ESPN golf analysts Andy North and Curtis Strange participated in a media conference call today to discuss next week’s Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. For the 18^th year, ESPN will have live telecasts of the first two rounds at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday and Friday, April 10-11, along with the lead-in program Welcome to the Masters at 1 p.m. each day. Preview shows and special feeds will be available on ESPN+. ESPN, ESPN+ and Disney+ also will air the Masters Par 3 Contest on Wednesday, April 9. ESPN will have extensive coverage on SportsCenter, ESPN.com and other ESPN platforms.

A transcript of the conference call follows:

CURTIS STRANGE: I’m looking forward to the Rory-Scottie show. Okay, that’s the end of conversation. Let’s leave now. (Laughing).

It’s the same thing every year. We always look forward to going back. Everybody on this call, everybody around the world looks forward to watching it on TV. As we always said, it never disappointed.

This year, once again, we have Scottie and Rory playing well. Rory seems to be hitting on all cylinders, which is a good thing for the Slam. Scottie going for three in a row, then Xander and Morikawa, a few others playing well.

It’s hard to get past the first two or three, honestly. But we’ll have to see how it plays out.

The other thing I want to say is, I look forward to going back and just being a part of the recovery of Augusta, Georgia, and Augusta National. I’m sure Augusta National, you probably can’t see the change, if there was any, but they were devastated last year with Helene, as many people were up and down the coast. We certainly were thinking about them.

Augusta National certainly stepped up and was a good big brother. They helped out in their community, and that’s a good thing.

ANDY NORTH: Yeah, I’m going to look at this as a guy who’s not in Naples as Curtis is, but I’m up here in Wisconsin. This is actually when you start thinking about spring up here. We’ve had in the last four days, 75 degrees. We’ve had 38 degrees for highs. It’s always great to get down to Augusta. Spring is in the air for the folks in the Midwest and the Northeast particularly. So it’s exciting to see it, and I’ve looked at it a lot like Curtis does.

I’m excited to see what Scottie and Rory do. Also kind of looking forward to the LIV guys. We don’t get a chance to see them. But you’re looking to see what DeChambeau and Rahm and Niemann, the guys who have been playing pretty well, see how they stack up next week.

Q – You’ve both certainly touched on Rory already. We’ve had six approximate wins from European players on the PGA TOUR this season, which is the most before the Masters in the modern era. Where is European golf generally at now, guys?

ANDY NORTH: Starting out with just Rory, obviously, is doing some things that are exceptionally well right now. I thought that at THE PLAYERS, he putted probably as well as with we’ve seen him putt in a long time. He made a ton of critical putts.

The one thing that’s usually hurt Rory is, he’d miss one of those six or eight-footers at a critical time on the back nine on Sunday or at a key time. But he looks like he’s really ready to go.

I love Åberg. I’ve talked about him a lot over the last year. I think he’s an amazing talent. He’s the kind of kid that when he’s good, he’s really good. He hasn’t been as consistent this year as we’ve seen him over the past couple years, but he sure has the ability to get it done.

One of the curious guys, you look at Viktor Hovland. Here’s a guy who’s been a mess. He’s had three or four different guys work with him over the last 18 months. He doesn’t want to go to Tampa because he’s playing so poorly. He decides to go at the last minute and ends up winning. So welcome to golf. You have no idea when it’s going to come, what’s happening, but it sounds like he’s doing some good things.

Those are guys that I’m really kind of looking at right away. Then you add some of the LIV guys in there.

But it’s been a strong start. I thought I read something the other day, there’s been like seven or eight different countries win already this year on the PGA TOUR, which is the most maybe ever this early in the year.

I think the Masters is going to be really interesting to see if one of the foreigners can stick their head up there and be there at the end.

CURTIS STRANGE: It wouldn’t surprise me if any of those played well, and Andy hit the top players. I like to think Straka got the best backswing in golf, I think, so efficient, so accurate and playing very, very consistent golf.

When you talk about all these players, even Åberg, I think it’s only his second Masters, right? There does take time to learn the golf courses, the nuances, and when you first see it, you say, what’s the big deal, until you play it. And the more you play it, you say there is a big deal, there is local knowledge, there is the movement of putts to Rae’s Creek, there is places you do not want to hit it around these greens. So things like that, that you do learn the more you play it, and you really only learn it by putting it in a terrible position and not doing it again.

