Weekend Wrap - Summer of Nelly Edition

 Quite the good week for golf, methinks.  It will be fun watching them squander it.....

Houston, We Dodged A Bullet - The Tour That Can't Shoot Straight may have finally found a home for that major that has a permanent venue, though Houston itself is a big part of said problem.  But Geoff dives right in on the threshold issue of the day (see what I did there?):

Nelly Korda made the kiddie pond leap. With pride and an impressive cannonball to avoid a lower leg injury.

“Feet first,” Korda said. “I knew it was four feet so I was expecting to hit the ground very fast.”

That answered one of the key questions around the 2026 Chevron Championship and its makeshift pool. Another on most minds? Whether more than a few hundred people would show up over the weekend (they did). Otherwise, that’s about it for suspense at the first women’s major of the year. Blame Nelly.

Mercifully for all involved, Korda’s brilliance will be the takeaway from what was an otherwise flat and uninspired edition of the major formerly known as The Dinah.

My own take on the actual competition isn't quite as harsh as Geoff's, as the LPGA ended up with a great final round threesome, though he's on point that Nelly was never threatened.

But it was no walk in the (Memorial) park:

Unflappable and focused, Korda put together a wire-to-wire masterpiece. But she insisted this

was no walk in Memorial Park.

“Honestly, having that big of a lead, it's not easy,” she said. “It was definitely one of the hardest things I've had to do mentally.”

After taking the week off ahead of Chevron’s first playing inside Houston city limits, Korda carved up the minimalist muni with rounds of 65-65-70-70 to set 36 and 54-hole scoring records. Her 270 total finished just one stroke shy of Dottie Pepper’s 27-year-old set at Mission Hills.

With noticeably more rough than the men dealt with during March’s Texas Children’s Houston Open, Korda’s driving distance and accuracy took on real meaning. She landed in 40 of 52 fairways with a 269.0 average. Korda hit 59 of 72 greens and took 115 putts in a win that appeared nearly flawless—other than a few short misses.

“What I was telling myself was I really want to hoist this trophy because I want to show the kids at home that it’s okay to miss short putts and still win a major championship,” Korda said. “You’re going to make mistakes. You have to mentally still be in it 100%, and that’s really what I wanted show. I wanted to show it to myself and I wanted to show it to everyone looking up to me.”

Sure we'd have preferred the collar to be a little tighter down the stretch, but the state of the women's game is such that this is manna from heaven.  There is simply no other woman on the LPGA that has a fraction of Nelly's Q-rating, partially due to the sorry state of American women's golf.  But, while Patty and Jeeno are appealing players, the tour needs the American market more than human's need oxygen, and that means Nelly has outsized importance.  So, the summer of Nelly would also inevitably be the Summer of the LPGA.

Let's duck into the Tour Confidential for a bit, before returning to some downer notes from Geoff:

Nelly Korda won the Chevron Championship, blitzing the field to win by five and claim the first major of the year, the third of her career. Two years ago she won seven times, but followed it up with a winless 2025. This year she has already won twice. Is a summer of Nelly Korda dominance ahead? What’s changed?

James Colgan: It is the hardest thing in golf to win a tournament. And yet, it is very, very hard to lose golf tournaments when you’re playing the way Nelly did this weekend. On the front nine on

Sunday with a five-shot lead, feeling all of the pressure in the world to close it out, Korda made seven pars and two birdies. There’s a maturity in that kind of sensibility on Sunday at a major, and I think it explains a lot of her success in Houston.

Sean Zak: I think Nelly has settled in to a comfortable spot with what she wants to be to the game. When she last went on a run like this, there was immense pressure for her to carry the entire women’s game. To try and live up to cross-sport comparisons to Caitlin Clark. I’m not sure Korda ever really felt great about all of that.

To answer the question, I hope a Summer of Nelly is upon us. She is unquestionably one of the best golfers we’ve ever seen, which just makes me want to see what she’s capable of achieving at her very peak. This comes the same week that DataGolf launched its women’s rankings. I want to see her take off and plant her flag with one of the best seasons of all-time. And then, if I can be greedy, I want to see Jeeno Thitikul go toe-to-toe with her.

Josh Schrock: Here in Houston all week, it was very apparent that Nelly Korda is at peace with who she is, and her maturity on the golf course stems from both personal happiness and a decision that she and caddie Jason McDede made to approach things differently after 2025. She’s made a concerted effort to play smart golf, not take on unnecessary risk and not let negativity, both internal and external, seep into her game. McDede told me that the loss last year at Erin Hills was really the catalyst for the changes she made to her mentality, and I think there’s reason to believe she could rip off several more wins this year. Every part of her game is firing, and her decision to hire a “no nonsense” putting coach has helped address what was the Achilles’ heel of her game. The hype train leading into Riviera will be out of control.

I think Sean Zak hits on the dilemma, that there is an unnatural pressure on the one lady.  There's great natural talent there for sure, though she's also been mistake-prone and has struggled with leads, yanno, the human stuff of our game.  But, as I alluded to above, there is simply no other LPGA player that will cause folks to turn on their TV's.

And this silly bit:

A pre-tournament talking point at the Chevron was if the winner’s leap into Poppie’s Pond should continue with the tournament now taking place at a new venue, Memorial Park. A small pool was built as a placeholder this year (which Korda splashed into) until a more natural water feature is built by Tom Doak before next year. Should the winner’s leap have stayed put at the previous venue, Carlton Woods? Is it gimmicky? Or is it a fun tradition and important to preserve?

Colgan: Golf people get so worked up about the dumbest things. I’d argue sports are fun precisely because of our stupidly blind adherence to totally outrageous (and often watered down) traditions like the winner’s leap. We’re investing emotionally into someone’s capacity to put a white ball into a hole in the ground in fewer lashes than their opponent. That’s as dumb as it gets. If the winner wants to jump into a kiddie pool or battle an orangutan after, we should be unmoved.

Zak: If they battle an orangutan, I’m gonna be moved by that. Sorry, James. But I actually kinda dig this tradition, mostly because … who cares? Bring your hate elsewhere. There are more important — and way more gimmicky — things to get angry about. Nelly’s team seemed to enjoy the leap.

Schrock: Completely agree. What was all the fuss about? The players want to keep tradition alive and the LPGA created a stopgap move to allow it. There’s way too much hand-wringing about dumb things in golf. This was much ado about nothing. Korda was one of the players who wanted the tradition kept alive. She dove in. We move on. It’s sports. Go take a lap if you’re so aggrieved, maybe in a pool.

That sound you hear is my eyes rolling in the socket, not that I much disagree with anything the writers have said, with the exception of wanting to ban Zak's analogy.

This is a tough one in that the tradition was tied to a specific venue, and it's never not going to feel forced in Houston.  That said, unlike the big-boy tour, this isn't the ladies voluntarily abandoning their birthright, this was forced on them by Augusta National, a/k/a The Patriarchy.  So, I'm inclined to let them make the best of it, without my usual snark.

Alas, Geoff leaves us with these depressing thoughts:

Korda’s brilliance distracted from what was an inauspicious start at Memorial Park. The venue played incredibly well despite three inches of rain leading into the first round (with the LPGA staff admirably playing the ball down despite player grumbling).

But practically non-existent galleries on Thursday and Friday were impossible to ignore. As were the empty hospitality chalets (a primary motivation for Chevron to move the tournament closer to its headquarters.) Throw in persistently gray skies and lack of vibe in the fourth largest market, and it’s hard not to blame the oversaturation of pro golf caused by returning to a venue that hosted the PGA Tour just last month.

