AUGUSTA, Ga. — Many of the top players in this year’s Masters are speaking before the tournament on subjects ranging from the state of their golf game to the state of the course to … other strangeness. We’ll gather their words here throughout the week until the Thursday morning tee times.
Scottie Scheffler
The defending champion and winner of two of the last three Masters is keeping perspective this week. “When I tee it up on Thursday, I start the tournament even par just like everybody else. Last year doesn’t have a lot to do with this year, outside of I can go back on some of the experience that I’ve had playing well on this golf course and reflect on that,” he said, and the fact that he’s not already three strokes ahead is good news for the rest of the field.
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“Let’s say I get off to a bad start on Thursday, and I can use some stuff that I’ve done here the past few years as confidence to kind of turn things around,” he said. “But at the end of the day, when I step on there on Thursday, we’re at even par, and it’s a totally new golf tournament. Last year means nothing.”
Collin Morikawa
After winning two majors in short succession, Collin Morikawa has gone more than three years without winning one. Statistically, he’s one of the strongest players on Tour, but the results just haven’t yet come through. He had an interesting breakdown Tuesday of how his game has changed in the past few years.
“I think a lot of us would be like, yeah, if I could pick this out of my 2019 game and pick this out of 2020 and do that from 2021, I’d be the best golfer in the world,” he said. “Well, it doesn’t work like that. Life moves on. Your body moves on. You as a player move on. You keep playing more tournaments. You get a lot more mature that way. But there also comes a lot more scar tissue. And a lot of veterans talked about that when I came out. It’s like you talk about that with any young player, they don’t have scar tissue. Scar tissue might not be the right word, but you have more experience, and sometimes experience is good and sometimes it’s bad.
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“When you’re searching for these answers — I don’t think I’ll ever find the right answer and how to be that, because my body just keeps changing, every day you wake up,” he added. “And that’s why golf is so hard because you’re hitting so many types of shots, and it’s never in a vacuum, that you just don’t know if it’s actually what you’re doing. It’s all just kind of feels and guesses.
“It’s a never-ending search. You’re going to continue to do it because you want to get better, but what I realized through that little process was I could have all the answers, but once again, I’ve got to go play golf. Like playing golf is the most important part, and that creativity, I think a lot of people have lost or that’s just not how they play golf.”
Jon Rahm
After winning the Masters in 2023, 2024 was more than a bit of a letdown for Jon Rahm. He was never in the mix at Augusta, missed the cut at the PGA Championship, missed the U.S. Open entirely with a foot injury, and finally posted a T7 at the Open. On top of that, he jumped from the Tour to LIV Golf, a completely different environment. But he comes into this week feeling more confident and in control than he has in recent months.
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“I feel like my expectations, the pressure I put on myself has always been pretty high,” he said. “I would say my first few majors when I turned pro, I don’t think I handled it at my best. I think wanting to win so bad to where I wanted to control everything a little bit too much, and it took me a few years to learn that I’ve just got to go out there and play and let it happen.”
Rahm has won two majors now, and thinks he’s starting to get a sense of how to put all the pieces together. “It’s a balancing act, depending on where you are in your life,” he said, “but I definitely think each year I get better at it.”
As for LIV Golf, where he now plays, far distant from the PGA Tour, Rahm didn’t sound particularly optimistic that any kind of reunification was in the works. “I think we all would like to see that,” he said. “But as far as I can tell and you guys can tell, it’s not happening anytime soon.”
Viktor Hovland
There are some players who peel off rote answer after rote answer in their press conferences. And then there’s Viktor Hovland, who opens himself up to insight — and critiques — every time he gets in front of a mic.
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“It probably would benefit me to shut my mouth a little bit more. But I don’t know, I don’t mind being honest,” said Hovland, who’s still seeking his first major. “I think if you hold it in … the fear almost becomes bigger instead of when you speak the truth out there, you kind of desensitize it in a way.”
And then he offered up possibly the first Eminem reference in Masters history. “If you’ve seen ‘8 Mile’ with Eminem there, it’s like before his final rap battle, he kind of disses himself. It’s like: ‘Here I am, what else you got on me?’ I don’t know, I think it kind of just puts it out there so you can just focus on the things that I need to focus on and it’s just get back to work and get a little bit better.”
Xander Schauffele
This time last year, Xander Schauffele wasn’t quite saddled with an “underachiever” label, but the questions were starting to simmer. Posting 11 top-10 finishes, and six top-5 finishes but zero wins in majors over a seven-year career will do that.
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And then, all Schauffele did was win two majors — the PGA Championship and the Open Championship — and just like that, the entire narrative around his career flipped on its head. He returns to Augusta not as a guy seeking a major, but as a star with intentions on completing the career grand slam. What a difference a year makes.
As the first player to enter the media center for the 2025 Masters, Schauffele radiated confidence. Two majors will do that for you, even if he says that he hasn’t changed.
“I don’t really wake up and feel more accomplished. I feel like the same guy,” he said. “My dream is just to give myself another chance coming down the stretch. I think I said that after the PGA, at The Open, if I can get myself in a spot to win this thing, I feel pretty good about doing it.”
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It’s not exactly breaking news to say that the world No. 3 player might win this major, but for Schauffele, success breeds success. The victories at Valhalla and Royal Troon gave him the knowledge that he can close out the most important tournaments in the world, and he’s carrying that with him into Augusta this week.
“I think that kind of [confidence] goes for every major I play in now,” Schauffele said. “If I can get myself in a good spot. … I’m going to fail at times, but man, I think I can deal with it a lot better than I used to be able to before, before winning.”
A serious rib injury slowed Schauffele earlier this year, benching him for about two months. He’s not all the way back, but he’s glad to be off the couch and back in the game.
“I’ve never really dealt with injury before, so I’ve never really been sidelined,” he said. “I’m trying to find all the positives to attach to the situation. … Sitting at home thinking all these thoughts, watching everyone else play golf and sort of fly by me, it’s been very motivating.”
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Speaking of motivating … Schauffele was asked whether it was “motivating or intimidating” to see Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler continuing to post strong finishes while he was out of commission.
“Just motivating,” he smiled. “There’s so many guys that have played at a really high level, and luckily I’ve learned that I can play at that level.”
This news was originally published on this post .
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