The return has been slow going, save for Schauffele extending his cut streak to 60 tournaments on the PGA Tour.
But is he Masters ready? He has yet to register a top 10 in three starts since his return.
“Competition golf is not the same as trying to play golf at home,” Schauffele said. “High bar was set after last year, and coming off of that season I expected a lot of myself, and I still do now, even though it hasn’t really looked like that.”
Of course, the idea of this being a two-horse race even before the gates open is insulting to the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League. They are back among the best for the first time since the British Open last July.
Rahm blew a back-nine lead at the Olympics, which would have been a gold feather in his cap with LIV getting so few opportunities on big stages. With only four such opportunities a year, Augusta National has become a real proving ground for them, particularly since any deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi supporters behind LIV seems to be at a standstill.
They are among 12 players from LIV in the field, a group that includes Joaquin Niemann of Chile, who received a special exemption for the second straight year. He already has won twice this year, but his goals are higher.
“I know I’m going to win a major. I know it’s going to happen,” Niemann said after he won in Singapore. “Maybe not at the Masters, maybe yes. I have no idea. I just know it’s going to happen. … The way my game trending, I know it’s going to happen eventually, so I’m pretty calm knowing that.”
Believing and doing are different. No one knows that better than McIlroy.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