There will be a similar conundrum when Korda turns up in Los Angeles for the next women’s major, the U.S. Women’s Open. Riviera Country Club also hosts an annual PGA Tour stop in a notoriously fickle golf market.

Yes, and there's one other issue of the ladies following the men, that golf viewers can see the difference.  And while the Chevron comes in the sports shoulder season, the U.S. Women's Open will be in the heart of the summer, competing against both a stronger sports schedule and, perhaps more importantly, the summer outdoor activities of their viewership.  And, as Geoff notes, LA doesn't turn out for anything and, if they do, they leave in the fifth inning to beat traffic.

Fitzmagic - Am I the only one that notices that the best moments on the PGA Tour seem to come in their least important events, kind of bass-ackwards to this observer.

The Tour shrinks field sizes dramatically to try to script their Sundays, then we see that the best moments are the ones that couldn't be scripted due to their implausibility.  Nick Dunlop comers to mind, but how about a scenario where a major winner hits a world-class shot the deliver a PGA Tour card for his kid brother?  Nah, c'mon, that could never happen!

Brother of the Year Matt Fitzpatrick hits superb sand shot to win Zurich Classic, give brother Alex a PGA Tour card

The ballgame moment—as in, "we've got ourselves a ballgame"—came on the 12th hole, when

an errant drive from Matt Fitzpatrick kicked off a chain of events that ended with his younger brother Alex putting out for double bogey. This was the closing stretch of the final round of the Zurich Classic, played in the alternate-shot format, and everyone knew the stakes: with a win for the brothers, Alex Fitzpatrick would get a two-and-a-half-year PGA Tour exemption on the spot. (He wasn't without a backup plan—he's seventh in the Race to Dubai standings on the DP World Tour, and the top 10 also get PGA Tour cards for the following year, but this was both a swifter and a bigger prize.) For most of the front nine, it appeared as though they'd cruise to a win. The double bogey invited doubt, and a heap of pressure.

Now they had to battle, and it was the elder brother, Matt, who continued to leak oil as the back wore on. He followed the errant drive on 12 with a pull on the par-3 14th that led to a bogey, and when the Norwegian duo of Kristoffer Reitan and Kris Ventura finished their superb day with an eagle on 18, the teams were tied at 30 under. A few minutes later, Alex Smalley and Hayden Springer made it a trio, finishing with birdie and broaching the possibility of a three-team playoff.

he Fitzpatricks needed a birdie in the last four holes to win outright, but trouble found them again on 15 with a poor drive and approach that left them off the green. This time, though, Matt buried an eight-foot par putt to stay abreast, and he bailed his little brother out again on 16 with a chip from off the green to two feet. On the par-3 17th, Alex's excellent iron to 14 feet led to a simple par, and then it was down to the extremely birdie-able 18th. One birdie, and the brothers had it.

Matt shook off the back nine tee demons to bomb a 322-yard drive down the left side of the fairway, but with 260 yards left, Alex's approach came up 35 yards short in a bunker.

What happened next might be the shot of the year and certainly goes down as the best sand shot since Bryson DeChambeau secured his U.S. Open win at Pinehurst on the 18th hole. Matt Fitzpatrick's shot came out high, but stopped quickly, and came to rest a foot from the hole.

The Zurich isn't much, but at least they've found a means to differentiate themselves from the week-to-week mindlessness of Tour life.  But throw in the family connections and, presto, you've found real-life drama involving an attractive family (not to mention the third-ranked player in the world).

I've linked to the TC panel, but would you believe that they don't even acknowledge this event in their Q&A?  They spare a slot for Ryder Cup ticket prices more than a year out, but ignore a heartwarming story that happens on national TV.  Bizarre.

Schedule Follies - This is far from the most pressing issue of the day, but the TC panel had this on next year's schedule:

It’s official — for the first time in nearly six decades, the PGA Tour will not stop in Hawaii during the 2027 season, a domino of the forthcoming schedule change. Will you miss Hawaii? And what was your favorite moment during the Tour’s time in The Aloha State?

Colgan: I’ll miss Hawaii. The golf course was fun and distinct, and the vibes were aspirational in a way few events on the golf calendar are. In a lot of ways, it feels like this is the moment we’ll look back upon as the Tour’s defining shift toward commerce in the mid-2020s. Not a bad thing, but a thing worth noting!

Zak: It’s okay to miss Hawaii as a season-starter and also know it was not an economically viable tournament. We live in an era of sports that will squeeze plenty of Things We Like out and replace them with Things We Still Like But Are Better Funded. It is what it is. This is a strictly commercial move and I think we’ll look back on it in five years in a totally accepting way. That said, the Tiger-Ernie battle from 2000 was one of the best mano a mano golf moments we’ve ever had.

Schrock: I’ll miss Hawaii for sure. Kapalua was a great course and it gave everyone buried in snow in the northeast an escape. That being said, I completely understand why the decision was made from a financial standpoint. Agree, this decision feels like a notable moment in the PGA Tour’s for-profit journey.

Do these guys remember that Hawaii was two events, not one? 

Personally, I have greave doubts that this makes sense.  To me, the Tour's biggest problem is that mind-numbing sameness of the week-to-week experience, yet the events that are cancelled tend to be the more interesting.  Hawaii offers not just those unbelievable vistas at a time of year folks need them, but also a useful time difference that allows for prime time broadcasts. 

That said, they're focusing on next year's schedule, whereas they've screwed up next week's event:

Is next week’s PGA Tour field a problem? Or just the truth?

It's a hot mess of an article, because it oddly focuses on the sponsor's exemptions, which is its own ugly story these days.  But the important point is this:

Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Bob MacIntyre, Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick — all ranked in the world top 15 — will be skipping next week in Miami. (For McIlroy, it’ll be the second Signature Event skipped this season.) All together, it’s the most significant voluntary departure of talent any Signature Event has seen to date, and there’s an extremely obvious reason: most pros are okay playing three events in a row. But some definitely don’t want to play a major championship in that third week.

Please remember, those sage administrators telling us that Hawaii isn't viable are the same mental midgets that put signature events before and after majors.  Remember how they told us we had to exclude the riffraff so we'd know when Rory was going to play?  Yeah, they lie to us.  And when they told us it wasn't about the money?

Alas, Poor Furyk (The Sequel) - I have good news for anyone hoping for me to recapture enthusiasm for this blog, this story won't hurt.  Not only can I recycle one of my favorite nicknames (as in the header), but we can relive all of that 2018 bloggy fun just as PReed returns to the fold.  Good fun!

Geoff captures the dreary reality of it:

Jim Furyk Is The Next Ryder Cup Captain, Again

PGA of America and Task Force holdovers select another uninspired Ryder Cup

I'm sorry, was Hal Sutton unavailable?

It’s official. Stewart Cink is the new Larry Nelson.

Both were born in Alabama and became adopted Georgians. While Nelson won three majors to Cink’s one, each played on multiple Ryder Cup teams, Cink competed five times to Nelson’s three. But Nelson played on two winning teams to Cink’s one.

Both are nice guys who’ve made no known enemies outside of the PGA of America. Each has represented their country with class and dignity. Neither has ever sold merch outside a Hooters on Washington Road. Are they too nice?

You’d think the modern-day, in-total-shambles-PGA-of-America might have prioritized kind-guy values after the boondoggle at Bethpage messed with Samuel Ryder’s reason for starting the matches.

“I trust that the effect of this match will be to influence a cordial, friendly, and peaceful feeling throughout the whole civilized world,” the founder said.

