The start of the 88th Masters was delayed by two and a half hours on Thursday due to bad weather at Augusta National.

South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen had been due to hit the opening tee shot at 8am local time (1300BST) but rain was already falling when tournament officials announced at 5am that play would not get under way on time.

Play was initially delayed by at least an hour and, although most of the worst thunderstorms looked to have skirted the area, it was subsequently announced that play would start at 1030 local time (1530GMT).

Honorary starters Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson were scheduled to kick off proceedings by each hitting a tee shot on the first hole 20 minutes earlier.

The delay meant the first round would not be completed on schedule, with the last group of Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood not teeing off until 1630 local time.

Fleetwood, who had been drawn in the final group in round one for the second successive year, had taken on weather monitoring duties in the absence of long-time caddie Ian Finnis, who is recovering from illness back in England.

“I generally wake up and take the weather for what it is, just go out and play with the conditions we get, but I’ve heard the forecast is pretty bad,” Fleetwood said.

“The conditions are going to play a part in how the golf course plays and what happens there, so we’ll see.”

Pre-tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler will partner Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele in the first two rounds, with the star trio now due to tee off at 1312 local time (1812BST).

Defending champion Jon Rahm gets his attempt to join Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo in winning back-to-back Masters titles under way in the preceding group alongside Matt Fitzpatrick and Nick Dunlap.

The first round of the 88th Masters has been delayed by at least an hour due to bad weather at Augusta National.

South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen was due to hit the opening tee shot at 8am local time (1300BST), but rain was already falling when tournament officials announced at 5am that play would not get under way on time.

“We continue to monitor the weather closely,” an official statement read.

“Gate openings and tee times have been delayed until further notice. The first round will not begin before 9 a.m.”

Thunderstorms, heavy rain and winds gusting up to 45mph were all forecast for Thursday.

England’s Tommy Fleetwood has been drawn in the final group in round one for the second successive year, but he will not let the uncertain weather affect his preparations.

“I generally wake up and take the weather for what it is, just go out and play with the conditions we get, but I’ve heard the forecast is pretty bad,” Fleetwood, who is without long-time caddie Ian Finnis this week due to illness, said.

“The conditions are going to play a part in how the golf course plays and what happens there, so we’ll see.”

Most people leave Las Vegas with considerably less money than when they arrived, but Rory McIlroy’s recent trip to Sin City could prove priceless.

Faced with a mediocre run of results by his standards and with the 88th Masters on the horizon, McIlroy headed west for a lesson with famous coach Butch Harmon, the man behind the first eight of Tiger Woods’s 15 major titles.

Harmon’s credentials mean McIlroy’s visit could not entirely be labelled a gamble, but it was a significant rolling of the dice ahead of his 10th attempt to complete the career grand slam by earning a fabled green jacket.

“I’ve done this a number of times in my career,” McIlroy said. “I met Butch when I was 14 years old, so we’ve always had a good relationship. If there’s one guy that I want to go and get a second opinion from, it’s him.

“It’s the same stuff that I’ve been trying to do with my coach Michael (Bannon), but he sort of just said it in a different way that maybe hit home with me a little bit more.

“It was a really worthwhile trip.”

Proof of that came with a final round of 66 and third place in the following week’s Valero Texas Open, albeit nine shots behind winner Akshay Batia, and McIlroy arrived in Augusta on Tuesday lunchtime as a firm second favourite behind world number one Scottie Scheffler.

Such a late arrival – McIlroy was the last of the 89 players to register – was another departure from the norm, as was a truncated press conference which saw the four-time major winner face just seven questions.

Woods had been far more expansive an hour or so earlier, reiterating his belief that McIlroy winning the Masters was just “a matter of time”, but also insisting that a sixth green jacket and 16th major title was not out of the question, despite his ongoing injury problems.

Odds of 150/1 on that eventuality suggest the bookmakers do not share such optimism, while prices of 4/1 on Scheffler winning a second Masters title in three years are the kind Woods regularly justified in his prime.

The 2022 champion has been in brilliant form this season, winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five shots and seven days later becoming the first player to win back-to-back Players Championship titles at Sawgrass.

Only a short missed birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the Houston Open cost Scheffler the chance of a third straight win and it would be a huge surprise if he was not at least in contention on Sunday.

The same can also be said of defending champion Jon Rahm, despite his shock defection to LIV Golf making it harder to objectively assess his recent form.

