Shane’s favourite week

Shane Lowry loves everything about the Masters — just don’t tell him you think he’s going to win.

The Clara man is a creature of habit when it comes to preparing for the season’s first major but he’s careful not to listen to too much hype.

“Yeah, I’ve done the same things for the last few years I’ve come here,” he said. “I’ve come out here at the same time on a Sunday and do the same things on Sunday evening and do the same things for the rest of the week. 

“I have a separate house for me and my family and another house for everyone else. 

“Yeah, I hang out in that house a little bit, but when it’s time to go home it’s time to go home. 

“When everyone’s getting giddy and talking about the tournament, I know it’s time to go home. Especially if you shoot a couple of good scores early, you don’t want too many people around you talking about you winning the Masters. You just want to be in your own space.”

Lowry even loves the week before the Masters, when he heads up to Augusta for two days.

“Not only is this my favourite week of the year, but last week is one of my favourite weeks preparing for this,” he said. “I just love this, and this is why I do it. Sometimes I’ll be hard on myself and find it hard to get up for the smaller events. But I certainly do get up for events like this.”

Xander’s master class

There’s a fine line between success and disaster at Augusta National, but Xander Schauffele loves the challenge.

Asked to define what makes it such a make-or-break course, the 2019 runner-up picked out the delight he gets trying to play precision shots with wedges, especially around the greens.

“Even on chips too, when you're hitting these little bumps, you can hit the same spot, like you can put a quarter down and have your ball hit the same spot, but it doesn't have the exact ball speed on it won't get up the hill, but you still hit the quarter every time,” he said. 

“So it's like you're hitting your spot but not with the right speed. That's something that you don't really think of a lot when you play other courses where you can hit a stock shot and the ball will roll to where it rolls.”

Is it stressful?

“It's cool,” he said. “The whole creativity part, imagination part, it's really special. It's rare. I think that's why this property is really special. 

“And it happens to be a major, but I think if it wasn't, for example, I think it would still be a world-beating tournament.”

It’s between the ears at Augusta

If golf is played on the six-inch course between the ears, Augusta National is the ultimate IQ test.

That’s the view of US Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad, who is making his third Masters appearance this week.

“Like if you look at some of the guys who have won here, it's really elite golf IQ guys that think really well around the golf course and are able to kind of play their game, be really into what they're doing, but at the same time, think better than everyone,” the Californian said.

Having a high golfing IQ at Augusta means knowing where to miss.

“Totally,” said Hagestad, who has played Walker Cup golf with world number one Scottie Scheffler. 

“Like Scottie's short game is obviously off the charts. If you watched him today and where he's chipping it from, he's leaving it in places where he can get up and down, like he thinks really well too.”

DeChambeau’s Supderbowl

Bryson DeChambeau hopes golf can be reunited, but when asked what awaits in five years, he’s predicting one of two scenarios.

“Wow, that's an interesting question,” DeChambeau said. “I can go many ways with that. Real quickly, I'll just say, one, you can look at it like the NFL and you could have NFC/AFC sort of working in their own fields and at the end they come together, put on a huge event at the end of the year. That could be really cool. 

“Or you could integrate it on top. So you integrate the team aspect on top of the individual side of the coin. Does that make sense to you? So the signature series or some elevated events maybe globally or here in the States, we elevate those events.

“We don't just try to say it's an individual event or this is a team event. No, combine it, make it one, and you can up the value by quite a bit, and I hope people can see that.”