Instead, they’ll be wheeling out Furyk to lead the USA team at Adare Manor, according to the Associated Press. He’s officially the new Davis Love. The inoffensive guy golf org’s turn to again and again in a safety-first, ass-covering, utterly-lazy world. Apparently, the PGA of America’s driving force in the decision this time was geared toward…letting brass sleep at night? You know, because those wild, wacky rebels like a Stewart Cink, or a Justin Leonard, or a David Toms or a Fred Couples would be too much trouble. Even the most recent losing American Captain, Keegan Bradley, could have been brought back if only he’d ever brought himself to admit bungling the 2025 job’s extra-important fan “engagement” component.

Geoff quite obviously understates the importance of experience,  specifically the experience of losing Ryder Cups badly.  

But, strike that, it so happens Geoff is all over that experience thing:

Furyk is level-headed and has vast experience handling losing well. He gives decent-enough press conference. He’s earned a Masters and Ph.D. in Sunday Night Forlorn Face after playing on seven losing squads and captaining the 2018 team to an especially ugly defeat at Le Golf Nationale.

Furyk was also supposed to be the sage veteran voice to Bradley at Bethpage. Perhaps he was the lone outlier vote against starting with the European’s beloved Foursomes. Or maybe he lobbied Bradley hard to discourage fans from hurling insults and beers at the visiting team’s family. We’ll never know.

Hey, but as a Vice Cart Driver Furyk’s 2-2!

USA! USA! USA!

It's not the losing that bothers me, as that 2018 team wasn't ever likely to win.   But if you go back (and for surer we will) and look at his pairings, it's hard to imagine giving him another captaincy.  He showed an inability to understand the two team formats, throwing guys like Phil and PReed out in foursomes, and Justine Reeds tweeting show his complete loss of team discipline.  So, great choice, guys!

The PGA of America announced Jim Furyk as its Ryder Cup captain for 2027, and he’ll

become just the fourth repeat captain in the modern era. While we already discussed the news earlier this week, Furyk has had plenty of experience since his 2018 loss (as Ryder Cup assistant and Presidents Cup captain). What do you think his biggest learning from Paris has been that will be most beneficial next year?

Colgan: Don’t allow yourself to start the Cup by getting punched in the face. A fast start is the biggest asset for any road team, and it’s especially true at the Cup.

Zak: Here’s what the biggest learning needs to be: pairings decided weeks in advance. Perhaps months in advance. The Euros have trotted out pairs they knew would be playing together back in June. It seems like a strategy that keeps working.

Schrock: There has to be a better strategy with the pairings than letting guys play with who they want to and flying by the seat of their pants as the competition goes on. The U.S. has the talent but they are lacking in every other area.

 Did Furyk not know that pairings mattered in 2018?

Reminds of Davis Love's mewling after Medinah..... He didn't know that they should have a plan for pin locations....  Hmmm, wasn't that his job?    It's really fascinating because they tell us how time consuming the job of Ryder Cup captain is, then we find out they can't be bothered with the actual job.  Maybe hire someone that gets it?  Just spitballin' here....  Or, do what you always do, wait around for Tiger with no Plan B, then make an ill-conceived snap decision.

I will need to leave you there.  Have a great week.

Weekend Wrap - A World Without LIV Edition

It's been an extremely tough stretch for your humble blogger, the only saving grace being that the issues are not long-term.  But the last tow weeks has been quite hellish....

Have I had cause to reference Hemingway previously?  I can't remember doing so but, then again, I can't actually remember much.  But, back in the day he was asked how golf tours go bankrupt, and this was his answer:

"Two ways: gradually and then suddenly"

Please buckle your seat belt as we exit the gradual stage.....

Fitzmagic -  I'm a fan of Harbor Town (which I played once back in the day) and this perfect, laid-back post-Masters get-together.... Strike that, what used to be a pleasantly relaxed vibe has been ruined by designating it a Signature Event.  The alleged slam-dunk logic of forcing the top 70 players to play the same week is undermined when half the filed is suffering from pimento-cheese withdrawal symptoms.

Geoff had some thoughts on the week:

Matt Fitzpatrick did it again.

He captured another RBC Heritage at Harbour Town.

He became the second two-time winner on the tour this year.

And continuing a trend that Fitzpatrick brushed off with aplomb last month en route to winning the Valspar, he had to hold off both the World No. 1 and a xenophobic-adjacent Hilton Head crowd.

“It didn’t get out of line in terms of no one was shouting on backswings or anything like that,” Fitzpatrick said after birdieing the first hole of sudden death to beat Scottie Scheffler. “Which was great. I’m all for it. I love the people -- they’re supporting Scottie; that’s great. You want golf to have an atmosphere in my opinion.”

Fitzpatrick’s fourth PGA Tour title joins his wins at the 2022 U.S. Open, 2023 RBC Heritage, and the 2026 Valspar.

The crowd partisanship on display at a pretty old school PGA Tour stop seemed particularly odd thanks to Fitzpatrick’s passion for Harbour Town and the Englishman’s embrace of American tour life.

It's a lovely story of a English family finding their ideal vacation spot across the wide Atlantic, as apparently they don't like their golf course without encroaching residential real estate.  

The Tour Confidential panel struggled unsuccessfully for an angle on the event:

Matt Fitzpatrick won the RBC Heritage in a playoff over Scottie Scheffler, who started the day three shots off the lead but caught Fitzpatrick late. Is your Hilton Head takeaway more focused on Fitzpatrick’s second win in the last month, or Scheffler’s second straight runner-up finish?

Colgan: How quickly we forget that Scottie Scheffler remains a U.S. Open victory away from the career grand slam? Kudos to Fitz for another win, and for continuing to reestablish himself as one of the premier players in the sport … but my eyes are already peeking ahead to Shinnecock.

Sens: Like Woods before him, Scheffler has twisted our expectations so wildly out of proportion that a second-place finish somehow gets cast as a failure. Fitzpatrick is on a great run of golf. Scheffler is operating in a different dimension. Whatever “struggles” he went through earlier seem to be behind him. So yeah, as James said, eyes on Shinnecock. But also on Aronimink before that. And frankly, anywhere Scheffler tees it up.

Schrock: The Scheffler “struggles” were blown out of proportion as we tend to do when an elite athlete dips below the level at which we’ve become accustomed to seeing them operate. Scheffler almost erased a 12-shot weekend deficit at the Masters with an ice-cold putter. He’s the best in the world, and I expect him to contend every time he tees it up. To me, this was more about Fitzpatrick. A year ago, he was in a bad spot. His game was “rubbish,” and he was ranked 79th in the world. A year later, he has three worldwide wins and has beaten both Rory and Scottie in separate playoffs. His rise back is impressive, and I think he’s a much better player now than what we thought his ceiling was when he won the 2022 U.S. Open. Expect him to threaten at Aronimink and the Open.

The success is a surprise, as is the added length he's added, which is where so many before him have lost their games and minds.  No doubt a tough competitor not scared by the moment and, just to add a downer, likely to be a Ryder Cup thorn in our side for the foreseeable future.

Masters Scat - Geoff's been doing his typical post-major thing, by which I mean Winners, Cut-Makers and Point-Missers.  I haven't read any of them yet, think of it as bare-back blogging, but I'll be very disappointed is a certain Spaniard doesn't break into that last category.....

Shall we start with his good stuff? Again, rhetorical....

Champions, 2026 Masters

The very best from another remarkable week at Augusta National.

Tournament Starting On The Back Nine Sunday. The Jenkins credo has made its way back from the dark (Hootie) days. As tempting as it is, there is need to re-litigate course changes that

changed the Masters flow from three-and-a-half days of socializing, respectful applause, and pimento cheese sandwiches to U.S. Open style golf. Some of the reverting back to old school vibe has been done by distances catching up to course changes made with future leaps in mind. Helene helped clear out some trees (or get them moved to plug in holes). A few more could be moved from 15 and 17 to encourage more Sunday afternoon zaniness. The final confirmation that no one should blink an eye until around 4:30 on Sunday afternoon? Rory McIlroy approached his front nine setbacks just other legends aware of the old adage.

