It got a lot harder Wednesday afternoon when Dustin Johnson, the betting favourite and No. 1 player in the world, took a serious fall down a staircase at his rented home and wasn’t sure he could even tee it up at Augusta National.

His agent, David Winkle at Hambric Sports Management, said Johnson landed “very hard on his lower back.” He was treating it with ice and medication and told to remain immobile. Winkle said Johnson hopes to be able to play.

He was scheduled for the last group Thursday at 2:03 p.m.

The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook immediately dropped the odds of Johnson winning from 11-2 to sharing the top billing at 7-1 with Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.

Telling were the comments Johnson had made on Tuesday, when he was talking about the state of his game after three straight victories.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game right now, especially with the way I’ve been playing the last few tournaments,” Johnson said. “But, you know, anything can happen.”

That’s true at just about every Masters, though the mishaps typically occur on the golf course.

Johnson’s status only adds to the mystery at the year’s first major.

The Masters has the smallest field, with just 94 players, and that’s before history starts eliminating about 40 per cent of them.

No amateur has ever won the Masters, and five of them are in the field this year. There are 19 players at Augusta National for the first time, and not since 1979 has a Masters rookie (Fuzzy Zoeller) left with a green jacket. No one older than 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus has won the Masters, so that wipes out 11 more players.

No one has ever won his first tournament at the Masters, which doesn’t bode well for Roberto Castro or Kevin Chappell. And only three players since the Masters began in 1934 have ever won back to back. Sorry, Danny Willett.

So who does that leave?

The obvious choices would be Johnson (presuming he recovers), McIlroy or Jason Day, the top three players in the world. Impossible to overlook is Spieth, who has never finished worse than runner-up in his three Masters appearances.

But in the last 10 years, only one player from among the top three in the world ranking won the Masters _ Phil Mickelson (3) in 2010.

“That’s what makes the golf course wonderful actually, and what a great tournament it is,” Nicklaus said. “Because you really never know what’s going to happen. Even the players, as good as they might be, don’t know what’s going to happen.”

For the second time in three days, the course was shut down for the afternoon by severe weather. Thousands of fans headed to the exit at 10 a.m. as a storm approached, and while the gates opened again at 12:30 p.m. for the Par 3 Contest, the fun was suspended an hour later when another storm arrived.

The curtain rises on the 81st Masters on Thursday with a course that figures to be softened by rain, which could be good news for McIlroy. It could also be confounding because of wind that always feels stronger than it really is among the Georgia pines, which could be bad news for McIlroy.

This Masters offers something for just about everyone.

For Johnson, it’s an opportunity to pronounce his dominance in the game this year. Not since Hubert Green in 1976 has a player won three straight tournaments going into the Masters. Green tied for 19th that year. The only player to make the Masters his fourth straight victory was Jimmy Demaret. That was in 1940.

For McIlroy, it’s another chance to complete the Grand Slam. He could have won the Masters six years ago until a tee shot behind the cabins, a four-putt and all sorts of blunders on the back nine led to an 80 in the final round.

Augusta National at times can favour emotion. Who can forget Ben Crenshaw winning just days after he was a pallbearer at swing coach Harvey Penick’s funeral?

That might bode well for Day, who said he wasn’t entirely sure he was going to play a few weeks ago when he brought his mother from Australia to America to have surgery for lung cancer. Odds for a recovery suddenly are much stronger, and Day has said her health has been on his mind all year.

“I owe everything to her,” Day said.

And for Spieth, there is a chance to erase a bad memory of his back-nine meltdown a year ago.

“We’ll step out and try and get a chance to win on Sunday on the back nine again,” Spieth said. “That’s all we’re asking for. That’s it. Just that small little piece.”

Johnson can only ask for a chance to play.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Masters favorite Dustin Johnson took a serious fall on a staircase Wednesday and injured his lower back, and his manager said it was uncertain whether the world’s No. 1 golfer would be able to play the tournament.

