Best. Masters. Evah? I've been a little surprised at how many are making that claim, without the benefit of historical citations, for sure. My takeaway was that it was a uniquely captivating spectacle, but there were too many missing ingredients for it to reach the pantheon. It was, however, a unique five-hour window into the black hole between a tormented player's ears, and even came with a happy ending... Something rare in our game.
The biggest missing element were challengers.... Compare and contrast with the Masters honored on the 16th green. Yah, I know it's from the paleolithic era, but there you had the three best players in the world at the top of their games. Can we see the difference? Here the best we can say is that Rosie got it rolling late.....
What do we have for the kids today? Well, we have several in the Winners-Losers genre, though the former to me were very thin on the ground. Shall we start with JR (after all, there's little left to say about Rory):
Justin Rose. A second straight major finishing second hurts, losing in a second Masters playoff is positively cruel. This did not stop him from once again demonstrating pure class in the aftermath.
Even better, this time his 20-percenter was not giving the green coats a wrap-it-up signal to cut short another dignified stiff-upper-lip assessment of the week. One that included making 10 birdies Sunday, one short of the record for any Masters round. Rose joins Tom Weiskopf (4), Johnny Miller (3) Tom Kite (3) and Greg Norman in Hall of Fame company to come so close on multiple occasions. Rose also nearly tied the largest 54-hole comeback in Masters history when starting the final round seven strokes back. It’s not out of the question that he can still add another major with such an incredible attitude. “There's no point in being too despondent about it and you look at all the good stuff that got me into this situation,” Rose said. “You can't skip through a career without a little bit of heartache. It's not going to happen. If you're willing to lift the big championships, you've to put yourself on the line. You have to risk feeling this way to get the reverse. It's all -- it nets out.”
I got asked by our head professional yesterday whether anyone else had ever lost two Masters playoffs, and I came up empty in the moment:
Justin Rose is the second player in Masters history to lose two playoff matches. The first was
Ben Hogan, who lost playoff matches in 1942 and 1954.
1942? Wow, I wouldn't have even thought there would have been a Masters in 1942, but we were only in the war for five months at that point. The livestock grazing in Amen Corner came later... and the next Masters after this one was in 1946. Any guesses as to who took Hogan down?
One of my longstanding gripes is the treatment of playoff losers. Certainly the didn't win, but isn't it a higher form of loss than a typical second place finish? The playoff loser shot the best score of the week, which is the objective at the start of the week, no? We all understand that second place can be an agonizing close call, or it can be fifteen shots back, right Ernie and Miggy (anyone get that reference)?
Let me share my two favorite major playoff factoids. The first will come via a question, has any player lost all four majors in playoffs? Anyone? Bueller? You're gonna hate yourself, because the answer is blindingly obvious. I'll throw some hints your way..... Calcavecchia? Ring any bells?
How about Fuzzy? Do visions of white towels pop into your mind? Larry Mize, anyone?
But that's a little too recent and obvious, no? Anyone remember Craig Wood?
Craig Ralph Wood (November 18, 1901 – May 7, 1968) was an American professional golfer in the 1930s and 1940s, the winner of 21 PGA Tour titles including two major championships and a member of three Ryder Cup teams (1931, 1933, 1935). Wood was the first player to lose all four major championships in extra holes.
The asterisk is because the PGA was then a match-play event, hence that "extra holes" bit. Wood is most famous as the victim of Gene Sarazan's "Shot heard 'round the world" at the 1935 Masters Augusta National Invitational.
The other major playoff factoid that amuses me relates to the King. Arnie was.... well, he was the damn King, so you know what he was, but his major haul of seven may strike some as meager as compared to his stature in the game. Arnie only won one U.S. Open, his famous charge in 1960 to steal it from a young Jack and an elderly Hogan, but folks seem to forget that Palmer lost three U.S. Open playoffs in five years. Think about that level of frustration:
- 1962 - Jack Nicklaus (Oakmont)
- 1963 - Julius Boros (The Country Club)
- 1966 - Billy Casper (Olympic)
He shot the low number in four Opens, and won only the one. Jack shot the low number five times, and won four of those.
