Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Brooks Koepka atop electric leaderboard at 2023 Masters
As will happen, they got to the same number in entirely different ways. For instance, the Masters course record is a nine under 63, which this guy matched in only seventeen holes:
Jon Rahm spotted the field two strokes, making a four-putt double bogey at the first hole, but rebounded to shoot 7-under 65 at Augusta National Golf Club and share the opening-round lead atthe 87th Masters with Viktor Hovland and Brooks Koepka.“If you’re going to make a double or four-putt or anything, it might as well be the first hole, 71 holes to make it up,” Rahm said. “After that, it was more, I was focused on the fact that all the strokes were good. The reads were good. The roll was good. Obviously the speed was off on the first two putts, so once I kind of accepted that there was nothing really to look into, I just got to work and I had 17 holes to make up.”
Inevitably, Rahm channels the patron saint of Spanish golf, who experienced a similar fate:
As he walked to the second tee, Rahm remembered that former Masters champion Seve Ballesteros, a fellow Spaniard and an idol of Rahm’s, famously had four-putted once at the Masters and delivered a memorable quote.“I remembered Seve’s quote,” Rahm said. “Just kept thinking to myself, ‘Well, I miss, I miss, I miss, I make.’ Move on to the next. I carried a little bit of that negative energy into the tee shot on 2, hit it about ten yards further than I usually do and moved on with my day.”
Of course, although the transcript can't possibly do him justice, as it came out more like, "I mees, I mees".... Love the Seve homage, though Rahm might want to remember how that '86 event turned out for his hero.
Viktor Hovland was in coast mode all day, though he amusingly had this about the Spaniard:
After posting a bogey-free 65 on Thursday, Hovland was asked how he would’ve fared if he had opened his tournament with a four-putt double-bogey?“Is that what Jon Rahm did? That’s pretty impressive – not the 4-putt but the remaining golf after that. I mean, I feel like now that I have worked on my game, and I feel very confident about my game, I’ve done a way better job of not letting the bad shots affect me as much because I think if you’re a little insecure about your game, you start off with a double-bogey, and, ‘Oh, here we go’, and it’s going to be hard to get all those shots back. But if you feel good about your game, you’ve just got to keep pushing, and that’s obviously what Jon Rahm did.”Hovland, 25, made an eagle at the second hole and “before I knew it, somehow I was 6-under through 11, and yeah, just kind of coast in to 65. So that was awesome.”
The Norwegian also had this note:
Viktor Hovland on the key to his 65. “I don't care how good you hit it out here, you have to chip the ball. You have to have a short game. And especially on that back nine when I hit a lot of bad shots, to be honest, but I managed to keep myself in it by hitting some really nice chips and making some really nice putts.
If you saw his up-and-in from right of the right bunker on No. 10, you'll be nodding your head. Chipping is the obvious deficiency in his game, or at least has been to date. When last we saw Viktor in the final game with Rory at St. Andrews, I had quipped that he might just win the thing because, since you can putt from 50-yards off the green on the Old Course, it was the one venue where chipping was unnecessary.
I have no doubt that the young man is dedicated to his craft and has worked hard to improve his chipping. But, alas, we don't judge such results based upon Thursday morning, but rather upon the results Sunday afternoon.... Or, this year, perhaps Tuesday.
But my fave from Viktor is a sartorial note, because his shirt almost broke Golf Twitter. He, on the other hand, thought last year was worse:
So was being grouped with Tiger Woods for the first time. He found out Tuesday while on the range from his caddie Shay Knight.“When he said we were paired with Tiger, my heart kind of went a little bit further up in the throat, and I just thought, ‘Wow, this is going to be exciting’. Heart rate started going up. After that, I calmed myself down and thought, this is going to be very exciting. You’ve just got to embrace it. You can’t be scared or anything like that,” Hovland said. “If you want to win this tournament, you can’t be scared about playing with Tiger. So you’ve just got to overcome things like that.”Hovland hadn’t shot a round in the 60s in his previous 12 rounds at Augusta National.
