Thursday Threads - Masters Letdown Edition

Not much in the tank, so we'll be in heavy copy-and-paste mode....

Masters Leftovers - Geoff has evolved his post-major analysis protocol from a simplistic Winners and Loser to a far more nuanced Winners, Cut-Makers and Point Missers, so shall we sample?  First, those Ws:

Jon Rahm. It’s not easy to be a tournament favorite and deliver in resounding fashion. Rahm appeared focused during practice rounds and continued his early season success despite a virus

setback at The Players. Hitting 85% of fairways, 72.2% of greens and gaining 14.2 strokes tee-to-green on the field means if he’d putted a tad better and landed on the better side of the weather draw he likely authors an even greater runaway win. The opening day four-putt was included statistically in his three-putt tally of five, an unheard of number for a Masters winner. Beyond the lack of his infamous temper, perhaps most impressive of all was his command of so many details and the shrewd ways he processes information to his advantage. A worthy and satisfying champion.

Also pretty good at the golf thing....

Later on in his post Geoff gives props to some unsung heroes, but also to the Spaniard:

Course Maintenance Crew. You received a thank you from Jon Rahm to start off his Green Jacket outdoor ceremony speech. In this day of player obliviousness to what goes into setting up and maintaining a course, his recognition spoke volumes about those crazy hours worked and the difficult task of making ANGC playable after almost 1.5 inches of rain Saturday.

We like this kind of thing, but see less and less of it.

I can't argue otherwise, though I am skeptical that it will have legs:

Phil Mickelson. Another legend down on his luck was transformed by the drive down Magnolia

Lane. In finishing second as a 52-year-old, it’s arguably the greatest Masters performance by an AARP-adjacent golfer, surpassing weeks by Jimmy Demaret and Sam Snead. Though there was also 58-year-old Jack Nicklaus’s 6th place in 1998. It delivered greater roars and awe among peers, including Tiger Woods who brought the week up during a recent sitdown TV special airing last Saturday. All last week Mickelson stuck to bland answers in a bid to reduce unnecessary drama. Karma points were earned even if everyone missed the old Phil press conferences. And he did reveal his weight loss came from not eating, the lone and concerning deep insight for the week. But great to see Amy made it and is looking well! Rest up Lefty, you and the High Flying Liars have trips to Oklahoma, Australia, Singapore and D.C. surrounding your return to the PGA Championship.

If everything is so great for him why does he look so morose?

A couple on that certain golf club:

Augusta National initiatives. The ANWA and DCP provide ideal lead-ins and make the sport better. Adding an NCAA Champion exemption was a no brainer and might even keep some players from turning pro too soon. This year’s unofficial first NCAA-exemptee and reigning DI men’s champ Gordon Sargent being one of them. He could use more seasoning based on his short game struggles. Don’t underestimate this side effect in the decision to offer the NCAA Champion invite by a chairman who was once a buddy amateur that, like many of us, is struggling to grasp the state of amateur golf or the rush for players to turn pro. We also learned that Chairman Fred Ridley and the club intend to refurbish the local muni and develop a job training component for the community and golf industry. His intent is to keep the green fee affordable and inspire more muni replenishing in a country full of them. Augusta National members please remember one thing: what you believe to be an affordable price to play a round is a tad different than what the rest of us think is a fair price.

Fred Ridley - Wednesday’s press conference was the loosest and most authentic to date, with several frank answers and even a charming cave-in to the first question about the club’s stance on distance. He did have trouble hearing a few questions but that was due to a combination of lousy scribbler enunciation and the press conference room’s design. It causes even young ears to misunderstand questions. Ridley’s shrewdest move of the week: opening the hotly anticipated Champions Dinner with a surprise wee nip to loosen everyone up. The brand he selected turned out not to be the synergistic Patrón, but instead, the club’s preferred Casamigos. Either way, bold and wise move Mr. Chairman.

Mostly good stuff, but his comments on distance make that end game clearer.

Wasn't Geoff one of the guys doing that over-reacting?