But MacIntyre playing well, has a lot of ability, Straka, as I said. Shane Lowry, consistently, one of the more consistent players on TOUR already this year. Then you said Viktor Hovland; where did that come from, Andy? You’re ready to shoot yourself, and all of a sudden you win. Is that an anomaly or is that movement in the right direction? I’d like to see him answer that, honestly.

Is this the start of something good, or is this just something, I’ve made some putts, and I guessed right and I won.

Anyway, a lot of good players. Once again, the more you’re there, the more you learn the golf course, and that’s certainly beneficial here at Augusta National.

Q – You mentioned Bob MacIntyre there. I’ve asked you about him in the past. Now he’s a top-20 player, two big wins last year, and he’s a left-hander going to Augusta. All positives for him at the moment.

CURTIS STRANGE: Yeah, I don’t think right or left-handed makes any difference really. You play this game. It’s played outdoors in the elements, and you get all types of lies, all sorts of lies from either side. I think talent overrides everything.

He’s got speed. He’s got talent. He’s won now. It’s hard to put into words the importance of winning and what that does for just your self-belief. Do you walk around with your chest puffed out all day long? No, but when a shot comes out the next day or the next month or next month at the Masters, you know down deep inside that you’ve done it under the gun. You believe in yourself a little bit more.

Whoever wins the Masters this year is basically the same player that they were the day before. The difference is, if it’s a young kid, the belief in yourself, the confidence to do it again and again and again. It’s huge. He has that right now.

ANDY NORTH: Also, I think that Curtis kind of talked about it a little bit, but I don’t see Bob being much of a different player today than he was maybe two years ago. I just think for the first time, he really believes that he can do it, and that’s such a big part of it. I think deep down, he knows he can win. He knows that he can beat these guys. I don’t think he knew that two or three years ago.

Q – You mentioned some of the LIV guys, and I’m just curious, Bryson DeChambeau had such an incredible season last year. What impressed you in particular about his game and the leaps that he was able to make? He had already won a major, but just the development in his game, how well he played at Augusta early in the tournament, and do you feel like he’s a serious threat this time?

ANDY NORTH: I think Bryson is always a threat. With his length and strength — I think he went through a couple years and played exceptionally well, but he was in kind of a scientist stage. He was experimenting, trying to figure out what the best thing to do, and he gained all the weight, then he lost the weight.

I think he’s now kind of figured out where he wants to be. He’s almost reinvented himself in some ways. But he definitely has the talent and the game to do really, really well at Augusta.

It wouldn’t shock me a bit if he went around there and won by four or five shots. But at the same time, he hasn’t had a great record there over the years, and I think that can change. I think he’s a different person than he was three or four years ago, and I think he really is comfortable in his own skin now, and I don’t think he probably was two or three years ago.

CURTIS STRANGE: Yeah, we really haven’t — other than last year, the first round, we really haven’t heard much from him after his great amateur showing there.

I guess whatever Bryson does doesn’t surprise me because he does have this wonderful ability. He has all the length in the world. If he has a good driving week, it’s hard to beat somebody that hits it that far. We always talk about Augusta being a second-shot golf course. Well, what makes it a second-shot golf course easier? It’s driving it long and straight.

He and Rory and a couple other big hitters have that advantage.

I’ve said this for how many years now, three now, that the guys coming from LIV, in their atmosphere in which they play their tournaments, this is a different animal at Augusta National and the four majors that they come over for the year. I think they miss it. I think some relish in it, and I think they come and play well.

It doesn’t mean they will, but I think they miss the atmosphere. I think they miss the energy from the people, the environment, the other players. You gain great energy during the week, especially during those down times in a round from the people.

I think they really look forward to this a great deal. Now, can they harness that and project and still execute the shots is another story.

But I think all those guys that you would think would have a chance to win will do well this week. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t.

Q – How important was it for Rory McIlroy to win THE PLAYERS, to win that playoff on Monday for his chances at Augusta?

ANDY NORTH: I thought it was really important. We’ve seen him not finish out some of those type of events. You look at the run he had in majors, playing so well over the last six, seven, eight years, but hasn’t won. I think coming back Monday morning and winning, that was really important.

But he won early in the year. He’s playing really well. He talked about having a little bit of an issue with his elbow after he finished playing really well yesterday, so it’ll be interesting to see if this is a serious thing or if this is just a wear-and-tear deal and see how it is when he shows up at Augusta.

But man, he’s just an amazing guy. He really is an amazing player. When you watch him, when he’s at his best, he’s the best I’ve ever seen when he’s at his best.

I think the way he putted the ball at THE PLAYERS, I was able to walk around one of the rounds with him there and was really, really impressed at the eight and ten-footers that he made there. That’s not always the case with him.

