Golf has a way of frustrating our deepest wishes for a classic mano-a-mano duel, but if there was ever a time when perhaps the great clash of the titans seemed inevitable, it’s this week at the final Match Play in Austin.
On Monday, in his first go from the new tee, the Masters champion grabbed his driver and promptly plunked his tee shot into the tributary of Rae’s Creek left of the fairway. On Tuesday, he reached the green by going driver, 4-iron.
American Scottie Scheffler won the Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament, for the first time at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday which also marked his sixth career victory.
Normally, we have to wait until at least a week before the Masters for the reigning champion to reveal his Champions Dinner menu. But overnight, the official Masters Twitter account unveiled Scottie Scheffler’s five-course meal and from a carnivore’s perspective, it is an absolute masterpiece.
With a sixth victory in the past 13 months, Scheffler joins Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only men to hold the Masters and Players titles at the same time.
As fans gravitated towards McIlroy as he worked his way towards the chaos of the 16th hole, the man who was quietly leading the tournament had just teed off on his first hole of the day.
Rory McIlroy enters 2023 as the No.1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, the third time the Northern Irishman begins a calendar year in the top spot having done it previously in 2013 and 2015.
Australian Golf Digest
