Unique 84-year Masters record in jeopardy

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Cameron Smith just needed a sense of urgency to hit him right in the face. Complacency can be a killer in all sports, and for the second season running, Smith had let a solid start to a season fade away with a quiet middle. Last year, Smith opened by making 10 of his first 11 cuts with five top-10 finishes. His next nine starts, however, yielded just four weekends, with a best finish of 23rd. But Smith thrives under the gun. With the FedExCup Playoffs approaching, Smith fired up and made his last four cuts of the year, including two top 10s. This season, Smith made his first nine cuts, with three top-10 results. He also defended his Australian PGA Championship title. But then, he missed five of his next 11 cuts, with a 29th place the high mark. The 25-year-old Australian then saw he’d slipped outside the automatic selection zone for the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in December – where he hopes to make his International Team debut. He also noticed his FedExCup rank sliding ominously closer to the dreaded 125 mark. Cue the uptick in his performances. At The Open Championship Smith, finished 20th, but threatened the top 10 until wild weather hit Sunday. Proving it was no fluke, the former Zurich Classic of New Orleans winner opened the World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational on Thursday with a 5-under 65 to be tied second. He’s on pace to finish strong once more. “I like having a motive. Something to play for,â€� Smith admitted. “It has been a bit of a frustrating year. I’ve had a long middle of the season there, couldn’t really get much rolling. I was working hard and nothing was kind of going my way. “That’s just golf sometimes, you never really know what it’s going to throw at you. Keep grinding through it and the results will always be around the corner.â€� Smith’s finish a week ago moved him back to eighth in the Presidents Cup standings with just five weeks before the top eight secure spots for Melbourne. His destiny in his own hands. “My destiny has been in my own hands all year, but it is certainly a huge goal of mine to be on the Presidents Cup team,â€� Smith said. “I think I’ve played well enough to be on it. But now it’s up to me to make sure if it.â€� Sitting with Smith in a tie for second, three shots behind leader Jon Rahm, is Japan’s Shugo Imahira. Imahira sits 12th on the International team standings and also has desires to make it to Melbourne. The two-time Japan Tour winner has placed in the top 10 in his last five starts on his home Tour. “I haven’t been watching the standings too closely but I know a good performance this week could help my goal of making the team,â€� Imahira said through a translator. “It would be an honor to make it.â€�

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2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, Round 1 Scoring Conditions: Overall: +1.11 strokes per round Morning wave: +1.23 Afternoon wave: +0.98 Current cutline (top 65 and ties): 70 players at +1 or better (T56) Top 3 projected cutline probabilities: 1. 2 over par: 39.9% 2. 1 over par: 30.8% 3. 3 over par: 17.9% Top 10 win probabilities: 1. Rory McIlroy (T1, -6, 26.6%) 2. Bryson DeChambeau (3, -5, 18.4%) 3. Corey Conners (T1, -6, 7.8%) 4. Viktor Hovland (T7, -3, 6.9%) 5. Sungjae Im (T7, -3, 3.9%) 6. Matthew Fitzpatrick (T7, -3, 3.8%) 7. Jason Kokrak (T4, -4, 3.6%) 8. Sebastian Munoz (T4, -4, 2.2%) 9. Byeong Hun An (T4, -4, 2.1%) 10. Jason Day (T15, -2, 2.1%) NOTE: These reports are based off of the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live "Make Cut", "Top 20", "Top 5", and "Win" probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, or to see how each golfer's probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model's home page.

