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We've arrived at the 2023 Masters, and as always, golf fans have a plethora of storylines to follow during the biggest event of the year. There are enough twists and turns within the interpersonal dynamics of those in the field to fill up an entire Masters week notebook. Some of that will take center stage, but there's far more outside of the biggest rift in golf over the last 40 years to keep the attention of even the most casual fan.

Will Scottie Scheffler go back to back at Augusta National? Is this Rory McIlroy's next best chance to secure the career grand slam? What should reasonable, normal, not-fantastical golf folks expect from 15-time major winner Tiger Woods?

We could, of course, go deep with 90 storylines ahead of the Masters, but we tried to narrow our list down (so you could actually consume it) to the nine most compelling as the 87th Masters gets underway this week in Augusta, Georgia.

2023 Masters storylines

1. Top Schef 2: Only three golfers have gone back to back at Augusta National, and no one has accomplished the feat in over two decades since Tiger Woods got the job done in 2001-02 while capping the Tiger Slam. Scheffler has as good a chance as anyone in that two-decade span. He comes in playing significantly better golf since Jan. 1 (3.05 strokes gained per round) than he was from Jan. 1, 2022, leading into the Masters (2.50). That's pretty incredible when you remember that he won three times and then captured the green jacket. He's been two strokes per tournament better this time around. It takes breaks to win, but Scheffler is set up to do so once again.

2. Did Jon Rahm peak too early? Rahm's 2023 has a bit of a "Dustin Johnson in 2017" feel to it. Hopefully, the stairs in Rahm's rental won't attack him like D.J.'s did in 2017, but after starting the year on fire -- win, win, T7, 3rd, win -- Rahm has slumped. He finished T39 at Bay Hill but drove it terribly. Then he withdrew from the Players Championship with an illness and failed to advance out of his group in the WGC-Dell Match Play, losing to Billy Horschel 5 UP in his final match, a round in which he was 5 over and had not made a birdie on an easy golf course at the time the match ended. 

So, yeah, there are some questions existing now that there weren't after Phoenix and Riviera. Rahm's history at Augusta is nasty -- four top 10s in his last five starts -- so he gets the benefit of the doubt from the last month poor play (for him). But he has definitely been overtaken as the "most likely player to win the Masters given how well he's playing and how good he's been at that course," and perhaps by more than just one guy.

3. Rory's best chance? This will be McIlroy's ninth attempt at the career grand slam and perhaps his best attempt yet. Other than 2019, this is the best he's played in the three months preceding Augusta since that first try back in 2015. (That excludes 2017 given he only played two tournaments in February and March.) McIlroy is playing much better than last year (when he finished second), better than in 2018 (when he played in the last pairing with Patrick Reed) and even better than either 2015 or 2016 (when he finished in the top 10). Perhaps more importantly, he hasn't peaked yet like he did in 2019 when he won the Players Championship. If you're going to talk yourself into a Rory narrative (and who among us hasn't?), that is probably the reason why.

YearSG T2GSG OverallMasters finish

2023

2.21

2.26

--

2022

1.66

1.82

2nd

2021

1.52

1.36

CUT

2019

2.77

3.26

T21

2018

1.86

1.78

T5

2017

3.32

3.12

T7

2016

1.58

2.09

T10
20151.212.254th

There is also an emotional weight that comes with a golfer knowing his time is running thin while he's playing as well as ever entering the Masters. More than the physical hurdles or the statistical edges, that is what Rory will have to overcome. Its gravity can be unbearable at times. If he is to join Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan as the only men with all four majors to their names, he is -- at some point -- going to have to endure an emotional, mental toll along the path it takes to get into that club. Whether that happens this year is one of the most anticipated stories of the season.

4. LIV Golf in contention: This Masters marks the first major championship with both sides fully formed. The last time a major was held, LIV's current best player (Cameron Smith) won the 150th Open Championship as a PGA Tour player. Shortly thereafter, he bounced to LIV. Smith won't stir the pot, but between Phil Mickelson's fireworks, Brooks Koepka's general churlishness and a Masters Champions Dinner that will feature a handful of LIV players -- including Lefty, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel and Patrick Reed -- the entire week will likely be framed by two situations.

The first is a galvanization of players, who all have very different outlooks on the future of professional golf, around the biggest event of the year at a place that often foreshadows what the future of professional golf looks like. That will be interesting. The second -- and perhaps more pertinent depending how the leaderboard unfolds -- is a potential battle between LIV players and PGA Tour players for the green jacket. This won't matter as much to golfers themselves, but it will be fun for fans to follow and potentially meaningful to LIV's future. I'm not sure anyone playing LIV is in good enough form to make it happen (really, who the heck can say?), but this will certainly be a through line throughout the week.

