With the arrival of the 2023 Masters golf competition, nearly all of the world’s top 50 golfers have been assembled for the event. The lone exception is 46th-ranked Aaron Wise, who has bowed out of the competition to focus on his mental health.
The competition will feature 18 members of the Saudi-backed start-ups, including the world’s No. 6 golfer Cameron Smith, former Masters champions Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed and rivals Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
The Masters is therefore expected to be highly competitive, as usual, and anyone from the stacked field could emerge as the victor.
The big question is, how exactly do the players in the field stack up against one another? News About Nigeria obtained the top 10 golfers participating in the 2023 Masters, with the breakdown of their chances of winning.
Here’s a look at the list, from Rory McIlroy to Xander Schauffele as obtained by News About Nigeria:
1. Rory McIlroy
McIlroy’s tee-to-green game is perhaps the best among the field participating in the 2023 Masters. McIlroy ranks sixth in SG:OTT this season and seventh in SG:APR so at his peak, he should set himself up for some easy putts.
McIlroy can be a bit erratic at times, so he will need to show consistency early in the week to compete for the title. Last year, he finished second at the event after carding a 7-under on the final day of play. If he can have a day like that early, he could find himself in the driver’s seat for this major title.
2. Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay has had his share of issues at majors over the years, but he has two top-20 finishes in five previous professional appearances at the event. He ranks second in the PGA Tour in SG:OTT this season, so he will be able to shorten Augusta’s long Par 4s and 5s better than most. He also ranks top-five in GIR percentage, so he’ll only need to putt a bit more consistently than usual to be in the running to win his first-ever major.
3. Max Homa
Homa has enjoyed a great season to date on the PGA Tour, as he has yet to miss a cut, has two wins and has logged seven top-20 finishes this season. That includes a T-6th at The Players Championship.
Homa’s game is well-rounded and while he may not be as big a hitter as McIlroy and Cantlay, he has a top-five approach game and ranks 37th in putting from inside of 10 feet. That will give him plenty of chances to earn birdies on Augusta’s unforgiving greens.
4. Jon Rahm
Rahm started the season at a torrid pace, winning three of his first 10 events and logging seven top-10 finishes during that time. He has hit a rough patch in recent weeks, including a missed cut at The Players Championship and a group-stage knockout at the Dell Technologies Match Play, but he still has the tee-to-green game needed to thrive at the Masters.
Rahm’s top-five marks in SG:APR and GIR percentage should make him one of the hardest golfers to beat in this year’s Masters. The only thing that may hold him back a bit is his putting, which ranks just slightly above average.
5. Scottie Scheffler
Some may be surprised to see Scheffler ranked just fifth in this tournament, but it’s worth noting that no player has repeated as Masters champion since Tiger Woods in 2000 and 2001. Scheffler has the talent needed to do that, but his below-average putting from inside of 10 feet — he’s ranked 136th among the PGA Tour’s 209 statistical qualifiers — could sink him this time at Augusta.
Still, Scheffler can’t be counted out. He leads the tour in SG:OTT and GIR percentage while ranking top-three in three-putt avoidance. He could certainly win if he has another stellar week tee-to-green as he did last year.
6. Cameron Smith
Smith is the highest-ranked LIV Golf player on this list, as he won The Open Championship in 2022 before defecting for the Saudi-backed start-up tour. Smith hasn’t yet won on the LIV Golf circuit, but he did log a T-5th finish at Mayakoba earlier in the year.
Smith is known to be a great putter and has posted a top-10 finish in four of his last five appearances at the Masters. It remains to be seen whether he and other LIV participants will be a bit rusty coming off longer layoffs and having to play for four days instead of LIV’s three, but if you can trust any golfer to put up a good performance, it’s Smith.
7. Jason Day
Day is putting together a superb bounce-back season and is showing flashes of the game that once made him the world’s No. 1 player. He hasn’t missed a cut since November and has finished no worse than 21st in the 10 events during which he made the cut.
Day has a well-rounded game that is well-suited for Augusta. That’s part of why he has three career top-five finishes in the Masters. He has missed the cut in each of his last two trips to the course, but golf fans have reason to expect him to be closer to the top 10 than the cut line in 2023.
8. Tony Finau
Finau has the tee-to-green game needed to find success at the Masters. In particular, his approach game in his strength, as he ranks third overall in SG:APR and ninth in GIR percentage. However, his putting is hit-or-miss and has proved to be a make-or-break part of his game.
Finau won three times during the 2022 calendar year when his putter cooperated, and he has finished T-24th or better in nine consecutive events with no missed cuts. Add in that Finau has had three top-10 Masters finishes since 2018 and he looks like an intriguing value bet.
9. Viktor Hovland
Hovland is a young player, but he is by no means inexperienced. This is his third Masters appearance as a PGA Tour pro, and he made the cut and logged top-30 finishes in each of his first two outings at Augusta.
It makes sense that Hovland would do well at the Masters. He is one of the PGA Tour’s best at getting from tee to green, as he ranks eighth in SG:OTT and 29th in SG:APR, and is an above-average putter from inside of 10 feet, too. His one issue is that he ranks near the bottom of the tour in three-putt avoidance (189th overall) so his short stick can sometimes hold him back.
10. Xander Schauffele
Golf fans have grown accustomed to seeing Schauffele’s name atop leaderboards at the majors, but he actually missed the cut at the Masters in 2023. He will look to bounce back from this, but he will need to be a bit better off the tee than he has been this season to do so. He ranks just 126th in SG:OTT this season.
