Lefties have right touch at Augusta

Adam Scott has won two consecutive PGA Tour events and finished runner-up by a shot the week before, so the question of the 2013 winner at Augusta National seemed perfectly reasonable just a month before the season’s first major.

Are you the Masters Tournament favorite now?

“No,” Scott said without hesitation. “I think Bubba is.”

Bubba Watson draped the green jacket on Scott as the reigning 2012 Masters champion and took it back from the Australian at the 2014 ceremony. The Georgia grad also beat Scott by a shot at Riviera three weeks ago and lost to him by a shot at Doral on Sunday, so it’s fair to say that both of them are tracking at a similar pace toward Augusta.

But Scott deferring to Watson as the favorite is a bit of a left-handed compliment – literally.

“It just sets up so good there for him,” Scott said.

“Even if I won every tournament I play before the Masters, if Bubba keeps finishing second, I’d still think he’s favored.”

Scott is not alone in this assessment. There is a growing school of thought that the added yardages and tighter lanes at Augusta National have increasingly enhanced the advantage of left-handers at the Masters. Particularly big-hitting left-handers like Watson and Phil Mickelson.

And if you like trends, the Tea Olive leaves certainly point left again in 2016. Since Mike Weir broke the left-handed ice at Augusta in 2003, the even years have been all but owned by southpaws.

Mickelson took the green jacket in 2004, ’06 and ’10. Watson picked it up from there in 2012 and ’14.

Only 2008 – when Trevor Immelman won with the closest lefties Mickelson and Steve Flesch tied for fifth – has escaped the even-year pattern.

Former world No. 1 and two-time major winner Martin Kaymer has openly lamented “I wish I could play the other way” at Augusta. He even tried to change the shape of his ball flight for the course to relatively disastrous effect. He’s only broken par twice in 22 rounds at Augusta, never finishing better than 31st.

Mickelson admits there might be something to the theories. Holes like 2, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 13 all favor the control of a left-handed cut. Even most of the par-3 greens tend to set up better for lefties to get to certain pins or avoid hazards with cuts or draws.

“But you’re talking about fractions of a stroke difference,” Mickelson has said, knowing full well those fractions make a huge difference at the PGA Tour level.

Both Watson and Mickelson are rounding into perfect form before the Masters, which bodes well for both being among the favorites. Watson, however, has the advantage of not being nearly 46 years old.

Watson, naturally, dismisses the favorite chatter or any omens that portend his success. That he’s won the Masters both previous times he’s finished runner-up at Doral or that he won a green jacket after winning at Riviera as well in 2014 aren’t relevant, he claims.

“Augusta is still a long way away, and again, you don’t know how you’re going to wake up or what’s going to happen the next two days or next month before we get to Augusta,” Watson said. “I mean, who knows how I’ll feel when I get there?”

But he does concede that Augusta National tends to bring out the best in his unique shotmaker’s mind.

“Being in the field at Augusta gives me good vibes,” Watson said.

Of course, the same can be said for any of the former winners in the field. Seventeen players have won multiple times at Augusta, accounting for 47 of the 79 trophies presented (nearly 60 percent).

While players like Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler or Justin Rose would be good bets to move into the champions lockerroom, odds would still be in favor of a repeat winner to come from the in-form cluster of Scott, Watson, Mickelson, Jordan Spieth or Charl Schwartzel.

Spieth, after all, does everything athletically left-handed except hit the golf ball.

Even if Scott might give the edge to Watson, the purity of the Aussie’s ball striking and the emergence of his new conventional putter make him the strongest candidate at the moment to break up the left-handed monopoly on even years.

“I’d love to just bottle up where my game’s been at the last couple weeks and move forward a month,” Scott said. “That’s going to be the hard thing for me to do is to manage my expectations and also manage my game to keep it right here.

“I can’t just keep pushing. I have to pace myself kind of so I don’t over-work it and try and get too prepared and do all that. It’s finding that balance the next month for me that’s going to be really important, but obviously the confidence is going to be high right now.”