13th tee. Player over-reaction and general ignorance led to end times declarations even after players had tested out the 545-yard tee. We were told it would be a lay-up extravaganza, only to have the once-risky hole play just as it had for decades prior to the greatest athletes in sports history arriving on the scene. With normal weather Thursday more than half the field went for the green. (This, in a limited field tournament with older past champions who have no chance to get home.) Scoring-wise the hole averaged 4.736 to rank 15th. The 13th gave up 8 eagles, 108 birdies, 122 pars, 30 bogeys, 7 doubles and 2 others. In 2022 when 35 yards shorter, the 13th saw 6 eagles, 91 birdies, 139 pars, 37 bogeys, 6 doubles and 4 others. The cumulative scoring average coming into 2023 was 4.775. As for the big decision to go for it? Golf Channel’s Live From shared these numbers Sunday evening:

I don't think any of us need apologize for concern that the failure to control distance might ruin one of the most iconic holes in golf....

Viewers. Augusta National and CBS took advantage of the new 13th tee to install multiple cameras and other technology. The improved setting and healthier turf allowed for a new close-up shot of player footwork and reaction shots. Combined with all of the other recent innovations, limited commercials and streaming options, and the Masters remains the best viewing experience in all of sports.

In all of sports?  Wow, given ANGC's longstanding role in precluding innovation, that seems wildly over-stated.  We didn't even get shot-tracer on that 13th tee (the single most logical application of that technology) until about an hour-and-a-half ago...

 But these same folks show up in the Points-Misser category as well:

Programming Decision-Makers. There is always frustration with the late weekend start times at The Masters compared to other majors. The conundrum is usually offset by the generous live streaming options for those who can’t get enough golf before leaders arrive at the first tee. Yet with round three’s early restart in groupings of three and leaders going out at 1:06 p.m. EDT, CBS stuck with 90 minutes of pre-telecast programming. The network did no join the live golf until leaders were on the 7th hole and rains were about to halt play. In hindsight those pre-taped shows easily could have been shown once the round ended. Matters were made worse by online Featured Group coverage avoiding the leading group. Saturday ratings suffered as a result of the decision. The viewers spoke with their remotes.

Yeah, that was a great look, waiting until 3:00 to come on the air and having the horn sound at 3:15.

But was it CBS's call or Fred's?

I'll skip the inevitable ode to that Georgia Peach Ice Cream Sandwich, and get into the more nuanced Cut-Makers. beginning with his guy:

Cutmakers

Brooks Koepka. His vaunted major mojo resurfaced and reminded the world how, when healthy,

he’s a Hall of Fame-level talent on the grandest stages. Koepka lost the tournament over the final 36 when he hit ten fewer greens compared to the first two rounds in more idyllic conditions. Karma was also bound to kick in after Thursday’s 15th fairway content collab with Gary Woodland. It had plenty of people wondering why Koepka and caddie Ricky Elliott were so eager to share the club used. Maybe a life of LIV has softened the four-time major champ and one-time rugged individualist? Or was he returning a favor from earlier in the round? Either way, a lousy look. The tournament wrecking vibes were inevitable.

Most folks would had Brooks in the Winner category, but I do agree he belongs here, not least because that alleged major mojo now seems to feature Sunday fades.  

Geoff does take the Rules Committee to task for that, but he's asking some good questions about that exchange with Woodland.  

But on what planet does this belong in the Cut-Maker category?

Rory McIlroy. The concerted effort to play Augusta National in advance and in practice rounds appeared smart. As did flying in Bob Rotella for fireside chats. But after a missed cut and WD from the Heritage this week for unspecified reasons, maybe next year you should try a late Monday arrival with limited practice? Worth a try?

Gee, I don't know Geoff, call me an insufferable purists, but I'm thinking the guys in your Cut-Maker category should have, yanno, made the cut.  This was a devastating week for Rory, one in  which the planets aligned to offer him one of his best opportunities for the tourney he needs most, and he throws up another huge clunker?  I'm not seeing anything good in that week for Rory.

