Tiger Woods returns to the Masters, no longer a surprise as it was a year ago but no less a rare appearance for the 15-time major champion. This will be only his third tournament against elite competition since he remarkably hobbled his way through 72 holes at Augusta National last April.
For Rory McIlroy, this might be his best chance to finally get that green jacket and complete the career Grand Slam. He is playing some of his best golf, and his popularity is higher than ever as he has become a powerful voice in reshaping the PGA Tour.
That alone should be enough to raise the anticipation for the Masters — not that it ever needs much help — when the 87th edition tees off Thursday in Georgia. But so much has changed since last spring, when Scottie Scheffler capped his amazing run with a green jacket.
Those developments in the golf world have occurred both the course and in the courtroom.
Woods, McIlroy and Scheffler are headliners who now share the stage with a story that has consumed and divided an otherwise genteel game. They will face 18 players no longer welcome on the PGA Tour because they defected to the LIV Golf League, which launched last summer and is on its third tournament of its second season.
"For a golf fan, it's Tiger coming. You have the LIV-PGA Tour mashup at the Masters, which is a traditional environment. It's going to be a media frenzy," PGA Tour player Xander Schauffele said. "There will be a ton of questions about digs here and there between the two tours. I think it will be a huge mosh pit of everything. For a golf fan, I think it will be awesome."
Will the topic of conversation under the huge oak tree outside the Augusta National clubhouse be about the lengthening of the par-5 13th or the latest motion filed in an antitrust lawsuit between LIV and the PGA Tour?
And who wouldn't pay to be upstairs in the clubhouse on Tuesday night for the annual Masters Club dinner for past champions, seven of them now with LIV. As the reigning champion, Scheffler is in charge of the menu, not keeping the peace.
"I keep trying to get Scottie to address the elephant in the room, but I don't think he's going to," PGA Tour player Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters winner, said with a laugh. "I keep poking him: 'It's your job to address the elephant in the room when you speak. It's not just a thank-you.'
"I don't think he's biting. He doesn't bite on a lot of what I have to say."
'THE SAME OFFICE'
Indeed, this really could be a Masters unlike any other.
Dustin Johnson was thought to be on the fence about leaving for the rival series out of concern he wouldn't be able to return to Augusta National, where he set the scoring record in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic led what is typically the year's first major to be played in November. He left for LIV last June for a signing fee reported to be in the $150 million range.
And any concerns about playing, for Johnson and everyone else, were put to rest in December when tournament chairman Fred Ridley said the Masters' invitation list would not change regardless of where players made their living. At least not for this year.
Ridley also made it clear he wasn't happy about the state of golf since LIV — run by three-time Masters runner-up Greg Norman, paid for by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund — came along. Ridley referenced nine Masters champions who had become golfing heroes; conspicuously missing from his list was three-time winner Phil Mickelson, once a popular figure in golf.
"They have shown respect for those who came before them and blazed a trail for future generations. Golf is better because of them," Ridley said. "Regrettably, recent actions have divided men's professional golf by diminishing the virtues of the game and the meaningful legacies of those who built it."
Most PGA Tour players have not seen the likes of Mickelson, Johnson and Brooks Koepka since the British Open last July at St. Andrews. Cameron Smith won the claret jug there, then joined LIV six weeks later.
"Inside the ropes, even the people who have scuffles, it's just a working environment," Schauffele said. "It will be cool to have everyone back in the same office."
No one is quite sure what to expect. Most LIV players will have competed no more than 10 times since the British Open — and only in 54-hole events with 48-man fields.
Their places in the Official World Golf Ranking have plummeted because LIV still doesn't get points. Johnson was No. 16 in the world when he left St. Andrews. Now he is at No. 68. Koepka, at No. 111, dropped out of the top 100 for the first time in 10 years.
"Just because the guys aren't ranked, they're still top-ranked players, and us pros know that," Schauffele said. "When some of those boys are playing well, they're hard to beat. Some of them left when they were hot, some of them left a little cold in terms of performance. But we know how good everyone is."
WHAT ABOUT HIM?
Another question heading to Augusta is how well Woods can play. At age 47, he remains the biggest draw, especially now because no one knows when they will see him next. He can hit all the shots. His problem is walking to the next shot, over four days, on one of the toughest walks in golf.
Still hobbled by his February 2021 car crash that mangled his right leg, Woods managed to make the cut last year in the Masters, then again at the PGA Championship (he withdrew after three rounds), but missed the cut a the British Open.
He has one tournament start so far this year, making the cut and shooting a third-round 67 as the host of the Genesis Invitational in mid-February in Los Angeles. But it took a toll, and he has sat out for seven weeks to be ready for Augusta.
"It wouldn't surprise me at all if he got us on the edge of our seat for the first couple of days," said two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange, now an ESPN analyst. "But can he sustain it? I think that L.A. just made me look forward more to the Masters, because he's still got something in that body."
McIlroy seems to have been wearing two hats over the past year. He got back to No. 1 in the world last fall while speaking out against LIV and leading the change to a remodeled PGA Tour structure of bigger purses and smaller fields to reward the best players.
He has been at the forefront of acrimony, too, taking digs at Norman on more than one occasion and then refusing to acknowledge former PGA Tour player Patrick Reed when they were on the practice range in Dubai in January.
Perhaps it's enough to ease the pressure of winning the major that has eluded him. Only two Masters winners have played the event 15 times or more before winning it: Sergio Garcia (19 times before winning in 2017) and Mark O'Meara (15 times before winning in 1998). This is McIlroy's 15th appearance.
"I don't think anything is in real need of tons of practice," said McIlroy, who finished third in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play last weekend. "I think my game's in really good shape. So just keep it ticking over and work on the shots that I need for Augusta National, and away we go."