For sporting theatre, it’s hard to beat Augusta

With the evenings getting that big longer and the weather improving, there’s a great sense of things to look forward to as a woeful winter turns to, hopefully, a brighter summer.

From a sporting sense, too, we’re getting into the real business: the GAA Championships get underway this week, the Premier League season is entering the final straight and the club rugby season is also reaching its crescendo.

But if you’re a bit of golf anorak, like this writer, then this is the best week of the year as the cream of the crop take a spin down Magnolia Lane for the Masters.

There’s always something surreal about watching on television with the course and its surrounds always perfectly manicured, to the point that, in the age of AI, you sometimes wonder whether it’s real at all.

It very much is and the historic layout at Augusta National has provided sporting theatre unlike any other, to paraphrase Jim Nantz’s line. In my estimation, while many golf lovers will argue that the Open Championship carries the greatest weight given its lengthy history and its relationship with some of the forefathers of the game, the Masters is the greatest tournament of them all.

The main reason for that is the mystique provided by the venue – the only one in golf which players return to each and every year for the same major. The scar tissue that is carried forward from previous difficulties means it’s a tournament that challenges players in a way that others don’t from a mental point of view.

It has been a curious build-up this year, because everyone is aware that there will be no matching the 2025 event when it comes to drama.

Rory McIlroy’s ascent to the top of his sporting Everest was a win that will find few equals, so this year it’s likely we will have to be content with something a little less historic.

Retaining the title is certainly within McIlroy’s grasp, but he finds himself in a strange sort of purgatory now where he has completed what seems like a career high, so what comes next for someone who still has at least a good decade left in him at the top of the sport?

The next reasonable marker for McIlroy is to try and become the most successful European golfer of all time.

This will require three more major titles – Harry Vardon of Jersey island won seven, while more recently Nick Faldo claimed six – and another two DP World Tour Order of Merit titles, to eclipse Colin Montgomerie’s tally of eight.

Given McIlroy’s consistency, the second of those markers seems almost inevitable but the major title tally will be more of an ask. Remember, last year’s title was his fifth major title but it was his first in eleven years.

Understandably, McIlroy’s efforts tailed off after his achievement at the Masters last year. In the other three major championships, he recorded finishes of 47th, 19th and 7th. He did, however, win the DP World Tour Order of Merit title and, memorably, the Irish Open crown at the K Club.

Think about it this way: if Mayo won the All-Ireland in 2026, after so many years trying, would you expect them to retain the title next year? Probably not, given the emotional high attached to finally getting over the line. There's bound to be a fall-off. And given how McIlroy reacted following his triumph 12 months ago, it’s understandable that he is still finding his feet again in this new scenario of finding himself as one of only six players, ever, to have won all four major championships.

So, expecting him to slip into the green jacket again come Sunday night, even if he has shown glimpses of positive form so far this season, might be a bit of a stretch.

Shane Lowry may be better positioned to do so, in a strange way. Yes, he has let two winning positions slip this year at both the Dubai Invitational and at the Cognizant Classic – the latter being a particularly painful experience – but the fact he has put himself into those positions, and has knocked on the door quite loudly, means he’s not too far away.

Similarly, Augusta has always felt like a course where Lowry could do well given he has the ability to work the ball both ways so effortlessly, and he possesses a wonderful short game capable of dealing with Augusta’s notoriously difficult surrounds and greens.

That confidence in Lowry doing well must be tempered by the fact that, while on the fringes of contention heading into the final round last year, he recorded a final round of 81 that only featured six pars. That is bound to leave a mark.

His scoring average around Augusta is just shy of 73, but he did finish in a tie for third in 2022 so is capable of making an impact. I think he will this time around, provided he has shaken off the last couple of months. In the three events he has played since the Cognizant at Palm Beach, he has missed the cut twice.

Outside of the usual contenders, the recent Players Championship at Sawgrass underlined the credentials of two other players with a decent chance heading in this week; Ludvig Aberg may have finished poorly there but had a solid Masters last year, while the Players Champion Cameron Young was superb down the closing stretch, particularly in navigating the incredibly difficult final holes with such assurance. Both players have all the tools necessary to prosper over four days at Augusta.

Above all, it’s a tournament where you can sit back and marvel at the world’s best do their thing on the most aesthetically pleasing course in the world.

If nothing else, tune in for the back nine on Sunday.

For sporting tension and theatre, it doesn’t get much better.