The golf gods have answered the fans. The 2016 Masters is shaping up to feature a Sunday showdown between Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. The two are scheduled to tee off at 2:50 p.m. ET on Saturday in their battle for the green jacket.
Spieth and McIlroy were paired together to start off the 2015 PGA Championship, but by the end, Spieth pulled away at 17-under par (second place) while McIlroy finished nine-under (17th place). This time, Spieth is looking to become the youngest PGA player ever to capture back-to-back wins at the Masters, while McIlroy is hoping to achieve the career grand slam.
And this couldn't be a better gift for golf fans, who have been waiting for a battle between the game's young stars at a major tournament. Spieth won the Masters wire-to-wire last year, and it wasn't even close; then he battled Dustin Johnson until the 72nd hole at the U.S. Open; the British Open featured a three-way playoff between Zach Johnson, Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen; and finally, the PGA Championship came down to Spieth and Jason Day.
However, never have we had a Spieth/McIlroy showdown. The young PGA Tour stars are the present and future of the sport, and a final round Masters pairing would officially usher in a new era of golf considering the year's first major tournament, before Spieth's victory last year, has seen veterans such as Bubba Watson, Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera, Trever Immelman, Zach Johnson and Tiger Woods win the event recently.
It couldn't come at a better time, either, being that Woods was unable to participate in the event and Mickelson, Johnson and other notable players missed the cut this year.
Spieth's return to the top of the leaderboard for the sixth straight round of the Masters, as well as McIlroy's resiliency to card the best round of the day on Friday and climb back atop the field, is not only a sign, but living proof that the sport will soon be taken over by a new class of players.
But most importantly, such a final round matchup could shift the media and fan base further away from Woods, who was still garnering considerable interest leading up to the Masters, as many were wondering if he was going to come back at this point in the season or not. Golf fans, myself included, remain enamored with Woods despite his inability to perform in recent years or win a major title since 2008.
It's time to move on, and there's no better way to do that than with a Spieth/McIlroy face-off to set the tone for the 2016 PGA Tour season.