The guild requires a Dan Jenkins reference, so we're pleased to meet those obligations....

Golden Bell. What a needy little hole! So many others would love to be the decider just once to plant new little demon seeds. But nooooo, you just have to do it every year. First, it was the

Augusta National Women’s Amateur, when Maria Jose Marin experienced a “miracle” before Asterisk Talley joined the Hall of Fame list of greats to suffer at the hands of 155’s cruelty. Then came the Masters final round, with the same stock swirling breezes that have confounded every generation. But it’s the green’s extreme angle that never fails to shock players. Maybe it’s because Sunday’s back right hole comes a day after the traditional holes cut in the center or all the way left? Either way, measuring 161 yards, the final round shot by McIlroy embodied a wild week: using wisdom gained and stored on his immense mental server, McIlroy remedied his iron pulls in a post-third round practice session. Then he made a nearly seven-foot birdie putt that can be tricky to read. His chasers had every opportunity at No. 12. Scheffler played a smart shot to the green center. Rose drew a strange lie, and playing partner Cameron Young took on the flag but couldn’t make a slightly longer putt. The field averaged 3.259 on Sunday with just four birdies made. McIlroy joined 14 other champions in using the hole to prove his superiority. Golden Bell ruled again.

Although the line Rory took should be an exhibit in out ball rollback debate..... Do we want to live in a world where they can fire with impunity at the Masters Sunday pin on No. 12?

Hard to imagine this guy not grabbing one or more:

Cameron Young. Sustaining the brilliance on display in his Players win, Young didn’t do much wrong playing alongside McIlroy. “I handled it fine, just didn’t make anything,” he said of

starting the day -11 and posting a 73. “That’s the story the week honestly if you look through all four rounds. I had a chip in yesterday and maybe made a putt or 2-over ten feet and really that was it. So I feel like I played the golf I needed to. Just didn’t have the day making anything at all.” Young’s putting for the week was more than fine. He only three-putted once all week (sixth hole Sunday) and had a respectable 115 to rank T19 on a 1.60 average. “If you go through the back nine I pretty much had a birdie chance on every hole and didn't make any. That's how it goes sometimes.” Young has now posted his best finish in the tournament that means the most to him and set the stage for future success at Augusta National. As McIlroy can attest, that’s a pretty handy thing to experience and learn from. And Young seems like the kind of player who will be better for such a close brush with the Green Jacket.

What a great couple of weeks for old-timey phots.  Cam at Augusta with his Dad and the Fitzgerald clan in front of the iconic Hilton Head lighthouse....

This one I would have had in the middle tier:

Justin Rose. The sentimental choice took the lead late in the front nine, only to suffer another crushing Masters loss. “ I was really in control. First ten holes I felt like I was -- yeah, I was. And the mentality was to run through the finish line not just try and get it done. I was playing great, but just momentum shifted for me around the Amen Corner.” Rose bailed right at the 11th, bailed left at 12 and three-putted the 13th after hitting it to 30 feet from 208. “Felt like the crowd was amazing to me all week long. They pulled for me all week long. I felt their encouragement and support. At the end, it kind of goes a little flat. It’s more of a sympathy than anything.” While he still has the drive and skills to win, he’s running out of time. “It was still, nonetheless, very beautiful. But, yeah, another little stinger.” Rose. needs to regroup with the PGA at Aronimink, where he’s won before and in the same city where he captured his 2013 U.S. Open.

He shows what a great guy he is by talking about it, but can't help but hedge a bit by not explaining the momentum shift.  What happened?  It's the oldest bit in  the world.... he saw a scoreboard showing that he was a couple of shots clear and had that, "Holy S**t, Batman, I'm gonna win this thing" moment.  

It's hard because he's such a nice guy, buy we've seen this movie more than once, no?

Geoff devotes the vast majority of his Cutmakers column to CBS, presumably channeling his inner Clifford Roberts:

CBS’s rough finish. The various streams and announcing work produced by CBS were as tremendous as ever, particularly on the streaming side with network-grade shows and enjoyable

announcers who pass the background listening test. You wouldn’t know it because of the wackier-than-usual backlash over shots not shown and some regrettable moments. The streams complementing the main coverage are also as live as golf gets. Meaning, second-screen viewers can see shots immediately, while the main CBS show that is watched by the vast majority (peaking at 20.049 million Sunday) features even more production in the form of visuals, graphics, and other information that is cobbled together for the main audience. That show can’t be everywhere at once to cover golf spread over many holes. This leads to annual complaints about seeing shots well after they’ve aired on Amen Corner Live or Featured Group coverage. Or not at all, as was the case again this year in a few questionable cases (and even though folks can go to the amazing Masters app if they absolutely must see Haotong Li’s 10 on the 13th. The criticism suggesting shots shown on tape are signs of catastrophic failure are odd since, (A) one can get plenty of live golf via the streaming option, and, (B) the notion that covering a golf tournament is the same as a Super Bowl played in a stadium, as NBC’s Kevin Kisner claimed in an embarrassing, obscenity-laden rant about his inability to follow the action while during his soon-to-be one-off Masters Radio stint. (Fun fact: the next intelligent thing Kisner says during an NBC telecast will also be a first for “Kiz”.) (Fun fact 2: his boss at Comcast/NBC is also a member of Augusta National who hopefully had to take time away from much more vital matters to mop up the mess made by his vapid lead golf analyst.)

That said, the “not-enough-live-golf-shots” criticism was legitimate in situations like Friday afternoon’s mistake, when the CBS-produced ESPN coverage missed Rory McIlroy’s dramatic chip-in at No. 17. A roar could be heard while we were looking at another golfer. This roar-in-the-background was a regular annoyance in the 80s and 90s. In 2026, it’s a head-scratcher. The defending champ who happens to be the biggest draw in the field made two birdies in a row and was potentially distancing himself in record fashion. There were only a few groups left on the course. At this point, he should have been getting the Woods treatment of showing everything but bathroom breaks. (We also know from the past that a network gets dinged for all-Tiger-all-the-time coverage.)

I don't disagree about Kiz, who one expects is under significant pressure to be funny.....

But look at the bright side, Geoff.  At least this Rory-induced cheer wasn't accompanied by the mentally-challenged Sir Nick telling us what CBS couldn't be bother showing us.

Here Geoff hints at the long-running ANGC-CBS tension:

After a spectacular West Coast Swing, the shows from Augusta had more out-of-character misses exacerbated by viewers having access to second-screen options almost anywhere they want (Prime, ESPN, Paramount+, Masters.com, Masters app, Telemundo+, etc). This year’s drone work, sound, and updated Amen Corner camera angles were more spectacular than ever. So was nearly all of the camerawork that’s often taken for granted when networks show up with their best practitioners. So there is no question that losing McIlroy’s ball on the 18th for almost a minute was truly bizarre and unprecedented. And it’s still not clear what went wrong since the Masters.com scoreboard’s replay of McIlroy’s shots does (sort of) follow his ball into the sand (albeit not very smoothly, suggesting it may have been a good guess or a hunch by the other 18th green camera operator).

One contributing factor may be related to Augusta National’s well-intentioned love of minimalism. At a typical PGA Tour event, CBS spotters are free to roam and alert the truck on the whereabouts of wayward tee shots. If a camera operator loses the ball, the direct can tell the camera where to look. At Augusta National’s 18th hole, there are tighter restrictions for access to the second half of the hole. This is done in the name of creating the admittedly beautiful look of the player and caddie walking to the green. The on-course reporter also must disappear. It’s an uphill hole where it’s hard to see the outcome of a shot from the fairway.

