The primary of the 12 months’s 4 main golf tournaments, the Masters is a fixture of the spring sporting calendar, timed to come back to a head when the azaleas are in full bloom in Georgia.
When does the Masters begin?
This 12 months’s match runs from Thursday, April 11, to Sunday, April 14.
The standard Par 3 contest was on Wednesday, April 10, that includes the households of a few of golf’s prime gamers. There have been 107 holes in a single made on the Par 3 contest because it was inaugurated in 1960.
How can I watch the Masters on TV?
Within the UK, the Masters is broadcast solely on Sky Sports activities Golf.
Free-to-air protection is on the Masters web site, the place viewers can watch each particular person shot a couple of minutes after it occurs.
Radio protection of the match within the UK is on Talksport.
In earlier years the Masters has been proven on free-to-air tv within the UK, both dwell or as highlights. Final 12 months, nonetheless, the BBC reduce ties with the match utterly.
Alternatively, you’ll be able to bookmark this web page and return to observe the match on our dwell weblog, with commentary and evaluation from Augusta Nationwide.
The place is the Masters performed?
The Masters is the one one in all golf’s 4 majors that’s performed on the identical course annually.
Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership is within the north east of Georgia, near the border with South Carolina. Augusta Nationwide is likely one of the most unique golf golf equipment on this planet. There are understood to be solely about 300 members, amongst them Invoice Gates and Warren Buffet. The one option to play the course is by invitation of a member.
There’s a extra pernicious aspect to the membership’s exclusivity, although. Augusta didn’t allow an African American member till 1990, whereas there have been no feminine members till 2012 when Condoleezza Rice joined.
What’s the Masters prize cash?
This 12 months’s whole purse is anticipated to be $18 million (£14.2 million), the identical because it was final 12 months. The winner takes $3,240,000 (£2.51 million) with incrementally much less prize cash for every of the highest 50 finishers.
The winner additionally get a reproduction of the official trophy (which by no means leaves the membership). The champion golfer additionally receives a gold medal and, most coveted of all, a inexperienced jacket.
There are additionally trophies for ending second, being the main beginner golfer, recording the bottom rating of the day, hitting a gap in a single, hitting an eagle and hitting a double eagle.
Technically talking, gamers obtain an invite to play within the Masters. In contrast to the US Open or the Open Championship, there isn’t any ‘open’ qualification course of.
There are 20 other ways to ensure an envelope from Augusta drops by means of your letterbox. The best means is to be within the prime 50 of the world rankings on January 1.
All earlier Masters champions can play, ought to they select to take up the invitation, in addition to these gamers who completed within the prime 12 of the earlier 12 months’s match.
Any participant who gained a fully-sanctioned PGA Tour occasion the earlier season can even e book their place for Augusta. The identical goes for any participant who achieved a top-four end in any of the earlier season’s majors, whereas main winners safe their Masters berth for 5 years.
Any participant on this planet’s prime 50 the week earlier than the Masters can even be invited. The Masters additionally reserves the best to ask wildcard gamers.
The remainder of the sector is made up of the winners of the beginner recreation’s most distinguished occasions. The Masters is a smaller area than the opposite three majors, with round 90 gamers normally in attendance.
At this 12 months’s match there might be solely 5 or 6 British golfers (relying on whether or not Danny Willett is nicely sufficient recovered after shoulder surgical procedure). James Corrigan explains why so few UK gamers now make it to Augusta.
Will LIV golfers be on the Masters?
Sure, however in decrease numbers than final 12 months. The principle drawback for LIV golfers is that tournaments on the breakaway circuit don’t supply world rating factors, that are the route by which most gamers qualify for the Masters (see above).
The LIV golfers who might be on the 2024 Masters are Bryson DeChambeau (as a result of he gained the 2020 US Open), Cam Smith (who gained the 2023 Open Championship), Brooks Koepka (who gained the PGA Championship in 2019), Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson (who’re all earlier Masters champions), Tyrrell Hatton and Adrian Meronk (who had been on this planet’s prime 50 earlier this 12 months) and Joaquin Niemann (who obtained a particular invitation).
Will Tiger Woods be taking part in?
Yep. The five-times champion turned up at Augusta to begin practising on Sunday and performed an earlier follow spherical over the Easter weekend.
Woods continues to recuperate from the 2021 automotive crash that just about price his proper leg however his withdrawal from the second spherical of the LA Open in February – his first official occasion in 10 months – led to doubts he would seem on the season’s first main.
