Will there be a maiden winner once again at Augusta?

The Christmas Day climate at Augusta National hit a sunny 20 degrees, just the sort of Georgia day on which you could picture a Masters champion donning the club’s famous green jacket.

The first major championship of 2017 may not get under way for another 100 days on April 6, but golf’s elite contenders have already tuned their antennae towards Augusta. Thoughts will develop into preparations as the festive season wanes with many schedules already in place and the game’s stars starting to build some rhythm and repetition into their practice routines.

For some, such as 2015 Masters champion Jordan Spieth, the road towards Magnolia Lane will begin in Hawaii on January 5 as he defends his Tournament of Champions title at Kapalua. Now 23, the Texan will be eager to make amends for a 2016 season that saw him fall short of the standards he set for himself in the previous campaign, most notably in defence of his Masters title when a disastrous 12th hole visit to the water in front of the famous par three dramatically halted what had appeared to be his procession towards back-to-back victories and let in a rookie champion in England’s Danny Willett.

Willett would not be the only first-timer, for 2016 also saw maiden major victories for Dustin Johnson at the US Open, Henrik Stenson at Troon in the Open Championship and Jimmy Walker at the PGA Championship. That made it six breakthrough winners in the last two years, while Augusta National is no stranger to a breakout major success either, with all but three of the last 10 winners (Angel Cabrera in 2009, Phil Mickelson in 2010, Bubba Watson in 2014) making the Masters their first port of call for big-time glory.

Willett’s win appears to be something of an anomaly as a genuine bolt from the blue but another first-time winner this April would come as no surprise. Spieth won the Masters at his second attempt, then landed the US Open in his next major start, but like the other breakthrough winners had long signalled his potential.

“There’s just an added element on the mental side of things, because you know it’s a major,” Spieth said of winning one. “You see a lot of first-time winners on the PGA Tour. You see a lot of young talent, fearless talent now in the game.

“I think it’s a matter of time — you saw Dustin Johnson, even Jason Day, when he won (the 2015 PGA), so many close calls before winning; Dustin, a lot of close calls before winning. I think those guys, it’s a mental thing.

“I mean, I had one, I guess, before, and then just rode a hot putter to the first one, which made that one kind of easier. But it’s just an extra added mental barrier, I guess, that is just challenging to get through. That’s why it’s so hard.

“It’s funny, because I think last year at this time, the conversation was: ‘the last whatever majors were only held by three or four guys. And now, the phrase, six first-time winners in the last whatever majors, it’s just funny how it’s phrased because that makes it look completely different now than it did last year. And I get that the season brought new major winners.

“It’s not any easier now, I don’t think, than it ever has been. I think you saw just quite a few guys in the last couple years that had a lot of close calls, and you figured that you would have bet on five years ago would be a major winner in the next five years, and it just got through that threshold of, ‘I’m tired of the close calls and I’m tired of this crap; I’m going to bust through the barrier’.

“When they’ve won, look at Henrik’s win; look at Dustin’s win; look at Jimmy’s. These weren’t kind of squeak-through wins. I mean, these were shots towards the ends of the round. Look at Dustin on 18 as Oakmont. I mean, just a stripe drive, stripe, whatever it was, 7-iron, to five feet, make the putt. That’s a very, very difficult hole that he made look very, very easy. And it’s even more difficult at that moment in time.

“You’re seeing these guys pretty much just stand up to this barrier and say, not only am I going to close this thing out, but I’m tired of the way it’s been and I’m going to do it in style. It’s really cool. It’s cool as a peer and fellow competitor to see that because it’s inspiring in a way, because you know how difficult that is.”

Already, the next class of potential Masters champions has shown its hand, with some stellar play over the last six months.

There will certainly be a spring in the step from America’s Ryder Cup heroes as they tee it up in the early stages of the year and none will be more buoyant than Hazeltine hero Patrick Reed, although the Augusta State University graduate has not finished higher than 22nd at the Masters in three starts, missing the cut on his debut and tying for 49th a year ago.

Rickie Fowler also missed the Masters cut in 2016 but has shown he can negotiate his way around Augusta National with a tie for fifth in 2014 and T12 12 months later. Having just turned 28, his form and profile fit the bill as a major champion in waiting. While Brooks Koepka, such an impressive Ryder Cup rookie for the United States in Minnesota last September, also has the big-hitting power and deft short game to make an impression at the year’s opening major.

And if there is to be a European successor to Willett in claiming a first career major at the Masters, might Matt Fitzpatrick be the choice? The Yorkshireman may have disappointed on his Ryder Cup debut but he made Darren Clarke’s team on the back of a tie for seventh at Augusta last April and victory at the Nordea Masters. Since Hazeltine, he has further shown his class by winning the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. Then there is Ireland’s Shane Lowry, who shot an opening-round 68 last year.

He needs to hit the ground running in 2017 after suffering an extended slump following his US Open runner-up near miss last June.

There is another standout player still to win a major who is trending favourably towards the green jacket on Sunday, April 9, and he would be a real history-maker. Hideki Matsuyama of Japan has ended the season on a high with his victory in the Bahamas at the Hero World Challenge and in the last two years at the Masters has finished fifth and seventh. So we could have a first major champion from Asia to celebrate in 2017.

Of course, a lot can happen in 100 days and those already forming the golfing elite will have a big say in the way the Masters unravels.

Rory McIlroy will once again have to deal the attention as he strives to secure a career grand slam on the back of his FedEx Cup success and $10m-plus bonanza last September while either side of him in the official rankings, world number one Jason Day and No.3 Dustin Johnson both have the pedigree around Augusta National to add to their major tallies.

A recalibrated Spieth won this month’s Australian Masters, something he did en route to his maiden Masters win in 2015, while Race to Dubai winner and Open champion Henrik Stenson is showing no signs of fading after his wonderful 2016 campaign.

And when it comes to pedigree among the pines in April, no one tops Tiger Woods, a four-time Masters champion buoyed by his comeback performance at his own Hero World Challenge earlier this month but still with plenty of work to do. It may be asking a lot of the 40-year-old world number 652 but if the upward curve that started in the Bahamas continues on his 2017 debut at Riveria in February then his return to Augusta National on the 20th anniversary of his first Masters win will truly be something to savour.