It was a stunning development on an otherwise quiet day at Augusta National, where the course was shut down at 1:30 p.m. because of storms.

The real calamity struck a few hours later.

David Winkle, his manager at Hambric Sports, said Johnson fell on the stairs at the home he is renting in Augusta.

“He landed very hard on his lower back and is now resting, although quite uncomfortably,” Winkle said in an email. “He has been advised to remain immobile and begin a regimen of anti-inflammatory medication and icing, with the hope of being able to play tomorrow.”

What might help Johnson is that he is in the last group for the opening round, scheduled to tee off at 2:03 p.m. with two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and PGA champion Jimmy Walker.

Johnson had been scheduled to attend the Golf Writers Association of America annual dinner Wednesday night to accept its award as male player of the year. He was coming off a season in which he won the U.S. Open for his first major, was voted PGA Tour player of the year for the first time, won the PGA Tour money title and captured the Vardon Trophy for the lowest adjusted scoring average.

Rickie Fowler this week described the 32-year-old American as a “freak of nature.”

Winkle on Tuesday said Johnson was in “as good a shape as I’ve ever seen him in every aspect of his game and his life.”

Johnson has had his share of mishaps in a major but not before a major even started.

Two years ago, Rory McIlroy was playing soccer when he ruptured ligaments in his ankle a few weeks before he was to defend his title in the British Open at St. Andrews when he was No. 1 in the world.

But this was far different.

Johnson rose to No. 1 in the world starting with the first of three straight victories, the first player to do that going into the Masters in more than 40 years. Two of those titles were World Golf Championships, and his undefeated week at the Match Play made him the first player to capture all four of the WGCs.

Johnson was at Augusta National on Wednesday to play nine holes before the first wave of storms moved in.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game right now, especially with the way I’ve been playing the last few tournaments,” he said Tuesday. “But, you know, anything can happen.”

The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook reacted swiftly to Johnson’s injury. Johnson was an 11-2 betting favorite going into the Masters. An hour after the news broke, he was reduced to 7-1 along with McIlroy and Jordan Spieth.

Johnson also missed the 2012 Masters, withdrawing two days before the start of the tournament, saying he had tweaked his back from pulling a jet ski out of the water. Golf.com cited an unnamed source two years later as saying Johnson had been suspended for a positive cocaine test. His management denied that he had been suspended.

Winkle said he would not have any further comment until he knew more about Johnson’s condition.

If he cannot play, there are no alternates at the Masters.

2003 #themasters champion @MikeWeir made a hole-in-one on No. 4 before weather caused the Par 3 Contest to be canceled. pic.twitter.com/ULssErcboW

— Masters Tournament (@TheMasters) April 5, 2017

Former Masters champion and Canadian Mike Weir wasn’t going to let any rain put a damper on his day at Augusta National. The Brights Grove, Ont., product aced No. 4 during Wendesday’s par-3 contest with a nice touch of back spin.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Jack Nicklaus compared his sixth and last Masters title at age 46 to catching lightning in a bottle. If Phil Mickelson has his way, he’ll put an end to the myth that lightning never strikes the same place twice.

“I don’t think much about age right now,” said Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion who turns 47 in June. “I think that guys’ careers are being extended a lot longer because of the way fitness has taken over.

“And it’s not like I’m a pillar of fitness,” he chuckled, “but I spend a decent enough time to be able to physically perform and practice and play the way I’d like to play. You look at guys like (59-year-old) Bernhard Langer who was in the second-to-last group last year – I don’t feel as though age is as big a factor as it was decades ago.”

No less an authority than Nicklaus himself believes Lefty may be onto something.

“Phil is far better prepared than I (was). I don’t think he’s probably playing his best golf right now but sometimes that changes very quickly,” Nicklaus said. “Honestly, age is not an issue to him. He’s a big guy and he’s a long guy and he’s got a great short game. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find him in contention.”