CURTIS STRANGE: The word is, he’s at Augusta today, okay, playing, or walking around anyway. I heard the story about the elbow yesterday afternoon, too, but he’s at Augusta today.

You know, what do you say to a guy — what will we all say to a guy who has more talent in his little finger and just hasn’t performed at one tournament that he desperately wants to win? It doesn’t make him a failure. That doesn’t make him an underachiever by any stretch. It’s just he hasn’t come through at this one particular week of the year.

I think this is a different year. You go on hunches, and you go on feelings, and I spoke about Rory and Scottie this year. I really think both of them will be there at the stretch, at the end.

If those two guys are coming down the stretch, which one? Andy?

ANDY NORTH: I don’t know. I think it depends. Do we see a Scottie Scheffler that’s been so far this year or the guy that we saw last year? I think there’s going to be a lot of pressure on Rory to try to win. I think if they’re tied with three holes to go, I’d have to go with Scottie just because I think Rory might be trying so hard to finish it off that he gets in his own way.

CURTIS STRANGE: Yeah, that could be one way of it. I just think they both have so much talent. I really think that Scottie, last year, was more consistent, obviously, because he won nine times certainly on TOUR. But I think Rory, just like that, could have a year like that, get some putts to go, get in a rhythm, get in a rhythm just like Scottie did last year.

But I don’t know, I think he’s playing well. I think he’s making some putts.

You know he missed a couple coming down the stretch at THE PLAYERS he could have put it away. It was so important for him to win there because I think he should have put it away, could have put it away on Sunday.

So if he gets in a playoff and loses, devastating — not devastation, but very disappointing.

ANDY NORTH: This is just for me. If you had Scottie and Rory, would you take them against the rest of the field?

I think they’re playing that well, that that’s not that crazy —

CURTIS STRANGE: It’s much like the question with Tiger against the field back when he was winning everything. It’s probably a bad bet, but I’d have to go with it just because.

ANDY NORTH: For dinner, it’s worth it.

Q – Knowing how sentimental and iconic Augusta is, I’m wondering if either one of you guys could share where your favorite spot is on the property, and then, as well, if there is a tradition that you guys do each time you return every year for the Masters?

ANDY NORTH: I’ll be happy to jump in on that. I tell people if they’re going there for the first time to get there as the gates open and then go down and walk 10, 11, 12 and 13 when there’s no people there. I think it’s like going to the Redwoods in Oregon or Northern California. It’s so quiet. The saying is, it’s like having a religious experience. It’s so quiet and you hear the birds, and there’s nothing going on down there. Then you come back four hours later, and it’s sheer chaos. The noise echoing through that area.

To me, that’s probably my favorite part of the golf course.

It’s a part, obviously, that people have seen so much on TV, but it is just — to me, the trees on the side of the hills seem to be so much taller. It just is a really cool, cool area.

CURTIS STRANGE: Yeah, I would go back like two years before we had the new practice facility. I think I had more fun hitting balls when I was so young and even an amateur on the old practice tee. It was so small and quaint, and Snead would walk behind you, and Art Wall and Goalby and Arnold and Jack, and you were rubbing shoulders with these guys, that I used to have on my wall as a kid.

I’ll never forget those times. They were so nice, so accommodating. You were scared to death that you’d open your mouth to them. But just watching them hitting balls — seriously, I played my first round at Augusta with Jack Nicklaus, and I was 20 years old, and my big concern was getting that big ball on that little tee. I’m telling you, I was frightened.

The guys seem so much more self-confident now than we used to be years ago, but I’m not so sure about that, but when you have Tiger walking with somebody, or Rory walking with somebody, this is their hero that they grew up idolizing. I enjoy that. I reminisce a lot about that.

Q – Just curious if you have gotten any intel or understanding of how the golf course has changed with the aftereffects of Helene, and specifically the third hole, apparently the trees on the right have changed a lot, and if you see that changing the strategy there on that hole?

ANDY NORTH: I have not seen the golf course in person. I’ve seen some pictures, and it looks like there’s a lot of trees that were lost. It’s been thinned out. I would think for those of us who have been there for 30 or 40 years, you’ll definitely see the difference. For people coming back for the first or second time, maybe they won’t see as much.

So I’m really looking forward to seeing what it’s all about.

The one thing I think Augusta National did a great job after the storm is, they went out in the community and did some great things in the community instead of worrying about what they needed to do around the golf course. That was secondary to getting the town back to where it was functional. So give them a lot of credit for that.