Geoff seems to be grading on a curve:
Bryson DeChambeau. A remarkable performance given what appeared to be his (at best) B-game. Birdieing three of the last four holes Saturday appeared to put a damper on McIlroy’s mood and added even more tension on Sunday. While DeChambeau ended up four strokes from the playoff, the week shows more deep Masters runs are in his future. He should ignore the haters seizing on his open, perhaps silly answers to questions. Majors would be far less interesting without DeChambeau around.
Fair enough, though I can't help being disappointed at his failure to provide a serious challenge to Rory.
The other problem is that I can't stop laughing at him for calling Augusta a Par-67. It's beyond funny that the man who uttered that statement was the only player in the field to lay up off the third tee. Wasn't that the sequence that lost him the Masters? Somehow on the walk from the second green to third tee he morphed into Len Mattiace....
It probably says more about our outsized expectations than it does about the young man, but I expected more from him this week:
Ludvig Aberg. Two Masters, two incredible performances. The elegant Swede briefly tied for the lead through 16 holes before a three-putt at 17 and 18th hole triple bogey. In the logoclad overkill world of professional golf, last week’s bright outfits stood out against his peers sporting a drab array of cow pasture beige, Chernobyl gray, and hyperion treatment plant blues. The 25-year-old leaned into a
lively Adidas revival, and his willingness to celebrate Masters springtime sure classed up the joint. A future Masters win also seems inevitable.
A weirdly-sized photo that I stole from Geoff.....not great formatting for sure.
A for this one, color me unmoved:
Harry Diamond. The endlessly-badgered bagman bought at least two weeks of criticism for not stopping his man from playing a shot. McIlroy’s faith in his looping pal paid off when we found out Diamond’s reassuring post-18th hole bogey words gave his player the boost needed to birdie the hole in sudden-death. And we learned he was not wild about an insane recovery play on the seventh that would have been a disaster. One quibble: next time your man pitches one from behind the 15th hole into the pond, you must tackle him when he’s walking back to the drop area and bringing a 10 into play.
Fair enough, Geoff, but now do St. Andrews, Pinehurst and LACC..... see the problem?
It was never about Harry, it was about what the choice to put Harry on the bag told us about Rory. Specifically, that it was more important for him to be comfortable than to be challenged. If you're looking to explain the years 2015-2024, that's a pretty good start. When Rory pulled the wrong club on the 16th hole at Pinehurst, wasn't that Harry on the bag?
Then Geoff had this on TV stuff:
Ratings. CBS averaged 12.7 million for Sunday’s final round and the audience peaked at a whopping 19.543 million viewers from 7-7:15 p.m. ET. Streaming numbers were not disclosed but added to the huge numbers. Sunday’s average audience size was up a stunning 33% from last year. Sky Sports says Sunday was its most-watched day in network history, with 7.5 million tuning in and 1.85 million watching after midnight when McIlroy and Rose played the 18th hole. To put the peak 19.5 million number in perspective,
SBJ’s Josh Carpenter noted that it was only “700K less than the 20.2 million average for Tiger's win in 1997.” The numbers are especially remarkable given the well-documented decline in linear television reach.
CBS. The record pollen levels did not stop Jim Nantz from guiding the team who are—weirdly—in different announce locations. They were working an extra two hours this year on what is already a break-light, tense, just-don’t-call-it-a-mob-scene, broadcast. The variety of announcer locations was rarely noticeable, even with Frank Nobilo covering the 16th from the 11th where his view of Amen Corner takes priority, Ian Baker Finch from a super tower position, and Andrew Catalon above the 14th green. No one talked over each other and they all offered sparse but smart commentary regarding play on multiple holes, highlighted by moments like Baker-Finch noting how no one was getting up and down on No. 4 from where DeChambeau had hit his tee shot. Dottie Pepper was more indispensable than ever and added key observations about wind, shot choices, and things said inside the ropes. She shined best during Sunday’s 7th hole sequence when McIlroy pulled off an insane shot from the left second cut. Another set of eyes on the ground is desperately needed for shootout years like this one. Rose’s 66 lacked an (American) television voice during his epic comeback. And Sky’s on-course reporter is weirdly relegated to outside-the-rope status. What parts I heard from Sky’s announce team left a lot to be desired, particularly when Nick Faldo couldn’t resist talking about himself way too much.