Did you listen to Brooks Koepka on Sunday? He tried to warn us.You remember Koepka, don’t you? It wasn’t long ago he was golf’s most dominant majorchampionship player and ultimate agitator in a sport with few of the latter.He won four majors in eight starts from 2017 to 2019, has a dozen other major top 10s in his career and rose to No. 1 in the World Ranking. He drove Bryson DeChambeau mad, and his unique concoction of brutal honesty and arrogance left fans either pleasantly refreshed or completely put off.Anyway, that guy is tied for the lead at this 87th Masters, after he shot a seven-under 65 on a steamy Thursday afternoon at Augusta National Golf Club. He’s sitting at the top alongside Viktor Hovland and Jon Rahm. That trio is two clear of the next closest competitors.“I don’t think I’ve rediscovered anything,” Koepka said. “I just think I’m healthy.”
Look, it was inevitable that at least one of the LIVsters would play well, though I frankly doubt this boorish frat boy will ever leave me "pleasantly refreshed." But they're certainly trotting out the big-game hunter persona:
Brooks Koepka (65) on how he rises to the occasion at majors. “There's a difference in kind of my demeanor. Everybody on my team behind the scenes says they can see from the moment we land at a major, here at Augusta, I get kind of quiet. I'm very -- I'm not talking. I'm very focused, disciplined, driven. There's only really a couple things I care about, is going to work out and going to play golf and that's it when we're here, and nothing else really matters. It's full focus on this and trying to walk out of here with a green jacket.”
Maybe. I'll admit that I'm oddly dismissive of a guy that won four of these, but the last two times we've seen him near the lead of a major, those final rounds at Bethpage and Kiawah, he didn't look like a guy that could win anything....
For some reason, Brooksie felt compelled to provide a graphic description of his knee injury:
The now-member of the LIV Golf Tour and four-time major winner explained how he had slipped at home, dislocating his knee in the process and shattering it when he attempted to put it back in only to tear one of the ligaments around his patella."My leg was sideways and out. My foot was turned out," Koepka said. "And when I snapped it back in, because the kneecap had already shattered, it went in pretty good. It went in a lot easier."
I'm really happy for you. But would you mind going away?
The Also Rans - Yeah, him:
I actually though he looked like he was walking better, just not so great at the golf thing:
It is hard to extrapolate too much from one hole in one round, especially when that round is Round 1, but if you’re looking for an avatar of Tiger Woods’ Thursday at Augusta National, the fifth would do the trick.Woods looked gassed walking up the 495-yard brute so it was no surprise his approach fell well short of its intended destination. His birdie try from deep came nowhere close, and to be frank, neither did a par attempt from three feet. And in itself, there’s no shame in 5 at the fifth, the hole that perennially ranks as one of the course’s toughest. Only Woods’ playing mates had no problem with the fifth; Viktor Hovland hit his approach to 12 feet while Xander Schauffele made a mean up-and-down save after flying the green. As the group walked to the next tee it seemed emblematic of what was transpiring and of what was to come: Schauffele, head down, a joke to his caddie, cool, calm and composed at the task at hand; Hovland, dressed in a floral arrangement as if he was vacationing in Boca Raton, making what is supposed to be hard seem easy; Woods, toweling himself off and in desperate need of a fresh shirt, laboring like hell to just keep up.A rally sugarcoated the final score, but only a little, as Woods opened with a 74 on a day the rest of the Masters field did what it wanted.
I watched most of that coverage on Masters.com, and this sums it up reasonably well:
Off the tee, Woods was solid. Distance was good, accuracy got the job done. The trouble was everything else. His second shots were pretty ho-hum, hitting just 13 greens in regulation, which is a problem because Augusta National is known as a second-shot course. Around the greens wasn’t pretty and the putter was straight-up poor, Woods losing almost a stroke to the field on the greens despite converting a 30-footer at the 15th.“I didn't have very good speed early. I had two three-putts, and consequently I'm a couple over par,” Woods said. “I didn't hit my irons close enough today. I didn't give myself very good looks. Need to do a better job of that going forward to hopefully get myself back in this tournament.”
His iron play was shockingly bad, but the putter really could have kept him in it....