One other thing tilting in Mickelson’s favour is the weather. Overcast skies and winds gusting up to 40 mph are forecast for the first two rounds.

“That’s going to magnify the misses for a lot of players, which means that you need to miss it in the correct spots,” Mickelson said. “Even though you might miss it big, if you’re in the right spot, you can take advantage of your short game and salvage a lot of pars … where players less experienced with the golf course will possibly miss it in the wrong spots and shoot themselves out.”

Mickelson might have included himself in that last group a dozen years ago, when he wore the “best-player-never-to-win-a-major” label like a scarlet letter. But after going 0 for 42 in the biggest events of an otherwise successful career, his breakthrough win came at Augusta National in 2004. Now, he’s viewed by the up-and-coming generation as one of the game’s wise, old heads with five majors in the trophy case.

What hasn’t changed is Mickelson’s desire .

“I think the last year and a half, I’ve worked really hard to get my game back to the level that I expect and the level that I’ve strived for,” he said. “If I can play anywhere close to the way I played at the British Open last year and the Ryder Cup, I should be able to give myself a good opportunity for Sunday.”

Those preparations may have been hampered by Mickelson’s ties to renowned Las Vegas sports gambler and golf hustler Billy Walters, who is facing multiple counts of securities fraud in federal court. Prosecutors contend Walters received inside information from a former Dean Foods executive and passed it along to Mickelson before the golfer purchased nearly 200,000 shares of the company’s stock on consecutive days in July 2012.

Mickelson made a $930,000 profit selling the stock a week later, prosecutors alleged, a sum he’s agreed to pay back with interest. According to the New York Post, court documents also revealed that Mickelson paid a gambling debt of nearly $2 million to Walters.

Mickelson has not been charged and was listed as a witness for the defence. He has said he will not be called to testify. Walters has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyer told the court that if called, Mickelson would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Mickelson wasn’t asked directly about the trial at the beginning of what will be his 25th appearance at the Masters. But his answer to a question about “compartmentalizing things happening off thegolf course” hinted at how he handles similar situations.

“The great thing about golf is that to be successful and to play a good round, you have to really dive in mentally, physically, and be committed to each shot, to the round, and it takes your focus away from anything else that might be going on,” Mickelson said. “So if you are going through a tough time, golf is a great place to be, because it allows you the freedom to focus on what you want to do at hand and it’s a real positive.

“I love everything about my job,” he added, “and that’s just another thing that I love about it.”

With Canada 150 celebrations happening in communities from coast-to-coast all year long, the Canadian golf industry has partnered with ParticipACTION in designating Sunday, May 28 as Get Out and Golf Day.

The ParticipACTION 150 Playlist—introduced this year in honour of Canada 150—invites Canadians to participate in 150 activities throughout 2017 to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday. As part of Get Out and Golf Day, avid players and new enthusiasts are encouraged to participate in a round of golf (No.14 on the Play List), learn more about the sport or take part in golf related activities at golf facilities in their community.

Canadian golf industry partners including the National Golf Course Owners Association of Canada (NGCOA), PGA of Canada, Canadian Society of Club Managers, Canadian Golf Superintendents Association and Golf Canada in addition to Canada’s 10 provincial golf associations are all proudly supporting Get Out and Golf Day.

“Partnering with the ParticipACTION 150 Play List in designating May 28 as Get out and Golf Day is a great way to celebrate the tremendous health, social, charity and economic benefits golf delivers in communities from coast-to-coast,” said Golf Canada Interim CEO Jeff Thompson. “We’re proud to work with ParticipACTION and our Canadian golf industry partners to encourage heathy living through sport in honour of this great country.”

Participating golf facilities across Canada will be offering fun golf activities including tournaments, clinics, free golf for juniors, skills contests and more. For NCGOA Canada CEO Jeff Calderwood, the day provides an opportunity for golf facilities to build a connection with golfers and community sport enthusiasts.