LIV. A dreamy public relations week since none of your players said anything obnoxious and the Crown Prince didn’t order any mass beheadings. Greg Norman was prevented from making matters worse, a gift from the Chairman who proudly acknowledged putting a kibosh on the Shark’s invite. Though there were some cringeworthy admissions for LIV’s cred: Koepka suggested his decision to jump to the league would have been tougher if he’d been healthy last year and Cameron Smith said LIV’s not as deep competitively, hardly an endorsement when there are only 48 players teeing it up. Nonetheless, there was some stellar play from three who always get up for majors. But they now must hit Adelaide, Singapore, Tulsa and, the week after the PGA Championship, Trump D.C. Also, having Sebastian Munoz admit that he approached a putt in Orlando differently than had it been an individual tournament may have ramifications for obtaining world ranking certification and future Masters visits.

I had not heard that bit from Munoz, but it is significant...

I could have lived (pun intended) with having them in the Winner category, but I just don't see where the great week moves the ball for them, especially since they'll mostly be invisible in Australia and Singapore.

 Are you ready for the fun part?

(Point) Missers

Player and Caddie Wisdom Into Anything Beyond Themselves. If there was any doubt how little weight should be given to the opinions of professional golfers and their luggage handlers, last week reinforced a propensity to take bad information and issue absurd proclamations. The 13th tee? Terrible and no longer reachable! The distance issue? A travesty worthy of attempts at disdainful sarcasm or nonsense about ROI’s while never declaring financial conflicts of interest. One company has rollback language in their deals that’s driving players to contradict their shallow points within a matter of seconds. We get it, you’re all about the money. But maybe consider asking Tiger, Jack or Fred Ridley a few questions about these weighty matters before recklessly opining? Oh right, what do they know?

The combination of LIV and the rollback pretty much ensure that we will come to hate each and every member of the professional golf world before this is over.  In fact, some of us already do...

This is a bit of a shotgun (yeah, pun once again intended) approach:

PGA Tour. The stars dictating so much of your future as the Commish hits the slopes of Steamboat ended up missing the cut or undergoing back surgery. Rory WD’d from this week’s Heritage while Jordan Spieth said he’s gassed from playing a heavy schedule. On the course, four normally sluggish PGA Tour players held up the leaders because they live in a coddled bubble where slow play penalties never happen. Chatter on the grounds repeatedly turned to the Tour’s questionable kneejerk response to LIV via an unsustainable model featuring lackluster no-cut formats. And another headscratcher that loosened up more than its share of dandruff last week: little sign of meaningful coordination with the DP World Tour. Couple that with Fred Ridley making it known where he stands on distance, a PGA Tour threatening to play by different rules will continue to reinforce that you’re a non-profit organization obsessed with individual profit over the greater good. Quite a strategy to fend off the Saudis.

A little to much to pick at, though mostly on target.

Are you in the mood for some architectural geekiness?

5th Hole. Re-imagined in 2019, the par-4 is failing to capture the essence of its inspiration: the Road hole. The players are supposed to be enticed to take on the fairway bunkers to gain an advantage with a shorter shot into the difficult green. Bobby Jones wrote in 1960: “The proper line here is as closely as possible past the bunker on the left side of the fairway.” Since the hole was revamped in 2019, only a few players ever get past the bunkers and no one takes them on intentionally because the left fairway over the bunker leaves them a weird stance blocked by trees. This one needs work.

17th Hole. Players finishing on the left side of the fairway and playing to the left side of the green must play over trees. It’s a problematic gift of the Hootie Johnson era when the 17th began to drift from the original design philosophy emphasizing width. The field’s green-in-regulation number for the week was 41% from a 62% fairway hit percentage. That’s just strange. Especially since the masterful green complex can protect itself from incoming shots no matter how short the iron. The same could be said for the 7th where similar tree work needs to happen.

And on one of our Unplayable Lies piñatas:

Sergio Garcia. While most of the LIV crowd brought their A games in the attitude department and on course, you took a simple warm-up question and turned it into a petulant exchange. But at least your good buddy Jon Rahm won. Jose Andres might help craft another Champions Dinner. That should cheer you up! Oh right, you’re Sergio!

Yeah, what a guy!  You get through a week and he hasn't spit in a cup or destroyed a bunker, and you could almost think he should be in Geoff's Winner category.

