Oliver Brown: Nicolai Hojgaard<\/p>\n
Quiet but metronomic, the Dane underlined his Augusta pedigree by contending strongly in 2024. Blessed with bludgeoning ferocity in his driving, not to mention lethal accuracy in his long-iron play, the world No 37 has the perfect combination of skills to succeed.<\/p>\n
Tom Cary: Fifa Laopakdee<\/p>\n
His name is guaranteed to stand out even if his game is not. The Thai amateur was named \u201cFifa\u201d because of his dad\u2019s passion for football. Apparently, it was a toss-up between Fifa and Uefa. Hopefully no penalties this week for the 21-year-old.<\/p>\n
Frankie Christou: Marco Penge<\/p>\n
I am also going with Penge. The Englishman\u2019s start to life on the PGA Tour was disrupted by off-course circumstances, as his pregnant wife could not travel. Now settled, with his family alongside him on the circuit, Penge has begun to show glimpses of his potential. He excels on long, demanding layouts, and his debut status is unlikely to faze him.<\/p>\n
Which big name will miss the cut?James Corrigan: Brooks Koepka<\/p>\n
The American has yet to find his feet since defecting from LIV back to the PGA Tour and may find this a bit of a struggle. I have no doubt that we will see this five-time major winner contending in the big ones again soon, but just have a suspicion he will crash out this week.<\/p>\n
Oliver Brown: Justin Thomas<\/p>\n
The former world No 1 was visibly distraught after his collapse in 2024, when he dropped seven strokes in his last four holes to miss the cut. I envisage similar struggles this year, given he is still coming back from surgery on a herniated disc.<\/p>\n
Tom Cary: Collin Morikawa<\/p>\n
The world No 7 had to pull out of the Players Championship last month with back spasms, then withdrew from last week\u2019s Texas Open in an effort to preserve his back for the Masters. He admits it is going to be a \u201cmental battle\u201d to trust his body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oliver Brown: Nicolai Hojgaard Quiet but metronomic, the Dane underlined his Augusta pedigree by contending strongly in 2024.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[13892,3025,5904,11476,2623,3026,217,101,5438,10509,58919,56,54,55,157732],"class_list":{"0":"post-519487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-brooks-koepka","9":"tag-bryson-dechambeau","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-justin-rose","12":"tag-rory-mcilroy","13":"tag-scottie-scheffler","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-standard","17":"tag-the-masters","18":"tag-top-story","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-unitedkingdom","22":"tag-us-content"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}