“We’re excited to collaborate with our industry partners, ParticipACTION and most importantly the thousands of golf courses across the country as Canadians celebrate our nation’s 150^th Anniversary,” stated Jeff Calderwood, CEO, NGCOA Canada. “There is no better way to develop sense of community than hitting the links with family and friends.”

For new enthusiasts thinking about taking up the game or getting a loved one involved, PGA of Canada professionals at facilities across the country are ready to deliver a quality golf experience to players of all interests and abilities.

“The PGA of Canada is happy to join our Canadian golf industry partners in supporting ParticipACTION’s 150 Play List with Get Out and Golf Day,” said PGA of Canada CEO Gary Bernard. “I encourage everyone from coast-to-coast on May 28 to celebrate golf in Canada and take part in this great initiative.”

The sport of golf is proudly listed on the ParticipACTION 150 Play List in addition to other golf-related activities, disc golf and mini-putt. Whether it’s golf or other recreational activities, ParticipACTION wants Canadians of all ages to get active while celebrating our great country.

“The ParticipACTION 150 Play List is a physical-activity movement, inspiring and motivating Canadians everywhere to move more and sit less, and we are thrilled to have the Canadian golf industry’s support,” said Elio Antunes, President and CEO of ParticipACTION. “Modern life, with busy schedules, sedentary jobs, hours spent in front of screens and a love affair with convenience, has left little room for physical activity in everyday life. The ParticipACTION 150 Play List is helping Canadians sit less and move more by reminding us that being active is part of who we are.”

A snapshot of the Canadian golf landscape reveals an industry worth more than $14.3 billion annually to the Canadian economy. These numbers reinforce the massive financial, charitable, social, tourism and environmental impact golf has in communities across Canada.

As Canada’s most played sport, nearly 5.7 million Canadians enjoy more than 60 million rounds of golf annually at 2,346 golf facilities from coast-to-coast.

Visit golfcanada.ca/golfday for information on golf events occurring across the country on May 28 or use the hashtag #golfdaycanada to share your experiences on Get Out and Golf Day.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The knock on Dustin Johnson was that he didn’t have what it takes between the ears to close out a major.

He looked as though he didn’t care, perhaps because a crushing loss didn’t appear to bother him as much as it should have. And in some corners, there was chatter that he needed to get someone other than his brother to be his caddie.

Now those are some of the reasons why Johnson is No. 1 in the world, and why he is such a strong favourite to win the Masters.

“He knows he can handle whatever gets in his way,” said Claude Harmon III, the swing coach who spends the most time at work with Johnson. “Now players feel like if he’s on the leaderboard, they can’t afford to make a mistake.”

Conversations paused under the oak tree next to Augusta National’s clubhouse Tuesday morning when Johnson sauntered toward the tee for another practice round. The way he has played the last two months – going back to his U.S. Open title last June, really – he has everyone’s attention.

Johnson is not one for conversation.

Mention that he is the first player in more than 40 years to arrive at the Masters having won his last three tournaments, and Johnson will shrug and say that his game is solid, he’s working hard and that he’s playing pretty well.

As for the additional pressure he faces being such a favourite?

“I don’t know,” Johnson said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever been the favourite.”

For all his power and athleticism, Johnson had never been in contention at Augusta National until last year. He was two shots out of the lead until a double bogey from the bunker on the 17th hole ended his hopes.

He still tied for fourth, his best finish ever, and it was enough for him to at least see that a green jacket was within reach.

More in his favour, however, is that Johnson can hit shots no one else does.

Typical of his career, the rise began with a fall. Johnson recalls having a chance to win the Cadillac Championship at Doral in March 2016 until hooking a tee shot in the water on No. 10 and making double bogey, and hitting a few more errant tee shots along the back nine.

That’s when he finally bought into what the Harmons – Butch Harmon and his son, Claude – had been suggesting. It was time to learn to hit a fade instead of a draw. It didn’t take long for him to figure that out. And it didn’t take long for players to notice.