The national crisis erupting over the finishing blunder may come down to a spotter just not seeing the ball. But having no announcers on the hole may have also delayed a determination of the ball’s final resting spot. Multiple backup systems failed, and a worst-case scenario ensued following McIlroy’s wayward tee shot.

Have you read this?

 Well, why the hell not?

To me, our old friend David Owen nailed the subtitle, especially when you remember who isn't cited.  Roberts was quite the fascinating character and my favorite part was the interaction with CBS after each annual tournament.  The Masters (meaning Clifford Roberts) drove innovation in the broadcasting of golf, while simultaneously constraining it.

To demonstrate, I always cite Bubba's famous playoff shot from the woods on No. 10, endearingly recreated in those commercials this year.  What I point out to folks is that when Bubba hit the shot the viewer had nothing.... No yardage and no sense of what kind of opening he had.  Why?  Because at that point ANGC still precluded the use of an on-course reporter... It's true they now allow Dottie, but that only took fifty years to arrange...

But Geoff is nothing if not constructive:

Here’s a modest proposal: save some bucks by losing the Hallmark Channel reenactments. Instead, run some of those great shots of the past, fly the drone up Magnolia Lane, cut to a pretty course shot with the leaderboard set to some goosebump-inducing Dave Loggins, then get a “hello friends” from Butler Cabin, and get busy showing golf shots so you don’t have to play catch-up the rest of the day. Everyone’s happy! (Except the actors.)

CBS and The Masters may be victims of their well-intentioned efforts to do too much for too many hours at the expense of production precision. They also seem one hole announcer and an on-course reporter short of having the best possible storytelling team. It would be a shame if the 18th hole lost ball causes the tournament and production to pull back from innovating that has pushed golf television forward. The perks for viewers have far outweighed the mistakes.

They have innovated, it's just that they simultaneously constrain innovation.

Shall we get to the fun bits?  Yeah, you're still struggling to pick up on those rhetorical queries....

(Point) Missers, 2026 Masters

LIV, Bryson, Sergio, Code of Conduct violators, PGA Tour profit seekers, crackdowns on patrons, a Par 3 alternative, ESPN, Merch stress, and the new candy bar.

It's an embarrassment of riches....Though this lede photo might come as a surprise:

I'm going to embargo his LIV comments for a bit, but this guy has learned the meaning of karma:

Bryson DeChambeau. After inviting Kevin Hart to hit balls on the big boys range Masters

Tournament Practice Facility ahead of the comedian’s Par 3 caddie gig, DeChambeau played two uneven rounds before heading home a year after contending late into 2025’s final round. Since calling Augusta National a par-67, the not-happening-now $500 million man has been a whopping 126-over, and 16-over the actual par of 72. Bryson’s game won’t grow until he learns to hit better iron shots in majors, where advanced metrics increasingly tell us that approach play is the difference maker, no matter the course. LIV’s top player hit only eight greens in round one, then managed to find 14 in round two, only to triple the 18th after another greenside bunker slash-and-burn job. But Bryson did elaborate on the 3D printed 5-iron he’s created and does genuinely still seem to care when he shows up at a Grand Slam event. “Just going to give what the golf course gives me,” he said after round one. “I have to try to hit my irons better.” Bryson, as a wise philosopher once said, “There is no try.”

 That 18th hole meltdown on Friday as schadenfreudalicious as anything I've seen lately....

Though he did make us wait for this one:

Sergio. The 2016 champion seemed to be in especially miserable form all week, despite achieving his goal of making the cut. “Really, with the way I’m feeling about my game and the way I’d been playing coming in, I honestly gave myself very few chances of doing it,” he said of reaching the weekend. “But the feelings are still very bad, very bad, very ugly.” After driving in No. 2’s fairway bunker on Sunday, Gargia took a giant chunk out of the second tee. It required a cup cutter crew to replace the maimed turf. He appeared to break his driver on a bench, then carried Jon Rahm’s bag down the fairway because his playing partner’s bagman raked the sand. His Point Misser HOFer status was never in doubt, but the final round incident makes him a first ballot lock. He’s since apologized in a pointless statement written by someone else or AI. And as pitiful as the antics were, Garcia accidentally revealed a previously unknown Code of Conduct policy. It explained why he received an unprecedented on-course visit from Rules and Competitions Chair Geoff Yang. Well done, Sergio!

he makes me work too hard.  I can't just title a photo "Sergio Meltdown", I need to specify the event and year.....

My favorite bit about this incident was his playing partner, fellow Spaniard and LIV miscreant Jon Rahm.  Makes for a perfect thought bubble contest, no?  

Life In The Time of (No) LIV - Here were Geoff's comments about LIV's Masters' week:

LIV. If this “golf, but louder” just made its final Masters appearance, what a way to go out. The Saudi Arabia-backed entity appears—gulp—to be-heading toward its inevitable demise. The remainder of this year may feature an entertaining mix of, “we’re not getting paid,” “they lied to us,” “this isn’t what we signed up for,” et. cetera. Oh joy. Heading into The Masters, LIV’s poorly-conceived early-season schedule lacked domestic tune-up events, thereby sending the top game-growers to Augusta in less-than-fresh manner. The toll was evident by uninspired and sloppy play from the 10 who turned up, Tyrrell Hatton’s T3 notwithstanding. There was plenty of crankiness and embarrassment induced by Augusta National’s multi-layered difficulties that no LIV venue could prepare them for for. The once-promising Cameron Smith missed his sixth straight cut in a major. Jon Rahm (T38) barely made the weekend, but at least got a front row seat for Sergio’s Sunday meltdown. Dustin Johnson (T33) reminded everyone that he still plays golf. But with the PIF outlining a new future minus NEOM, Trojena and investments that lose gobs of money and subject fans to persistent DJs, LIV’s demise appears imminent after the PIF decided to end funding this year. Instead of an immediate death, we’ll have more time to ponder how the disruptor tour destroyed legacies and careers. But don’t cry because it happened. Smile because it’s almost over.

 Say it with me... It couldn't happen to nicer group of guys.

I don't actually have huge amounts to add, but shall we see what the TC panel has for us?  Good on you for realizing the rhetorical nature of that question:

Early last week, several news outlets reported uncertainty regarding LIV Golf’s future, indicating the Saudi PIF was on the verge of pulling its funding. LIV CEO Scott O’Neil told his staff via email on Wednesday: “Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted

and at full throttle. While the media landscape is often filled with speculation, our reality is defined by the work we do on the grass.” But O’Neil was more specific about the situation on Thursday, when he said in a TV interview, “The reality is you’re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going.” (The clip was deleted but still circulated online.) On Sunday, Jon Rahm won LIV’s sixth event of the season, in Mexico City. What’s your primary takeaway from what was a wild week for the five-year-old league?

James Colgan: My primary takeaway is simple: The Saudis seem to be getting out of the business of running a golf league, which is a truly momentous takeaway for the entire sport. LIV now enters a period in which it will need to work hard to find a path to survival, and as its CEO, Scott O’Neil, himself said, it seems all options are on the table.

Josh Sens. One takeaway is as old as capitalism: that new businesses — even the disruptive variety — are hard to grow no matter how much money you put into them. That said, for Saudi Arabia, getting out of the business of funding a professional golf tour would not have to mean getting out of golf. A new course just opened in Jura. Others are in the works. The ambition is still to grow the country’s presence in the game, but likely now as a host for golf tourism and tour events. Which, in retrospect, seems like it would have been the better path all along.