The 3rd hole — again, I don’t know how much is gone, but if there’s a little bit more room up there on the right, maybe you’ll see more guys going with driver, although over the last four or five years, almost everybody hits driver there now. You don’t see players laying up at all there like we used to, or very seldom. It might make it easier, to step back and hit it as hard as you possibly can. But all in all, I think it’s going to be really interesting to see if you really notice the changes that have happened.

CURTIS STRANGE: I know what you guys know. Trees down. I can’t imagine trees affecting that much of the play, if any. I’m more concerned about — Geoff, what did they redo, three greens? I know 16 was worked on because of trees on it, but I don’t know of any others. I’m just going to have to wait and see when I get there. But if they did have to redo 16 or a couple other greens, does that make a difference? Probably not. They get it rightmost every time.

Q – They regressed 15 and No. 1. 15 played kind of tough last year, as you may recall.

CURTIS STRANGE: Yeah, that won’t affect anything, honestly. They get it exactly right, and even if they don’t, hey, that’s what practice rounds are for, and that’s what reading the green well is for, too.

Q – I’ve got two for you. First, you guys kind of alluded to the weird year that Scottie’s had with the freak injury. He struggled a little bit at THE PLAYERS. I’m curious how important you think the week he just had in Houston where he shot 62 Friday, 63 Sunday, how big was that for him going into Augusta, a place where he’s so comfortable?

ANDY NORTH: You know, if you took Scottie’s record and didn’t have a name on it, people would go, oh, my gosh, this guy has had an incredible year. You look at some of his numbers, his greens in regulation aren’t quite as high as they’ve been, and I think that’s just kind of feeling your way back into it.

It looked like he hit the ball really well at times last week, didn’t make a lot of bogeys, and that’s when he’s really good, is when he just eliminates mistakes and just kind of bores you to death and ends up — it’s like water torture; eventually, he’s going to get you.

I would think this is going to be a really big week for him. He needs to win. In his mind, he needs to win here pretty soon. I think he was really hoping it could have been last week. But he’s playing well.

I’m not worried about Scottie at all. I think he’s going to — I think he’ll be right there at the end. I think it’s going to be really fun to see how he handles it, and obviously, he knows how to get it around that place pretty well.

You start looking at the numbers over the years, and everybody thinks you’ve got to putt the ball great there, which you do have to putt it well, but the winners are the guys that hit the most greens, and he definitely can do that as well as anybody.

CURTIS STRANGE: Yeah, I think you make a good point there, or question, that he didn’t win last week, but it was a positive week because he shot two such good low scores. He made some putts. So that always bodes well whenever you play again.

I can’t help but think, why do we always say it’s always hard to follow up a great round with another great round? You relate that to, how do you follow up a great year after you’ve had a tremendous year like he had last year? I think it’s tough sometimes. You start January 1st all square and equal with everybody else again, and you want to pick it up the way you left it off, and I think he won his last tournament last year, but it just doesn’t happen like that. It’s a month or two removed. I think you get impatient sometimes. You want to pick it right where you left off, and it doesn’t happen sometimes.

I’m just speculating, but maybe a little bit impatient, maybe trying a little bit, expecting a little bit too much out of himself. He’s so good from tee to green and around the greens, it’s hard to say anything negative at all.

But again, I think you have to get momentum back rolling the right way like he did last year. You have to let the year come to you just as you have to let the round come to you at a place like Augusta, and maybe, just maybe that could be part of it, but I expect — once again, I expect him to be right there in the mix Sunday afternoon.

Q – I wanted to ask about Joaquín Niemann. He’s won two LIV events, leads in points. Phil Mickelson called him the best golfer in the world, but he’s never been top 15 at a major. Do you think the pressure is mounting on him to have a big week here, or maybe you don’t because he’s only 26 years old?

ANDY NORTH: I think he’s just trying to figure it out a little bit be. I’ve known Joaquín since early in the Latin America amateur years when he was — it looked like he was going to win there every single year, and took him a couple of times to get there. He is really playing exceptionally well. Of the guys that are on LIV that I would like to see playing on our tour, he’s probably at the head of that list because I think he’s an incredible young talent.

Once he does well in a major, I expect he’s going to do well in a lot of them after that. Will he win them? You never know. But he has that kind of ability and that kind of confidence.

Not that Joaquín Niemann is a dark horse, but I think he’s in that category of guys that you wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he had a really good week and played well. Obviously, he’s got a lot of confidence in what he’s doing well. He’s shooting some really, really good scores. You expect him to do well.

