Players and an Open champion. Yet this writer isn’t sold on his golf being as sharp as it has been. It feels like he’s lost an edge.
This is relative, of course. The 30-year-old is undoubtedly still the quality of player who can not only compete but contend at the most significant events of the year. He wasn’t playing his best and still played the weekend at all four majors in 2023.
But the numbers don’t lie.
Smith is ranked 66th in the Official World Golf Ranking; and yes, I can hear you muttering, “LIV players don’t get world ranking points, you delinquent”. But if you go off statistical data, he is fairly ranked, according to Data Golf. He slides in at 59th.
LIV ramped up their schedule ahead of the Masters, so Smith had ample opportunity to get his reps up in time for the drive down Magnolia Lane. He was served some dodgy chicken and had to withdraw from last week's LIV Miami with food poisoning so that obviously hindered his prep slightly.
You can read what you like about the amount of golf the Aussie cult hero has played, but when Smith has turned up, he has always found a way to be competitive even when he hasn’t necessarily had his best stuff. And that shows the quality of player he is - genuinely class. Here is hoping getting to Augusta early gives him a proper tune up, and he times his run to perfection because major championships are more entertaining when C.Smith is on the first page of the leaderboard.
MIN WOO LEE
Who’s cooking?
Self-proclaimed ‘chef’, Min Woo Lee, is some of the hottest property in pro golf at the moment, and you could argue is Australia’s best chance of claiming the elusive green jacket once again.
I mean, imagine the clamour around chef Min Woo’s champion’s dinner menu...
Off the back of his highly followed and unique social media presence, the West Australian has been at the centre of some impressive endorsement deals, most recently becoming the face of lululemon’s golf range and rubbing shoulders with YouTube sensations the Good Good crew through his relationship with Callaway. It shows how marketable the young man from Royal Fremantle is. He just oozes cool.
But he hasn’t let it hinder his day job.
He found his feet in the U.S over the last 18 months before cashing in internationally over Christmas.
The end of 2023 was the making of Min Woo Lee. In October he won a clinical birdie fest at the Macau Open on the Asian Tour, blitzing his peers and playing 72 holes in 30-under-par, displaying his natural ability to make bulk birdies when he has to.
He followed up this emphatic performance on the Asian Tour by returning home and capturing the Australian PGA Championship in front of adoring fans.
Then he nearly pulled off the Aussie double, falling just short at the Australian Open.
Lee secured his full-time playing rights on the PGA Tour for 2024, and after his electric finish to the year, has yet to meet his expectations in 2024. But, as explained, he has ample experience in big moments and has an Augusta record for good measure.
On debut at The Masters in 2022, the then 23-year-old carded an electric – and record-tying – 30 on the front nine on his way to a T14 finish in his maiden appearance. So, the man can carry low numbers in his mental kit bag come his next trip around the iconic loop.
Last year, Lee played in the final group at the Players with World No.1 and the then-Masters champion Scottie Scheffler. He ultimately had a tough day (four-over 76) and fell short but relished the experience.
What is striking about Lee is how he has gained such a massive fanbase. Yes, when he returns home, there is always going to be a decent following; he is the second highest-ranked Aussie at the time of writing behind Jason Day – who hasn’t been making many trips home over the last decade – so it is no surprise the fans turn out for him Down Under.
But it is the fanfare internationally that has been the most impressive. It came to my attention at February’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, where there were collections of fully grown men sporting chef attire and cheering on the 25-year-old Aussie.
That sort of carry-on is probably not the done thing at Augusta, but if Lee finds himself in the mix, he won’t be short of supporters, and, as we know, he feeds off that energy. He has unlocked the winning mindset and even with a broken finger, he wants to be in those big moments.
JASON DAY
The highest-ranked Aussie at the time of writing is Jason Day, and he is heading to Augusta for a 13th Masters.
The return from the crippling back injuries, the revamped swing, and the resurgence up the world ranking have been well documented, and it is a fantastic story. For a few years, Day contending felt like distant memories.
Last year, though, he re-joined the winner’s circle at the AT&T Byron Nelson, finished T2 at the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, and made it to the Tour Championship, finishing 28th in the FedExCup. But, most importantly, he was fit and healthy and looked like he was loving being back in contention.