5. "He kind of needs one:" This is a large and growing group. Players in this category include Patrick Cantlay (hasn't contended at enough majors), Max Homa (hasn't contended at any majors), Xander Schauffele (has contended at too many majors to not have at least one win), Will Zalatoris (same), Viktor Hovland (time to make the leap), Sam Burns (same) and Tony Finau (too good of a career to not have at least one major). There are other players like McIlroy, Smith, Koepka, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas who need a Masters win for a variety of reasons, but this group is full of folks who, for one reason or another, are missing a piece of the career puzzle. Nobody needs a Masters win, of course, but if we're looking at full and complete resumes over the long arc of a career, this bunch of golfers is a good place to start.

Watch all four rounds of the 2023 Masters starting Thursday with Masters Live as we follow the best golfers in the world throughout Augusta National with Featured Groups, check in at the famed Amen Corner and see leaders round the turn on holes 15 & 16. Watch live on CBSSports.com, the CBS Sports App and Paramount+.

6. Spieth's fifth green jacket: We like to joke on Golf Twitter that Spieth is tied with Woods and trails only Nicklaus in terms of Masters wins. The truth is that he only has one (even writing it out can feel shocking). Here's the other truth: Spieth's finishes at the Masters are closely tied to his performance from January-March of a given year. This is not surprising. When Spieth is playing well, he plays well at the Masters. When he's not playing well, he does not.

For example, his best January-March run came in 2015 when he won the Masters. His second, third and fourth best such performances ended in a T11, T3 and T2 at Augusta National. This year's number is close to his 2014 and 2018 numbers when he finished third and T2. respectively. In other words, buckle the hell up.

YearSG Jan-MarFinish
20231.47--
20220.33CUT
20212.19T3
20190.23T21
20181.593
20172.38T11
20162.00T2
20152.481st
20141.56T2

7. Tiger? Woods' name with a question mark meant something different this time last year. Unlike 2022, when his participation was in question, we know Tiger will suit up for this Masters. We just don't know how he's going to perform. After making the cut at the Genesis Invitational in February, there was hope Woods would get one more event in before Augusta. However, he skipped both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, the two most likely spots for him to have competed. This begs the same question that is facing several LIV golfers: Does Tiger have enough tournament reps to properly prepare for and contend at this first major championship?

If his past thoughts are to be believed -- and considering his position as probably the best to ever do it, they probably are! -- then this is not enough golf to truly get into contention at the Masters. Woods can absolutely make the cut because he made the cut last year with his mind and his will and barely more than one leg, but can he bottle some magic at the age of 47 with Rory rolling, Scottie scorching and Rahm running downhill? I'm dubious of anything beyond Woods playing the weekend, making a small amount of noise on Moving Day and finishing, say, 25-40 on the leaderboard.

I go back to the interview he did before the 2021 Hero World Challenge often: "To ramp up for a few events a year as I alluded to yesterday as Mr. [Ben] Hogan did, he did a pretty good job of it, and there's no reason that I can't do that and feel ready. I may not be tournament sharp in the sense I haven't played tournaments, but I think, if you practice correctly and you do it correctly, that I've come off surgeries before, I've come off long layoffs and I've won or come close to winning before. So, I know the recipe for it. I've just got to get to a point where I feel comfortable enough where I can do that again."

So, is it impossible for Woods to contend and possibly win this Masters? No, of course not. Is it far more difficult than it was even in 2019 when he had a fused spine and defeated Koepka, Johnson and Schauffele to win his 15th major? Absolutely. That year, Woods played four tournaments (finishing top 30 in all of them) in the lead up to Augusta. He was hitting the golf ball well and was fairly sharp. This year? Not so much. And if you considered that year a miracle, what in the world would him winning it again be considered?

8. Who's hot … and does it matter? One stat I love is that, in the three months leading into the last 11 Masters, nine of the eventual champions were living at 1.70 strokes gained per round from tee to green or better. This, like the Spieth stat above, is not surprising. It's a list of the players who were broadly hitting the ball best leading into a given year's tournament. That one of them would win is somewhat obvious, and 1.7 seems to be the cutoff. The two outliers here were Patrick Reed in 2018 and Hideki Matsuyama in 2021.

So, who are the hottest, best players leading in this year? The ones that qualify at 1.7 or better, according to Data Golf, are as follows:

  • Scottie Scheffler
  • Rory McIlroy
  • Patrick Cantlay
  • Collin Morikawa
  • Cameron Young
  • Jon Rahm
  • Jason Day

9. Lucky No. 13? For several years in a row, Augusta National has made changes to one of the most prized assets in all of sports, its now 7,545-yard golf course. Augusta extended the 13th hole much like it extended the 15th a year ago (more expensively this time around). This will affect the 87th Masters; that much is certain. Exactly how it affects the tournament remains to be seen, but my assumption is that it is going to disproportionately reward (1) players who can hit big draws off the tee, (2) the best long iron players in the world and (3) those who can make birdie laying up like Zach Johnson did when he won in 2007.

It's not inconceivable that lengthening the 13th could actually help shorter hitters who aren't even tempted to take rips at the pin and possibly leave one in the creek. Regardless, all of this is good for the golf tournament and should serve to make it more interesting overall.