AUGUSTA, Ga. — For a sport renowned for moving slowly, the Masters can’t get started fast enough.
Wednesday at Augusta National Golf Club was filled with anticipation — and a bit of pollen from a glorious spring day in the South — as players filed out of the clubhouse for a final dress rehearsal at what has become the most anticipated major championship tournament of the season.
Rory McIlroy walked out of the clubhouse through a crowd under the landmark live oak tree, then headed out for a quick nine holes the day before beginning his latest bid for an elusive green jacket, the final piece of the career Grand Slam for the 35-year-old from Northern Ireland. He played a money game with England’s Tommy Fleetwood, Ireland’s Shane Lowry and Spain’s Jon Rahm before heading over to the Par 3 Contest.
The Masters is so different from the other three majors. It has the smallest field (95 players) on the prettiest property (the site of a former nursery, the grounds now boast more than 80,000 plants of 350 varieties) and is the only major referred to by its organizers as a “tournament” instead of a “championship.”
And the final act Wednesday afternoon is for players to walk over to the par-3 course with their toddlers dressed in white coveralls to play a tournament no one wants to win. (The Augusta National curse is that no one has ever won the Par 3 Contest and the Masters in the same year.)