Day has always had the game to win around Augusta; he has terrific feel, and it fits his eye. At the 2023 Masters there were positive signs that maybe this could be the one. An opening 67 had Day supporters excited before a tough weekend – including signing for 80 on Sunday – in tricky conditions bundled him back to T39.
Day is among several Aussie ‘nearly men’ at The Masters. The close calls and heartache will be a driving factor in his bid to contend for the green jacket. He wants one badly.
And given how he started the 2024 season – three top-10s in his five starts before March, before his form slightly fading leading into the Masters. But it is certainly noting to panic about, maybe 2024 is the year Day, 36, finally makes the summit that is the Masters at Augusta.
CAM DAVIS
If there is a top-tier Aussie who consistently slides under the radar, it is Cam Davis, who returns to The Masters for a second time after not qualifying in 2023.
Davis’s lone trip to the year’s opening major was in 2022 and saw him finish 12-over and 46th, a spot ahead of Tiger Woods. Davis is a far more complete player two years on.
He recorded a career-best finish at a major at last year’s PGA Championship (T4). Along with displaying that ‘major championship’ quality with the grit and tenacious golf the Sydney native played at Oak Hill, he also had an impressive year on the PGA Tour - even while missing the Tour Championship, he boasted eight top-10s.
With only one Masters appearance, is Davis a chance?
Of course, he is. He demonstrates traits similar to an array of Masters champions. He shapes the ball well off the tee and with his irons. The question mark historically with Davis has been on the greens, an area where he has improved of late; as of March, he was ranked 14th on the PGA Tour in putting average and gained shots on the greens in three out of his first five events of 2024. So, big improvements in that department.
The most impressive aspect of Davis’ game is his mental approach. He doesn’t give much away, he looks like he stays at the same level - never too high, never too low. He has a lot in common with Ludvig Åberg - pure ball-striking, ice-cool personality, composed response to adversity. It wouldn’t surprise if Davis takes The Masters by storm.
JASPER STUBBS
Pressure: Some eat it, and some get eaten by it.
Talk about early exposure to a big moment – Jasper Stubbs, at Royal Melbourne, a Melburnian, a Sandbelt lifer heading to extra holes of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in front of friends and family with a ticket to The Masters and The Open on the line.
Stand and deliver, young man.
That moment, that play-off he won, shows the character of someone far beyond his years, and sitting down and asking the 21-year-old amateur about the biggest victory of his career to date, it certainly wouldn’t have been a surprise if the way he earned his trip to his maiden major championship was a blur. It isn’t.
He remembers the moment like it was yesterday.
“A lot of people have asked me if I still remember it and, I do pretty well because it’s probably the biggest moment of my golfing career. And the nerves were there, but they weren’t ridiculous,” Stubbs told Golf Australia magazine.
Not ridiculous? It is striking how calm and confident Stubbs is. The idea of that sort of pressure cooker to us mere golfing mortals is enough to make you feel uneasy. And being under that kind of pressure and seizing the moment is why Stubbs is destined for a fantastic career that could get underway this week.
Stubbs’ memories from Augusta growing up are like that of any young Australian golf fan. A considerable portion of his weekend was spent watching before missing most of the final day with school on Monday.
“I didn’t get to watch all of it because I had to go to school,” Stubbs says with a smile.
“But one of the biggest memories for me was when Mum called up the school and got the PA to call out to me that Adam Scott had just won the Masters. So that was pretty cool.”
The Victorian can lean on fellow Aussie Harrison Crowe, who saluted at the 2022 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship and played at Augusta last year. But also, hasn’t been short of advice from other Aussie pros who have played at the most exclusive major championship.
“Crowey had a chat to me last year, and he was just telling me what he wishes he could have done better,” Stubbs said.
“And Cam Davis, we played a round together at the Sandbelt Invitational at the end of last year, and he just gave me a couple of tips on a few shots to try when I’m there in the practice rounds.
“I thought that was a pretty cool moment for such a cool golfer to just reach out and tell me about a shot I should think about a bit.
“The main one was the second shot on 13. He said it tricked up his aim a lot, and it’s more on a different slope than what he thought.”
As expected, he has set some lofty goals for his debut at Augusta, wanting to secure a spot at next year’s event being one.
“A goal is obviously to finish in the top-12 so I can get an invite back to next year’s Masters. That’s the big, tall goal. But I’m just expecting to go out, try and have as much fun as I can, hit as many good shots as I can, and if it’s my week, it’ll all come together,” he said.
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