Rahm has finished third, eighth, fifth, 14th and fifth again so far this season, but knows from personal experience that previous success counts for a lot at the only venue which hosts a major championship every year.

Despite starting last year’s Masters by four-putting the opening hole for a double bogey, Rahm went on to win his second major title by four shots from LIV players Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, with Patrick Reed another stroke back in fourth.

Koepka went on to win the US PGA Championship a month later and remains a different player in majors than regular events, while US Open champion Wyndham Clark and world number nine Ludvig Aberg are bidding to become the first player to win on their Masters debut since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

A rookie winning would no doubt be galling to McIlroy, but he could yet hit the jackpot.

Scottie Scheffler intends to keep the secrets of Masters success to himself as he bids to justify his position as pre-tournament favourite with a second green jacket.

The 2022 champion has been in brilliant form this season, winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five shots and seven days later becoming the first player to win back-to-back Players Championship titles at Sawgrass.

Only a short missed birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the Houston Open cost Scheffler the chance of a third straight win and the world number one has rightly been made favourite for the 88th Masters at the kind of odds last seen for Tiger Woods at his prime.

Scheffler’s victory two years ago was aided by a yardage book given to him by Ben Crenshaw’s former caddie Carl Jackson, who worked at Augusta National for 54 years.

Crenshaw arranged a meeting between the pair as bad weather delayed the pre-tournament par-three contest and, four days later, Scheffler secured his first major title by three shots, despite four-putting the 72nd hole.

“I’m not going to expand too much on Carl’s secrets in front of people but it was my third Masters and I sat in the back of the caddie house with Carl,” Scheffler said.

“Ben had suggested that I just sit down with him for a few minutes and he gave me a yardage book that had some of where I think he called it grain is, where some of the slopes are.

“And it’s just a yardage book that has some arrows in it. (But) I’m not going to tell you where the arrows are pointing.

“It’s something that I’ll kind of review at night and I always look at it in the lead-up to the tournament just because there is kind of some weird stuff that goes on around the golf course.”

Jon Rahm will defend his title when the 88th Masters takes place at Augusta National from April 11-14.

Rahm is bidding to become just the fourth player to win back-to-back green jackets after Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.

Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the main contenders for the year’s first major championship.

The 2022 champion has been in brilliant form in 2024, winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five shots and seven days later becoming the first player to win back-to-back Players Championship titles at Sawgrass. Switching putters on the advice of Rory McIlroy has proved vital, although missed short putts did cost him a third straight win in the Houston Open. Rightly rated favourite for a second green jacket at the kind of odds previously only offered for peak-era Tiger Woods.

Started last year with a four-putt double bogey on the first but still shot an opening 65 and ended up winning his second major title by four shots over LIV Golf duo Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson. Remarkably returns to Augusta as a fellow member of the Saudi-backed breakaway, a shock move which ensures his competitive sharpness will be under scrutiny. Will be hoping Koepka and Mickelson proved last year that experience of the course is more important than current form.

McIlroy’s 10th attempt to win the Masters and complete a career grand slam comes on the back of some underwhelming form since winning in Dubai in January, although the world number two remains second favourite behind Scheffler. His recent record at Augusta National includes a thrilling final round of 64 in 2022 and two missed cuts and the four-time major winner is reportedly set to skip the pre-tournament par-three contest to fully focus on his bid to make history.

Schauffele insisted the best was yet to come in his career after narrowly missing out on the Players Championship title, the Olympic champion taking a one-shot lead into the final round only to get overhauled by a charging Scheffler. Failing to get over the line perpetuated the belief in some circles that Schauffele has underachieved, although he has seven PGA Tour titles to go with his gold medal from Tokyo, along with 11 top-10 major finishes, including three in his last five starts at Augusta.

Most golf fans are well aware of the statistic which makes Aberg appear an unlikely contender, namely that Fuzzy Zoeller was the last player to win the Masters on their tournament debut back in 1979. In addition, the Masters will be Aberg’s first appearance in any major, but the 24-year-old Swede has defied the odds since turning professional in June 2023, winning on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour and justifying his wild card by helping Europe regain the Ryder Cup.

Tiger Woods reiterated his belief that Rory McIlroy will definitely win the Masters during his career to complete the grand slam as McIlroy kept his own media duties to a minimum.

McIlroy was the last player to register at Augusta National around 30 minutes before his scheduled press conference, which started early and saw the world number two answer just seven questions.

