Tiger arrives for Sunday stroll at Augusta
Sergio opens LIV door for Burmester; Bhatia delivers DC&P milestone
It’s officially Masters week, and the Daily Drive team is ready to jump right into the season’s first major at Augusta National. So without further ado …
Tiger Woods blasts from bunker on No. 2 at Augusta on Sunday (Joel Marklund/Augusta National)
Welcome back Tiger … again
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA — The plane-tracking sleuths were at it again on Sunday, recognizing that Tiger Woods’ private plane was departing from the Stuart, Florida, airport and headed toward Augusta, Georgia. This was no surprise, but a nice confirmation nonetheless.
A few hours later it was real as Woods arrived at Augusta National, avoided the practice area, headed to the putting green near the clubhouse and then directly to the first green — with just a few clubs in hand to practice only his short game and putts on the front nine.
Woods was following a similar practice plan to the one he employed in 2019, when he went on to win his fifth Masters and 15th major title. He also did the abbreviated Sunday prep plan last year, when he eventually withdrew during the third round. The gameplan was to simply chip and putt around the greens.
Woods’ physical woes will once again be part of the story as it is unclear just how fit he is at this point having just played 24 holes on the PGA Tour this season. While suggesting late last year he might play once a month, Woods withdrew with the flu after just six holes of the second round of the Genesis Invitational on Feb. 16, then failed to add another tournament prior to the Masters.
Tiger Woods at Augusta on Sunday (Joel Marklund/Augusta National)
A one-day visit to Augusta National on March 30 to play a practice round was a good sign that Woods planned to tee it up at the Masters, as was Sunday’s arrival. Woods will likely play nine-hole practice rounds this week and could possibly take one of the days off to simply hit shots on the range.
This will be Woods’ 26th Masters. He played his first two in 1995 and 1996 as an amateur, missing the cut in the latter. Since 1997, Woods has played in 23 Masters and made the cut in all of them, a streak that tied him with Gary Player and Fred Couples for the Masters record for consecutive made cuts.
Setting the new mark on his own will be one of his goals this week.
So will be getting around the course without the difficulties he’s shown the last two years.
This will be just his eighth worldwide start since returning from the February 2021 car crash that severely injured his lower right leg, ankle and foot. He’s finished 72 holes in just three of those events, the most recent at the unofficial Hero World Challenge in December, where he finished 18th out of 20 players.
Bur-Masters? Sorry, Dean
Dean Burmester of South Africa is not in the Masters field this week. But he just beat 13 players who will be at Augusta National, defeating Sergio García in a two-hole sudden-death playoff in the LIV Golf Miami event at Doral.
There will undoubtedly be plenty of chatter about Burmester’s omission from the field. He was ranked 113th in the Official World Golf Ranking despite receiving no points for LIV events.
Late last year, Burmester won consecutive events on the DP World Tour in his native South Africa that were also co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour — the Joburg Open and the South African Open Championship. The SA Open victory earned him a spot in the Open Championship at Royal Troon this summer.
Louis Oosthuizen showers Dean Burmester in champagne at Doral (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
But those victories weren’t enough to earn him a special international exemption from Augusta National, along with fellow LIV golfer Joaquin Niemann. Burmester did not suggest he has a problem with the club.
“I can’t say that,’’ Burmester said in a post-round interview at Doral. “Augusta, they make their own decisions. But I feel like I’ve played some of the best golf of my career and I feel like I’ve played against a lot of good players all over the world and won. And this kind of just proves it.
“I want to be in the [Masters] field, obviously. I feel like I’ve played some really great golf over the last five, six months. The two wins back home in South African before Christmas were special, two tournaments I’ve wanted to win for a long time. To win the South African Open, which is the second oldest tournament in the world, is a privilege. I thought I held myself really well there, and to come here on a golf course like this that’s major worthy and to beat major champions, I’m happy to have done that.
“Do I want to be at Augusta? Yeah, I’ve never been there before. So yeah, I want to be there.”