Tour Stuff - Just to clean up a few browser tabs, first this entry in the "Who could have seen this coming" genre:

The plan was well intended. Increase the purses, get the top golfers playing together more often and the PGA Tour could ward off the threat of LIV Golf. That was last August, when commissioner Jay Monahan revealed the schedule of 12 designated events worth $20 million. But the result, through last week’s Masters, was that the top players have played maybe too often.

Last week, Rory McIlroy missed the cut at Augusta National after shooting 72-77. Then he withdrew from this week’s RBC Heritage at Harbour Town, opting out of a designated event for the second time this year. He had played in six tournaments worldwide before the Masters, the same lead-in to Augusta as last year. But the difference is the intensity of those tournaments. McIlroy played in four designated events, against the world’s best golfers, and the Players Championship. By the time he drove down Magnolia Lane, he was fried.

Are we auditioning this for Rory's excuse for his Masters flameout?  The irony is schadenfreudaliscious, that the guys that foisted this monstrosity of a schedule on the tour was fried by it.... 

Him too?

Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters champion, fared much better than McIlroy at Augusta; he shot a final-round 66 to tie for fourth place. But the three-time major winner was left to wonder what could’ve been if he wasn’t gassed. Spieth played nine events before the Masters, which is only one more than last year. Again, those nine tournaments packed more punch; five were designated. He wasn’t even that thrilled about his share of fourth.

“I played way too much golf into this,” Spieth said Sunday at the Masters. “I came in mentally fatigued.”

So, for the two guys that think all golf needs is more FedEx Cup nonsense, we've got you covered:

The PGA Tour revealed on Wednesday its plan for a re-imagined fall season that includes seven events already familiar to players/fans and will determine who keeps their PGA Tour cards for the following year.

Beginning this year, only the top 70 players off the FedEx Cup points list at the end of the regular season in August qualify for the PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs (and guarantee their full playing status for the following season). The top 50 players on the points list after the first playoff event advance to the second event and are exempt into 2024’s "designated" events, a series of eight still-to-be determined tournaments with limited fields, no cuts and $20 million prize money payouts.

Those who finish outside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup points list will retain their points from the regular season as they compete in the autumn and try to stay inside the top 125 at the end of the newly named “FedEx Cup Fall” or play their way into the top 125 if they weren't inside at the end of the regular season. The seven events will offer a full allotment of FedEx Cup points with more than $56 million in prize money available as players try to lock in their status for the 2024 season.

This is somewhat reminiscent of the old Fall Finish.  On the one hand, we might have payers fighting for status, and that can actually be quite compelling.  But no one will watch, so maintaining the sponsorships would seem to be the primary challenge.

Closing Time -  I'm heading to the exit, but this one bit amused me:

For most of the Masters weekend, Brooks Koepka looked like he was on his way to winning his first-ever green jacket.

Entering the final round, Koepka had a two-stroke lead on eventual champion Jon Rahm. Instead of cementing the victory, Koepka collapsed. He shot a final-round 75 and opened the door for a commanding victory for Rahm.

One bettor seemed to see the forest for the trees with Koepka’s Masters’ chances. That or this person was just really lucky.

As part of a $60,000 parlay, a bettor cashed out $15,000 on Koepka winning the Masters when he still held the lead at the end of the third round. Given the subsequent events, it was truly impeccable timing.

Phil?

I'll catch you down the road... 

Tuesday Trivialities - Masters Detritus Edition

Left a few strokes out there yesterday, so shall we see what me missed?

Takeaways - If you're a grizzled veteran in these parts, you're familiar with the concept of a notebook dump, a tradition like every other.

I take this as a TMI warning from Nick Piasrtowski:

101 things I saw, heard, smelled and smiled at during Masters week

Smelled?  Are you sure about this?  First, a few thoughts on Koepka:

11. I knew Koepka would do this. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. I love it, too — no, not that I was right, but that’s nice, too — but it’s all a bit of a mind game to him. Brooks is hurt. Brooks thinks he can’t do it anymore. Brooks is playing lower-level golf. Logs on his personal fire. He’ll be back in the mix at the PGA and U.S. Open, too.

What, that he'd fold on Sunday?  At the height of his powers, Koepka definitely shared the grievance-mongering that Michael Jordan made famous.  But has anyone noticed he's not exactly a stone-cold closer any longer?

