The 89th Masters takes place this week at Augusta National Golf Club, and there might as well be 89 storylines to follow. The most notable names are rounding into form as the 2025 PGA Tour season enters its first championship with the games of numerous golfers peaking at the precise right time just as the azaleas have bloomed and Augusta National awaits patrons from the world over to swarm its gates.
Rory McIlroy rolls into Georgia with a wave of momentum at his back and the weight of a mountain on his shoulders. Seeking to become the sixth player to complete a career grand slam, his march to Augusta across first three months of the season has been just about flawless, only turning up the volume on the discussion.
McIlroy is hardly the only golfer being conversed about entering the Masters, of course. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has a chance to join rare company by winning a third green jacket in four years. World No. 3 Xander Schauffele could join perhaps the rarest company imaginable. Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm may represent LIV Golf’s best shot at winning, but it is another name who may, in fact, have the best shot at bringing a green jacket back to that tour.
Let’s dive into the nine most captivating storylines entering the 89th Masters with the week just kicking off from one of the nation’s most pristine courses.
Watch all four rounds of the 2025 Masters with expanded coverage from CBS Sports. It starts Thursday with Masters Live as we follow the best in the world across Featured Groups, Amen Corner and holes 15 & 16. Watch those streams live across Paramount+, CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports App with extended broadcast coverage Saturday and Sunday from 12-2 p.m. on Paramount+ and 2-7 p.m. on CBS.
Is the 11th time the charm?
It is the storyline every time the Masters rolls around, and this year, it has only been emboldened by McIlroy’s play. The four-time major champion will make his 11th attempt at completing the career grand slam and becoming the sixth golfer ever to raise all four major trophies. (It will also be Rory’s 39th attempt at winning his fifth major after capturing his last at the 2014 PGA Championship. Should McIlroy accomplish his goal, it would mark the latest — by far — any player on this quest achieved the feat, and it will only get more difficult with each passing chance.
- Gene Sarazen: Second attempt at Masters
- Ben Hogan: First attempt at The Open
- Gary Player: Third attempt at the U.S. open
- Jack Nicklaus: Fourth attempt at The Open
- Tiger Woods: First attempt at The Open
This year feels different than those in the past given McIlroy’s two wins before April (a career first) and the well-balanced nature of his game. Still, he will need to play himself into this tournament — something he has not done since 2018 when he stood in the final grouping with eventual champion Patrick Reed. McIlroy has six top 10s in his 10 attempts but two missed cuts across the last four years.
Room for a fourth?
Nicklaus, Woods and Nick Faldo — that’s the list of green jacket holders who successfully defended their garment at the Masters. Scheffler is not only looking to join, he’s seeking a third victory in four years, and he will begin competition Thursday with as good a chance as anyone in recent memory. While the world No. 1 may not be in the same form as he was in 2022 and 2024, he is not far off — and everyone knows he is capable of flipping a switch at any given time.
Rounds of 62 and 63 were posted at the Houston Open — Scheffler’s final start before the Masters — and he’s slowly but surely rounding into form. Winning on the PGA Tour is hard enough, winning a major even more so, and accomplishing the feat in back-to-back years damn near impossible; however, Scheffler has shown that once he has a golf course under his belt, it is as good as his.
He has been a successful defender at TPC Sawgrass, TPC Scottsdale and Albany Golf Club with two wins in three seasons at Bay Hill as well. The two-time champion has gone through the defense dance the week of before, and that experience may prove to be invaluable. Scottie could become the ninth overall and first since Phil Mickelson in 2010 to win a third Masters.
Additional grand slam pursuers
McIlroy at the Masters, Mickelson at the U.S. Open, Jordan Spieth at the PGA Championship. Admittedly, the career grand slam conversation has gotten stale. So, let’s introduce a few more players into this madness. Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele can all add a third leg of their career grand slam chases this week with a Masters victory.
A win would mark Koepka’s sixth major (historic in its own right) and make his trip to Royal Portrush later this summer all the more anticipated. Meanwhile, for both Morikawa and Schauffele, a win would turn this summer’s U.S. Open at Oakmont into a can’t-miss affair, especially when one considers their U.S. Open records.
All three plays have come close to slipping on the green jacket with each in a final Sunday pairing that saw their head-to-head competitor ultimately win the Masters — Morikawa with Scheffler in 2024, Koepka with Rahm in 2023 and Schauffele with Hideki Matsuyama in 2021.