CURTIS STRANGE: You know, Phil Mickelson also said that Scottie Scheffler wouldn’t win a tournament before the Ryder Cup. I think take all of that with a grain of salt. I think Joaquín Niemann is a hell of a young player. I wish he was playing the DP World Tour or the American Tour. He needs to be playing over here.

He is the talent that, at the end of the day, 25 years from now, I would like to see his record put up against a lot of other people. It’s not going to happen when you’re at LIV. Y’all know what I’m saying.

He’s over there. We only see him four or five times a year, and it’s disappointing for all of us — those guys, I want to watch play. I miss watching them play. But they chose their — they made their decision, and that’s okay.

But I think that the public and the TV people and all of us fans of the game would like to see those guys play more often on our tour. Not to let them back, don’t get me wrong, but I wish they were playing on our tour, not over there.

Q – I wanted to ask about Jon Rahm. We talk a lot about Scottie and Rory the last few weeks, and he used to be in that conversation, among those guys. Where do you see Jon going into this year’s Masters? Obviously, he won it a couple of years ago. Do you feel maybe playing these 54-hole no-cut events has maybe impacted him slightly when it comes to the majors?

ANDY NORTH: You know, we really don’t know how he’s playing. We think he’s playing well. You expect him to play well. As you mentioned, he has a great history at the Masters. He understands how to get it around there.

When Jon is at his best, he’s really, really good. But I don’t know. There’s been speculation that he’d like to be over here playing. You don’t know if that’s true or not.

But all in all, I expect him to probably be in the mix this week. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he had a great week.

But they’re playing this weekend at Doral. I would think that how some of these players play there will be really important to how they look going into next week at the Masters. We’ll see how that all shakes out.

But Jon is another guy that when he’s playing well, it’s really fun to watch him play, and you miss watching him, as much as we get a chance.

CURTIS STRANGE: When we were talking about Europeans earlier, certainly didn’t mean to eliminate him by any stretch, two-time major champion, world-class player. But I agree with Andy. We just don’t know. Small fields, 54 holes, I have to do more homework, and I certainly will before next Tuesday, but see what the LIV players, what they’ve been doing, how they’ve been playing, what they’ve been shooting. Haven’t done that yet. I will in the next week, though.

Q – I just wanted to ask about Tommy Fleetwood. He played well at Augusta last year, but obviously, we’ve still not seen him win in America, which is pretty crazy. Do you think it’s a case of when he’ll win on the PGA TOUR, not if?

ANDY NORTH: Well, you’d sure think so. Good gosh, you watch him play, and I’ve loved watching him hit the golf ball for the last 10 years. When he’s striking the ball well, it’s the kind of game you surely expect him to do well in major championships because he drives well. His iron play is really, really good at times. And when he gets on runs, he hits the ball exceptionally well, and he can shoot low scores.

The putter gets in the way once in a while. We’ve seen him go through stretches where he’s putted the ball well for four or five or six months at a time, and he has a chance to win almost every single time he goes out and plays. So just turn your putter around at a week like Augusta is not easy to do, but he surely hits the ball well, particularly iron play, to get the ball in the right places.

CURTIS STRANGE: And he’s long. He has that advantage that few of them do have. He’s long. He’s a good driver of the golf ball. Makes the second shot so much easier.

ANDY NORTH: Absolutely. It surprises me more when he doesn’t play well at major championships.

Q – Michael Kim got in as No. 50 in the world, and he’s been playing just some insane golf this year, especially from, I think, it was the Phoenix Open on. It’s been really consistent. Is this somebody you could see as a dark horse next week, maybe not to win, but top 5, top 10 type of deal?

ANDY NORTH: Yeah, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised. As you were saying, he’s been playing some really good golf. You get in under the wire at the end. It takes a lot of pressure off you. You’re going in there maybe feeling like you’re playing with house money a little bit. But he’s a guy that we all know is a tremendous talent. The light isn’t all the way on with him. I think it’s starting to get brighter. I would expect him to continue the direction he’s going and keep getting better and better.

I think going in there, really playing with house money really frees a player up, and go in there and have some fun and just go out there and play well like he’s been doing.

CURTIS STRANGE: Yeah, we could sit here and talk about everybody in the field that they could have a top 5 or top 10 or possibly be in the mix on Sunday because they’re all quality players. Even the rookies there, they’re all quality players.

But Michael Kim is a guy who’s been playing well. He looks like he really likes the stage. He looks like he likes being out there. That’s a big deal to be comfortable.