Josh Schrock: My main takeaway is that if the PIF pulls out, LIV Golf, as we know it, would need to reinvent itself. O’Neil said he would pursue all avenues to get more funding, but it’s hard to see one or several sponsors willing to bankroll the league at a level that would allow for more nine-figure contracts. O’Neil himself said LIV wouldn’t be profitable for five or 10 years without significant changes.

Reinvent itself?  Remind me how well the original invention was doing?  I'm sure banks are lining up at the door to fund Phil and DJ, but it's more than passing strange to wonder about their path to viability absent PIF funding, when they had no path to viability with said funding.

Apparently they insist on continuing to beat the deceased horse:

To Schrock’s point, can LIV continue in its current form without PIF’s deep pockets? If so, what would need to change?

Colgan: Definitely not in its current form. The league has spent more than $5 billion of Saudi funding to date, and, as Josh noted, O’Neil has already said that the league is several years away from any hope of profitability. Depending upon who steps up to help LIV with funding, I’d say any change is on the table.

Sens: Nope, the league would not be viable in its current form, and I have a tough time imagining what other form it might take. A limited series of world championship events with big overseas dollar sponsorships? But is there really a market for more big-dollar professional golf than we already have? The LIV experiment has shown that certain markets — Australia and South Africa, for example — are hungry for golf star power, but, on a global level, building and drawing eyeballs to a new league is a steep hill to climb.

Schrock: LIV could try and merge with the DP World Tour or reconstruct how it did a lot of things when the PIF spigot was on. But the contracts and purses would have to go down, and, at that point, how many players are going to want to continue when the financial payoff isn’t what it was when they initially signed on? A lot of moving parts to consider, many of which we still have limited to no information on.

I would have just gone with a hard, "No."  That said, the Euro Tour is quite the weak sister, however it's status as the third most prestigious golf tour in the world isn't even secure, as the changes contemplated out of PVB sound like a new tour will be created to sit between the PGA and the KF.

If LIV doesn’t survive past 2026, would you expect the PGA Tour to offer LIV’s top players — Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, etc. — a path back to the Tour by way of a similar agreement that Brooks Koepka accepted?

Sens: For the big LIV names, absolutely. If the Tour wants to be a showcase for the world’s best talent, and it does, it will work out a deal with Rahm and DeChambeau and maybe a small handful of others. The rest, I suspect, will have to play their way back in through other smaller tours.

Colgan: In that theoretical, I’d think the Tour can afford to offer a “Koepka Deal” to Bryson and Rahm … and probably leave the rest of the LIV contingent to serve out their suspensions on the DP World Tour.

Schrock: From a pure cost-benefit analysis, Tour CEO Brian Rolapp would probably love to add Bryson and Rahm back in the fold just as he did with Brooks. But things are not always that easy when you’re dealing with two players who already turned down an opportunity to come back, who might not be as well-liked by the current membership as Brooks, who kept his head down after he left and didn’t take any swipes or recruit other players. The feelings might not be the same toward Bryson, who was a named plaintiff in LIV’s antitrust suit against the PGA Tour and its members, or Rahm, whose departure post-framework agreement rubbed many players the wrong way. Would they immediately add value to the Tour? Yes. But for Rolapp to sell that vision, it’ll be a tricky high-wire act.

The first bit for us to acknowledge and amuse ourselves with is that they've named the only two guys that conceivably matter.  And even that includes a bit of a concession, so the easy answer is, who cares?

These guys decided to play their golf in the Cone of Silence, and I wish them continued enjoyment of the fruits of that decision.  I don't miss any of them, do you?

but I do owe them a note of thanks.  Because amid my hellish week, the LIV provided a much-needed smile.

I will nee to depart at this juncture.  Have a great week and I'll get back when I can.

Weekend Wrap - Rory Redux Edition

You know how commentators are inclined to interpret the effect of a player's breakthrough win.  Yanno, to the effect that it will "Free them up" and open the floodgates?  And do you further remember how dismissive I typically am of such prognostications?  It never happens that way except, yanno, when it does...

Not that I would describe Rory as looking especially "freed up"...

Shall we begin with Geoff's Masters by the numbers?  Again, mostly rhetorical:

• -11 (276): Winning score by Rory McIlroy (2025: 277)

• 364: Days since McIlroy won the Masters

• 6: Career majors for McIlroy (ties Trevino, Faldo, Mickelson)

• 4th: Back-to-back champion (Nicklaus, Woods, Faldo)

• 283-327-327-304-325-349-317-267-335-350-328-346-303-266: McIlroy’s non-par 3 drives in regulation

• 155-17-208-118-136-228-199-124-151-179: McIlroy’s par-4 approaches in the final round

• 6’7”: McIlroy’s tee shot distance to the 12th hole (birdie)

• 15th: Masters champion to birdie No. 12 in the final round

• 11,036: Masters shots hit at No. 12 since the last hole-in-one

• 27/56: Fairways hit by McIlroy (T52) (2025: 35/56)

• 48/72: Greens in regulation (66.7%, T21) (2025: 47/72)

• 17/25: Scrambling

• 1.54: Putts per hole (T3)

• 334.3: McIlroy’s driving distance average (2025: 329.3)

• 0: Eagles by McIlroy (2025: 3)

• 24: Birdies by McIlroy (2025: 18)

• 8: Bogeys (2025: 5)

• 2: Double Bogeys (2025:4)

• 0: Bogeys over the final 36-holes by Scottie Scheffler (65-68)

• 72.859: Sunday scoring average (2025: 72.05)

• 89: Degrees, Sunday’s high with some swirling breezes

Even a weather update, so quite comprehensive....

Now to the atmospherics:

Wire-to-wire. Back-to-back. Ho. Hum. Rory. McIlroy.

Never dull. Sneakily complex. And a year later, winning with less than his best on the kind of crusty (adjacent) golf course that a frizzier, logoed-up younger self once loathed. The greying and

wiser McIlroy took us on a different toboggan ride—Ben Crenshaw’s Champions Dinner description of last year’s heart attack-inducer—this time en route to taking the 2026 Masters.

“This win is just -- I don’t want to say a stop on the journey, but yeah, it’s just a part of the journey,” McIlroy said. “I still have things I want to achieve, but I still want to enjoy it as well.

“I’ve waited so long to win the Masters, and all of a sudden I win two in a row. So I still want to enjoy it. I’ve got a couple of weeks off before I go back to play competitive golf, but I don’t think I’ll go through that lull of motivation or the sort of things that I was feeling last year post-winning this tournament.”

I certainly hope he doesn't repeat last year's summer poutfest, when stiffing the media became his signature move.   

More from Geoff:

With long weekend days to ponder life, watch Zootopia 2 with Poppy, and a deep golf mind capable of pondering possibilities as only intensely observational greats like McIlroy seem capable of, the third and fourth round execution was ragged at times. Those jet trips up here while, uh, rehabbing his back, also kept him clear of tournament golf. But the time away from the Tour and scrutiny of returning to Augusta quieted his mind and allowed McIlroy to drill down on the nuances that emerged at a faster, drier version of Augusta National. The crash course in local knowledge included a decision to keep score ala Jack Nicklaus. The added focus on scoring bolstered an already strong short game that ended up producing ingenious shots and enough distance from a strong cast of 2026 pursuers.

“My scrambling and my short game and my putting, that's what won me the tournament this week.”

As did his play at Amen Corner.

McIlroy has an unusual relationship with the stretch of three holes that tend to play a massive role in determining who dons the Green Jacket.

Saturday’s double bogey at the par-4 11th raised his career scoring average to 4.354 and a career +23 total. And while McIlroy has made just six career birdies at the par-3 12th entering Sunday’s final round, he’s also recorded only six bogeys and one double bogey on the disaster-laden par-3.

