Augusta, Ga. – Many of the best players of this year's masters express themselves before the tournament on subjects ranging from the state of their golf game to the state of the course to … other strangeness. We will bring their words together here throughout the week until the hours of Thursday morning.
Scottie Scheffler
The reigning champion and winner of two of the last three masters keeps the perspective this week. “When I started on Thursday, I start the tournament even like everyone. Last year has little to do this year, apart from I can come back to a part of the experience that I had on this golf course and think about this,” he said, and the fact that he is not already three strokes to come is good news for the rest of the field.
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“Let's say that I take a bad start on Thursday, and I can use things that I have done here in recent years as confidence in doing things,” he said. “But at the end of the day, when I walk there on Thursday, we are even peer, and it's a completely new golf tournament. Last year does not mean anything.”
Collin Morikawa
After winning two majors in short succession, Collin Morikawa spent more than three years without winning one. Statistically, he is one of the strongest players on the tour, but the results simply did not go. He has had an interesting breakdown Tuesday how his game has changed in recent years.
“I think many of us would be like, yes, if I could choose this from my 2019 game and choose it on 2020 and do it from 2021, I would be the best golfer in the world,” he said. “Well, it doesn't work like that. Life continues. Bad.
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“When you are looking for these answers-I don't think I will never find the right answer and how to be that, because my body keeps changing, every day you wake up,” he added. “And that is why golf is so hard because you hit so many types of photos, and it's never in a vacuum, that you don't know if it's really what you do. It's just a bit of feelings and assumptions.
“It's an endless search. You will continue to do it because you want to get better, but what I have done through this little process is that I could have all the answers, but again, I have to go play golf. As playing golf is the most important role, and this creativity, I think a lot of people have lost or it is simply not the way they play golf.”
Jon Rahm
After winning the Masters in 2023, 2024 was more than a disappointment for Jon Rahm. He was never in the mixture in Augusta, missed the cup in the PGA championship, missed the United States open with a foot injury and finally published an Open T7. In addition to that, he jumped from the Liv Golf tour, a completely different environment. But he arrives this week by feeling more confident and controlled in him than he has done in recent months.
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“I have the impression of my expectations, the pressure I put on myself has always been quite high,” he said. “I would say my first majors when I became pro, I don't think I managed it to my best. I think I want to win so badly where I wanted to control everything too much, and I took a few years to learn that I just have to go there and play and let it happen.”
Rahm has won two majors now and thinks he is starting to have an idea how to bring all the pieces together. “It is a balance, depending on where you are in your life,” he said, “but I really think that every year, I improve.”
As for Liv Golf, where he plays now, far from the PGA Tour, Rahm did not seem particularly optimistic that all kinds of reunification was in preparation. “I think we would all like to see this,” he said. “But as far as I know and you can say, it does not happen anytime soon.”
Viktor Hovland
There are players who take off the answer by heart after the answer by heart in their press conferences. And then there is Viktor Hovland, who opens on insight – and criticism – whenever he puts himself in front of a microphone.
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“It would probably take advantage of closing my mouth a little more. But I don't know, I don't mind being honest,” said Hovland, who is still looking for his first major. “I think that if you hold it … fear becomes almost greater instead of when you say the truth there, you desensit it in a way.”
And then he may have offered the first Eminem reference in the history of masters. “If you saw” 8 miles “with Eminem there, it's like before his last rap battle, he dissipates in a way. It's like:” Here I am, what else do you have on me? “I don't know, I think that puts it a kind so that you can focus on the things I have to focus on and it is just back to work and improve myself a little.”
Xander Schauffele
Last year, Xander Schauffele was not quite salted with a “Underchiever” label, but the questions were starting to simmer. Post 11 top-10, and six top-5, but zero victory in majors during a seven-year career will do so.
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And then, all that Schauffele did was to win two majors – the PGA championship and the open championship – and just like that, the whole story around his career turned to the head. He returns to Augusta not as a guy who is looking for a major, but as a star with intentions to finish the great career slam. What a difference a year made.
As the first player to enter the media center for the masters of 2025, Schauffele radiated confidence. Two majors will do it for you, even if he says he has not changed.
“I don't really wake up and I feel more accomplished. I feel like the same guy,” he said. “My dream is just to give me another chance. I think I said that after the PGA, to open, if I can put myself in a place to win this thing, I feel pretty good to do it.”
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It is not exactly a news to say that player world 3 could win this major, but for Schauffele, success generates success. The victories of Valhalla and Royal Troon gave him the knowledge that he can close the most important tournaments in the world, and he wears it with him in Augusta this week.
“I think this kind of (confidence) is worth for each adult in which I play now,” said Schauffele. “If I can put myself in a good place. … I will sometimes fail, but guy, I think I can face it much better than before, before winning.”
A serious injury to the ribs slowed down Schauffele earlier this year, putting it on the bench for about two months. He is not behind, but he is happy to be out of the sofa and back in the game.
“I have never really treated an injury before, so I have never really been sidelined,” he said. “I try to find all the positive points to get attached to the situation. … Sitting at home thinking about all these thoughts, watching everyone play golf and in a way flying by me, it was very motivating.”
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Speaking of motivation … Schauffele was asked if it was “motivating or intimidating” to see Rory Mcilroy and Scottie Scheffler continuing to publish solid finishes when he was not in service.
“Just motivating,” he smiles. “There are so many guys who played at a very high level, and fortunately, I learned that I can play at this level.”
