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US Open Champion Bryson DeChambeau and defending Teachers champion Tiger Woods they played together Monday in an all-star quartet during the first official practice session of the 84th Masters.
The rumor about how much DeChambeau could dominate Augusta National was mixed with the surprising departure of 2017 winner Sergio Garcia after the 40-year-old Spaniard tested positive for Covid-19.
DeChambeau and Woods, the 15-time Major League Champion seeking his record 83rd US PGA win and his sixth Masters title, were joined in the final nine in the afternoon by 1992 Masters winner Fred Couples and 2017 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas.
Garcia, coming off his first US PGA win since last month’s Masters, said Monday that he tested positive after missing the cut at last week’s Houston Open, the first PGA event. based in the US which has 2,000 viewers allowed each day.
“On Saturday night, after driving back from the Houston Open, I started to get a little sore throat and a cough,” Garcia tweeted.
“The symptoms stayed with me Sunday morning, so I decided to get tested for COVID-19 and so did my wife Angela. Fortunately she tested negative, but I didn’t.”
For the first time in history, the Masters takes place in November instead of its traditional April schedule after the season interruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The tournament is played without spectators to see if DeChambeau can follow up on his first big win at Winged Foot, where his big hitting style dominated the field.
DeChambeau practiced last week with Sandy Lyle, the 1988 Masters champion, and the 62-year-old Scotsman told PGA Tour Radio which clubs the American was hitting on some of the greens.
World number six DeChambeau hit wedges on holes 1, 9, 10 and 17, all from 440 to 495 yards. He reached the third green from 350 yards with a 3 wood off the tee and used 7 to 9 irons for five more in 500 yards.
It did nothing to reduce fears that DeChambeau could trash the famous Augusta National, where normal cutting heights are set for ultra-fast rolling greens and fairways unprotected by punitive rough rough.
“What he’s doing is extraordinary, the work he puts in, the dedication that he has,” Mickelson, a three-time Masters winner, said of DeChambeau’s game.
A concern for DeChambeau and other heavy hitters was in the forecast, with rain and thunderstorms in the projections through the weekend. Soggy conditions can prevent the ball from moving further off the tee, but help approaches hold on to the notoriously treacherous greens.
DeChambeau also strengthened during the three-month break from Covid-19 that led to the Masters being postponed from its usual April date.
It became more difficult to make the Masters cut on Monday as Augusta National said it would end an extension of its cut policy that allowed anyone within 10 strokes of the leader on the weekend, as well as Top 50 and those that are level after 36 holes.
Since 1962, anyone within 10 strokes of the lead had been able to enter the third and fourth rounds of the Masters no matter where they ranked in the overall score.
Not only are there no spectators, but there are no grandstands or boundary ropes for them, making room in unusual places for wandering entrances.
Maple and other trees add yellow, red and orange leaves to Amen Corner among the tall green pines of Georgia. The camellia and nandina flowers bloom as usual in place of the azaleas and dogwoods that embellish the design in spring.
