Andy North rates Collin Morikawa’s chances of winning The Masters and flags American who ‘nobody is talking about’ as a real dark horse

Add as preferred source on Google

Every golf fan is now counting down the days until the opening round of The Masters, with the first major of the year just around the corner.

It seems to be one of the most open races for The Masters in many years. Hideki Matsuyama is the only player to have won at Augusta National over the last seven years to have secured a victory this season.

The likes of Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele are yet to show their best form having dealt with injuries earlier in the season. Meanwhile, Jon Rahm has not yet won on LIV Golf since the start of the new year.

Scheffler is knocking on the door, having finished second at the Texas Children’s Houston Open this past week. But it is incredibly surprising that he has not yet won on the PGA Tour in 2025.

Andy North assesses Collin Morikawa’s chances at The Masters

Of course, Rory McIlroy has won twice this year. But the Northern Irishman is not the only player in good form.

Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas have done everything but win in recent months. Morikawa finished second at The Sentry and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, while Thomas has been runner-up on three occasions since the Tour Championship.

And in a call with selected members of the media hosted by ESPN, two-time US Open champion Andy North assessed the chances of the likes of Morikawa and Thomas winning the green jacket this year as he also picked out a potential dark horse.

“I think we saw Morikawa play exceptionally well at Bay Hill and really have a disappointing finish not to win. His game really fits Augusta National well, he is such a great iron player. He seems to be playing well. I would think that he would be in the hunt. Justin Thomas has had a couple of close calls. He should have probably won this year. I walked around with him for a couple of days at The Players and he was swinging I thought exceptionally well, he just wasn’t getting a lot out of it. Then goes a week later and really gave away the tournament at the Valspar. I expect one of these years he is going to have a great showing at Augusta National. It’s a golf course he should play well on,” he said, in response to a question from The Golfing Gazette.

“Another player, Schauffele, has come off this injury and not been terrific yet. He sure has played so much great golf over the last three or four years you sure would expect him to have his act together at Augusta. Everything after his injury has been focused on being ready for being ready for next week. Jordan Spieth plays exceptionally well there. Can he find that magic again? A player nobody even talks about, Patrick Cantlay, he is such a solid player. I think there is a good group of American players there other than obviously Scottie who should be in contention or have a chance of being in contention on Sunday.”

Curtis Strange expects big things from Morikawa and Xander Schauffele

There has been further backing for the contingent of American players set to tackle the Georgia pines. Of course, it has been a particularly positive start to the year for Luke Donald and those hoping to make the European Ryder Cup team for Bethpage later on in the season.

But Curtis Strange – who captained the US team for the 2001 matches – is optimistic about a couple of the players likely to be on Keegan Bradley‘s team ahead of The Masters.

“There is a group of guys there, a group of five or six guys in this category that have played well there, have won big tournaments, have not hit on all cylinders. Schauffele is certainly the guy, three in the world, if he is 100% healthy he is one of the favourites. And then Morikawa is playing well and hitting the ball better again. Seems to be hitting on all cylinders like he was two or three years ago,” he said.

“Outside of those two, the rest have been struggling. You can turn it around at Augusta, because you get so emotionally involved, but it’s tough to do because at any major championship it magnifies your mistakes. It looks out and find your faults and that is a good thing but you have to be playing really, really well to do well at this tournaments and courses which demand so much out of you.”

It does feel like a matter of time until both Morikawa and Schauffele move to within one win of the career grand slam by clinching The Masters title.

However, as North’s comments in particular show, there really does appear to be so many genuine contenders in the mix to be the player who has Scottie Scheffler place the green jacket upon them in the next couple of weeks.