Johnson eyes back-to-back wins, McIlroy dreaming of Grand Slam

It has been less than five months since Dustin Johnson donned the green jacket, but The Masters is upon us once again. Golf, like all walks of life, was thrown into disorder by the global outbreak of coronavirus, with what was meant to be the first of 2020's four majors ending up being the last of three.

After Collin Morikawa and Bryson DeChambeau had prevailed at the US PGA Championship and U.S. Open respectively, Johnson completed an American clean sweep in a truncated season.

The world number one will return to Augusta to defend his title amid the usual fierce competition, although there will of course be no Tiger Woods this time.

With so much to look forward to ahead of what is sure to be another memorable tournament in Georgia, we have picked out a selection of some of the best Opta Facts relating to The Masters.

Johnson on cusp of matching Woods, Nicklaus and Falco

- Johnson will attempt to become the first golfer since Woods to win back-to-back green jackets (2001-2002); the only other golfers to have achieved that feat are Jack Nicklaus (1965-1966) and Nick Faldo (1989-1990).

- Nicklaus holds the record for most wins at the Masters (six), ahead of Woods (five).

- Woods is the youngest player to wear the green jacket (21 years, 104 days) while Nicklaus is the oldest – he was 46 years and 82 days old when winning his last major and green jacket in 1986.

- The only current golfer to have secured a top 10 in each of his last five Masters appearances is Johnson.

Johnson's Augusta record

- Johnson set a new Masters scoring record of 268 (-20) in last year's win at Augusta. He is 32 under par over the last two editions; that is 10 shots better than anyone else over that period (Brooks Koepka, -22).

- Woods will be missing his fourth Masters over the last eight editions (since 2014). He had participated in each of the previous 19 Masters tournaments.

- A win would see Rory McIlroy become only the sixth golfer in history to secure a career Grand Slam, after – in chronological order – Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Nicklaus and Woods.

- American golfers have won 62 of the 84 editions of this tournament to date, with Spain and South Africa joint-second on five wins each.

- The Masters is the only major yet to have been won by a Northern Irish golfer. In total, players from Northern Ireland have won seven majors (two U.S. Opens, three Open Championships, two US PGA Championships), four of them by McIlroy.

- Only one of the last seven Masters tournaments has been decided by a play-off (Sergio García versus Justin Rose in 2017). A play-off had been required in three of the previous five editions.

- Fuzzy Zoeller is the last player to win the Masters at the first attempt, back in 1979.