I don’t have much other to say. You hit it all. If he gets the putter rolling, you can win anywhere.

ANDY NORTH: I think we forget the fact that these guys are showmen. They love to show off. You get them on a big stage and get playing well, you feed off of that. You just have an absolute blast hitting shots in front of the people there that really understand how important it is and how big a deal it is to hit a quality shot at the 12th hole or a quality shot at the 11th hole.

The patrons at Augusta National know what it takes to play well there, and that’s really cool.

CURTIS STRANGE: That’s a great point. We talked about getting energy from the fans. There’s no better place on the planet than to do it here at Augusta National because they’re so knowledgeable. They appreciate it. They know what they’re seeing here. They make a lot of noise, and they root for you. They really root for every player there to hit shots. They want to be entertained. You want to entertain them. There’s no place like it.

So somebody who really enjoys that stage, I think, has a ball this week. Practice rounds included.

Q – I wanted to ask you, this being Bernhard Langer’s last Masters, you both played against him during your days on the PGA TOUR. What do you make of this career that has now lasted into his 67th year?

ANDY NORTH: I think it’s absolutely amazing. I probably played a little more golf with Langer than Curtis did just because I’m a little bit older.

He’s reinvented himself multiple times during his career, which is really amazing to be able to do. He’s gone through the putting yips, basically, four or five times and has come out the other side a better putter than he’s ever been before. To do the things he’s done at 65, 66, 67 is astounding, absolutely astounding.

He’s going to be competing against these young kids next week hitting 4-woods and hybrids into every green, and it wouldn’t shock me if he ended up making the cut. He is maybe one of the greatest competitors we’ve ever seen in our game.

CURTIS STRANGE: I marvel at Bernhard Langer. I first played with him when we were — gosh, a long, long time ago. When I went over to Europe and played, he was the only guy on the practice tee every afternoon, late, until dark. Same when he came over to the States.

Incredible record, but when he got to 50, how do you stay involved, focused, your intensity, your desire, how do you keep all those things going until 67 or 68 years hold? I don’t know because I couldn’t. I marvel at Hale Irwin, same thing. Just tough guys, love to compete. Stayed in good shape.

But mentally, how do you get up every morning to go do the same thing every day? I don’t know, but he’s done it. And at the Masters in the last five years, he’s had some good Masters, hasn’t he?

Anyway, to come there and — I just hope he has a great day, whatever day that is, his last round. I hope the fans appreciate it, which they will. I hope it’s late Sunday afternoon. It would be a great story.

Q – This is another Rory and Scottie question. Rory had said that by playing with Scottie several times in the last year, he learned a lot about course management and was trying to improve that, and I think we can all agree that that was probably a good thing for him because he hits some squirrelly shots every once in a while. Then he said the most amazing thing. He said he had gotten tired of having his heartbroken, and to win big events you have to be willing to step up and have your heartbroken every time. I just thought it was an interesting comment and wanted to know what you thought about it.

ANDY NORTH: Well, I think the second part of that question, you’ve got to lay it on the line, and you’ve got to — the great players aren’t ever afraid of failure. I think that’s something that no matter what sport you’re playing, you’ve got to — as you were saying, just lay it out there and see what happens.

I think all players can learn watching other players. I think particularly watching Scottie. It’s hard to believe that — you hear a player of the caliber of Rory talking about, I’ve learned watching such-and-such do this. But I think one of the things that has been so impressive about Scottie over the last couple of years is, he doesn’t make very many mistakes. Maybe he’s not as aggressive as some of the other players. He knows when to be aggressive and when not to be.

I think he plays very much like Tiger did at his peak. He doesn’t make the kind of mistakes you see so many other players on TOUR make, where you miss a green with an 8-iron to make a bogey. Scottie doesn’t do that very often. Last year, he made the fewest bogeys per round of anybody on the TOUR, and you combine that with a guy who makes as many birdies as anybody, he’s going to beat you all the time.

I think sometimes maybe Rory would be a little bit more aggressive than he needed to be, and maybe that’s what he’s talking about, that having to watch Scottie, he learned that maybe you don’t have to be perfect all the time. Maybe you don’t have to be as aggressive as you think sometimes.

I think Scottie has probably personified that as well as anybody that we’ve had in the game over the last 10 or 15 years.

CURTIS STRANGE: Yeah, I completely agree. I had one little thing related. It’s about patience. It’s about playing the game, playing your game. When Rory has the length he has, you want to take advantage of that length and play so aggressively. But it just doesn’t work out sometimes.

