Off the Tee: 2019 Masters Preview

Every year at the Augusta National Golf Club more and more history is added to the already legendary folklore of the first golf major of each season, but the 2019 Masters will signal quite the milestone for one of America's best-known sporting events.

It was 80 years ago that the tournament, known as the Augusta National Invitational for the first five years (1934-38), officially became known as The Masters.

In this edition of 'Off The Tee', Joel Harrington from 4 Deep Golf blog and I discuss a number of storylines heading into this year's event:

• Rory McIlroy is on a historic run heading to Augusta this week. McIlroy is the first player since Tiger Woods in 2000, and only the second player since 1980, to post seven or more top ten finishes, including a win, before April 1 on the PGA Tour. That makes him the heavy favorite to finally capture the one major that has eluded him in his career.
• Tiger Woods is in search of his fifth green jacket, Phil Mickelson is pursuing his fourth. Both are among the favorites this week.
• Former champs Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia being talked about as well this week but for all the wrong reasons. Spieth doesn't have a top 30 finish so far in 2019, while Garcia has been playing well but has been involved in a pair of well-publicized on-course incidents in the past two months.
• Brooks Koepka is looking to continue an impressive run at golf's majors as he looks to win three of the last four and four of the last eight.
• There's one significant change to Augusta National this year and that's the fifth hole, where the tee boxes were moved back, adding an additional 40 yards to the hole.

Here's our full conversation about all of these storylines and more: