Masters Preview: Why the time is right for Canadians to contend

AUGUSTA, Ga. — In order to secure a player for an interview at the Masters, an official with an earpiece calls down to a man in a suit by the 18th green who shuffles a player to a host in a Green Jacket, who escorts the golfer to a set of three microphone stands.

“So, I have to stand on this? Wow,” Nick Taylor said with a laugh.

Taylor is one of four Canadians in the field this week at Augusta National, the 88th edition of the Masters. The last time he was here, however, was 2020. The Masters was in the fall. He had to FaceTime his family when he drove down Magnolia Lane for the first time. The locker room is somewhere different. There are fans and roars this time, and two houses for his assembled familial guest list.

And a two-foot-high platform to stand on when he has to do interviews.

“This is essentially my first true experience,” Taylor said.

Both Taylor and Adam Hadwin are returning to the Masters for the first time since that COVID-19-impacted event. Corey Conners is also in the field. After a string of three straight top-10 finishes, Conners missed the cut at the Masters a year ago and is eager to return to form. Mike Weir is the fourth Canadian, of course. He’s teeing it up in his 25th Masters this week and will lead the Canuck crew around for a practice round Tuesday morning — a new-ish tradition at Augusta National.

The Masters is special for Canadians because it’s a sure sign of spring. That includes those who are teeing it up in the event itself.

“It would rank (it) No. 1 growing up. It still is, I think. It kind of has this majestic, or just this aura, at least for me now getting on the grounds,” Taylor said. “It's just everything about it. There's not a blade of grass out of place, it seems. Every detail is thought about.”

This feeling for the Canadians continues from The Players Championship, all agreed. That event, at TPC Sawgrass, boasts a collection of all the best players on the PGA Tour. The Masters is the icon. You win this one, your name becomes unforgettable. All of Taylor, Hadwin, and Conners are in their mid-30s, have won on the PGA Tour (in the case of Taylor, he’s won twice in the last 10 months — both in dramatic fashion) and are all locks for the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. They have little to prove in the general sense of Canadian success in this sport. But they want more.

Taylor, for example, missed all three cuts at majors in 2023. To his credit, two of them came after odd circumstances (his daughter was born just two weeks before the PGA Championship, and his drought-busting, emotional triumph at the RBC Canadian Open came the week before the U.S. Open) but the calendar has turned and he wants to prove he belongs in the game’s upper tier.

“(The major schedule) was the emphasis where I want to play well but also not put too high of expectations or too much pressure on playing well, but my game is in a really good spot, so I feel like if I just play golf, hopefully that'll take care of itself,” Taylor said.

For Hadwin, this is his first “true” Masters since 2018, where he finished tied for 24th. He finished T36 the year prior, in his Masters debut, but had an early exit in 2020. Hadwin has had three top-10 finishes this season and said he’s through the hard part of a swing overhaul. Things are grooved. He’s ready to go.

“Now, it's just little things week-to-week,” Hadwin said. “It's there. I'm able to execute every golf shot that I want. It's just a matter of doing it now.”

Augusta National will demand the best from all the top players in the game this week, and in order for a Canadian to win, he’ll have to beat the likes of Scottie Scheffler, who is already in the middle of an all-time campaign, Rory McIlroy, gunning for the career grand slam, and Brooks Koepka, who has had 14 top-10 finishes at majors in the last seven years. That’s just a sampling. If you have a favourite golfer, it’s likely he’s here.

Out of the trio of recent Tour winners, Conners — whose caddie, Danny Sahl, is looping at his 10th career Masters — is the one who's already proven he can hang with the best in the game at this event. Conners’ T6 in 2022 was the best finish by a Canadian at the Masters since Weir finished T5 more than 15 years prior. Last year, Conners won the Valero Texas Open the week before the Masters and admits he was a little mentally fried. He feels much better this time around.

“Coming off the win last year, the mind was all over the place a little bit. This year, kind of get settled in like I normally would for a big event, and feeling good already,” Conners said.

Conners, Hadwin and Taylor will play the Par-3 Contest together with their kids on Wednesday before things get started on Thursday. Conners’ daughter, Reis, Taylor’s kids Charlie and Harper, and Hadwin’s daughter Maddox (although Hadwin said she was nervous it was a “real thing” and would be taking the job of real caddie Joe Cruz) will go out together at 1:15 p.m. ET. A moment of levity and a tradition at a place built on them.

This year may be different for half the Canadian contingent at the Masters versus the last time they were here. But the goal is the same. They want to contend. They want to win.

The time is right.

CANADIAN TEE-TIMES FOR THURSDAY

Corey Conners at 9 a.m. ET (with 2007 Masters winner Zach Johnson and Asia-Pacific Amateur winner Jasper Stubbs)

Nick Taylor at 9:48 a.m. (with LIV golfer Joaquin Niemann and multi-time PGA Tour winner Russell Henley, who finished T4 in 2023)

Mike Weir at 11:30 a.m. (with reigning DP World Tour Rookie of the Year Ryo Hisatsune of Japan and U.S. Amateur finalist Neal Shipley)

Adam Hadwin at 11:54 a.m. (with 1992 Masters winner Fred Couples and reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur winner Stewart Hagestad)