This one feels different.
The 2022 Masters is my fourth time at Augusta National as a reporter, going back to 2017. The Australian contingent has always offered some hope but from on the ground this year, it feels like the stars are aligning.
Six Australians will tee up at the first Major of 2022 and I wouldn’t bet against any of them.
Cam Smith stands out as the great green hope and all signs point to him being high on the leaderboard come Sunday.
Smith arrived at Augusta National this week as the world No.6 and winner of the recent Players Championship, where he beat the strongest field in professional golf en route to a $A5 million payday and his fifth PGA Tour title.
The confidence he gained from triumphing at golf’s unofficial fifth Major felt like a logical stepping stone to a Major victory and his results show it’s most likely to come at the Masters. With a Masters win and a convoluted scenario unfolding, Smith could also go to world No.1.
Masters champions always have two trademarks prior to winning the green jacket: recent form and recent form at Augusta. Smith knocks both out of the park.
The 28-year-old has finished second, fifth and 10th in three of his last four Masters. He’s also the only player in Masters history to shoot four rounds in the 60s, which he did when he finished joint runner-up to Dustin Johnson at the 2020 Masters held in November.
Smith already has two PGA Tour wins under his belt this year – at TPC Sawgrass and the winners-only Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in January. Smith played the final group at Maui’s Kapalua course with then world No.1 Jon Rahm and ate him alive.
Smith’s stats are also exciting. His putting ranks third on the PGA Tour, but there’s no other player you’d rather attempt a putt for your life at the moment. He ranks eighth on the PGA Tour for iron play, which is arguably the most important trait of a Masters champion. Augusta’s boldly-contoured greens ask big questions of a player’s wedge game and Smith is one of the best in the world on wedge shots inside 100 metres. He’s also ranked 21st around the greens on Tour.
Then there’s Adam Scott. He has had a serenity about him since winning the Masters in 2013, but this year the world No.36 seems reinvigorated. He has new a TaylorMade driver, a part of the game he has struggled with recently, that has restored his confidence off the tee. He’s jagged four worldwide top-10 results across the European and PGA Tour this year. But more importantly, he says the “hunger and intensity” levels are nearing that of 2013 as he chases an elusive second Major win.
Smith and Scott are Australia’s two best chances, but it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see world No.43 Marc Leishman, who tied fifth at Augusta last year, or debutants Min Woo Lee, Lucas Herbert and Cam Davis in contention on Sunday.
Leishman played in Scott’s group in the final round of his 2013 Masters win and is hungry for a maiden Major win, especially after losing the 2015 Open at St Andrews in a playoff.
History is not on the side of first-timers, but form and talent certainly are. Only three players have won the Masters on their first appearance, most recently Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.
But Victoria’s Herbert, who claimed his maiden PGA Tour win in November, has the power, putting and confidence to defy the odds.
Lanky Sydney native Davis has the long levers and soaring high ball flight required to hold approach shots on Augusta’s devilishly quick greens and is a recent PGA Tour and Australian Open winner.
Lee, however, is the Australian smokey. The Perth product is possibly the most physically gifted ball-striker of the six Australians and that is why the world No.59 has won two European Tour titles.
Lee’s creativity in working the ball in different shapes and trajectories is tailor-made for Augusta National and he said during practice he’s already revelling in how the course brings out his imagination.
All eyes will be on 15-time Major winner Tiger Woods this week and for good reason – he’s a five-time Masters champion whose single-car accident last year, and subsequent recovery from a leg injury, offer a ray of hope of perhaps the greatest comeback in the history of sport.
But mine are fixed firmly on the Australians.
AUSSIE/TIGER WOODS TEE TIMES ROUND ONE (TIMES IN AEST):
Min Woo Woo Lee, Hudson Swafford, Cameron Young: 10.55pm (Thursday)
Cam Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey: 12.23am (Friday)
Adam Scott, Scottie Scheffler, Tony Finau: 12.56am
Cam Davis, Bernhard Langer, Christiaan Bezuidenhout: 1.40am
Lucas Herbert, Patrick Reed, Seamus Power: 2.24am
Marc Leishman, Webb Simpson, Sungjae Im: 2.57am
Tiger Woods, Louis Oosthuizen, Joaquin Niemann: 12.34am
BETTING ODDS AUSTRALIAN PLAYERS (Blue Bet):
Cameron Smith $13
Adam Scott $61
Marc Leishman $67
Lucas Herbert $200
Cam Davis, Min Woo Lee $250