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As the calendar turns to April, signs of spring are all around. And that, of course, includes the start of the Masters Tournament. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the last two editions – it was moved to November in 2020, and a limited number of patrons were welcomed back in 2021 – but things are back to normal at Augusta National Golf Club this year. Here’s everything you need to know leading into the first men’s major championship of 2022: FIELD NOTES: Will he or won’t he tee it up? As of the morning of April 2, Tiger Woods is still listed in the field for the 2022 Masters, but no official word has been said either way. According to various reports, Woods played a practice round on March 29 at Augusta National. He suffered serious leg injuries in a car crash in February 2021 and hasn’t teed it up on TOUR since. He played alongside his son Charlie at the PNC Championship in December … Defending champion Hideki Matsuyama is another question mark. Matsuyama withdrew from THE PLAYERS Championship before play began, citing a back injury. He withdrew from the Valero Texas Open midway through the second round, citing a neck injury … Professionals making their Masters debut this week include three-time TOUR winner Sam Burns, Cameron Davis, Talor Gooch, Lucas Herbert, Garrick Higgo, Harry Higgs, Tom Hoge, K.H. Lee, Min Woo Lee, Guido Migliozzi, Seamus Power, Sepp Straka, Harold Varner III and Cameron Young … Amateurs in the field include Austin Greaser, Stewart Hagestad, Aaron Jarvis, James Piot, Laird Shepard and Keita Nakajima – the top-ranked amateur in the world … PGA TOUR Champions regulars who also own a Green Jacket and are back for more in 2022 include Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer, Vijay Singh and Mike Weir … Harris English announced he would withdraw from this year’s Masters as he continues to recover from hip surgery. English hasn’t teed it up on TOUR since the Sony Open in Hawaii … If the winner of the Valero Texas Open has not yet qualified, he will earn the final spot in the Masters field. Corey Conners was the last to pull the feat. He Monday qualified into the 2019 Valero Texas Open and proceeded to win the tournament. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 600 FedExCup points. COURSE: Augusta National Golf Club, par 72, 7,510 yards. The iconic Alister MacKenzie/Bobby Jones design saw two changes for the 2022 edition of the Masters. Both the par-4 11th and par-5 15th holes have been lengthened. The 11th sees 15 yards added to it (520 yards from 505) and the tee box has been shifted to the left. The 15th now plays 20 yards longer (550 yards). Hideki Matsuyama’s 10-under 278 was the highest winning total at Augusta National since Sergio Garcia’s 9-under 279 four years prior. STORYLINES: Rory McIlroy is still hunting for the career Grand Slam. The 2022 Masters tournament will mark his eighth crack at winning the Green Jacket since moving to the verge of the career Grand Slam with his win at the 2014 Open Championship … Can Scottie Scheffler keep up his excellent form? Scheffler has won three times in his last five starts on TOUR and ascended to world No. 1 in the process … Collin Morikawa is looking to become the first man since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win back-to-back majors. Brooks Koepka won two majors in 2018, but Francesco Molinari’s Open Championship triumph came between them. Morikawa won last year’s Open Championship, the final major on the 2021 calendar … Will Jon Rahm’s major-championship success continue at Augusta National? Rahm has finished inside the top-10 in each of his last five major starts, including a victory at the 2021 U.S. Open … Luke List, 37, is returning to Augusta National after a 17-year absence. The low amateur in 2005 is playing his first Masters as a professional after his win at the Farmers Insurance Open … Will a major-less TOUR winner break through this week? Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Smith and Xander Schauffele, all inside the top 10 on the Official World Golf Ranking, have yet to secure a major championship title … Smith comes into Augusta National off his win at THE PLAYERS. Only one player in history has won both THE PLAYERS and the Masters in the same season – Tiger Woods in 2001 … Woods was also the last player to defend his title at the Masters, which happened exactly 20 years ago. 72-HOLE RECORD: 268, Dustin Johnson (2020) 18-HOLE RECORD: 63, Nick Price (Round 3, 1986), Greg Norman (Round 1, 1996) LAST TIME: Hideki Matsuyama became the first Japanese male to win a major when he won the 2021 Masters by one stroke. He was treated to a hero’s welcome when he returned to Japan following his Green Jacket triumph, but the win did not come without its challenges. Matsuyama opened the final round with a bogey and added four more squares to his scorecard on the back nine, including on Nos. 12, 15, 16 and 18 – although his last bogey of the day mattered little. He held off a Sunday charge from Jon Rahm, who fired a 6-under 66 (the low round of the day), as well as Masters rookie Will Zalatoris, who ended up in second alone at 9 under for the week after a 2-under 70 on Sunday. It was the best finish by a first-time Masters participant since Jordan Spieth in 2014, who also finished runner-up that year. Spieth shot a matching 70 in the final round last April to finish T3 alongside Xander Schauffele. Schauffele made it interesting late Sunday after he rattled off four straight birdies on Nos. 12-15, but he gave almost all of them back with a triple-bogey 6 on the par-3 16th. Rahm was T5 with Marc Leishman. Matsuyama finished as low amateur when he made his Masters debut a decade prior, in 2011. His first TOUR title came at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday in 2014. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN); Saturday, 3 p.m.-7 p.m. (CBS); Sunday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. (CBS) Radio: Thursday-Sunday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (CBS Radio; Sirius 208, XM 92) (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR Stream: On the Range, Holes 4-6, Featured Group coverage, Amen Corner, and Holes 15 & 16 will be available to stream for views in the U.S. only via Masters.com (Starting times include: Thursday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m. ET) PGA TOUR LIVE Editor’s note: Augusta National Golf Club, which owns and operates the Masters Tournament, controls all digital streaming and broadcast rights to this event. PGA TOUR LIVE coverage will resume at next week’s RBC Heritage.

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