García — who earlier in the week stated “we’re coming for the green jacket” — three-putted the 18th green in regulation, missing a 5-footer for par that would have won his first LIV Golf event. On the second playoff hole, he hit his approach in the water en route to a bogey that opened the door for Burmester, who shot a final-round 68 on Doral’s Blue Monster. García, who won the 2017 Masters, shot 70 after taking a two-shot lead into the final round.
The playoff defeat was García’s third as part of LIV Golf and he has yet to win on the circuit. He lost to Niemann earlier this year in Mayakoba, Mexico.
Defending Masters champion Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton tied for fourth at Doral (their Legion XIII team won) and Bryson DeChambeau tied for seventh. All three players are among the 13 LIV golfers in the Masters field.
Hatton’s caddie, Mick Donaghy, injured his shoulder in Miami and will reportedly be out a month, meaning the Englishman will need a new looper at Augusta.
“My caddie fell over last night after dinner,” Hatton said. “Now, his reputation is an interesting one, so I don’t know how the fall really occurred. But either way, he landed on his shoulder.”
Bhatia headed back to Georgia
On a Sunday when the Drive, Chip and Putt celebrated its 10th anniversary at Augusta National, a graduate from its inaugural National Finals became the first DC&P finalist to return as a Masters qualifier.
Akshay Bhatia was 12 years old when he finished sixth in the Boys 12-13 group in 2014. Now 22, he survived a ferocious back-nine charge from Denny McCarthy, a one-hole playoff and a dislocated shoulder to win the Valero Texas Open on Sunday and earn his first trip to the Masters. He brings the field for the 88th Masters to 89 players.
“Man, what a crazy day,” said Bhatia of the conclusion to his second PGA Tour win that he never didn’t lead since Thursday.
“This is awesome. It's hard to win out here as it showed today. My mom's birthday was on April 1 and her wish was to get into the Masters, so I hope I make her proud.”
Bhatia — who turned pro when he was 17 after competing in the Walker Cup as a high schooler — started the final round with a four-shot lead and shot a 5-under 67 on Sunday on the Oaks course at TPC San Antonio yet still needed an extra hole to win. He witnessed a six-shot lead with nine to play disappear without doing much wrong, as McCarthy shot an inward 28 including birdies on his last seven holes of regulation.
McCarthy is somewhat of a putting savant and he proved it in Texas. He needed only 22 putts in a final round 64 and totaled only 92 for the week — tying the PGA Tour record for the fewest in 72 holes originally set by David Frost at Harbour Town in 2005.
“He’s one of the best putters out here, and when you see him get hot, it’s scary,” Bhatia said. “I stuck to my game plan. I played great. But Denny played unbelievable. You have to give him credit.”
When McCarthy — who was already qualified for the Masters — made a 12-footer on the last in regulation, Bhatia had to drain an 11-footer for birdie of his own to force a playoff. His shoulder popped out of his socket when he thrust his arm in celebration of the clutch putt.
“It kind of came out of the socket then went back in,” Bhatia said. “It’s a shoulder I’ve had some issues with.”
In the playoff, McCarthy’s wedge let him down as he laid the sod on his approach to the par-5 18th and plunked it in the water. Bhatia received a little treatment for his dislocated shoulder and showed no ill affects, stiffing his wedge and making the birdie putt to secure his return to Augusta 10 years after his first trip there.
Akshay Bhatia in 2014 DC&P (Scott K. Brown/Augusta National)
“I mean, every kid dreams about going to Augusta National whether you’re a patron, whether you’re a player, caddie, whatever it may be,” he said. “Just being able to go there and feel the aura of the place at such a young age was awesome. I’m looking forward to going back. I know the Drive, Chip and Putt was today, right? Yeah, so I was watching a little bit of that. Just seeing those kids get a little upset by missing the fairway, they don’t realize how amazing that opportunity is for us. Yeah, it was awesome.”
The Masters will be only the second career major start for Bhatia, whose only previous opportunity was as a qualifier in the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. He made the cut and tied for 57th.
“I have bigger goals than just playing the Masters,” Bhatia said. “I have more goals that I want to achieve and this kind of helps me for that.”