The race to three
The ultimate game within the game is not the race from one major win to two but rather from two to three. Scheffler, Schauffele, Morikawa, Rahm, DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson all enter 2025 with two major championship trophies on their mantles and serious chances to add to their totals. A major win would pull them alongside Spieth, Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Payne Stewart, Billy Casper (and a slew of other names) and past the cluster at two.
The race could be especially historic for Schauffele. He entered the 2024 Masters with a cloud of “he can’t win the big one” hanging over his head. He could leave the 2025 tournament with three major championships in his possession, which would add him to a list that includes only Woods and Hogan as players to hold three or more at the same time.
Will the Americans continue their major dominance?
The run of major winners and the consistency in which the red, white and blue has flown high atop the leaderboard in the four biggest tournaments of the year has been immense of late. Americans have raised seven straight major trophies — the longest stretch since 1974-77 — and last year alone, all four major champions hailed from the United States. That marked the first time since 1982 such a feat had been accomplished.
Last seven major winners
- Brooks Koepka (2024 PGA Championship)
- Wyndham Clark (2024 U.S. Open)
- Brian Harman (2024 Open)
- Scottie Scheffler (2024 Masters)
- Xander Schauffele (2024 PGA Championship)
- Bryson DeChambeau (2024 U.S. Open)
- Xander Schauffele (2024 Open)
Put up or shut up time
He may be one of the top players in the game, but he has yet to show it on the major championship stage. Joaquín Niemann enters this year’s Masters with more than enough form in tow following another ferocious start on LIV Golf with a couple of early season victories.
However, across 22 prior major championship appearances, the young Chilean has notched just one top-20 finish — a T16 at the 2023 Masters. It’s still early in his career — and no one wants to rush to judgment — but it is getting late early, and we need to see something out of the right hander. Perhaps it comes this week.
Debutants getting closer
It hasn’t been accomplished since Fuzzy Zoeller won in his debut appearance in 1979, but it has not been for a lack of trying. First-timers have gotten closer and closer throughout the years with this past decade seeing an influx of them finishing inside the top five at the conclusion of their initial strolls around Augusta National.
Notable debutant finishes since 2014
- Jordan Spieth: T2 (2014)
- Jonas Blixt: T2 (2014)
- Cameron Smith: T5 (2018)
- Sungjae Im: T2 (2020)
- Will Zalatoris: 2nd (2021)
- Ludvig Åberg: 2nd (2024)
Last year’s class was a bit unorthodox as it featured not only Åberg but also Clark, the reigning U.S. Open champion. This year group’s might lack the firepower, but there are still some high quality players like Maverick McNealy, Davis Thompson and Taylor Pendrith who could challenge the top of the leaderboard.
No Tiger in sight
For the first time since 2021, the Masters will go on without the 15-time major champion. Woods announced the week of The Players Championship that he ruptured his Achilles while gearing up for the Masters, and instead of trying to add to his record at Augusta National, he will be sitting on the couch and watching from home. While Woods’ absence on the major stage has become more commonplace in recent years, it is no less disappointing. He has now missed five of the last 12 Masters dating back to 2014.
Trees, yes, trees
There are not any substantial changes coming to Augusta National by design this season, but Hurricane Helene had other ideas. The storm, which devastated the Southeast portion of the United States, had a mighty effect on Augusta, Georgia, including Augusta National Golf Club itself.
Numerous trees were removed from the property, which will result in different vantage points for players across the second nine. With new corridors for winds to travel through and some sightline features altered, certain holes — including a number of pivotal ones down the stretch — will not play the exact same way as they have historically.
“Behind 11, the Hogan bridge just absolutely pops now when you’re playing that second shot with them having lost those couple trees behind the 11th green,” 2008 champion Trevor Immelman said. “Behind 15 as well, there’s a couple less trees. I think that could be interesting from a wind swirling perspective, from a depth perception perspective on the 2nd and on the 3rd if you have to lay up at the par-5. Then, to the right of the 9th, [it] seemed to be thinned out because of the devastation from the storm.
“I think that’s going to present some more room for the players if they bail out into the pine straw and the pine trees but also should allow some what I like to call ‘hero shots’ and some opportunities for players to really be able to hit low hooks, low slices around these trees, try and run it up that hill up on to or near the green at 9. So, that might be quite exciting for everybody watching around that green.”