12. But next year could be his last Masters. Stinks, don’t it?

Nick, I'm going to let you stew about the field for that 2025 Masters all by your lonesome....Of course, your humble blogger would characterize Brooksie's absence as more of a feature than a bug.....

Here's one I meant to cover but missed. For most folks, their golf heroes are Tiger and jack and whatever, whereas mine is Jeff Knox. But Knox has lost his sinecure, and his replacement comes from a mold more in tune with our times:

28. The Masters marker is a bit of a celebrity — one is used when there’s an odd number of players — and GOLF’s Sean Zak wonderfully profiled the newest one, Michael McDermott, here.

Knox was a shorter hitter who was uncanny on the greens.  McDermott?

“He was playing 11 from the member’s tees and the caddies go up on the hole while you hit. His caddie comes running back up the hill,” the Augusta National member said, mimicking the high,

pumping knees of a caddie in a jumpsuit. “He’s got putter in hand and he goes, ‘Mr. McDermott, I wanted you to take the longest walk with a putter in Augusta National history. You drove the green!’”

Ladies and gentlemen, the new marker is long. His name is Michael McDermott and he can play from the big-boy tees, too, proving it Friday morning when he outdrove Mike Weir, Masters competitor, by about 40 yards on the 1st hole.

On Friday, two full years after the beloved marker of yesteryear, Jeff Knox, surrendered the role, McDermott finally felt the tap on his shoulder for a debut walk around Augusta National during the Masters. His score doesn’t matter at all. He’s just a phantom player, invisible to the television cameras, stuck in place to fill time and offer camaraderie when a contestant withdraws or an odd number of players make the weekend cut.

Handicap is +1.8.   

Paying off that header, an idiosyncratic rating of food options:

32. If you’ve somehow stumbled onto my stories before, you’ll know I’m a beer guy, and I’m taking breaks here with some treats. First up is the Augusta Peach from Sibling Revelry Brewing. Fitting.

33. Masters sandwich ratings time! No. 1 is the breakfast sandwich. No. 2 is the club sandwich. My ratings are influenced by meat — you get more with the club. I like the hamburger bun touch with it, too. It’s comfort food.

34. Barbecue sandwich. The sauce is not overpowering, but solid. (Full disclosure: I really like all barbecue, so I may be the wrong person to review here.) You get a good amount of meat. Just wish it was a little bigger — it’s slider size.

35. Chicken sandwich. A little bit of heat. Not bad.

36. Pimento. Though it’s practically associated with the tournament, there’s some polarization here — some folks give the pimento a meh. On that note, I’ve dropped it in the middle of the ratings. It’s got some kick too, but just a bit too much mayo.

37. Sausage biscuit. Oh, this could be king. The biscuit is lovely. The sausage is hot. Just a little too greasy.

38. Ham and cheese on rye. I usually don’t like rye bread. But this hit the spot. It’s a little beefier, and, again, we like that.

39. Chicken biscuit. The chicken is a little chewy.

40. Chicken salad. It’s lacking some flavor.

41. Egg salad. Same as above.

But you send a boy to do a man's job:

42. OK, this is sad. I didn’t have the Georgia peach ice cream sandwich. The ratings are tainted, yes.

 Luke Kerr-Dineen has a similar column, though with a little more heft to it:

2. Early errors only kill you if you let them

Hang around players long enough and you’ll find they’ll find a way to turn everything into a

positive if they look at it long enough, and so was the case with Rahm. No one wants to make big numbers—indeed, your avoiding big numbers is statistically the key difference between high and low handicaps. But big numbers come for all eventually. For Rahm, his came after four putts on the very first green of the tournament. No Masters winner, before Rahm, had accomplished that feat.

And yet, somehow, Rahm made it into a good thing.

"If you’re going to make a double on any hole in the tournament; four-putt or something, it might as well be the first hole," he said.

Early mistakes are annoying, but framing them as opportunities to recover from is something that stuck with me. Golf, after all, isn’t a game with an end destination. It’s a journey. Like a plane going through turbulence, there’s something rewarding about navigating your way to clear skies on the other side. Persist long enough, and good things will come in the end.

