Seeking to defend his Masters title might be a pressure for Rory McIlroy, but as Philip Reid puts it in his preview of the tournament, it’s decidedly more manageable than the pressure that weighed on him in his previous 17 visits to Augusta. He and world number one Scottie Scheffler are “the headline acts” in this the 90th edition of the Masters, one that will not feature either Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods for “the first time in forever …. well, since 1994”.
Philip warmed up for the tournament by joining the lengthy queue for the merchandise store where, as ever, the Masters gnome was the star attraction. If he doesn’t bring us back one, there’ll be hell to pay. As there will be too for anyone attempting to bring a phone in to the golf club - they’re on a list of banned items.
David Gorman brings you ‘Everything you need to know about Augusta National’, including the tee times for all the players, and we’ll be running a live blog on each of the four days to keep you informed of all the happenings.
In rugby, Nathan Johns analyses Rieko Ioane’s performance against Edinburgh last weekend, “undoubtedly his best display in a blue shirt”, one Leinster could do with him replicating when they take on Sale in their Champions Cup quarter-final at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday. Gerry Thornley talks to Joe McCarthy about that challenge.
Ireland’s women face the most daunting of all tasks when they open their Six Nations campaign, also on Saturday - they play world champions England at Twickenham, with more than 70,000 tickets already sold for the game. Daire Walsh hears from scrumhalf Emily Lane ahead of that encounter.
In Gaelic games, Ian O’Riordan previews the Leinster football championship, one that was given a badly needed shake-up last year by Louth after Dublin’s 14-in-a-row. And Gordon Manning talks to Cork’s Brian Hayes about how the pain of being blitzed by Tipperary in the second half of last year’s All-Ireland hurling final can drive the team on this time around.
David Branigan, meanwhile, reflects on a memorable trip to Mallorca last weekend for Eve McMahon, who won gold in the Princess Sofia Regatta, while Ian gets Daniel Wiffen’s not-overly-happy reaction to his 1,500m freestyle success at the Irish Open Swimming Championships.
In racing, Brian O’Connor previews the Aintree Festival, which gets under way today, and in his America at Large column, Dave Hannigan brings us the curious tale of NBA teams going out of their way to …. lose.
TV Watch: Sky’s coverage of round one of the Masters gets up and running at 2pm today, and at 8pm you can choose from three European football games - Bologna v Aston Villa (Premier Sports 1 and TNT Sports 2) and Porto v Nottingham Forest (TNT Sports 1) in the Europa League, and Crystal Palace v Fiorentina (TNT Sports 3) in the Conference League.