One of those was in response to Woods having earlier insisted it was just a “matter of time” before McIlroy earns a green jacket to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Woods himself in having won all four major titles.

“It’s flattering,” McIlroy said. “It’s nice to hear, in my opinion, the best player ever to play the game say something like that.

“Does that mean that it’s going to happen? Obviously not. But he’s been around the game long enough to know that I at least have the potential to do it.

“I know I’ve got the potential to do it too. It’s not as if I haven’t been a pretty good player for the last couple of decades. But, yeah, it’s nice to hear it when it comes out of his mouth.”

Since winning the Open Championship in 2014, McIlroy has had nine attempts to win the Masters, his best finish of second in 2022 coming thanks to a stunning closing 64.

And despite missing the cut last year, McIlroy feels he has what it takes to claim a fifth major title at Augusta National and a first since the 2014 US PGA.

McIlroy, who famously held a four-shot lead after 54 holes in 2011 only to collapse to a closing 80, said: “I feel like I’ve got all the tools to do well this week.

“But to bring those tools out, I think one of the most important things is to enjoy it and smell the, I guess not the roses, the azaleas along the way.

“This is my 16th start in the Masters, so I feel like I’ve done it quite a few different ways, and I guess am just trying to bring a little bit of normalcy into what I sort of try to do week in, week out.

“I play 25 weeks a year, and there’s no point in doing anything different this week compared to other weeks, I guess.

“I wanted to play quite a bit leading up to this just to feel like my game was sharp or, if it wasn’t sharp, to try to get it in the best shape possible. I feel like I made a couple of good strides in that direction last week in Texas.

“I usually try to get into tournaments either Monday nights or Tuesday mornings, and that’s sort of what I’ve done this week.

“I came up here last week to play two practice rounds at the start of the week so I feel like I’ve already got most of my prep work done. So it’s just about going out there and being relaxed and being in the right frame of mind.

“Not trying to win it from the first tee shot is something that I’ve tried to learn. It’s a 72-hole golf tournament. I’ve won from 10 strokes back going into the weekend.

“This golf course gets you to chase things a little more than other golf courses, if you make a bogey or if you get yourself out of position, because it always tempts you to do something you think you can do.

“And I’m pretty confident in my golf game. I think I can do most things, but sometimes you just have to take the conservative route and be a little more disciplined and patient.”

Tiger Woods insists he can win a sixth green jacket and 16th major title, despite detailing the pain he faces on the vast majority of shots at Augusta National.

Woods has played fewer than five-and-a-half competitive rounds since undergoing ankle surgery in April last year after withdrawing from the Masters during the third round.

The 48-year-old returned to action in the Hero World Challenge in December and completed all 72 holes, but was forced to withdraw from the Genesis Invitational in February due to illness after six holes of the second round.

Woods had also suffered a back spasm which led to a dreaded shank on the 18th hole in round one, but stuck to his tried and tested answer when asked what he thought he could achieve this week.

“If everything comes together, I think I can get one more,” Woods said, adding with a smile: “Do I need to describe that any more than that, or are we good?”

Yet that question and answer came just minutes after Woods had candidly described the issues that the litany of injuries he has suffered over the years – including almost losing his right leg following a car accident in 2021 – cause him on anything but a perfectly flat lie.

“Every shot that’s not on a tee box is a challenge,” Woods conceded.

“The ankle doesn’t hurt anymore. It’s fused. It’s not going anywhere. So that’s fine. It’s other parts of my body that now have to take the brunt of it.

“The back, the knee, other parts of the body have to take the load of it and just the endurance capability of walking a long time and being on my feet for a long time (is an issue).

“Things just flare up. The training that we have to do at home, it changes from a day-to-day basis. Some days I just feel really good and other days not so much. I hurt every day.

“I thought that, when I was at Hero, once a month would be a really nice rhythm. Hasn’t worked out that way. But now we have major championships every month from here through July so now the once a month hopefully kicks in.”

While writing Woods off has proved a dangerous game in the past, making a 24th-consecutive cut at Augusta National, having equalled the record shared by Gary Player and Fred Couples last year, appears a far more achievable goal than winning.

“I think it’s consistency, it’s longevity and it’s an understanding of how to play this golf course,” Woods said of that potential landmark.

