Has the Major Picture Changed?

Back in January I took an early examine viable primary contenders this 12 months. Things have changed a bit given that then -- Jimmy Walker has picked up a 3rd win, as an example, as has Patrick Reed even as some other gamers are dealing with injuries. With best four tournaments left between now and the Masters:

1. the Valspar Championship
2. the Arnold Palmer Invitational
3. the Valero Texas Open
4. the Shell Houston Open

I feel that it's appropriate to reassess the landscape and see how our expectations may have to change in the next month.

Our first consideration is accidents. Justin Rose remains coping with a shoulder damage, Tiger's lower back damage has end up more of an trouble, and each Nick Watney (lower back damage) and Jason Day (thumb injury) withdrew from WGC-Cadillac. Dr. Ara Suppiah, a medical doctor who works with numerous of the excursion pros (even though not Tiger), instructed GC that he became sure Tiger turned into following all the protocols this sort of harm required and that Tiger would have enough time for his back to heal before Augusta.

Personally, I discover Jason Day's injury to be the most worrisome of the bunch. I've determined nothing about his status and, at the same time as a player might be able to play thru returned spasms, a thumb damage can shut that participant down absolutely and require surgical procedure. Given his win seeing that my earlier put up and how properly he changed into playing, this will critically exchange the complexion of factors at Augusta if he cannot play.

Bubba Watson's resurgence additionally adjustments what we'd assume. After being MIA for most of the ultimate years, Bubba picked up a win at Riviera plus 2 runner-united states of americaand a T3 in his previous few events. He's starting to appear like the guy who received the 2012 Masters once more! That's correct news.

Jimmy Walker's 0.33 win additionally places him inside the position of a favorite with many folks. He's been a bit too erratic for me to do so but, given his length off the tee and his capability to address pressure, he could actually issue into this Masters.

However, for me the biggest change is the number of young players (under 25 years old) who we've seen qualify for Augusta in the last few months, and especially in the last month or so. Patrick Reed has picked up a couple of wins, of course, but we've also seen Russell Henley and Harris English get back into the winner's circles. In addition to these 3 players, according to this December 16 listing at Yahoo! Sports, we've got some other under-25s already qualified to compete (and I may have missed some):

• Thorbjorn Olesen
• John Huh
• Derek Ernst
• Jordan Spieth
• Hideki Matsuyama
• Victor Dubuisson
• Matteo Manassero

And of course there's Rory McIlroy. And these are just the under-25s! Rickie Fowler and Branden Grace are already 25, Jason Day's 26, and Billy Horschel and Sang-Moon Bae are 27, just to give you an idea of how much youth is in this field. AND THE FIELD ISN'T COMPLETE YET!

Here's my point: The typical Masters champion's average age is 32. (Adam Scott was 32 and Bubba was 33, in case you didn't know.) But I think you can make a good case that this year we will have a very young winner, perhaps even a player making his first appearance at the Masters. Other than the very first Masters, only Fuzzy Zoeller ever accomplished that task.

I'm unwilling to make any picks but -- specially, I need to see what sort of shape Jason Day and Tiger are in whilst we get to Augusta. But I assume we could be in for a massive shock whilst this year's winner slips on that inexperienced jacket.

At least, it really is how it looks to me with 4 weeks yet to go.