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The 90th Masters Tournament begins Thursday with first-round action at Augusta National Golf Club.

Just a few miles from the Georgia-South Carolina border and two hours east of Atlanta, the flowers have bloomed, and players are ready to begin their quest to wear the coveted Green Jacket on Sunday.

Only four rounds and 72 regulation holes separate them from winning their first major tournament of 2026. However, the challenges faced by the curriculum are always difficult.

Here are 10 bold predictions for this year’s Masters Tournament.

Current Masters winner falls short

The defending champion returns to Augusta National. Rory McIlroy won last year’s Masters Tournament in a playoff. However, the defending champions have not performed that well even after 12 months of wearing the green jacket. The last player to win consecutive Masters Tournaments was Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002. McIlroy is also trying to join Woods, Jack Nicklaus (1965-66) and Nick Faldo (1989-90) in successfully defending the Masters title. As a result, McIlroy lost, and Woods’ streak continued for another year as he was the last man to go back-to-back.

Also read: Golf icon says Trump will never be welcome at Augusta National

Justin Rose records another top 15 Masters finish

Justin Rose, who lost to McIlroy in the playoffs last year, also created history 12 months ago. Rose is one of nine players in Masters Tournament history to finish as runner-up three times, having also done so in 2015 and 2017. However, following his runner-up finish in the following year, he broke into the top 15. Rose ranked T10 in 2016 and T12 in 2018. Rose has shown this year that he can battle on the toughest courses, highlighted by his wire-to-wire victory at the Farmers Insurance Open in January.

PGA Tour star misses the cut

One of the stars of this PGA Tour season so far has been Chris Gotterup, who won twice within the first three weeks. He won the Sony Open in Hawaii and followed that up with a win at TPC Scottsdale for the WM Phoenix Open. Gotterup is also coming off a T6 at the Texas Children’s Houston Open a few weeks ago. The Rutgers alumnus is trying to become the fourth player overall and the first player since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 to win the Masters in his first start. Ultimately, Augusta National had better success than Gotterup, who is competing in the Masters for the first time. Competing in a special group with Jon Rahm and Ludwig Aberg, Gottrup would miss making the cut.

Also read: Tiger told police he was talking to President Trump moments before his DUI arrest

Bryson DeChambeau repeats 2025 Masters performance

Bryson DeChambeau’s difference between wearing a green jacket and losing comes down to his putter. Despite gaining a positive 0.6 strokes throughout the week, it was -2.32 strokes in the final round last year. This was when he was paired with McIlroy on his way to shooting a 3-over 75 to finish T5. He has been victorious in the last two LIV Golf events in South Africa and Singapore. This year, DeChambeau once again missed out on wearing a green jacket.

Scotty Scheffler’s struggle continues

By Scottie Scheffler’s standards, he has struggled recently. He finished T24 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and T22 at The Players Championship in his last two starts. With their recent form and some back injuries to McIlroy and Colin McIlroy, it makes this tournament a little more open than it has been in years past. Those struggles of trying to find that success would ultimately challenge the two-time Masters champion.

RELATED: Scottie Scheffler’s 10 Best Moments of 2025

Matt Fitzpatrick claims record for best Masters finish

Matt Fitzpatrick enters this year’s Masters Tournament fresh off a win at the Valspar Championship a few weeks ago. This also comes a week after he lost the lead on the back nine at the Players Championship during the final round. Fitzpatrick’s best performance came 10 years ago when he finished seventh. This is the year the British get it together and claim to be on Sunday.

Cameroon returns to Young Masters competition

Finishing ahead of Fitzpatrick at The Players Championship was Cameron Young, who birdied the 17th hole to earn his major PGA Tour victory. Young is trying to join Woods and Scheffler as the only players to win the Players and the Masters in the same year. Before missing the cut last year, he had made consecutive top 10 finishes in 2023 and 2024. Young has returned to that form, and missing last year’s cut is an outsider.

JJ Spaun struggles at Augusta

JJ Spawn is coming off a win at the Valero Texas Open in his final tuneup before the Masters this week. The last 13 months have looked very different for Spawn. He was runner-up at the Players last year, won the US Open and competed on the US Ryder Cup team before winning last week. With his win last week, Spawn enters the difficult history of trying to win a Masters Tournament like last week. Only four players have done so, and once in 38 years, the latter being Phil Mickelson two decades ago. As a result, trying to get big win number 2 will be a challenging task.

ALSO READ: Bold predictions for 2026 PGA Tour season, including winning battle vs. LIV Golf

A Masters long shot to win the green jacket

It will be a tall order for Jacob Bridgman to win, but he has the metrics that other champions have. At +8600, he would become the first longshot winner since Danny Willett (+6600) in 2016 and Charl Schwartzel (+9000) in 2011. Bridgeman has shown that he can win against the best by winning the Genesis Invitational, a signature event. There are only two golfers on the planet who have played better than Bridgeman statistically: Scheffler and Rahm. Even though this is his first Master, as mentioned before with Gotterup, the Bridgeman is an interesting looker.

My Masters Pick: Xander Schauffele

Two years ago, Xander Schauffele put it all together with two major wins at the PGA Championship and The Open Championship. Not only does he have major championship experience, but he also has history at Augusta National. Over the past 20 years, the average Masters champion was competing in his ninth Masters, which Schauffele is preparing for this week. Schauffele has also entered the top 30 at all 15 majors leading up to the 2022 Masters. He has five top 10s in the last seven years, including runner-up finish in 2019 and T3 in 2021.