There's a lesson there that most of us will ignore.

ESPN's writers had some reflections as well.  It's hard to argue with these choices:

Who was the biggest surprise of Masters week?

Schlabach: Thumbs up to Mickelson, who picked up his fifth top-three finish and 12th top-five at Augusta National. I didn't think he had anything left in the tank. Like Woods did in the 2019 Masters, Mickelson turned back the clock and rekindled the magic that helped him win a green jacket three times.

Mickelson, 52, started the final round at 1-under, 10 shots behind Koepka. When he sank an 11-foot birdie on the 72nd hole, his fifth birdie in the final seven holes, he was 7-under, just 3 shots behind Rahm. It was the best final round by a player over 50 in Masters history. He is the oldest player to finish in the top five. It was Mickelson's best final round in a storied career at Augusta National.

Uggetti: Koepka. Perhaps there's a mea culpa to be had by all when it comes to him. The four-time major winner dominated the golf world not too long ago and, after hearing about his journey back to good health, his ability to compete at Augusta and nearly outlast the No. 1 player in the world makes complete sense and gives context to his win drought even before he bolted to LIV Golf.

 Obviously the former is way more surprising than the latter, who had won twice in recent events.

Who was the biggest disappointment?

Schlabach: Of all the former PGA Tour members who left for LIV Golf, Smith was probably the most surprising to me. He had just won the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews and was the No. 2-ranked player in the world. The Australian is 29 years old and at the height of his career.

Smith won the second LIV Golf tournament he played and captured the Australian PGA Championship in November. He hasn't done much of anything since. He missed the cut at the Saudi International and finished sixth, 26th and 29th in the first three LIV Golf events this year.

OK, but if we're looking for guys that did a face-plant this week, Smith qualifies for nothing more than Miss Congeniality:

Uggetti: Rory McIlroy There was an abundance of expectations surrounding McIlroy heading into this week at the Masters. Even Tiger Woods himself said it's only a matter of time before McIlroy wins the Masters.

McIlroy himself didn't exactly shy away from those expectations, even going as far as to say he felt like he had shed some of the scar tissue at Augusta after backdooring his way into a second-place finish last year. But instead, McIlroy played "untidy" golf by his own admission and didn't seem to have anything resembling his best stuff all week. He missed nearly 50 percent of greens in regulation and had a particularly poor putting day on Friday on his way to missing the cut.

Rory had this:

"I feel like I am as good, if not better a player, as I was the last time I won a major championship," McIlroy said coming into the week. "I've been knocking on the door for that fifth one for a while."

You might want to get a second opinion on that.... 

Fallout -  So, how are those Elevated Designated Events going, Jay?

Just days after posting scores of 72-77 at the 2023 Masters, Rory McIlroy has decided to withdraw from this week’s RBC Heritage.

McIlroy was scheduled to be the first golfer to meet the media Tuesday at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

The RBC is a designated event on the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 schedule, which means a total purse of $20 million and a first-place check of $3.6 million going to the winner.

The issue being that he didn't make the trek to Hawaii to start the season, so that's two, and they're in theory only allowed to skip one.

But, as you know, there are now two PGA Tours, and the rules are only for the peons:

Don't fret, Rory will get his PIP $$ no matter how many elevated's he skips. Tiger, too. I asked Monahan about this, he said, "I have discretion, okay? I'll work with our team, I'll understand the situation, and we'll make a decision." Per PIP slush fund, he has absolute power. https://t.co/HTxRnT1zJY

— Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) April 10, 2023

 Isn't it great that the Commish has a slush fund to pay off his faves?  

But this little buried detail might be the most outrageous part:

The Tour announced that the field, which started with 146 golfers, is down to 143 and noted that “WDs will not be replaced by alternates unless needed to fill the field of 132.”

I'm old enough to remember when the Tur cared about playing opportunities for its members.  Now, we just ensure that those terrific peni don't have any awkward encounters with the great unwashed masses.

Just a reminder of this, upon which I touched yesterday:

Rules Are Rules … or Are They?