I'm not at all surprised at the boffo ratings, which is where that Saturday putt by Bryson on the 18th green was so impactful (I'm also guessing the cold weather on the East Coast didn't hurt). Not sure Corey Connors paired with Rory would have generated the same frisson... It's almost a relief to confirm that people will watch golf. Well, maybe not golf per se, but The Masters.
Another set of eyes on the ground? It's Augusta, Geoff, it took us fifty years to get Dottie and shot-tracing.
There's another aspect tot he ratings that folks might want to think through, to wit, the commercial load. I totally get that this can't be replicated elsewhere. After all. Augusta National has left more money on the table over the decades than DOGE has found fraudulent U.S. Aid disbursements. But I have a radical concept to promote, to wit, that 12.7 million people tune in because the broadcast is watchable.. I know, an idea so crazy it just might work.
Cue the over-interpretations:
After sizzling Masters, now is the time for PGA Tour, LIV Tour Golf to strike a deal
Why? Do we think the John Deere would suddenly feel like the Masters if PReed was there?
For instance, we know how tough it is for a top golfer, even an all-time great like Rory McIlroy, to put away a tournament. It seemed like McIlroy had won three or four times before he finally won it. We also learned never to rule out a talented golfer like Justin Rose, who was finished after Saturday but built a stirring comeback to force a playoff Sunday. And we learned that the most talented golfers in the world can look like double-digit handicappers at times at Augusta National.
Think about it. As the 2025 Masters unfolded, excitement grew over how many of the greats in the game were playing the same golf course at the same time. McIlroy, now a five-time major champion, was trying to hold off Bryson DeChambeau, a two-time U.S. Open winner. But when was the last time you thought about DeChambeau? Probably when he won the U.S. Open last year in a duel down the stretch with McIlroy.
Lots of words that don't remotely prove out the premise. The Sunday excitement was provided almost exclusively by non-LIV players, leading me to an alternative conclusion, to wit, that the Masters was exciting because the Masters is always exciting. DeChambeau benefitted from that more than he contributed to it, which I don't mean as a knock on him. The magic is the event, not in this year's passing circus.
Before I move on, ESPN threw up some silliness in terms of winners from the week:
Johnson, 49, had fallen to 289th in the world rankings after missing eight cuts in 2024 and not doing much of anything this season, outside of tying for 21st in the Sony Open in Hawaii in January. He didn't play much golf last fall while watching his son play his senior year of high school football, and he seemed to have an eye on PGA Tour Champions when he turns 50 next year.
Plus, he has been battling a right elbow injury since last summer.
The 2007 Masters champion made six birdies in an eight-hole stretch and carded a 6-under 66 on Saturday, his best round at Augusta National. He tied for eighth at 5 under, his best finish on the PGA Tour since 2021.
"I still feel like I have it," Johnson said. "I don't know if pride is the right thing, proud, whatever you want to call it."
Watson, 46, hadn't done much of anything in the LIV Golf League -- his best finish this season was a tie for 12th in Saudi Arabia in the opener. He's currently 36th in the individual points standings.
But the two-time Masters winner matched his career low with a 4-under 68 on Sunday and tied for 14th at 3 under. It was his best finish at Augusta National since tying for 12th in 2019.
Watson was making his 17th start at the Masters, and his course knowledge was a bonus.
"You're always trying to get information," Watson said. "But as you get older that information doesn't do as good as it used to."