“That’s one of the reasons why you see players that are in their 50s and 60s make cuts here, or it’s players in their late 40s have runs at winning the event, just the understanding of how to play it.

“Now, you still have to go out and execute it, but there’s a lot of knowledge that goes into understanding how to play it. And, granted, every tee box has been changed since the first time I played. Every green has been changed.

“But the overall configuration of how they roll and how they move and the angles you take, that hasn’t changed.

“That’s the neat thing about this. I can still go through the mental Rolodex and bring out a few putts from the ’90s that still move generally in that direction and the effect that Rae’s Creek has on certain shots and putts. And it means a lot.”

Woods, who will partner Jason Day and Max Homa in the first two rounds, said he remained in discussions about becoming Ryder Cup captain in 2025 and also reiterated his view that Rory McIlroy would definitely win the Masters at some point to complete the career grand slam.

“No question, he’ll do it at some point,” Woods said. “Rory’s too talented, too good. He’s going to be playing this event for a very long time. He’ll get it done. It’s just a matter of when.

“I think that Rory will be a great Masters champion one day and it could be this week. The way he plays the game and the golf course fits his eye, it’s just a matter of time.”

Jon Rahm insists his competitive edge has not been dulled by his move to LIV Golf as he bids to become just the fourth player to win back-to-back Masters titles.

Rahm’s shock move to the Saudi-backed breakaway competition came after he had previously pledged his loyalty to the PGA Tour and criticised LIV’s 54-hole format, with no cut and a shotgun start as “not a golf tournament”.

The two-time major winner has failed to win any of the five LIV events he has played but travelled to Augusta on the back of finishing fourth in Miami on Sunday and winning the team event at Doral.

“I’ve had a lot of fun playing in those events,” Rahm said. “The competition’s still there.

“Yeah, they’re smaller fields but you still have to beat some of the best players in the world and you still have to play at the same level you have to play on the PGA Tour to win those events.

“I understand there’s less people. I understand the team format’s a little different. I understand we’re going shotgun and things are a little bit different to how they are in a PGA TOUR event.

“But the pressure’s there. I want to win as bad as I wanted to win before I moved on to LIV. Going down the stretch when you’re in contention is the exact same feelings. That really doesn’t change.

“Winning is winning and that’s what matters.”

At this time last year Rahm had played eight PGA Tour events and won three of them, although his last two events before the Masters had seem him withdraw from the Players Championship due to illness and fail to advance from the group stages of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

“If anything, if I had to go based on how I feel today, on a Tuesday, I feel physically better than I did last year,” added Rahm, who started the first round with a four-putt bogey but still shot an opening 65.

“But then once competition starts, it doesn’t really matter. Once the gun goes off, whatever you feel is out the window. You’ve got to go out there and post a score.

“It wouldn’t be the first time we hear somebody not feeling their best and winning. The first one that comes to mind is Ben Crenshaw after he lost his swing coach and to come back after being at the funeral and win it.

“So it’s not something that I have in mind [fewer competitive rounds], but I do feel fresh and ready for it.”

Rahm faced the “quite daunting” prospect of making a speech at his Champions Dinner in front of what he described as an audience of “all the living legends in this game”.

That audience includes fellow LIV players and former champions Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel and Patrick Reed, but a lack of world ranking points for LIV events makes it much harder to earn a place in the year’s first major.

“There’s got to be a way for certain players in whatever tour to be able to earn their way in,” Rahm said.

“I don’t know what that looks like. But there’s got to be a fair way for everybody to compete. They’ll need to figure out a way to evaluate how the LIV players are doing and how they can earn their way.”

Sergio Garcia claimed his first major title after beating Justin Rose in a play-off to win the Masters on this day in 2017.

Garcia became the third Spanish winner at Augusta National with a birdie on the first extra hole following a sensational duel with Ryder Cup team-mate Rose.

The pair had finished tied on nine under par after closing rounds of 69, with Rose overturning an early three-stroke deficit to lead by a shot after 16 holes, only to bogey the 17th and then fail to convert a birdie attempt from seven feet on the last.

That gave Garcia the opportunity to win his first major at the 74th attempt, but his putt flashed wide of the hole forcing a play-off.

The players returned to the 18th, where England’s Rose was unable to save par after pushing his drive into the trees and hitting a poor recovery, but Garcia finished in style by holing from 12 feet for a birdie.

Garcia’s victory was made all the more sweeter by winning the title on what would have been the 60th birthday of his idol Seve Ballesteros.