Tiger Woods after his opening 74: “This is going to be an interesting finish to the tournament with the weather coming in. If I can just kind of hang in there, maybe kind of inch my way back, hopefully it will be positive towards the end.”
Pretty sure that hope isn't much of a strategy....
As for this guy, for his next birthday I'd give him a calendar featuring 6-day weeks:
McIlroy, meanwhile, had a roller-coaster opening round carding five birdies but balancing them out with three bogeys and a double bogey to finish at even par. While on a normal day that might be a disappointment, McIlroy's opening rounds at Augusta National Golf Club haven't been exactly stellar. In fact, his 72 on Thursday was his best opening round at the Masters since 2017. There's still plenty of golf to play and while many in the field have to worry about the weather getting worse, McIlroy could thrive in it.
I think we can agree that Rory's best Thursday since 2017 is a low bar indeed.... But we've seen this movie and, spoiler alert, it ends with a backdoor-top ten.
But I'm most amused by that last sentence.... I suppose he could thrive in it, but what is the support for that assertion? The player involved has never shown himself to play well in wind, and this might be the hardest course in the world to play in high winds, because of the small margins for error.
The Road Mudballs Ahead - Man, it's gonna get ugly. Would you rather go early or late today?
Lynch: Three weeks into a war for golf’s future, Augusta National’s Fred Ridley ended it with one shot
I never thought for a moment that the USGA/R&A would move forward without a nod from Chairman Fred, but others seemed less certain:
“We have been consistent in our support of the governing bodies, and we restate our desire to see distance addressed.”Thus spake Fred Ridley, chairman of Augusta National and the Masters. He added that while the club will respect the feedback period established by the governing bodies (it runs through August 14), he left no doubt as to what position his powerful entities will adopt.“I’ve stated that we believe distance needs to be addressed,” Ridley said. “I think the natural conclusion is, yes, we will be supportive.”
Houston, we have our nod....
Eamon lets the dominos fall where they may:
So when theory becomes practice — on Jan. 1, 2026, when the proposed change would takeeffect — the 90th Masters will be the first major championship contested with a modified ball. It will be followed that same year by the Opens, U.S. and British, since the governing bodies who run those events have made clear they will exercise their own option. What odds the PGA Championship — ever mindful of being perceived as the runt of the major litter — will diminish itself by choosing to separate itself further on the ball issue? Your move, Mr. Waugh.Having every major conducted with a modified ball will test the willingness of Tour players to switch equipment from their weekly money games for events that actually define legacies. When the whining is exhausted — admittedly, this might take until Dec. 31, 2025 — the professional proletariat will reconcile itself to the new reality. Without Wednesday’s unambiguous signal from Ridley, the future landscape would look a lot more uncertain. His words lend support to the governing bodies, clarity to the future, and no succor to the smash bros.
It sounds about right to me. Oddly, Eamon does not extend his thoughts to that other tour, perhaps assuming that by January 1, 2026 they will have met their maker. Although how you hold a public beheading of a golf tour remains a mystery, but perhaps we'll just use its CEO?
The second note of significance, another in a series of legal setbacks for those tirelessly growing our game:
DP World Tour wins legal battle against LIV Golf, will be able to sanction players
Really? But a certain Aussie had assured me that they couldn't do this....
An independent United Kingdom-based panel, Sports Resolutions, has ruled in favor of the DP World Tour to be able to fine and suspend LIV Golf players who played in conflicting events without permission, it was announced Thursday.Members of the DP World Tour who played in Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf’s opening tournament last June in London asked for a conflicting event exemption, but the DP World Tour denied the request. Those players received three-event bans and fines.
Whatya know? A golf tour can actually enforce its rules.....
Sports Resolutions found DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley “acted entirely reasonably in refusing releases” and the relevant regulations are lawful and enforceable.“The DP World Tour has a legitimate and justifiable interest in protecting the rights of its membership,” the panel ruled. “The sanctioned members committed serious breaches of the Code of Behaviour of the DP World Tour Regulations by playing in (LIV Golf events) despite their release requests having been refused. All of the players’ challenges therefore failed, their appeals are dismissed in their entirety, and the £100,000 fines originally imposed must now be paid within 30 days.”
