2021 Masters week: They’re coming in hot
By Bill Felber
Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way first before we talk about this week’s Masters. There’s nothing guaranteed about coming into a PGA Tour event hot. Of the 25 winners of PGA Tour events so far this season, seven had missed the cut in their most recent previous start. That’s more than the six winners who had finished among the top 10 in their previous start.
Still even on tour it’s impossible to characterize playing well as anything but a plus. So if not decisive, it’s at least valuable to consider who enters the Masters with their game appearing to be in solid competitive shape.
The 10 players identified below have delivered recent performances that generally, if not consistently, fit the criteria of being hot. Five have been winners within the last two months, four on the just-concluded Florida swing. Eight have multiple top 10s on their resumes within their five most recent starts.
To determine the hot players entering the Masters, we’ve looked at the average finish of each entrant in their five most recent stroke play performances. The result is a list heavy with potential. Nine of the 10 rank among the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, seven of those among the top 20 and five among the top 10.
It is also, as a group, a hungry list. Six of the 10 will come to Augusta National seeking the first Major championship of their otherwise distinguished careers.
One name you will not see on this list of hot players is that of the defending champion, Dustin Johnson. That’s due in part to a technicality: since winning the Masters last November, Johnson has made only four Tour starts, one shy of the minimum needed to provide enough of a data base to determine how hot he is.
But beyond that, Johnson simply hasn’t played especially well when he has teed it up. His two most recent finishes were ties for 48th at the Players and for 54th at the WGC Workday, coming home 13 and 23 strokes behind the champions.
In the group stage of the Dell Tech Match Play two weeks ago, Johnson went 1-1-1 and failed to qualify for the final 16.
Here’s a look at the 10 who are playing best coming in to the Masters. Players are ranked based on the average of their five most recent finishes in stroke play events. That average is shown along with the player’s name.