The Masters could feature depleted, underperforming field

Augusta National is not the course you want to play when your game is trending downward. But that’s the situation virtually every top player finds themselves in with the Masters just a week away.

Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka are on crutches and won’t be part of the tournament, and the other top players limped away from last week’s WGC Match Play Championship never sniffing the weekend.

The Match Play event proved again that the pod system designed to get the best players into the weekend where a big TV audience awaits was an utter failure. Only one player in the top 20 — Jon Rahm — made it to the weekend, and the final four didn’t have a player ranked higher than 30th.

The last we saw of Dustin Johnson, the world’s No. 1 player was being lectured on the rules of golf by Kevin Na in an embarrassing incident during a meaningless match.

No. 2 Justin Thomas played so poorly the first two days that his tee time was moved up Friday so he could finish and leave before the matches that mattered took place.

The top 10 players in the world won a combined 11 matches of the 30 they played, none of those victories coming from Collin Morikawa or Tyrell Hatton.

Rory McIlroy, who will again be trying to complete the career grand slam at Augusta, looks as lost and lacking confidence as he’s ever been as a pro.

And none of them will be in San Antonio this week trying to get things right in the final event before Augusta.

So bring on the Masters. Somebody’s got to find their game among the azaleas, don’t they?

As for the Match Play, the lack of star power on the weekend was one thing. The lack of quality golf was another.

In the championship match, Billy Horschel, the eventual winner, and Scottie Scheffler each made one birdie over 17 holes and spent more time hitting recovery shots than attacking pins.

“I got lucky that I had two guys that didn’t have their A game today or even maybe their B game,” Horschel said. “We didn’t hit very good golf shots this morning or even this afternoon.”

The Year’s First Major

While the men are a week away, the women play the first major of 2021 this week outside Palm Springs, California, at the Ana Invitational. And unlike the men, the top players have gotten off to great starts this season.

Las Vegas resident Inbee Park ran away from the field in posting her 21st career victory Sunday in Carlsbad, California. Danielle Kang, Nelly Korda, Brooke Henderson and Lexi Thompson were among those in the top 10, so look for some firepower on the Ana leaderboard.

Chip Shots

— For the second consecutive week, Las Vegas’s Taylor Montgomery hung around the leaderboard all week on the Korn Ferry Tour, only to be done in by an early triple bogey in the final round. Montgomery is now at No. 17 on the season points list, with the top 25 at the end of the year earning PGA Tour playing cards for 2022. The tour is in Destin, Florida, this week, the last event before the MGM Resorts Championship at Paiute April 15-18.

— Speaking of the MGM Resorts Championship, tournament officials are still looking for a few more volunteers for the event for a variety of positions. Interested people can get details and sign up at mgmresortschampionship.com.

— Painted Desert Golf Club is holding a two-person scramble on Sunday, April 18. Cost to enter the Callaway Scramble is $158 for a two-person team and includes golf, lunch and more. Details can be found at PaintedDesertGC.com.

Greg Robertson is a freelance reporter who covers golf for the Review-Journal. He can be reached at robertsongt@gmail.com .