Masters officials dropped the ball by not assessing a penalty after an exchange between the caddies for Brooks Koepka and Gary Woodland

Rules are for the little people....

Can't We All Just Get Move Along -  He's not wrong:

While the 87th Masters will be long remembered for Jon Rahm’s come-from-behind win over Brooks Koepka, one thing that won’t be remembered fondly was the slow pace of play in the final round.

Rahm and Koepka were frequently forced to wait for the pairing immediately in front of them – Patrick Cantlay and Viktor Hovland – to hit their shots.

Both Rahm and Koepka typically prefer a speedier pace, and when the subject was raised in the post-round news conference, Koepka didn’t hold back.

“Yeah, the group in front of us was brutally slow,” Koepka said. “Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting.”

No. 1 or No. 2?  I'm guessing both given the time involved.... While the above mentions them both, it's not about them both:

Cantlay was by far the more egregious offender, as Hovland even seemed to be a bit annoyed at his playing competitor. On one occasion, Hovland didn’t even wait for Cantlay and his caddie to reach the green before hitting his chip shot.

Rory Sabatini, call your office.

Best summed up by what Alan Shipnuck called his favorite tweet of the week:

They were newlyweds when @patrick_cantlay teed off today https://t.co/j500PcFYdi

— Breeds MN Golf (@BreedsMNGolf) April 10, 2023

Just a reminder that the only slow-play penalty ever assessed at the Masters was given to a 14-year old.

LIV Ascendant - I know, but does it change anything?  Nick Piastowski ponders the existential issues here:

Did LIV Golf change the narrative at the Masters? It’s not that easy

Let's see what he's got?

Gone is the idea that LIV players, because of a limited schedule (they’ve played just three tournaments this year), a different format (54 holes) and a smaller field (mostly the same 48 players week after week) couldn’t handle this week. They did. Koepka finished and Mickelson tied for second and Reed tied for fourth. Twelve of the 18 here made the cut (Koepka, Mickelson, Reed, Joaquin Niemann, Cameron Smith, Abraham Ancer, Harold Varner III, Talor Gooch, Thomas Pieters, Charl Schwartzel, Dustin Johnson and Mito Pereira).

It's by no means gone, despite the LIVsters justifiable crowing.  They had a great week, but the guy that should have won this thing faded badly on Sunday.  Seems to me that puts the argument about 54-hole events front and center, no?

Gone, too, should be the discussion over world-ranking points. LIV is still waiting for them. But while there isn’t doubt that they’ll eventually receive some for their tournaments, the showing this week may have given them some more. Just look at that player list above again. You have to beat some guys to win a LIV Golf tournament.

Nick, you've just told us that there's no mechanism to replenish fields (kind of ignoring the fact that they're stuck with Phil no matter how badly he plays) and that they're locked into 54-hole, no-cut events.  I'd say LIV qualifying for OWGR points remains very much an issue, and justifiably so.

I think they are most likely to be awarded OWGR points, but mostly because it isn't worth creating an additional legal issue in denying them.  

Nick does a reasonably good job of covering both sides though he ignores the killer point to me.  To wit, if Brooks Koepka thought he could actually play, he wouldn't have gone to LIV.

The ESPN guys take a shot as well, and I think this is best in breed:

Uggetti: While Greg Norman and LIV Golf as a whole may have wanted to turn Masters week into a statement, the week felt more like a reminder of just what LIV has robbed the golf world of.

Mickelson, Koepka and Reed all finished inside the top-10, but the statements they made felt

more individual than collective. For Koepka, it reminded the golf world how much of a threat he can be at majors. Reed always seems to play well enough on this course and Mickelson, well, he is a 6-time major winner and three-time winner at Augusta after all.

It's hard for LIV, in my mind, to utilize as evidence to support their quest, let alone have this result turn into more viewers and attention for the shotgun start, 54-hole tournament. If anything, it's an indictment to the caliber of LIV events, the courses and the fields, that their best players aren't exactly thriving on their tour or particularly care about winning unless it's in service of preparing for what really matters: the majors. Cam Smith said as much this week when he acknowledged LIV fields are not as deep or strong as the PGA Tour's.