I know the analytics show that you’ve got to bomb it, bomb it, bomb it, hit it close to the green every time. Well, I don’t care what the analytics say, that’s not how you play this game.

We saw a little bit of that at Pebble, laying up where he should lay up, and I think Augusta National, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s about the score on the board, it’s not about how far you hit it.

He has length to do a lot of different things, and I think watching Scottie play, as he’s admitted, would be advantageous. Learn something.

ANDY NORTH: I think the one beautiful thing about having great length is, you have to understand how to use it. If you were really, really super long and you can hit a 2-iron in the same places as some other guys that are trying to hit a driver, you’re going to hit it in the fairway more often than they are. Curtis made a great point. Analytics has taken over all sports, but there’s sometimes — a guy gets an offensive rebound, he can just turn around and dunk it. Well, then just do it. You don’t need to throw it out and have a 30 percent chance of a guy making a three when you have a 100 percent chance ever getting a two.

I think the same thing in our game. You put a wedge in a TOUR caliber player’s hand from 120 yards, you’re going to make birdie one out of three times or one out of four times. What’s wrong with that?

Q – I was just wondering what you guys perhaps think about the future of Tiger Woods’ playing career.

ANDY NORTH: Boy, that’s a loaded question. I’ve got to believe that — deep down in my heart, he is one of the great competitors of all time, but if he didn’t have any children, I don’t know if he’d be playing now. I think one of the reasons he’s worked so hard after the accident was because it gave him a great opportunity to spend so much time with Charlie and play golf with his son, and watch Charlie get better.

He made a comment to me one time is that there are days Charlie comes home from school and embarrasses me into going and play nine holes late in the afternoon with him. I think that’s something that’s so special.

Now we’re getting to the point that this next rehab is going to be brutally difficult for him. He doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody. He’s done everything he needed to do. If he were to announce in the next month or two that, you know what, I’m never playing competitive golf again. I think that would be great, and no one would have an issue with that.

I think that the competitor in him — you know, you always think you can rehab. You always think you can come back. You always believe that you can do this. But I don’t have any magic answers there. I would think that he’s going to try to play some events after this rehab. Is it going to be a Tiger Woods that can compete? Deep in my heart, I don’t think so.

CURTIS STRANGE: You know, these great players, superstars, always talked about they never want to be a ceremonial player or something to that effect, like it’s a negative. I want to see him at Augusta for a long time in the future playing. He’s not going to play the way he wants to, but I think the people would love to see him, much like they saw Jack and Arnie, especially Arnie, for a long time.

I think we need those people around, to be around the younger generation, to answer questions, to — players learn by example, how to play golf courses. Just be part of the elder statesman society.

I hope he gets back to where he can play. We don’t even know if he can play ever again. It’s going badly.

But especially here, where he can come back and be comfortable and just be around. The people can’t get enough of him. We can’t get enough of him. It would be sad that he wouldn’t come back here and play in the future, but what the future holds, we have no idea.

Q – If you can take me back to your playing days, how much thought did you put into your Sunday outfit? Did you have to envision something that pairs with the green jacket, or do you mentally not want to go there for fear of jinxing it or something?

ANDY NORTH: I’m going to be honest with you, I just made sure I had something that fit well and was clean. You probably weren’t going to wear something that would look horrible with a green jacket, but I didn’t have enough chances to get to where that was a big concern. I was just trying to figure out how to get it around and not embarrass myself most of the time.

CURTIS STRANGE: Can you imagine somebody out there who got on a good roll Sunday afternoon, go and shoot 63 or 64, might win the golf tournament, and he says to his caddie going down 15 down, I’ve got this bad purple shirt on.

ANDY NORTH: Or have a change in your bag. You go into port-o-let, come out a different — now I’ve got the green and the yellows on. Yeah, perfect.

CURTIS STRANGE: You know, I think the players have some feelings about what they want to play — the colors they want to wear on Sunday, but nowadays a lot of the companies dictate that. But I don’t think there’s a lot of — like Andy said, as long as it’s pressed and looks nice — green goes with everything, put it like that.

ANDY NORTH: If you’re going to win the jacket, who cares what you’ve got on?

Q – I wanted to get your thoughts on a few of the bigger American names who I don’t think we’ve mentioned so far, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa, and see how you thought those guys would get on.

ANDY NORTH: Yeah, I think we saw Morikawa play exceptionally well at Bay Hill and really had a disappointing finish not to win. His game really fits Augusta National well. He’s such a great iron player.