And he’s feasted on the dogleg left 13th, where McIlroy was a career 29-under-par entering the final round. He’s made six career eagles there (and that disastrous double in 2025’s final round).

He's certainly correct about his short game, because he hit it all over the yard the whole week, though he did control things better yesterday.  The drive at No. 13 was to me as important as any shot he hit all week.

My strongest memories of yesterday are how each and every player in the mix had that, "Hey, I can win the Masters" moment, here's his take on the kid from Sleepy Hollow:

Now, truth be told, Rory's tee shot on No. 12, was a significant miss that he got away with, no?

The walk up to the 12th tee featured the traditional standing ovation from the Masters patrons. McIlroy was more concerned with wind that (finally) surfaced to throw some Amen into a Masters played with three extremely benign days (by Augusta-in-the-21st-century standards.)

With the wind coming in from the left, McIlroy seemed to hit quickly in a manner that might have hinted at panic.

“This is going back to one of my first-ever practice rounds here,” McIlroy said. “I played a practice round with Tom Watson in 2009, and he said to me on the 12th tee he always waited until he felt where the wind should be and then just hit it. You know, just hit it as soon as you can.

“That’s what I did on 12. It was all over the place. When I stood up on the tee, it felt like it was off the right, and I looked at the 11th flag, it was blowing right to left. But I was patient, and I waited to feel where the wind should have been coming from,and I knew it was just a perfect 3/4 9-iron.

The world has changed in the last 25 years.  Jack's guidance was in the day of five and six-irons, whereas Rory is feathering as nine-iron, but still quite the dangerous line.

What has me amused is that Geoff also included this tracer of that key 13th hole tee ball:

This cel doesn't quite do it justice, because you needed to see it start to draw to know it wasn't a bomb into the pine straw like Thursday-Saturday.

But your humble blogger's mind moves in strange directions, not that you haven't noticed.  To me, there is no shot in televised golf that benefits more from shot-tracer tech than the tee ball on No. 13, so do you remember how long they made us wait for it?  I just asked AI two questions, the first being when was shot tracer first introduced:

Protracer (later Toptracer) technology, which draws a digital line following the golf ball's flight, first appeared on television broadcasts around 2006-2008

 Then I asked it when it first made its way to ANGC:

The Masters officially implemented shot-tracer technology during its television broadcasts for the first time at the 2018 tournament.

Did you see those cute Masters-themed commercials that recreated Bubba's, Rory's and Jack's iconic moments?  Just a reminder of that 2012 Bubba shot that Nantz and Sir Nick are not giving you a yardage nor are they able to tell you whether he had an opening.  Why?  Because as late as 2012 the Lords of Augusta still wouldn't allow CBS to have an on-course reporter.

My other though is that Geoff gave us the tracers for Rory on Nos. 12 and 13, but the one I really want is No. 18....  Yeah, just how I roll.

Let's see what the Tour Confidential gang made of it:

Rory McIlroy won the Masters to become just the fourth repeat winner in the tournament’s

history. McIlroy closed with a 71 to finish 12 under and beat Scottie Scheffler by one. This all, mind you, after he was up by six after 36 holes but lost that all by Saturday night. How did this happen? What’s your takeaway from his win?

Zephyr Melton: Man, that was gritty. Rory obviously didn’t have his best stuff over the weekend — and he said as much during his Butler Cabin interview — but he played just well enough over the weekend to nab another green jacket. There’s something extra impressive in watching someone win without their best stuff, and Rory did exactly that this weekend.

Sean Zak: Excuse the modern parlance, but this Masters felt like a movie, with an opening act, a middle contextualization, some conflict and then a bit of late drama. Damn — it was wildly entertaining! But I think the McIlroy takeaway is that he is just such a different golfer than he used to be. He’s become the best player in the world on firm and fast conditions. He should have won the ‘22 Open at finicky St. Andrews. He wasn’t doing that early in his career, but late-career Rory is just different. More imaginative, less reliant upon conditions and draw-shots, etc. It’s impressive and makes you wonder mostly about his chances for Shinnecock.

Jessica Marksbury: When the tournament was hanging in the balance on the back nine on Sunday, Rory hit some incredible shots at exactly the right time. I’m thinking of the birdies on 12 and 13 in particular, and the amazing putt from off the green that led to the par save on 16. But he was also the beneficiary of adversaries that didn’t push him much down the stretch. This could easily have been Justin Rose’s Masters, but he faded away on the back nine, as did Sam Burns and Cameron Young. Scottie Scheffler tried hard, but his late-momentum birdies on 15 and 16, and missed opportunity on 17, ended up being too little, too late.

We all watched so I think we all know how it happened....

What really struck me is how each of the guys had that "Hey, i can win this thing" moment in which they completely lost their minds and games.  We'll have a Rose reference coming below, but the only exception was Scottie, who couldn't stop making pars when those weren't quite what he needed.

What was the pivotal moment on Sunday? And what did you learn from it?

Melton: I think it came earlier than the viewers might’ve thought in the moment. After a silly double on No. 4 and another shaky bogey on 6, the tournament looked to be slipping from Rory’s grasp. But on No. 7, he calmly found the fairway, hit the proper shot right over the flagstick and then rolled in a birdie putt to stop the bleeding. From then on, he was nails. When you’re a gunslinger like Rory, sometimes all you need is to see one shot go through the hoop.

Zak: I think it was Justin Rose backing off his shot in the middle of the 11th fairway. Rose was in the lead alone at 12 under. If he pars-in, he’s in a playoff. But Rosey backed off the shot and flared his eventual approach wide, leading to bogey. He mangled the 12th hole. He three putted for par on 13. If that goes differently, everything changes. The man who could have really put pressure on McIlroy faded, and the better golfer won.

Marksbury: Totally agree with you, Sean. Justin Rose went from in command to lackluster over the course of three holes. The bogey-bogey-three-putt-par trifecta on 11, 12 and 13 sunk him. And, as the only player with life at that time in the tournament, his exit from contention changed everything.

I love Rose as much as anyone, a really solid citizen that we all would have loved to see get it done.  But he's got a troubling history of, as the Guess Who would put it, coming Undun.

Don’t look now, but McIlroy suddenly has six major titles and two green jackets. Is the man to beat over the next decade at Augusta National Rory McIlroy, or is it fellow two-time Masters winner Scottie Scheffler? And who you got the rest of the year?

Melton: I’m still on Team Scottie. He was the best golfer in the field over the weekend — by a

wide margin — as he didn’t card a bogey in Rounds 3 or 4. And he did all of that seemingly without having his best stuff with the putter. Whatever “funk” Scottie was in early on in the season seems to be behind him, and he should be the favorite for years to come at Augusta National. That said, I won’t be surprised if Rory nabs another green jacket before he decides to hang it up. He seems to have cracked the code on how to win there.

Zak: Yeah, I’m with Zephyr and on Team Scheffler. I’m waiting for him to get some real luck to go his way in the way McIlroy has at the last two Masters. That’s not taking anything away from McIlroy’s brilliance — he’s so deserving. But I just think Scheffler has brought his B-plus game to the last two Masters and is probably on the verge of another special summer.

Marksbury: I dunno guys, I find Rory’s Augusta stats extremely compelling. Scottie has five straight top-10 finishes since 2022, including two wins. But Rory has nine top-10 finishes since 2014, including the last two wins. Recency bias points to Rory for me. But picking Rory apparently also means signing up for a roller-coaster ride that Scottie rarely puts you through.

 Why would we rule out a modern Arnie-Jack arrangement?