“I heard he had switched to a fade, and then I saw it,” Zach Johnson said. “I said, ‘He’s going to win a lot of golf tournaments.’ There was control. There was spin. There was trajectory control. And then he won the U.S. Open.”

And he really hasn’t slowed since.

By the time the year was over, Johnson had swept all the PGA Tour awards, including player of the year. And he really hasn’t stopped, especially the last two months with victories at Riviera, Mexico Championship and the Dell Technologies Match Play.

Perhaps most frightening is that the better Johnson gets, the harder he works.

The more he wins, the less anyone talks about the 82 he shot in the final round of the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, the two-shot penalty he received at Whistling Straits in the 2010 PGA Championship for grounding his club in sand without realizing it was a bunker or the 12-foot eagle putt that turned into a three-putt par on the final hole of the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.

“I know everybody makes mistakes,” Johnson said. “But for me, I just felt like I’ve always learned from them and tried not to do them again. Even some of my losses in the majors, I try to take the positive out of it and learn from it and do better the next time.”

Butch Harmon laughs at the notion that Johnson lacks the right intelligence to be a major force. Keeping his mind clear might be his greatest asset.

“He’s like the cornerback who gets beat and acts like it never happened,” Harmon said. “Like three-putting from 12 feet. He told me once: ‘I never think about it. I can’t do anything about it, so why would I think about it?’ That mentality that the bad shot never happened is what Tiger had, is what Phil (Mickelson) has to have.”

Being the best in the world, however, has never guaranteed anyone a green jacket.

Woods in 2002 was the last player at No. 1 to win the Masters (Woods was at No. 2 when he won in 2005). Even when Woods was at his absolute best, it took only two bad holes in the opening round of the 2000 Masters to cost him five shots that he never made up.

“It’s a funny game,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter how good you’re playing, you can still not win. Same goes for this week. If I want to win here, everything is going to have to go well for me. I’m going to have to drive it well, hit my irons well, putt it well. I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game right now, especially with the way I’ve been playing the last few tournaments. But, you know, anything can happen.”

Mike Weir knows heading to The Masters for the first time can be overwhelming. When he made his first appearance, Weir was just starting to wield the hot hand that made him a star. He’d won for the first time the year previous, and had played Augusta National a couple of times in preparation for the tournament.

Weir heard all the talk – that you had to treat the tournament like any other PGA Tour stop. But that’s easier in theory than reality.

Read the full Global Golf Post article here. 

It’s Masters week! Canada and the historic tournament have shared a rich history through the years. Let’s see how well you know The Masters!

1. Who has won the most Masters?
   1. Tiger Woods
   2. Jack Nicklaus
   3. Arnold Palmer
2. Who was the first left-handed player to win The Masters?
   1. Phil Mickelson
   2. Bob Charles
   3. Mike Weir
3. Who was the first person to get a hole-in-one at The Masters?
   1. Sandy Somerville
   2. Gene Sarazen
   3. Walter Hagen
4. What was previously located on the land that is now Augusta National Golf Club?
   1. Church of the Most Holy Trinity
   2. Waffle House
   3. Fruitland Nurseries
5. How many times did Canadian Gary Cowan play The Masters?
   1. 8
   2. 9
   3. 10
6. Which Canadian amateur most-recently played The Masters?
   1. Nick Taylor
   2. Matt Hill
   3. Corey Conners
7. How many Canadians have competed in The Masters?
   1. 19
   2. 23
   3. 30
8. Who won the first Masters?
   1. Bobby Jones
   2. Horton Smith
   3. Gene Sarazen
9. How many players have won both The Masters and the Canadian Open?
   1. 16
   2. 12
   3. 11
10. What is the record total of Canadians who participated in the Masters in a given year?
    1. 3
    2. 4
    3. 5
11. Who was the first Canadian to participate in the Masters?
    1. Jerry Magee
    2. Bill Mawhinney
    3. Sandy Somerville
12. Which Canadian has played in the second-most amount of Masters?
    1. Stan Leonard
    2. Mike Weir
    3. Al Balding

Answers

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Phil Mickelson can think of only one way that the Tuesday night dinner for Masters champions can get any better: to be the host.

