Masters 2018: When is it, what TV channel is it on and what are the odds?
What is it?
It golf's first major championship of the year as the best players in the world tee it up at the Masters.
When is it?
The Masters is always in April, and this year it begins on Thursday April 5.
Where is it?
The Masters is unique as the only one of golf's four majors that returns to the same venue every year. That venue is Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, USA.
What TV channel is it on?
There will live coverage of all four days on Sky Sports Golf and Sky Sports Main Event. Live coverage will begin in late afternoon accounting for the time difference, and will continue until close to midnight. Alternatively, you can follow our live blog which will keep you up to date with how your favourites are getting on.
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What are the tee times?
The tee-times will be announced at the start of tournament week. The players will go out in groups of three (threeballs) and will all start from the first tee. If you get an early morning start on day one, you start late on day two and visa versa.
The draw only covers the first two rounds, Thursday and Friday. At the weekend, the players who make the cut will go out in order of the leaderboard - with those at the top going out last. The players go out in pairs, twoballs, on Saturday and Sunday which quickens up play.
What is 'the cut'?
After two rounds, 36 holes, the field will be cut down with those at the bottom of the leaderboard packing their bags and heading for Augusta airport.
Different tournaments do this in other ways, but at the Masters the rule is any player within 10 shots of the leader makes it to the weekend.
What kind of course is Augusta National?
One of cathedrals of golf, Augusta's exclusivity affords it a certain mystique. The course has only a few hundred members, and you can only play there if you happen to befriend one and they invite you. Members include Warren Buffet and Condaleeza Rice, so you'll need to move in high circles.
Such privacy has had a dark side historically, however. The club did not admit an African-American member until 1990, only seven years before Tiger Woods' first Masters victory, and their first female members in 2012.
Incredibly picturesque, the holes are flanked by pine trees and a variety of colourful flora and fauna, including azaleas, rhododendrons and white dogwoods. The course was built on the sight of a former nursery in 1933.
The course is 7,435 yards long, lengthened significantly since the turn of the millennium, and is a par-72. The course is renowned for its lightning fast, undulating greens, which now have sub-air systems underneath so the officials can dry them out after rain.
What happened last year?
After many near-misses, tantrums and even a self-imposed break from competitive golf, Sergio Garcia won his first major in style - pipping his good friend Justin Rose to the green jacket. Our man in Georgia, James Corrigan wrote:
No major-winner has ever had so many attempts before tasting the glory and no golfer has even been so honest in the moment of fulfilment. Sergio Garcia called himself “stupid” for railing against the gods for not allowing him to reach his Augusta destiny.
Garcia, 37, beat England’s Justin Rose on the first hole of a play-off. Yet the mere simplicity of that sentence does not begin to do the occasion, or the gripping duel, justice.
It would have been the birthday of Severiano Ballesteros, Garcia’s countryman and mentor, and the two-time Augusta winner would have been so impressed with his persistence and application.
This was the 74th major in which Garcia competed, the most of anyone without a triumph. But as he pointed out in humour, all that “if only” wondering is finally at an end. “I guess I’m now the best player to only have won one major,” Garcia said.
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What does the winner receive?
The winner is presented with the green jacket, which along with the Open Championship's claret jug is the sport's most soughtafter prize. They are also handed a cheque for more than £1.4 million, so they have some loose change if the jacket needs alterations.
Who are the favourites and what are the odds?
Rory McIlroy 9/1
Justin Thomas 10/1
Dustin Johnson 11/1
Tiger Woods 11/1
Jordan Spieth 14/1
Justin Rose 14/1
Bubba Watson 16/1
Phil Mickelson 18/1
Jason Day 18/1
20/1 BAR.
