A year has passed since Scottie Scheffler slipped on the green jacket for a second time at Augusta National. Plenty of things have changed for you, me and everyone else around the world over the last 365 days or so, but at the same time, many things have remained constant.
The same can be said when it comes to the biggest storylines heading into the 2025 Masters.
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Some of the most intriguing storylines to pay attention to as the 89th playing of The Masters gets underway are the same as they were a year ago, with certain history remaining unwritten, but despite the golf world being all too familiar with Augusta National, there are plenty of new aspects to add to the agenda in 2025.
Rory McIlroy Hopes 11th Time Is The Charm
Rory McIlroy’s quest to win his first green jacket to complete the career Grand Slam is the No. 1 storyline heading into The Masters, just like it has been for the last decade.
This year, the order of potential storylines is a Rory McIlroy Masters victory, followed by a Grand Canyon-sized space, and then any other storyline you can come up with, and it has everything to do with his form coming into the event.
Nobody has played better golf than Rory McIlroy in 2025.
The 35-year-old began his latest PGA Tour campaign with a win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and followed it up with his second Players Championship win six weeks later. Across his three other starts this year, McIlroy’s average finish is 12th.
From a statistical standpoint, McIlroy ranks first in strokes gained: total and off-the-tee while sitting second on Tour in strokes gained: tee-to-green. His putter has been a weapon instead of a hindrance this season as well, which when that is the case, McIlroy can fall into that unbeatable category fairly easily.
Augusta National has produced runaway winners each of the last three years, with Scheffler winning by four a year ago, Rahm matching that mark the year prior, and Scheffler winning by three in 2022.
Nobody in their right mind would suggest McIlroy will coast to a victory at this year’s Masters given the very real nightmares he’s endured on the property, but it would be just as ridiculous to say McIlroy doesn’t have a fantastic chance at winning his first green jacket in what will be his 11th attempt at completing the career Grand Slam.
Xander Schauffele The Major Slayer
It feels as if Xander Schauffele is being overlooked as a whole entering the 2025 Masters. It’s understandable given he’s made just four starts in 2025 after suffering a rib injury earlier in the year, but we’re not going to fall into a trap and cast him aside.
Schauffele could walk off of the 18th green at Augusta National on Sunday in possession of three major championships at the same time. He isn’t the only player in the field who can complete three-fourths of the career Grand Slam with a victory, but he is the only one who could hold three major titles at once.
In the modern era, Tiger Woods is the only player who has managed to accomplish the feat, only he one-upped things and held all four of golf’s major titles from the 2000 U.S. Open to the 2001 Masters. Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan are the only other two players in the 20th and 21st centuries to win three consecutive major championships.
Scottie Scheffler Could Turn One Into Two With His Third
Defending champion and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is the favorite to win The Masters. If he were able to find the winner’s circle, not only would he be adding a third green jacket to his closet, but turn a one-man party into one of the most exclusive two-man clubs in the sport.
A win at Augusta National would give Scheffler his third Masters victory in four years. The only other player in Masters history to go three-for-four is Jack Nicklaus, who accomplished the feat with wins in 1963, 1965, and 1966.
Scheffler has not won in his six starts in 2025. Ahead of his victory at Augusta National a year ago, the 28-year-old already had two wins to his name that season.
The New, But Also Old, Augusta National
Augusta National makes subtle changes to the property and golf course year after year while maintaining the look of a piece of property untouched by time. The changes of the past were done by choice, but many of the changes made to the course over the past 12 months were forced due to Hurricane Helene.
In the days after the hurricane ripped through the area, Augusta National acknowledged that the golf course had suffered damage, but kept the extent of it under wraps. A number of trees were lost, some of which were replaced, while certain parts of the golf course, including the 16th green, reportedly had to be re-constructed.
Drone Footage Of Augusta National Shows Significant Damage Caused By Hurricane Helene
As per usual, the Augusta National staff will have the golf course manicured to perfection, but it will be interesting to see and hear reactions from players as many will be laying eyes on some new surfaces and sightlines around the property.
A More-Experienced Ludvig Aberg
There is a world that exists where Scottie Scheffler withdrew from the 2024 Masters to be with his wife, Meredith, as she welcomed their first child into the world. In that world, Ludvig Aberg would have won last year’s Masters by three shots.
Instead, Scheffler cruised to a four-shot victory to win what was his second green jacket, but the experience Aberg gained in what was his first major championship, let alone his first Masters a year ago, could be invaluable to the young Swede many have deemed destined to be among the greats.
Aberg earned a signature event victory in February, winning The Genesis Invitational, proving to the very few doubters he still has that he can get it done on a big-time stage. He already looked comfortable at Augusta National a year ago, but that comfort level should be even greater this time around.
Who Headlines The LIV Golf Group?
After the 2024 Masters featured 13 players from LIV Golf, 12 will tee it up this time around, with seven of the 12 being exempt into the field as past champions.
Defending U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau and 2023 Masters winner Jon Rahm are the two names that will be at the top of mind of most when it comes to LIV players who could win a green jacket come Sunday.
Brooks Koepka certainly can’t be overlooked given his five major championships, nor can Joaquin Niemann who has won two LIV events already in 2025 to go along with the PIF Saudi International crown in December 2024.
Tyrrell Hatton will enter the week as the highest-ranked LIV player in the field at No. 18 in the world, while Cam Smith picked up his fifth Top 10 finish at Augusta National a year ago with a T-6 finish.
While the divide between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is there, this year’s Masters doesn’t quite have the same rivalry feel to it as the previous few have since LIV’s inception.
Collin Morikawa Goes For Three Against The Grain
When The Masters gets underway Thursday, it will mark 536 days since Collin Morikawa last won a golf tournament when he was victorious at the 2023 Zozo Championship. In order to find the last time he won a golf tournament on U.S. soil, you actually have to go back more than 1,500 days at the 2021 WGC-Workday Championship.
Despite his winless streak being incredibly noticeable, Morikawa will arrive at Augusta National in terrific form with two runner-up finishes and three more Top 20 finishes to his name in 2025 across his five starts on the year. He also ranks first on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: approach, which never hurts at a second-shot golf course like Augusta National. On top of that, he’s finishing inside the Top 10 in each of the last three Masters including a T-3 finish a year ago.
Things are on the up for Morikawa, and he is rightfully a favorite heading into Thursday, but he does find himself in a bit of an awkward spot with some in the media who didn’t like the fact that he avoided all media after his second-place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last month before telling the world he “doesn’t owe anyone anything.”
I’m on the record that Morikawa’s choice of words may have been harsh, but he is right when stating he doesn’t “owe” the media anything. That doesn’t mean the situation won’t be hanging over him in the days leading up to the opening round with an incredible amount of press from all around the world on site at Augusta National this week.
Nobody on the property will be looking for the tournament to start faster than Morikawa.