Mickelson has served in that capacity three times as the reigning champion. That meant picking the menu and speaking to a room filled with some of golf’s greatest players, all of them in their green jackets, a dozen of them in the Hall of Fame.

He is a quick study.

“I realized a couple of things,” Mickelson said. “All the old guys like meat. The first year I had lobster ravioli. I messed up – the guys want a steak. The other two times, I always did some beef so they’d always have a steak option.”

Of all the traditions unlike any other at the Masters, the Tuesday night champions’ dinner rates as high as any.

It began in 1952 when Ben Hogan hosted a dinner for all the past champions and proposed forming the “Masters Club” in which membership is limited to only those who have won green jackets (along with the Augusta National club chairman, Billy Payne), who are honorary members.

The stories could get a little raunchy, especially when Sam Snead was holding court. And they could get quite emotional, such as when Arnold Palmer spoke two years ago after being presented the first piece of loblolly pine from when Eisenhower’s Tree was felled by an ice storm.

And for the host – especially a first-time Masters champion – it can be a little unnerving.

“I’ll never forget it,” Charl Schwartzel said. “I was pretty calm and everything went well as you got there. The most nerve-wracking thing was saying the speech. So you’ve got this massive table, probably 15 guys sitting on the sides, three at the end. Out on the middle of the left-hand side was Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, right next to each other, all three of them.”

“As I got up, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Nicklaus and Tiger all looked at me,” Schwartzel said. “I couldn’t stop looking at them and I didn’t know what to say. I thought, ‘What am I going to say to these guys that they haven’t already heard before?’ I just remember being so nervous. But it’s very special.”

Schwartzel will be pleased to know he wasn’t the only Masters champion who felt a bit overwhelmed.

Nick Faldo already had won 17 times around the world, including his first major at the British Open, when he won the Masters for the first of three times in 1989. In the room that night were Snead, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen, Billy Casper, Nicklaus, Palmer and Gary Player.

“You’re in awe,” Faldo said. “My goodness, they were just wandering around. You feel like a complete school boy. You’re a little embarrassed, like a school boy in a class of Masters scholars. I’m like, ‘Wow!’ That was all I could say. I’m not sure I belong here. It’s quite a feeling.”

That’s what awaits Danny Willett on Tuesday night.

The menu will be local flair, typical of champions. Willett plans to serve cottage pie, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Schwartzel served sliced biltong and Boerwors with monkey gland sauce. Sandy Lyle of Scotland had haggis on the menu. Bernhard Langer served wiener schnitzel with spaetzle is first year as the host. Woods? He went with cheeseburgers and French fries after he first won in 1997.

Champions dinner by Yorkshire ?? pic.twitter.com/H2uMSE2sZR

— Danny Willett (@Danny_Willett) April 4, 2017

More than the food, it’s the ambience. And in some cases, it’s the pressure.

“I don’t want to say you’re walking on eggshells, but you don’t want to do anything wrong,” Zach Johnson said. “There’s a fraternity of men there who have been to multiple dinners. So you’re like: ‘OK, don’t say anything stupid. Pick a good meal and show up on time. And just enjoy the evening.’ It’s fun. It’s nerve-wracking. But the excitement and surrealness outweighs all the heart flutters.”

Jordan Spieth said one of his most prized possessions is a gold locket for being in the Masters Club, along with his gold medal for winning the Masters. He also has a menu signed by everyone at the dinner, along with a Masters flag. He owes Johnson for that.

“I didn’t actually have one because I didn’t know you were supposed to,” Spieth said. “Zach had an extra one, which was one of the coolest gifts.”

