The Masters: Staff predictions at Augusta National

The Masters is now just over a day away, and the staff at Pro Golf Now have made our picks. Most of the love this week goes to a pair of Justins. And there’s a little love for a four-time Masters champ, too.

If you’re a golf fan – and I’ll assume you are since you’re reading this – Masters week is the best time of the year. It’s like Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and your birthday all rolled into one, but still spread out over the first full week of April. It’s magic, the likes of which you just don’t get anywhere else.

However, there’s one big problem every year – trying to pick a winner. It’s not an easy task, even with a relatively small field of just 87 players. Augusta National has a way of forcing the best out of its players. Answer the call, and you’re enshrined in golf history. Miss that opportunity, and it may never come again.

Challenging though it may be, the team hear at Pro Golf Now have all made our picks. We’ll reveal those below, with a bit of analysis to boot. Hey, we’re not jut drawing names out of a hat. Although, that might be easier…

Let’s jump right in. Did we leave your favorite off the list? Probably, so let us know what you think on Twitter. We’ll be covering the Masters up until the green jacket is awarded on Sunday afternoon, so don’t be shy.

Kathy Bissell (@KathyBissell1): Justin…Thomas or Rose?

The winner’s name will be Justin. I just don’t know which one yet.

I like the recent form of Justin Rose. Love the way he putts when he’s on. He seems to have gotten past, but not over, last year’s playoff which Sergio Garcia won, and he’s a lot tougher than people give him credit for being. He’s plenty long enough. He can be straight enough. He’s old enough not to let anger get in the way, and he’s made plenty of big putts in his career. He’ll need to at The Masters. And I also think he wants a “get back” shot after last year.

The other Justin of course is Justin Thomas. His challenge is probably holding his temper, since we’ve seen him kind of explode a time or two while in the middle of rounds. But his talent is awesome. He hits high balls, which you have to do at Augusta National. He putts like he doesn’t care, and he seems to have no fear, which is how you have to play to win a major. Some historic player whose name is not coming to me used to call it the audacity to play well.

Mike Randleman (@Mike_Randleman): Justin Thomas

I’ve got Justin Thomas. No one is playing better than JT right now with four straight top-10s including a win at the Honda Classic. He’s got the length to attack Augusta’s par-5s in two and is second in fairway proximity. Now with two Masters appearances under his belt, Thomas knows where to position himself and has the accuracy to execute that game plan.

Lewis Blain (@LewATFC): Justin Rose

The Englishman will win a green jacket in his lifetime – he really should have won last year.

Rose has a phenomenal record around Augusta National having finished just once outside the top-15 since 2009, a run which includes two runner-up spots. He has also led the first round three times here.

AUGUSTA, GA – APRIL 03: Justin Rose of England plays a shot during a practice round prior to the start of the 2018 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 3, 2018 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images) /

In 6 of the last 7 Masters he has scored in the top-6 for Greens In Regulation, a vital stat around this course, while he has also made the most of scoring on the par-5s – imperative to good scores here. He is scrambling well this season and avoiding bogeys.

He comes into the tournament with three top-10s from his last 5 outings – the Farmers (T8), the Valspar (T5) and the Arnold Palmer (3rd).

The 2013 US Open winner has a very cool head, and is probably one of the best on tour mentally. Since the playoff defeat last year, Rose has won 3 events, including the WGC-HSBC Champions which is an elite field just like this one. Add the countless top-10 finishes from that timeframe and it looks very much like he is targeting a green jacket – last time he wanted something that bad was the Olympics and he went and won gold. He can do it again

Go on Rosey, bring it home for us Brits!

David McPherson (@McPhersonComm): Ian Poulter

My dark horse pick is the 42-year-old Englishman. How can one bet against Poults after his first stroke play win on U.S. soil in a playoff last week at The Houston open to secure the final spot in the field? With 21 birdies over the final 54 holes, Poulter arrives at Augusta with a hot putter & brimming with confidence: two keys to winning a Green Jacket.

Jordan Fuller (@jofullergolf): Dustin Johnson

Dustin Johnson – he is still the man to beat, where all eyes will point to. If Dustin can come to Augusta with 100% focus and energy, it will be very hard for his fellow competition, even Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, to live up to Dustin’s level. Hence why Johnson is my pick for the green jacket.

Brandon Raper (@Brandon__Raper): Tiger Woods

My heart wants so very desperately to pick Tiger Woods to win here, even if it’s not the “smart” pick. The smart pick might be Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas – heck, it might even be Bubba Watson or Phil Mickelson. Those guys have all won tournaments in the last year. Tiger hasn’t.

That’s why it would be the greatest story in golf, possibly since his 1997 romp to that very first green jacket. That single week in Augusta changed not only the course of his career, but of the sport itself.

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21 years later, with multiple surgeries and a fused spine – A FUSED SPINE – under his belt, he wasn’t supposed to even be in this discussion. Even he called himself “a walking miracle” as it relates to his apparently pain-free life. If nothing else, that’s a massive win on its own.

Tiger’s last trip to the winner’s circle came at the Bridgestone Invitational, August 4^th, 2013. Come this Sunday, that will have been 1,708 days. That’s a long time for anyone, much less someone with so many gaps in their playing schedule through that time frame.

But this isn’t just anybody. This is Tiger Woods, a guy who has defied logic for his entire 20-plus year career. There’s nobody in this field (save for maybe Mickelson) who knows Augusta the way that Eldrick Tont Woods understands it. And even with some rust on his game, I don’t know if you’d heard, but Tiger is playing really, really well right now.

Next: Masters Power Rankings

My head says this week belongs to Bubba Watson (winner of two events already this year), but the heart wants what it wants. Remember those old Nike “I am Tiger Woods” commercials? That could be how a whole new generation feels this Sunday afternoon.

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