“It’s been a long wait but it’s that much sweeter because of that wait. I get to call myself Masters champion and that’s amazing,” Garcia said.

“It’s amazing to do it on Seve’s 60th birthday and to join him and (Jose Maria) Olazabal, my two idols in golf.

“Jose sent me a text on Wednesday telling me how much he believed in me and what I needed to do, believe in myself, be calm and not let things get to me as I had in the past.”

Sir Nick Faldo believes Rory McIlroy has at least another decade of opportunities to win the Masters, despite the scar tissue from his previous attempts.

McIlroy famously squandered a four-shot lead in the final round in 2011 and has recorded six top 10s at Augusta National since victory in the 2014 Open left him needing a green jacket to complete a career grand slam.

The world number two finished second behind Scottie Scheffler in 2022 thanks to a thrilling final round of 64 and is second favourite behind the same player this week after finishing third in the Texas Open on Sunday.

Asked if McIlroy, who will turn 35 next month, was running out of chances to win the Masters, Faldo said: “I disagree.

“The game has changed. We have brought the physical element in and we understand the physical side.

“It was always 30-35 when you were in your prime and he is still in his prime. They are so fit and trained now so he has got at least another 10 years I would say of being supersonically fit.

“I still think the problem is times gone by. We are nearly 10 years now since his last major. That is the problem.

“Unfortunately it’s just going on, time after time. It’s not just this season. There’s four or five or six years of scar tissue now, of Rory coming in as favourite, playing great.

“He has tried his best at times. ‘Can I re-set, can I literally forget the past, who I am? Look how talented I am and go and play golf again’. It is not that easy. Can you turn back the clock? Can you delete all the negativity that you have seen and felt?

“I think there is a way where he could find his stride because, as we know, when he finds that stride and gets that trust, then he is phenomenal. I bet that is all he wants to do – just set me free.”

To achieve that goal Faldo believes McIlroy has done the right thing by stepping down from his role on the PGA Tour’s policy board after almost two years of being the most prominent figure in the Tour’s fight with LIV Golf.

But the six-time major winner remains incredulous that McIlroy agreed to conduct a live “walk and talk” interview during the first round of last year’s Masters, an event in which he went on to miss the cut.

“I didn’t like it,” Faldo added. “I thought, ‘You’re kidding me! The Masters?’. Sure, do that any other week but why the Masters?

“I mean, that is one of the most beautiful things about the Masters. It’s you and your caddie, just the two of you and the other players. That’s all that’s inside the ropes.

“And to suddenly bring other people in? Because that’s got to be organised, hasn’t it? And this sort of thing, your manager is going to say to you before, ‘Will you do this?’. Gosh, no, you need 100 per cent concentration.

“I think he’s trying to put priorities into golf. You’ve got to look out. You have a window as an athlete, don’t you? You’ve got tons of time once you’ve stopped playing your sport to go and do all your other stuff.

“But while you’re an athlete, give it 100 per cent. That was kind of my attitude. You know, once you get your mind into other things, business and all sorts, then it’s hurting your golf. It really does.”

:: The Masters will be available on Sky Sports Golf and via a NOW subscription from 11th – 14th April, and you can follow all the latest news on Sky Sports social and digital channels throughout the week.

Open champion Brian Harman believes his experience of handling a hostile Hoylake means he is better equipped to chase more major glory.

Harman was heckled by a minority of spectators at Royal Liverpool and even had one persistent offender ejected from the course before completing a comprehensive six-shot victory.

As a Georgia native and graduate of the state’s university, it will be a totally different story at Augusta National – although Harman insisted he would relish proving his doubters wrong again as much as hearing cries of support for his alma mater’s Georgia Bulldogs.

“It seems like I do better when everyone’s rooting against me than rooting for me,” Harman said. “That’s a new challenge.

“Around Augusta there’s a lot of Dawgs out here, and you hear it all week, and it’s fantastic. So I’ll have to try to channel it. Maybe I’ll just pretend that they’re yelling mean things instead of nice things.

“After The Open I feel as though I’m more prepared to handle whatever comes my way because at the Open and then the Ryder Cup, these pressure-packed situations, I’ve seen myself perform pretty well under that pressure.

“I live to feel those moments. Like, that’s like the drug for me. I want to get in contention in big golf tournaments. So my goal is to try and get to those uncomfortable places as many times as I can.

