Tournament: The 79th Masters
Dates: Thursday-Sunday
Site: Augusta National Golf Club
Length: 7,435 yards
Par: 36-36—72
Purse: To be determined ($8 million in 2014)
Field: 98 (91 professionals, seven amateurs)
Cut: Top 50 and ties, and anyone within 10 shots of the lead.
Defending champion: Bubba Watson
Last year: Watson won his second green jacket by closing with a 3-under 69 for a three-shot victory over Jordan Spieth and Jonas Blixt. Spieth, at 20 bidding to become the youngest Masters champion, had a two-shot lead with 11 holes to play until going bogey-bogey for a pair of two-shot swings that put Watson two ahead going to the back nine. Watson became the 16th player to win the Masters multiple times.
Another Nicklaus memory: Kevin Streelman beat Camilo Villegas on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff Wednesday to win the Par 3 tournament on the last day to relax at Augusta National. Stealing the show, however, was 75-year-old Jack Nicklaus. The six-time Masters champ had a hole-in-one on No. 4, with his iron shot bouncing twice before taking a little hop and spinning back into the hole.
Tree tribute: A cross-section of the Eisenhower Tree, which guarded the left side of the 17th fairway at Augusta National for some 80 years before it was felled by an ice storm in February 2014, will be on display at the tournament this week before being shipped to the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kan.
Television: Thursday and Friday, 2-6:30 p.m., ESPN; Saturday, 2-6 p.m., Ch. 4; Sunday, 1-6 p.m., Ch. 4.
NEWS SERVICES
Lindsey Vonn completes another downhill training run while Jessie Diggins and the U.S. women’s hockey team are also in action on Saturday in Italy.
