The Masters begins on Thursday at Augusta National, where defending champion Scottie Scheffler will try to win his third green jacket, Rory McIlroy will try again to claim his first, and the biggest names in golf will come together amid the Georgia pine trees for the first major championship of 2025.
There is a total of 95 players in the field, the largest number for a decade, even without the five-time champion Tiger Woods who is missing after surgery in March to repair a torn Achilles tendon. Last year, Woods set a record by making the cut for the 24th time in a row.
There is still a divide among the game's elite players, and just 12 from the Saudi-backed breakaway LIV Golf league will be teeing up this weekend. That includes Jon Rahm, the winner two years ago, and Bryson DeChambeau, the US Open champion – two men considered among the favourites for the title. Here are the main talking points leading up to the Masters.
Rory McIlroy, obviously…
It’s the Masters, so it is all about Rory. Is it finally going to be his year? He must be sick of hearing that. It is the one major he is best suited to playing, yet the one that continues to elude him.
He is 18 years on tour now. Lots of players have risen and fallen from being golf’s pre-eminent player in that time – Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, and most recently Scottie Scheffler – and all have picked off a green jacket or two.
McIlroy has been there or thereabouts that whole time, and still hasn’t. The portents are good: he has won twice already this season on the PGA Tour, the first time he has done that going into a Masters.
But they so often are. Everyone can look for pointers, but they will never mean anything until he finally gets the job done to complete the set of career majors.
LIV, love, laugh
With the rowdy galleries, largely casual attire, and occasionally even playing at night, the players from the LIV tour often seem like they are arriving late after a party when they get back to the staid, established tournaments.
They are almost always in good spirits. But does that mean they are match ready? LIV players have had success at majors, but the rebel tour is surely not ideal prep for the historic showpiece events.
Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka are two players who are said to be setting their course for a return to the old order once their current contracts with LIV run down.
Each could contend at Augusta this week, but 72 holes on an undulating layout is very different to what they have grown used to in recent seasons.
For McIlroy, see Koepka, too
Koepka is a great golfer, but has a rubbish poker face. Fred Couples let slip at the start of last month that Koepka wants to return to the PGA Tour when his four-year contract with LIV lapses.
The man himself tried to play down that idea, saying: “I don’t know where I’m going, so I don’t know how everybody else does.”
Koepka was similarly unconvincing when he tried to be coy about moving to LIV in the first place. What is for certain is his game is less reliable right now than five years ago, for example, when he was on an extraordinary run of four major titles in the space of two years.
He took out a third PGA Championship in 2023 – and fifth major in all – having already switched to LIV, and was tied for second in the Masters that same year.
Like McIlroy, a Masters is the one major to which Koepka has often gone close, yet still remains just out of reach.
Anyone’s game
So, where is the threat coming from? More than ever before, the form guide is skewed because top-level golf is now so fractured.
The most recent PGA Tour event’s last-day leaderboard included players like Andrew Novak, Ryan Gerard and Chad Ramey. Which is not exactly a great form guide ahead of Augusta.
Europe’s rankings are currently led by Laurie Canter, whose Masters hopes might have been tempered by a recent bout of norovirus.
And Tyrrell Hatton is still second in the Race to Dubai, having played – and won – just the one event so far, which was the Dubai Desert Classic back in January. To put it into perspective, the next best in the standings – fellow Englishman John Parry – has played 13 times.
Maybe the challenge could yet come from LIV, where Sergio Garcia was a recent winner, and the outstanding Joaquin Niemann has won twice so far this season.
The Dubai effect
A myth that briefly came to life a few years back was that winning the Dubai Desert Classic was a sure-fire indicator that a green jacket was incoming.
Danny Willett won at the Majlis Course in 2016, then at Augusta two months later. A year later, Garcia did the same double.
Every other year has proved the trend to be a coincidence instead. McIlroy, for example, won back-to-back Classics in 2023 and 2024, but failed to trouble the engravers at the Masters.
Still, though, Hatton might not mind it if the facts don’t get in the way. He might have been hidden away on LIV in the time since, but his form in regular tour golf has been remarkable for some time. He has not been out of the top 10 in his past six DP World Tour events, and won twice, including the Dallah Trophy at the start of this year.
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
HOW DO SIM CARD SCAMS WORK?
Sim swap frauds are a form of identity theft.
They involve criminals conning mobile phone operators into issuing them with replacement Sim cards, often by claiming their phone has been lost or stolen
They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
THE SCORES
Ireland 125 all out
(20 overs; Stirling 72, Mustafa 4-18)
UAE 125 for 5
(17 overs, Mustafa 39, D’Silva 29, Usman 29)
UAE won by five wickets
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Power: 592bhp
Torque: 620Nm
Price: Dh980,000
On sale: now
Most%20ODI%20hundreds
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Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
Story%20behind%20the%20UAE%20flag
%3Cp%3EThe%20UAE%20flag%20was%20first%20unveiled%20on%20December%202%2C%201971%2C%20the%20day%20the%20UAE%20was%20formed.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EIt%20was%20designed%20by%20Abdullah%20Mohammed%20Al%20Maainah%2C%2019%2C%20an%20Emirati%20from%20Abu%20Dhabi.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EMr%20Al%20Maainah%20said%20in%20an%20interview%20with%20%3Cem%3EThe%20National%3C%2Fem%3E%20in%202011%20he%20chose%20the%20colours%20for%20local%20reasons.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20black%20represents%20the%20oil%20riches%20that%20transformed%20the%20UAE%2C%20green%20stands%20for%20fertility%20and%20the%20red%20and%20white%20colours%20were%20drawn%20from%20those%20found%20in%20existing%20emirate%20flags.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
More on Quran memorisation:
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
How to turn your property into a holiday home
- Ensure decoration and styling – and portal photography – quality is high to achieve maximum rates.
- Research equivalent Airbnb homes in your location to ensure competitiveness.
- Post on all relevant platforms to reach the widest audience; whether you let personally or via an agency know your potential guest profile – aiming for the wrong demographic may leave your property empty.
- Factor in costs when working out if holiday letting is beneficial. The annual DCTM fee runs from Dh370 for a one-bedroom flat to Dh1,200. Tourism tax is Dh10-15 per bedroom, per night.
- Check your management company has a physical office, a valid DTCM licence and is licencing your property and paying tourism taxes. For transparency, regularly view your booking calendar.
Abaya trends
The utilitarian robe held dear by Arab women is undergoing a change that reveals it as an elegant and graceful garment available in a range of colours and fabrics, while retaining its traditional appeal.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