I would think that 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 where he should have probably won this year. I walked around with him 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 Valspar.

I expect one of these years, he’s going to have a great showing at Augusta National. It’s a golf course I think he should play well on.

Another player that — Schauffele, he’s come off this injury. He hasn’t been terrific yet, but he sure has played so much great golf over the last three or four years, you’d sure expect him to have his act together at Augusta. Really probably everything on his comeback after the injury has been, probably, focused on being ready for next week.

So I think there’s — Jordan Spieth, he plays exceptionally well there. Can he find that magic again?

A player that no one even talks about, Patrick Cantlay, he’s such a solid player. But I think there’s a good group of American players there, other than, obviously, Scottie, that should be in contention or have a great chance to be in contention coming down the stretch on Sunday.

CURTIS STRANGE: Yeah, it’s a group of guys there. There’s a group of five or six guys in this category that have played well there, have won big tournaments but have not hit on all cylinders at the Masters. I think Schauffele is certainly the guy, 3 in the world, if he’s 100 percent healthy, go get it. He’s one of the favorites.

Then the other guy, Morikawa, who we haven’t mentioned, is playing well, hitting the ball better again, seems to be hitting on all cylinders like he was a couple, two, three years ago.

But outside of those two, the rest of them have just been struggling, and I don’t think you want to — yeah, you could turn it around at Augusta because you get so emotionally involved, but it’s tough to do it because Augusta, or any major championship, it magnifies your mistakes. It looks out and finds your faults. That’s a good thing. But you have to be playing really, really well to do well at these golf tournaments and golf courses that demand so much out of you.

Q – I had a chance to play with the U.S. Am runner-up last year, Noah Kent, a couple years ago, and he bombed it 330 like they all do these days. Will an amateur ever win the Masters?

ANDY NORTH: These guys today are probably more ready than, let’s say, we were 20, 30, 40 years ago. So many of them are playing professional events. We see a lot of them playing in three, four, five a year. I think that really helps. They’re probably more ready. But boy, that’s a tall order. Curtis has talked so much about the experience at Augusta and understanding the golf course and hitting it in the right places. Those are things that you have to learn. Could you have a week where things all fall together beautifully? I think you can. But boy, it’s hard to do it for four days there without making a mistake.

I know a couple of times, I played reasonably well there. I made critical mistakes and put it in places that all of a sudden a driver left at the 2nd hole turns into a 7 or an 8 instead of putting something down the fairway, and you can figure out a way to make a 4 or a 5.

I think it’s a tall order. Could it happen? I think it absolutely could. I think they’re probably more ready to win than in the past. But boy, that’s a big order. You talk to the guys in Vegas, the odds for that are pretty darned guy.

CURTIS STRANGE: We saw the young man Nick Dunlap win last year at the Hope. It happens. But let’s just say the Hope golf courses are a little bit different than Augusta National, okay.

If you had a career amateur that was really, really a good player, take a Jay Sigel, for instance, you could see something like that. You could. But you just don’t see the career amateurs anymore. I say career amateur because they mature and get to know their game and their game progresses. When you’re so young, you do need the experience.

But I mean, you never say never. But you’re going up against the 80 or 90 best players in the world on a hell of a golf course where the atmosphere and the environment, the history is second to none. So it is a tall order.

Q – Andy, you and Curtis played, obviously, at the highest level when you get to the Masters. Was there a hole on Augusta that the moment you got on the tee, you’re like, oh, man, I just need to get through this one? The rest of the thing I’m good with, but man, this hole has given me torture my entire career?

ANDY NORTH: Yeah, I thought personally the 3, 4, 5 were really critical for me. I made a lot of mistakes at 3, spun it off the green too many times. The 4th hole, the par-3, really struggled with getting the right distance on that hole with the wind swirling around. Then 5, back in the old days, you were hitting a 3- or 4-iron into that hole a lot of times.

I thought if you could get through that stretch, maybe birdie the 2nd hole and walk off the 5th green 1-under par, boy, you were set up to have a really good round of golf.

CURTIS STRANGE: You try not to ever think about a hole like that or get into that mode, but you can’t help it sometimes. I think 10 and 11 — I’m sorry, 10 and 18 were tough for me just because — 18 you’re coming straight up a hill. Back in the day, we were hitting 4, 5 and 6-irons in there, and it was tough, and then you had the grain.

It wasn’t a block, but you just knew you had to hit two really good shots into both of those holes to make par.

(Image courtesy Augusta National Golf Club)

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