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2021 Masters staff picks

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The opening major of the year is upon us and the GolfWRX staff have had their say on who they think will don the green jacket come Sunday evening.

Also, if you want to see what a professional statistician is saying, check out Richie Hunt’s “The 23 players who can win the Masters,” but if you’d like Masters picks from the rest of us, read on!

Brian Knudson

Win: Adam Scott – The 2013 Masters Champion hasn’t been on fire, but the tall Australian hasn’t missed a cut in the 2021 season. He knows Augusta National, loves the course, and has years of experience to guide him to a second green jacket. His wedge game has also been sneaky good this year.

Place: Scottie Scheffler – Scheffler has been playing some really solid golf the past month, and I think that trend continues this week. He is long enough to play with some of the big hitters and typically hits a consistent draw off the tee. If he can keep the putter rolling true we could see him battling for a jacket on Sunday!

Player I’m fading: Jordan Spieth – I absolutely loved seeing Jordan win last week; it was long overdue! He has been on fire since early February but this is the Masters and everything is a little different. Only two players, Phil Mickelson and Sandy Lyle, have ever won the Masters after winning the week before. I hope he proves me wrong this week!

Ryan Barath

Win: Dustin Johnson – The big man is as consistent as they come, and although his form hasn’t been red hot lately, it has still looked good. With that in mind, heading to Augusta just six months after winning the same event has to be a boost, and I expect he will end up on top.

Place: Bubba Watson – To me, Bubba is a big “vibes” guy, and he loves Augusta National. It inspires creativity and requires golfers to hit it both ways – something he is quite keen on. He played well at the WGC match play recently and we can’t forget that he is still one of the longest players on tour, which plays right into his hand.

Player I’m fading: Adam Scott – This pick is either going to look brilliant or make me look like a complete fool. He is a former champion and has had a great start to the season, but Adam lives and dies by his putter, and I just don’t see it all coming together this week. For many reasons, I hope I’m wrong, but the only way to melt wax is to fly close to the sun, and picking Adam here could have me falling back to earth come Sunday.

Gianni Magliocco

Win: Bryson DeChambeau – It’s only a matter of time before Bryson figures it all out at Augusta, and there’s plenty of signs that this will be the year he does just that. He’ll have learned an awful lot from November, and on a fast and firm course, he’s going to have nothing into these par 5s all week. Besides that, he also ranks top of the field for Strokes Gained: Total over his past 12 rounds. It’s Bryson’s time to shine at Augusta.

Place: Jason Day – There was a time that a win for Jason Day at Augusta seemed like a question of when not if, but the Aussie’s back issues have led to it being very much a question of if these days. However, the Players Championship was Day’s best strokes gained performance Tee to Green since 2015 and that is enough to convince me he can content here.

Player I’m fading: Dustin Johnson – DJ is the favorite and defending champion, but his recent form is concerning. Over his previous 12 rounds, Johnson ranks 51st for Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and 77th on the greens. Combine that with the difficulty of going back-to-back at Augusta, and it makes him an easy fade this week.

Ben Alberstadt

Win: Xander Schauffele – “He’s due” is never a great argument, but he’s due for a major. Third in total strokes gained: total among players in the field, Xander will have gotten things dialed following a missed cut at The Players. Plenty comfortable at ANGC as demonstrated by top-20 finishes his past two tries.

Place: Scottie Scheffler – After something of a coming-out party at the WGC, Scheffler is poised to make a major splash.

Player I’m fading: Jon Rahm – Reverse nappie factor will be in effect. Hard to bet on a guy who hasn’t picked up a club in a week and will only get one full day of practice.

We will be doing plenty of coverage leading up to Thursday tee-off, so stay tuned to the front page, social, and the forums for updates and info.

We share your golf passion. You can follow GolfWRX on Twitter @GolfWRX, Facebook and Instagram.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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