UNITY AMID DIVISION

Whichever orbit the stars inhabit the other 48 weeks of the year—be it with the PGA Tour, LIV or elsewhere—the ultimate focus for the world’s finest golfers remains on the quartet of blue-ribbon titles they grew up coveting: the majors. With that in mind, Paul Trow looks forward to the most keenly awaited season of majors in decades

Anyone for Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed flicking birdies instead of tee pegs at each other with a Green Jacket on the line? How about throwing Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson into the mix for some intoxication in pursuit of the Claret Jug?

Scottie Scheffler versus Brooks Koepka in a battle of the big beasts for the man-sized Wanamaker Trophy perhaps? And who might emerge victorious should the U.S. Open turn into a tag match between fence-sitters

Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele or Euro-stars

Matt Fitzpatrick and Viktor Hovland?

Does anyone remember the days of Tiger and Phil? Theirs was a fierce rivalry between birds of a very different feather across numerous branches of conflict. Ditto Faldo and Norman, Jack and Arnie, Snead and Hogan. Golfers as adversaries, they say, ’twas ever thus! Or was it?

ATournament golf has become a reluctant battlefield with no apparent end to hostilities in sight. Greg Norman’s Saudi paymasters keep poaching talent from the ranks of veterans and also-rans, while the peacock performers preen, pout and posture in their patchwork Player Impact Program paradise. Lawyers and courtroom flunkeys salivate at the prospect of sequestering untold riches from a sport that has been too honorable for its own good in the past. And those who choose to occupy the moral high ground steam with indignant boiling rage at the gross unfairness of it all.

No… Planet Golf has veered mightily off course in recent times and is a long way from home. But at the center of every universe are sources of light and gravity, and for our fractured game these opportunities for salvation are the four major championships.

For many fans, confused and frustrated by the events of the previous 12 months, the historic landmarks in golf’s 2023 calendar cannot arrive fast enough.

First up, for the 87th time, is the Masters at Augusta National. Scheffler earned the right to host the Champions’ Dinner after an enterprising weekend of shot-making and luck-riding last April, and who’s to say he won’t produce similar exploits in his first defense?

The rangy young Texan has been a model of consistency since his breakthrough in 2021, and he regained the world number-1 spot with a successful defense of the Phoenix Open in February. But to retain the Masters he would be going where only three men have gone before—Jack Nicklaus, Sir Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.

That is quite a roll call, and to join their illustrious company Scheffler will need to overcome a fearsome array of challengers, all of whom, like him, are at or near their prime.

As every partisan and neutral fan of the game knows, McIlroy is just a Green Jacket short of completing only the sixth career grand slam in the history of the modern majors—following Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Nicklaus, Gary Player and Woods. He was second by three shots to Scheffler in 2022, but there is little doubt he has served his dues at Augusta National, where he has recorded seven top-10 finishes in the past nine years.

FThe alumni of former Masters champions now gorging themselves on the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s banquet—Reed, Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel, Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson—cannot be discounted either. Whether or not they all turn up, surely one of them, at least, will be there at the death, intent on ruffling more than a few establishment feathers.

But the Masters, above all, is a botanical hothouse that rewards the excellence, imagination and boldness of tall poppies. Into that category come Jon Rahm, Thomas, Cameron Smith, Collin Morikawa and Jordan Spieth, all still in their 20s. Spieth has blossomed before, in 2015, and it could only be a matter of time before he is joined in the pantheon by the other four.

However, since the Masters came into being, back in 1934, there have been players, giants of the game during their appointed era, who have failed to make the Sunday stride into the Butler Cabin despite being eminently qualified. Think Walter Hagen, Lee Trevino, Norman, Ernie Els and Jim Furyk, to name but a few.

And, of course, there have always been surprise winners. Before Danny Willett in 2016, we had Zach Johnson (2007), Trevor Immelman (2008) and his fellow South African Schwartzel (2011). Who knows, 2023 could deliver another unsung hero, and who better to call the feat in the CBS booth alongside his holiness Jim Nantz than Immelman, golf TV’s new pin-up boy?

Little more than a month after the patrons have shuffled off their Augusta coil, the glitterati will reconvene over the East Course at Oak Hill Country Club in upstate New York for the 105th PGA Championship. Thomas, the son and grandson of PGA professionals, will be defending the title he won for a second time at Southern Hills last May via a playoff with Will Zalatoris, but one suspects he will need to be more accurate off the tee than usual if he is to complete a hat-trick. His great pal Spieth will face similar challenges as he homes in on this elusive title for his own grand slam of majors.

Whatever happens, the grand old Rochester arboretum will, by all accounts, be less tree-lined than before, but it will no doubt play as tight as ever with encroaching rough with the constitution of knotted spinach, and sunken bunkers that can confound many an aspiration. The greens, though, are likely to be bigger than before, and less sloping, and perhaps not too quick given the time of year. It is therefore anyone’s guess

Lwhether Oak Hill will be its usual miserly self in cold, breezy, early-season conditions or an open invitation to a birdie-fest.

More guesswork will be required when assessing the prospect of the 123rd U.S. Open in June at Los Angeles Country Club, which will be making its major championship debut well into its 13th decade. There is no form to go on when assessing the challenges that are likely to be posed by the North Course, and which players might prosper, though the USGA is already sufficiently impressed with Gil Hanse’s makeover to award it the 2039 U.S. Open as well.

As an aside, the 16-year gap will give everyone concerned plenty of time to make corrections should the examination paper in June prove too quirky, and the USGA’s caution is understandable after the qualified success of recent U.S. Opens at first-time venues Chambers Bay and Erin Hills.

Still, experiment though this may be, the natural terrain at Los Angeles CC offers numerous elevation changes along with spectacular views of Beverly Hills and Downtown L.A., while the lavish bunkering and well-protected greens provide a subtle antidote to the distances that modern players hit their shots on standard PGA Tour courses.