Masters week preview

The Masters starts Thursday, April 9, at Augusta National. That is enough, by itself, to pull golf into focus. This year there is an extra charge. Rory McIlroy arrives as the defending champion after winning his first green jacket in 2025 and completing the career Grand Slam in a playoff over Justin Rose. The tournament runs through Sunday, April 12, and it opens the men’s major season at the sport’s most recognizable course. (espn.com) That makes the week feel familiar. It also makes it strange. McIlroy spent more than a decade carrying Augusta as an unfinished sentence, then ended it in one violent burst of relief. Now the question is different. He is no longer chasing entry into golf’s smallest club. He is trying to defend a title that tends to expose even tiny flaws, and he comes in with one obvious concern: Golf.com reports that his spring has been less sharp than last year’s and that he is dealing with a back injury. (golf.com) If McIlroy brings the emotional center of the week, Scottie Scheffler brings the cold logic. He is the world No. 1, a two-time Masters champion, and the betting favorite in multiple previews. CBS Sports listed Scheffler at +500 on Monday, ahead of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and McIlroy, while another CBS betting piece put him even shorter at +380. The exact number shifts by book and by hour. The larger point does not. Augusta still looks, on paper, like a Scheffler course. A win would give him a third green jacket and make him the ninth player to reach that mark. (cbssports.com) That favorite’s role matters more at Augusta because the field is small and unusually curated. As of April 6, 91 players are set to compete. That includes PGA Tour stars, LIV golfers, past champions and a handful of amateurs who reached the tournament through one of the Masters’ narrow qualification paths. The result is not just a major. It is a compressed version of elite men’s golf, with very little dead space. (golfweek.usatoday.com) A field like that turns the draw into strategy. Full first- and second-round tee times are expected on Wednesday, April 8, the day before play begins. Until then, the speculation is not idle. Early-late and late-early waves can shape scoring when wind shifts across Augusta’s exposed greens and elevated tees. Even before the first shot, the tournament asks a scheduling question disguised as a golf question. (nationaltoday.com) The broadcast plan is built around that appetite. ESPN has the Thursday and Friday main windows from 3 to 7:30 p.m. Eastern. CBS takes over the weekend from 2 to 7 p.m. Paramount+ streams early coverage on Saturday and Sunday. The real change is Thursday and Friday morning, when Amazon Prime Video carries exclusive early coverage from 1 to 3 p.m. For viewers, that means the Masters is stretching into something closer to an all-day event, with featured groups, Amen Corner, holes 15 and 16, range coverage, and the tournament’s “Every Shot, Every Hole” archive spread across the Masters app, Masters.com, ESPN platforms and streaming partners. (golf.com) All of that coverage exists because Augusta rewards close watching. The course is listed this week at par 72 and 7,565 yards, and one subtle change stands out: the 17th hole now measures 450 yards, up from 440. That sounds minor until you remember what happened there a year ago, when McIlroy made birdie to seize control before a bogey at 18 forced the playoff he eventually won. Augusta rarely announces revolutions. It adds pressure with inches and angles. This year that pressure arrives at a hole everyone will be staring at on Sunday afternoon, 450 yards from the tee. (pgatour.com)