All the practice sessions are done, the champions dinner is in the books, and the festive Par 3 contest has come and gone. The field of 88 golfers will now turn their attention to playing their best game at Augusta National and hope to etch their name in the history books by winning a green jacket at The 87th Masters Tournament.
The Masters 2023: World’s Big 3 primed for victory at Augusta National
The PGA Tour’s hottest names look to don the green jacket.
But only one can win out of those 88 and three names are set up nicely to hoist the Masters trophy on Easter Sunday.
Heading into Thursday’s opening round, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Jon Rahm are ranked 1, 2, and 3 respectively in the Official World Golf Rankings. The three have had successes during the PGA Tour’s current FedEx Cup season and while the standings there don’t necessarily coincide with the rankings on OWGR, the tour’s trio have had good reasons thus far to make a case for victory at Augusta.
Like the defending champion Scheffler in 2022, Rahm enters the tournament with three wins this season. With victories at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, The American Express, and The Genesis Invitational, Rahm is taking a similar path to a green jacket as Scheffler did last season when Scheffler was also leading the FedEx Cup standings ahead of tournament play at Augusta.
Winner of THE PLAYERS Championship and the WM Phoenix Open, Scheffler is in a comfortable third place in the FedEx Cup standings with just under 300 points behind Rahm. The 2022 Masters champion will look to make it back-to-back wins at Augusta and join Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods as the only golfers to have successfully defended their Masters title. A win at Augusta will also allow Scheffler to join Tiger Woods as the only two players to have won THE PLAYERS Championship and the Masters in the same year.
While Rahm and Scheffler come into Augusta hot, McIlroy has a very good reason to push for a green jacket. Though he has just one win this season entering this week (THE CJ CUP in South Carolina), the 33-year-old is playing for a career Grand Slam with a Masters win and join Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen as the group of golfers to have won the four majors on the PGA Tour. Although he is ranked sixth in the FedEx Cup standings, McIlroy is inching ever so close to a Grand Slam after finishing in second place last year in Augusta.
As for the favorite of the three to win this week, that depends on who you ask. Draftkings Sportsbook has Scheffler (+650), McIlroy (+700), and Rahm (+900) listed in the same order as their world rankings as favorites to win this week. While SB Nation’s Scott Phillips ranked Scheffler first, McIlroy second, and Rahm fourth as favorites to win at Augusta.
Regardless of ranks or favorites, the PGA’s Big 3 of the 2022-2023 season have their own path to victory this week. A case can be made for each to win, but it’s fair to say that all three will most likely be making their runs at the green jacket on Sunday.
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