“I think it just unlocks something (in me), like proving people wrong, or just being your back against the wall.

Harman is making just his sixth start in the Masters and has missed the cut in three of his five previous appearances, although he was one shot off the halfway lead in 2021 before fading to 12th.

The 37-year-old is also well aware that fellow left-handers Phil Mickelson , Bubba Watson and Mike Weir have all won the Masters in recent years.

“Lefties have done pretty well around here (but) I think the conditions kind of have to go in my favour,” Harman added.

“It’s a long golf course. I make no bones about that. I don’t make any excuses about how far I hit the ball or make any gripes about how long courses are. I just show up and try to be ready to play.

“The US Open I had a chance to win (in 2017) was the longest one in US Open history. So the length doesn’t scare me. I’ve just got to prepare myself.

“It’s evolved into a really hard golf course. It’s just one of those things where you want to fast-forward and be on the back nine Sunday making lots of birdies.

“But there’s a lot that happens in between teeing off Thursday and that back nine.”

Tiger Woods received a glowing review from playing partner Will Zalatoris after stepping up his preparations for the 88th Masters at Augusta National.

Woods has played fewer than five-and-a-half competitive rounds since undergoing ankle surgery in April last year after withdrawing from the Masters during the third round.

The 48-year-old returned to action in December’s Hero World Challenge and finished 18th in the 20-man field, but was forced to withdraw from the Genesis Invitational in February due to illness after six holes of the second round.

Woods had also suffered a back spasm which led to a dreaded shank on the 18th hole in round one.

However, having made a record-equalling 23rd consecutive cut in last year’s Masters, Woods will no doubt be keen to at least own that record for himself this week and he certainly impressed Zalatoris in their nine holes of practice.

Asked if the prospect of Woods making a 24th straight cut “blew his mind”, Zalatoris said: “It’s just everything the guy has done.

“You could just sit there and analyse the same stats for his entire career and put him in five different buckets and every one of them is never going to be broken.

“He played great today. He outdrove me a couple times so there was some chirping going on. So, you know, he looks great. He’s moving as well as he can be.

“With everything he’s gone through, it’s pretty amazing to see how good he’s swinging it.”

Akshay Bhatia survived losing a six-hole lead and injuring his shoulder to win the Valero Texas Open.

The American injured his shoulder celebrating the birdie which earned him a place in a play-off with Denny McCarthy, but clinched victory on the first hole after receiving treatment.

Rory McIlroy was a distant third, nine shots adrift, as he completed his Masters warm-up with a bogey-free 66.

Bhatia clinched a place at The Masters with his second PGA Tour victory, which had seemed a lot more straightforward when he held a six-shot lead heading into the final nine holes.

McCarthy birdied his last seven holes to shoot 63 and wipe out the deficit, leaving Bhatia needing to hole from 12 feet for a birdie to force the play-off.

He found the cup to complete a 67 and move alongside McCarthy at 20-under-par, but felt his shoulder pop out of its socket as he raised his arms in celebration.

After McCarthy found the creek in front of the 18th green in the play-off, Bhatia had his shoulder taped before hitting his wedge to six feet and holing to clinch victory.

The 22-year-old will become the first finalist from the Drive, Chip and Putt event to return to Augusta to play in The Masters.

Tiger Woods will inevitably say he is there to win the Masters when he gives his pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday.

Woods has always insisted he only enters events if he thinks he can “get the W”, no matter the state of his game or his body, and writing off the 15-time major winner has always been a dangerous game.

Yet there is no escaping the fact that the 48-year-old has played fewer than five and a half competitive rounds since undergoing ankle surgery in April last year after withdrawing from the Masters during the third round.

Having made a record-equalling 23rd consecutive cut at Augusta National last year, Woods’ most realistic target appears to be separating himself from Fred Couples and Gary Player in the record books by extending that streak to 24.

Two-time US Open winner and ESPN analyst Andy North said: “I think playing on the weekend would be a win.

“He’s going to tell you that he’s there because he thinks he can win the tournament but to be realistic, what he’s gone through you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.

“What he has to do to get ready to go out and try to play golf every single day is very, very difficult.

“Just to get him there and get around for the week and play some good golf and hit some nice shots, I think that would be awesome.

“We saw him in LA (at the Genesis Invitational) and I thought he looked a lot better walking around from that standpoint. Then his back went out on him. We haven’t seen him since.