That flag includes a signature from Palmer, who died last September.

This dinner is sure to include a sombre moment without having the King around. Palmer had been a prominent part of the dinner since 1959.

“I hope they ask everybody to around the room and tell an Arnold story. That would be unbelievable,” Faldo said. “I think we should make that a tradition. That will be pretty cool, wouldn’t it?”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tommy Fleetwood is making his second appearance at the Masters, the first as a player.

Three years ago, Fleetwood came to the Masters as a spectator because he figured he would be in the field at Augusta National and it wouldn’t hurt to take in the entire experience of Masters week.

It just didn’t work out that way. The 26-year-old from England was No. 52 in the world deep into 2014 and signed up for the Dubai Open on the Asian Tour with hopes of cracking the top 50 in the world by the end of the year to get a Masters invitation. He missed the cut and finished the year at No. 51.

A wasted trip? Not really.

“I just wanted to see it,” he said. “I think whoever you speak to says it’s not just the golf course, but the surroundings, the club, everything takes a little bit of getting used to. Augusta, it’s in everybody’s mind and everybody’s dreams and it’s just that place that you know that you want to go to, so it’s a little bit surreal when you first go.”

If nothing else, he figured that trip in 2014 as a spectator would keep him from being in awe when he did make it as a player.

Wrong again.

“It doesn’t quite work like that. When you get to the golf course, it’s still the same feelings,” Fleetwood said. “It doesn’t disappoint when you arrive, and you drive down Magnolia Lane.”

As a spectator, his favourite spot was Amen Corner. It’s one of the busiest places at Augusta National, but Fleetwood was struck by how tranquil it seemed to be on the 12th green, and particularly the 13th tee tucked away in the corner. There was only one way to find out, and he took care of that by qualifying.

Fleetwood was on the cusp of the top 50 when he was runner-up in the Mexico Championship, moving him up to No. 35 in the world and securing that Masters invitation. And going over the bridge to the 12th green, then up to the 13th tee, lived up to his expectations.

“Those were the two places when I watched I couldn’t get to and I was desperate to get there,” he said. “That’s what I was most excited about.”

Rickie Fowler was listed in a magazine survey of players (who didn’t have to give their names) as the most overrated player on the PGA Tour two years ago. He responded by winning The Players Championship in a finish so compelling that he made birdie on the island-green 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass three times on the final day (twice in a playoff).

The topic came up again on Monday whether he has met expectations thus far in his career. Fowler described it as “under.”

But that doesn’t mean he’s been disappointed. The Honda Classic was his seventh victory worldwide, and while he hasn’t won a major, Fowler played in the final group at three majors in 2014. He also felt good about where his game is headed this year.

“I’m ready for a fun ride coming in,” Fowler said. “Yeah, I would have liked to have won more. I would have liked to have been there in some more majors like I was. Hey, it’s tough out there, but I’m enjoying the ride.”

Fowler shot 80 in the first round at the Masters a year ago and missed the cut.

BEST LEFT UNSAID: Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth have been friends since they were 14. The play pranks on each other (Spieth nearly had Thomas’ car towed in Phoenix) and the needle is sharp.

No matter the friendship, some topics are off-limits.

Thomas was asked if he can needle Spieth about the 12th hole last year at the Masters, where Spieth put two in the water for a quadruple bogey that cost him a second straight green jacket.

“No, that’s not really cool,” Thomas said. “That’s all I have to say about that.”

MASTERS TRADITION: PGA champion Jimmy Walker has his own tradition at the Masters.

“I try to get an egg salad sandwich in me as quick as possible,” he said. “I’ve already had two, and I was requested to bring some home for dinner tonight.”

Egg salad, along with pimento cheese, are among the more popular sandwiches at Augusta National.

More than a sandwich, the entire week is one to savour, Walker said.

“It’s a week I always try to slow down and enjoy it,” he said, “because it’s so cool to be here.”