To me, the bigger point is what it does for Rory's historical place in the game, as he starts to look like much less of an under-achiever.  But am I the only one seeing a comparison with Phil?  Their games have always shared connective tissue, but remember how Phil enhanced his career perspective with late wins at Muirfield and Kiawah?  This feels much the same, admittedly without the steamer trunk of baggage that is Phil.

But can someone explain Rory's summer of 2025 hissy fit to me?  because that would have been a really good time to start adding major wins, but he was for reasons unexplained angry at the world... Then again, that reminds of Phil as well.

McIlroy pulled away late, but a handful of capable chasers — Scheffler, Rose, Young, Burns, etc. — were still in it down the stretch. Which player is kicking themselves the most about what could have been?

Melton: Gotta be Scottie. That Friday 74 was so un-Scottie-like, and it really put him in desperation mode heading into the weekend. If he scraps together even an even-par round, he’s the one putting on the green jacket this evening and not Rory.

Zak: Disagree! I think it’s Rose. It has to be Rose. The man without the jacket. The man who was in the lead by himself! Scheffler never touched the lead all week. He also has another 20 Masters in his future. Rosey may not have more than a few.

Marksbury: Rose for sure. He had it! It slipped away. Again! No doubt that stings.

Is this a gross or net competition?

In the gross flight, it's a three-way tie among Cam Young, Justin Rose and Scottie Scheffler.

In the net flight, alas, it's not even close, because Scottie already has two of them and Cam Young is, well, young.  Rose in a rout, because his runway is getting very short.

The Masters’ popular Par-3 Contest received some criticism for what some thought was too much celebrity involvement and strayed too far from the Masters’ long-standing “traditionalist” values. What do you think? And how does the Masters evolve without straying too far from the things that make it unique?

Melton: I could do without the cameo appearances from Kevin Hart and Jason Kelce, but I won’t clutch my pearls too much. The par-3 contest is supposed to be fun. So long as that silliness doesn’t spill over into the actual competition, I’m largely unbothered.

Zak: My strongest par-3 take is … I wonder if players were a bit more surprised by the Thursday conditions of the big course because they’ve grown so comfortable writing off their Wednesdays to the par-3 course. There was such universal surprise at the course conditions that I don’t think we see at other majors with this Wednesday intermission. Anyway, I don’t totally hate the strategy by ANGC. It’s not for ME, but I’m as into golf as anyone in the world. There’s a natural pursuit of all governing bodies in all sports of, as the kids say, the casuals. I think they — or maybe more so ESPN — achieved some of that audience.

Marksbury: The Masters is revered for its traditions and decorum for a reason. I think most people watch or attend the tournament eager for that experience. So while I don’t think it’s necessary for the tournament to evolve in any way, I can understand why there is a feeling that it’s important to try new things to reach new demographics. And hey, if those efforts create new golf fans, that’s a win for everyone.

Jess, if we need Jason Kelce to grow the game, we're in a world of hurt.

The event has been unwatchable for years for one understandable reason, now they've gone and added a second.  No, you should get to bring your emotional support comedian to the Par-3.  Just sayin'...  

I said before the event that the gods of Augusta were punishing Bryson for his Par-67 comment.  I think Friday's 18th hole meltdown was retribution for Kevin Hart.  Well earned Bryson.

Who is leaving Augusta National most disappointed, and who won the week without actually winning the week?

Melton: Justin Rose has to be the most disappointed. He’s been oh so close at Augusta National many times, and once again he couldn’t quite get it done. The clock on his career is ticking, and you only get so many cracks at the green jacket. When you head to the back nine with a lead, you’ve got to close the door. He may go down as his generation’s biggest “what-if” at the Masters.

Zak: I would reckon Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau feel pretty disappointed. They were two of the most deserving favorites entering the week and were never once relevant. Frankly, they seem more confused than anything right now. Can’t be a great headspace!

As for who won the week without winning the jacket, I think Collin Morikawa deserves some recognition. He grinded through a bad back all week, made seven birdies on Sunday and garnered a top 10 finish. That was wildly impressive. He said it’ll be one of his best tournaments forever.

Marksbury: Most disappointed: Bryson and Jon are good picks, Z. Justin Rose also, for reasons discussed above. I will also add Cameron Young, as a leader who faded, and Haotong Li, who suffered a triple-quintuple to completely derail his tournament.

Those who won the week: I’ll add anyone who got their hands on a gnome, and the players who finished T12 or better to guarantee themselves a spot in the Masters for next year.

A bad week for LIV in general.  Hard to keep making the caser that their Tour keeps the guys sharp....

What shall we finish on today?  You know your humble blogger, so I'm thinking you'll be ready for this, though I'll lede with this header:

The most catastrophic Masters Sunday meltdown never aired on TV

 That's about Haotong Li's ten, so hold my beer!  I think Geoff is the man for this task:

Garcia Highlights New Conduct Policy

Sergio Garcia’s petulant start to Sunday’s final round revealed a new code of conduct policy that could lead to a penalty or disqualification.

After teeing off at the second hole ahead of fellow competitor Jon Rahm, Garcia slammed his driver into the turf. He subsequently took a swing at a cooler off to the side of the tee and broke his driver.

The entire debacle was caught on Featured Group coverage and to the credit of producers, there was no glossing over the shenanigans. The coverage even returned to show a marshal walking away with the broken driver shaft, an official cleaning up some of the mess left behind, and eventually a maintenance crew using a cup cutter to replace the maimed turfgrass.

Two holes later, Rules and Competitions Committee Chairman Geoff Yang paid Garcia a visit. Yang was issuing a warning to Garcia under a new, unannounced policy that is separate from the Rules of Golf and expected to be implemented at the PGA Championship. The Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson reported that Garcia received a “code of conduct warning” that starts with a warning, invokes a two-stroke penalty for a second violation, and a third violation results in disqualification.

Gents, if this only deserves a warning, you might want to revisit that policy:

You're gonna let this guy play next year?

Gotta love Geoff providing this transcript:

Q. What did they tell you on the 4th hole?

SERGIO GARCIA: I’m not going to tell you.

Q. You talked coming into the week about how frustrating this year has been overall. Is that just a culmination of everything, too? What’s the plan to try to --

SERGIO GARCIA: No, it’s not a combination of everything. It’s fine. It’s what it is. You’ve just got to deal with it.

Q. How much more difficult does it make it strategy-wise with you not being able to use a driver?

SERGIO GARCIA: It makes it very easy. I just have to hit 3-wood all the time. I didn’t have to choose another club.

Q. Your record here since you won is surprising to a lot of us. Is there a theme there or one reason for it? How do you explain that?

SERGIO GARCIA: Bad golf.

Q. Is there something specific here that has happened --

SERGIO GARCIA: Bad shots.

Q. But you can do that anywhere, but you win here and we would think you know how to play this golf course, so there must be more to it.

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, if you don’t hit good shots, you’re not going to score well here. It’s very simple.

Q. You’ve just coincidentally hit bad shots here, a lot since you’ve won. Is it as simple as that?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, unfortunately a lot of bad shots.

Q. Did they give you a warning or something on the 4th --

SERGIO GARCIA: Next question, please.

 Bad golf shots followed by disgraceful behavior.....

It's always time to remind folks of who Sergio is:

Although the "Nothing but net" defense is a classic of the genre.

Do they invite him back next year?  This is why I've made my peace with LIV, they are welcome to give him a venue for such outbursts.

Have to wrap up now.  Would you believe that Friday night my large living room OLED TV decided to go on the fritz?  Perfect timing, eh?  Anyway, my A/V guy is on the way, so I will try to circle back as the week progresses.  Have a great week.