“There’s talk he’s been playing some golf, he’s been practising. He’s been doing what he needs to do, but we really don’t know. Is his back okay?

“We’ve talked so much since the (car) accident about his leg and how hard it is to walk and all these other things, but we really don’t know.

“To me, it’s always interesting to see what we see out of him. What he’s given us over the last 25 years has been just second to none. It’s been such a joy to be able to watch him.

“If he were to say this is the last time he’s going to play, we’ve seen so much greatness out of him, good for him if he wants to walk away.

“I mean, he doesn’t have to do this for anybody else other than himself, and I think he still wants to prove that he can do it.

“Would we love to see him come in here and hit a lot of good shots on Thursday and be under par and be in the mix of it? Of course we would.

“Again, if he shoots 68 or 78 the first day, you wouldn’t be surprised that anything could possibly happen.”

If Jon Rahm needed any reassurance that his shock move to LIV Golf would not harm his chances of winning more majors, he did not need to look hard for evidence.

After starting with a four-putt double bogey in last year’s Masters, Rahm ended up battling with Brooks Koepka in the final round and ultimately finishing four shots clear of Koepka and Phil Mickelson.

With Patrick Reed another shot behind in a tie for fourth it was a strong showing for the LIV contingent, who enjoyed even more bragging rights a month later when Koepka claimed his fifth major title in the US PGA.

So while it is undeniable that Rahm’s preparations for his Masters title defence are a world away from those of 12 months ago – three PGA Tour wins in eight starts compared to contesting just five 54-hole LIV events – there is little chance of the Spaniard being written off for being unprepared.

“I came in here last year thinking the same thing about all of the LIV players, the ones that potentially could win, and they proved me wrong,” two-time US Open champion and ESPN analyst Curtis Strange admitted.

“Two or three of them played really well. So I don’t think that’s a point any more.

“I expect Rahm to be ready to go. I think, because of what Rahm’s been through a little bit the last year, going over there, he might feel that he has a little bit more to prove.

“But he’s incredibly talented, great champion at the Masters. There’s no reason why he couldn’t be champion there again this year.”

The stars certainly seemed to align for Rahm last year, his victory coming on the 40th anniversary of his idol Seve Ballesteros claiming a second win at Augusta National and on what would have been his fellow Spaniard’s 66th birthday.

It even concluded with the kind of par on the 18th of which Ballesteros would have been proud, although Rahm still insists his tee shot into the trees, which meant his ball failed to even reach the fairway, was not as terrible as it looked.

“Out of all the great things that week, a lot of people remember the four-putt and the tee shot on 18, which wasn’t as bad as people think,” Rahm said with a smile.

“What stood out to me is I had this image in my mind of how great I played all week, which I did, and then I watch the actual summary and I couldn’t help to think, man, I missed a lot more shots than I thought I did.

“I guess it is a good lesson to have in mind, right? Not only that I could play better in theory but the fact that there’s a mental lesson there, that you’re going to miss shots and you just have to figure out how to minimise the damage.

“Going back to Sunday, it’s always very difficult to put into words. Very few times do I remember in any sporting event to have so many things line up to make something so memorable for a player.

“With it being Easter, with it being Seve’s birthday, with my caddie Adam and me registering as the 49th player and being 4/9, the actual date of April 9th, being the fourth Spaniard to win it, 10th Spanish major.

“Just a lot of little things that made it so much more special than what already winning the green jacket and being the Masters champion is.”

Speaking of special memories, Rahm’s came in the early hours of the morning following his victory, when he took advantage of his new status to access parts of the clubhouse which are usually off limits.

“I was there with my dad and [wife] Kelley in the clubhouse,” he explained.

“It’s one in the morning and I said if there’s a time to maybe get away with something it’s right now, so I asked, can we go to the champions locker room because I don’t know if they’re ever going to be able to go up there again. They said yes.

“It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, to see people’s names on the lockers, to actually see the locker room.

“My dad and I walked out to the balcony looking down Magnolia Lane, what you could see of it in the pitch darkness. Somebody took a picture of my dad and I talking, me with the jacket on, and it’s one of the better pictures we have.

“I think it’s my dad’s or my mom’s WhatsApp picture, which is really cool to see, and then having Kelley up there for that as well, is special.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to recreate that again with any of them, but I’m really glad that they let us do that and they got to see the history of it.”