It’s rare for someone to come out of nowhere to win the Masters Tournament. It’s usually a golfer who is in form, like Scottie Scheffler was last year.

To apply that thesis to the 2025 Masters, the list would be headed by world No. 2 Rory McIlroy, followed closely by Scheffler, the top-ranked player.

The last under-the-radar winner, believe it or not, was Tiger Woods in 2019. Due to various injuries and spotty play, he wasn’t among the favorites that year.

That doesn’t mean it will be a two-man tournament this week, not when all of the top 50 players in the World Golf Ranking and LIV Golf Tour stars are teeing it up, beginning today at Augusta National Golf Club.

McIlroy is the hottest player in the field, with victories at Pebble Beach and the Players Championship. For 20 rounds this year, in five starts, McIlroy is 54 under par. He shot 65-64 over the weekend in his final tune-up for the Masters in Houston two weeks ago.

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Scheffler, who had also won twice before his Masters victory in 2024, got a late start to the season because of a hand injury, but he’s been picking up steam. He tied for second in his last start, also in Houston.

Others in form are No. 4-ranked Collin Morikawa, No. 7 Russell Henley, No. 8 Justin Thomas and No. 9 Viktor Hovland. Don’t forget the top players from LIV, who long ago fell out of the top 50 in the world ranking because their tour doesn’t earn ranking points.

That would include 2023 Masters champ Jon Rahm, current U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed, two-time Masters runner-up Brooks Koepka and Tyrrell Hatton.

Scheffler is well aware of the fact that McIlroy is hardly his biggest problem.

“I mean, golf is such a funny game,” Scheffler said this week. “I think on any given week there’s anybody that earns their way into a tournament has a good chance to win, and I think that the talent pool that we have in the game of golf is so deep right now that when you step on to the first tee it’s even par, and I feel like it’s anybody’s tournament. It’s one of our jobs to go out there and take it.”

There’s a lot on the line for both McIlroy, 35, and Scheffler, 28.

McIlroy has four majors but needs the Masters to become the sixth person to complete the Career Grand Slam (he has two PGA Championships, a U.S. Open and a British Open). Though he’s a generational talent and has 26 wins since his last major win in 2014, this is his 11th attempt to complete the slam at the Masters.

Scheffler is trying to become the second player in Masters history to win three Masters titles in four years. Jack Nicklaus did it in 1963, 1965 and 1966. Scheffler’s green jackets from 2022 and 2024 are his only major championships to date.

McIlroy would love to put to rest the questions he faces every year he comes to the Masters.

That’s probably why, in his Tuesday news conference, he said he was “ready to get this thing going,” calling the pretournament talk “noise.”

He said he was “just trying to block out that noise as much as possible. I need to treat this tournament like all the other tournaments that I play throughout the year. Look, I understand the narrative and the noise, and there’s a lot of anticipation and buildup coming into this tournament each and every year, but I just have to keep my head down and focus on my job.”

Earlier in the season, McIlroy had high praise for what Scheffler has done, saying he’s amazed at how few mistakes Scheffler makes. Scheffler returned the compliment Tuesday.

“I feel like has always been someone who’s played really freely,” Scheffler said, joking that he wishes he could hit it “350 yards” off the tee like McIlroy. “All the times I’ve played with him, he swings it really hard off the tee, and I feel like he does a really good job of playing free and playing loose at times.”

On Tuesday, Rahm raved about Scheffler’s body of work, which has resulted in his being ranked No. 1 in the world for the past 131 weeks.

“It’s always a debate, right, is it harder to get there or stay there, and staying there is a lot harder than getting there, I would say,” Rahm said. “What we’ve seen Scottie do over the last three, four years is quite impressive. His ball-striking level is outstanding. Anytime you have a year where you’re being compared to Tiger in his prime, I don’t think I need to add anything else to that.”

All eyes will be McIlroy when he tees off at 1:12 p.m.

“I’ll be honest; it’s mental now (for McIlroy),” three-time Masters champion Nick Faldo said. “Physically and technically, he’s got it. He has to make a choice: does he come here and go, ‘I couldn’t care less,’ and have the Monte Carlo or bust attitude, or do you put head down, blinkers on and concentrate and don’t want to hear, speak to anybody. It’s a difficult decision to make, which one you think will work best for you.

“I’ve done all sorts. When I won at Hilton Head (in 1984) I tried Monte Carlo or bust. I half-messed here (the previous week at the Masters) and I went to Hilton Head and thought ‘I’m either going to win or miss the cut.’ I ended up winning.”

Though Scheffler downplays his advantage here, he has shown he can handle any kind of conditions Augusta National throws at him.

“A lot of the golf course changes with the weather here,” said Scheffler, whose two victories sandwiched a tie for 10th in 2023. “The last couple years we’ve had some really interesting weather days. I think of ’22, we had some high wind days, and we had a really cold day that was windy and firm. Then in ’23 we had one or two days where we played through some pretty heavy rains, so softer golf course. Then last year we had a good mix as well where we had some high winds, we also had some soft conditions and conditions that firmed up come Sunday. A lot of the strategy for this place I think changes with the conditions of the course.”

This is the third consecutive Masters with a separate LIV Golf Tour. These, including the other three majors, are virtually the only times PGA Tour players and LIV players play against each other. The breakaway LIV Tour golfers are banned from PGA Tour events but the Masters is run by the Augusta National Golf Club.

There are 12 LIV golfers in the field this week.

“Look, I think everyone enjoys it,” Morikawa said of the playing against his former rivals who defected to LIV. “Those guys were amazing to me. They still are. We were very friendly out there. Look, I think the golf world enjoys seeing everyone playing together. I don’t think anyone would say no to that.

“Everyone always talks about money, and I think the whole – the money thing needs to get pushed aside,” Morikawa said. “It’s just being golfers, being professional golfers, playing. These weeks are special now. You don’t take them lightly.”