Pay up, Sergio!
Your humble blogger remains highly amused by the amateur hour performance of LIV, who seem to not have done much in the way of due diligence before committing that $2 billion large. Who knew that the most effective way to grow our game is to take a series of humiliating losses in courtrooms around the world?
And not just losing, but also the manly act of ducking service:
The PGA Tour accuses LIV Golf of stonewalling discovery efforts in the latest filings in federalcourt, with lawyers for the tour warning they will seek a default order unless LIV responds in a timely matter.On Monday night the tour sought a motion for alternative service to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia—which serves as the financial backer of LIV Golf—along with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Last month a U.S. District Court judge ruled the tour could add PIF and Al-Rumayyan as defendants in the tour’s countersuit. In Monday’s filings the tour states it has properly served PIF and Al-Rumayyan with its amended counterclaims in multiple ways, including serving PIF at its headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Arabic translations in according with the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The tour also argues that these fillings have been widely reported on across the world. “And PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan have never argued that they do not have notice of the tour’s amended counterclaims—nor could they with a straight face,” the tour’s attorneys write.But according to the tour PIF and Al-Rumayyan have “tried everything possible to duck service and continued to advance meritless arguments challenging service.” The tour finds issue with this notion, since, the tour agues, “PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan have been deeply involved in this lawsuit since its inception, authorizing LIV to file suit in this court and controlling and funding LIV’s ongoing conduct of this litigation.” As a counter, the tour is seeking a firm date from the courts for PIF and Al-Rumayyan to respond, and are asking the courts to allow the tour to seek service via email.
Yanno, the next mass beheading might be of their attorneys....
I'll use one more Eamon Lynch column for my exit:
That smells about right to this observer.... Eamon connecting the dots:
LIV Golf’s trajectory will not be materially impacted if one of its guys is the last man standing in Georgia, no more than it was aided by Cam Smith bringing his Claret Jug to the party last summer. The fate of Norman’s folly will be determined by two things: a product so lousy that it can’t draw a scale audience, and the legal peril in which his ill-conceived and poorly-executed litigation strategy has placed his sole benefactor. And that reality is being drawn in sharp focus this week far away from Augusta.Preliminary court filings in California’s Northern District promise another two gut punches for LIV Golf just hours after a U.K. sports arbitration panel issued a ruling that effectively prevents its players from cherry-picking DP World Tour events. Judge Beth Labson Freeman has rejected an attempt by the Public Investment Fund and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, to claim immunity from the discovery process as co-defendants in the PGA Tour’s countersuit against LIV, which the Saudi slush fund owns and finances. She also granted a motion by the Tour to have Al-Rumayyan be deposed in New York rather than Riyadh.For Crown Prince MBS’s bag man, that prospect is the legal equivalent of the dental scene in “Marathon Man,” an excavation so excruciating that even his enemies might weep for him, though perhaps not his famously mercurial and brutal boss.
Though Eamon overreaches here, methinks:
LIV Golf is being strangled by a noose of its own making (though one expertly applied by opposing counsel), finding that the U.S. legal system is not a one-way street in which its Saudi owners can breezily claim sovereign immunity when convenient, rejecting the jurisdiction of the very court whose protection it sought. The entire enterprise has gotten this far because it only needed to convince one benefactor to ignore the economically irrational business model and execrable product quality. But that in turn means the end could come swiftly if the same benefactor has reason to retreat, such as legal exposure not only for himself but for his entire investment portfolio in the U.S., thanks to the precedent set within Norman’s cockamamie suit.
No, the discovery decisions are significant, but will not of themselves lead to anything more fatal than a withdrawal of that antitrust lawsuit, which this observer never thought would bring them any joy, at least not in a timeframe helpful to their cause.
But when the Masters is over, regardless of whether we see Brooks in a green jacket, they're left with a tour built around Ian Poulter and Patrick Reed. Good luck with that, gents!
I'll be back on Monday to wrap things if, in fact, they've wrapped. Enjoy!
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