Uggetti: If we're going for the non-Rory division, it's easy to look toward
Max Homa, who finished in a tie for 12th.
Perhaps no one was searching for a semblance of a positive week on the golf course coming into this week more than Homa, who had missed five straight cuts before arriving in Augusta and had been forthright about how much he was fighting his swing.
So, how do you get right?
For Homa, it appears the answer is playing Augusta National four days in a row. Over four rounds, Homa broke par every single time.
"It's awesome. This has been just not fun at all," Homa said after making the cut Friday. "It does feel good to not beat myself out here."
Homa clearly feels some level of comfort here, and he showed it. A year after he finished in a tie for third, his T-12 finish earns him an automatic invite for next year.
Of course, Homa isn't just looking for positive weeks like this one; he's after consistency and winning. There's plenty of work left to do.
"Tough times don't last; tough people do," Homa said. "At the end of the day, if you get out of your own head it's just one event. You can miss the cut by one and feel like garbage. It sucks. But always closer than you think."
The first bit is funny, no? When have Bubba and Zach ever been used in the same sentence? One of the peculiarities of Augusta is how well some of the old-times play, and it's all kinds of old-times. You couldn't find two more disparate players than these two, heck Zach is the only guy that lays up on all the Par-5's every year (the year he won was because the weather was so God-awful that they all had to lay up).
The irony is that Homa is auditioning to join this crew, but without the green jacket that gets him invited back each year. This is the first decent golf Max has shown us since last year's Masters, and I don't his chances unless he throws some numbers up elsewhere.
But this feels way too early:
Too-early favorites for the rest of the majors?
Schlabach: McIlroy will probably be the favorite at the next major championship, the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 15-18. He has won the Wells Fargo Championship at the same course four times, in 2010, 2015, 2021 and 2024, and set the course record twice with a 62 in 2010 and 61 five years later. It wouldn't be a surprise to see him add his sixth major and third PGA Championship title next month. I'll go with Rory to win a second straight major next month.
I'm expecting Scheffler to have a couple of victories under his belt by the time he arrives at the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh on June 12-15. He had three straight top-10 finishes in the major before tying for 41st at Pinehurst No. 2 last year. Players aren't going to be able to bomb it around Oakmont because of its narrow fairways and myriad bunkers, so give me someone who can control his ball and work it both ways. Scheffler isn't going through an entire season without a major championship victory.
McIlroy will also be a sentimental favorite when the Open Championship returns to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland on July 17-20. He missed the cut the last time The Open was played there in 2019, carding a quadruple-bogey 8 on the first hole and a triple-bogey 7 on the last in an opening round of 8-over 79. He tried to battle back and make the cut with a 6-under 65 in the second round but missed the weekend by one. Keep an eye on Irishman
Shane Lowry, who won the previous Open Championship at Royal Portrush. He's playing great golf, too.
Uggetti: Mark has the favorites nailed, so I'll add some names that are worth considering.
Ludvig Åberg has now finished inside the top 10 at Augusta two years in a row, and though he has had only one other top-12 finish at a major in eight tries, his game is tailor-made for pretty much every possible major championship setup. The 2025 Genesis Invitational winner has the ballstriking to compete with the likes of Scheffler and McIlroy, and he has shown repeatedly that even when down late on a Sunday, he has the firepower to make a charge.
Keep a close eye too on
Xander Schauffele. This week at Augusta, Schauffele once again did not look like he was fully back in peak form following the rib injury that sidelined him earlier this season, but he still gritted out a T-8 finish after an opening 73.
And let's, of course, not forget about who was leading the tournament after two holes Sunday. DeChambeau will not let this loss deter him from continuing to threaten at major tournaments. Quail Hollow and Oakmont are likely to be setups that favor DeChambeau's length and give him a chance to add to his own major total.
I don't know these writers, but thanks for sharing all those blindingly obvious names. I especially love Uggetti's digging deep to come up three guys clearly among the top ten players on the planet.
That's it for today. Catch you down the road as we continue to process.