Most recently, Schauffele won in Japan in October and came into Augusta with a 3rd at The Players and a T4 at Valspar. As a result, I have DeChambeau edged out Schauffele and Fitzpatrick in the mix for the 2024 PGA Championship.

Braven Honda graduated from San Diego State with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism in May 2021. During his time at SDSU, … More about Braven Honda

Over the next three games, the Carolina Hurricanes have six crucial Metropolitan Division points on the line that could make or break the current contenders’ season as the path to the postseason narrows. Tuesday is the first step into the madness, as the Hurricanes face the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.

The game, which will be locked to ESPN+ and Hulu, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EDT.

In the Hurricanes’ last game, they suffered a blowout loss to the Montreal Canadiens, who refused to leave Carolina without a single point, effectively clinching the season series against the Hurricanes. The game included a wild 100 shot attempt from Carolina – their highest of the season – but they were unable to find the twine more than once. The Canadiens ate up everything, blocked everything and ultimately finished the game with a 3-1 score. Montreal’s 32 blocked shots were the most by any team this season. You can read all about it here!

Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets have faced a number of ups and downs recently. Last Tuesday, they were in second place in the Metro Division – something they had not reached this late in the season since 2017. Now, they are fighting in the wild-card position. The last week has not been good for them, as they have not been able to win a single one of their last three matches.

In their game on Sunday against the Boston Bruins, who forced overtime and came back to win, Mathieu Ollivier left with an upper body injury. On Monday, they recalled Luca Del Bell Belluz, pointing to the possibility that the Blue Jackets’ bruiser will be unavailable against the Hurricanes.

in the crease

If they continue to move through the rotation, the Hurricanes will likely find Brandon Bussey in the net. His save percentage is .894, with a goals-against average of 2.45 en route to a 27-6-1 record.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets have been struggling to adjust to the rotation and have relied heavily on their young netminder, Jett Greaves, who has played in 48 games compared to Elvis Merzlikins’ 29. They’ll likely turn to Greaves again on Tuesday. His save percentage this season is .910, with a goals-against average of 2.56 with a 24-14-9 record.

Expected Carolina Hurricane Lines

Andrei Svechnikov – Sebastian Aho – Seth Jarvis

Taylor Hall – Logan Stankoven – Jackson Blake

Nikolaj Ehlers – Jordan Staal – Jordan Martinook

William Carrier – Mark Jankowski – Eric Robinson

protect

Jacob Slavin – Jalen Chatfield

K’Andre Miller – Shawn Walker

Shayne Gostisbehere – Alexander Nikishin

goaltender

Brandon Bussey/Frederick Anderson

expected columbus blue jackets series

Mason Marchment – Adam Fantilly – Kirill Marchenko

Boon Jenner – Sean Monahan – Conor Garland

Cole Sillinger – Charlie Coyle – Miles Wood

Denton Heinen – Isak Lundestrom – Luca Del Bel Belluz

protect

Zach Werenski – Dante Fabbro

Igor Zamula – Ivan Provorov

Denton Mateichuk – Eric Gudbranson

goaltender

Jet Greaves/Elvis Merzlikins

special teams

Carolina Hurricanes Power Play: 23.7% (9th, down one spot from last game)
Carolina Hurricanes Penalty Kill: 80.2% (13th)

Columbus Blue Jackets Power Play: 20.2% (17th)
Columbus Blue Jackets Penalty Kill: 77.3% (25th)

storm game notes

The Hurricanes face the Blue Jackets on Tuesday at Nationwide Arena and then face off again on Thursday at Lenovo Center.

Carolina is two points away from achieving a 100-point season. Last season, they finished with only 99, ending a three-year three-point streak.

how to see

Streaming: ESPN+, Hulu
Radio: 99.9 The Fan

Rachel Barkley is a beat writer covering the Carolina Hurricanes for Carolina Hockey Now on SportsNote. Painting Stories…More About Rachel Barclay

Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic decided to prepare a surprise for his head coach JJ Redick.

Doncic and Redic are going through their second season together. The latter is his second year as a head coach in the NBA, while Doncic is in his second year with the franchise after being acquired by the Lakers from the Dallas Mavericks last February.

The pair have gotten along well as Doncic has settled into life in Los Angeles. They’ve been creating comedic moments on and off the court, and after one of the Lakers’ games, Doncic decided to give Redick a surprise gift.

Doncic wore a jacket last week, which caught Redick’s attention on the sidelines. The coach took an interest in the jacket, ordered the star guard and gave him the jacket shortly after the game. It’s safe to say that Redick appreciated the kind gesture from his star player.

“I know you want to be like me,” Doncic told Redick in the video.

“I know you want to be like me.”

Luka Doncic surprises JJ Redick with the same jacket he wore last week

(via @lakers)pic.twitter.com/yJJjpsKHAa

– ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) 21 February 2026

Luka Doncic, what’s next for the Lakers

It’s a great moment for Luka Doncic and JJ Redick to share with each other. It is important for the head coach and superstar player to get along well to lead the Lakers to major success.

Doncic is playing at an MVP level for the eighth full season of his career. He averaged 32.8 points, 8.6 assists, 7.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. He is shooting 47.3% from the field, including 34.5% from beyond the arc, and 78.1% from the free-throw line.

Los Angeles has a 33–21 record on the season, finishing fifth in the Eastern Conference standings. They are above the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns, while trailing the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets.

Following their matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Lakers will prepare for their next contest. They will be at home when they host the Boston Celtics on February 22nd at 6:30 PM ET.