Zoom out and I think the takeaway is clear: LIV players can still thrive and win at major championships and they will no longer be overlooked. But the LIV Tour? I can't see this improving the quality of the product nor the likelihood that Mickelson's rise to the top of the leaderboard, or Koepka's near victory, get anyone to turn on the CW. Not when you have Jim Nantz getting jokes off at your expense.

It's great for them that Phil had that resurgence, but they're still trying to organize a tour around a 52-year old player.  How does that work?

And they're now departing for Australia and Thailand, so will leverage this bounty by running taped coverage on the CW.  Yeah, that's draw eyeballs....maybe as many as six of them.

I'll leave you this this bit, which I find every bit as believable as everything else he says:

Reed, who left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, admitted to hearing “murmurs here and there” during the week but added that overall the patrons were supportive.

“The fans were good. I heard a lot of ‘Go 4Aces’ out there,” Reed said. “As a whole, everyone was great. They were very respectful, and the fans were how they always are. They’re always really good.”

A billion valuation for Patrick's franchise?  Why so low?

Tomorrow features the resumption of The Wednesday Game™, so I will see you later in the week.

Weekend Wrap - Dodged Bullet Edition

Whew!  That was close.....

Rahmbo In Full - As I occasionally remind, I started the 2022 season (calendar edition) watching to see if Jon Rahm could separate himself from the pack, which was wrong or, perhaps, just a tad early.

Two-time champion Jose Maria Olazabal missed the cut at the 87th Masters, but he donned his Green Jacket and waited behind the 18th green in the gloaming of a brisk but sunny Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club to welcome his fellow Spaniard Jon Rahm to the club.

 

“He said he hopes it’s the first of many more. We both mentioned something about Seve, and if he had given us 10 more seconds, I think we would have both ended up crying,” Rahm said.

Rahm became the fourth Spaniard to win the Masters, joining Sergio Garcia (2017), Olazabal (1994, 1999) and Seve Ballesteros who died in 2011 and 40 years ago birdied the first four holes to win the title for the second time (the first being in 1980.) On what would’ve been Seve’s 66th birthday, Rahm had to play 30 holes, rallying from four strokes back at the start of the day and two behind with 18 holes to go to shoot 3-under 69 and beat Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson by four strokes.

Ollie's presence was poignant, and I'm sure Sergio would have been there as well if there was an appearance fee on offer...

Geoff was fawning as well:

There are great golfers and there are golf geniuses.

Jon Rahm falls into the latter camp and no jury watching or listening Sunday would disagree upon seeing the 28-year-old Spaniard overcome the wrong side of the draw to win the 2023 Masters.

Besides becoming the fourth man from Spain to win here, he’s also the first European to win the Masters and U.S. Open. And then there all of the nutty April 9th coincidences (or not). But first, the genius component to this wildly satisfying win.

One of the Golf Channel talking heads put the value of the wrong side of the draw at 2.4 strokes, and if I had more available time I'd go through that top ten and see if anyone else overcame that hurdle as well.  Add the four-jack on the first green on Thursday, and it seems he beat the field by 8.4 strokes over the final 71 holes, so I'll go out on a limb and say the best man won.

Mike Bamberger was invoking the gods, always a dangerous business:

On this Easter Sunday, on this fourth day of Passover, the question can be asked:

Do golfing gods actually exist?

And now we know. Now we have proof.

They do.

And here’s the proof.

Jon Rahm of coastal Spain and greater Phoenix and the PGA Tour, won the 87th Masters by four shots over two men, a sun-whipped 52-year-old Phil Mickelson and his fellow LIV Golf golfer Brooks Koepka.

 Oh, they exist...And they're an ornery bunch.

Amusingly, Bams ties it back to that non-penalty penalty:

When Saturday’s rain finally stopped and the sunrise came at Augusta National on Sunday, Koepka was leading by four shots. Through three days of heat and wind and cold and rain, he looked like a golfing stud. But had he gone on to win this tournament, an asterisk would have been attached to his victory and this Masters forever, because of a rules incident in his Thursday round.

There’s no need to rehash the whole incongruous rules episode here. (This space is reserved for Senor Rahm!) But briefly:

After his Thursday round, Koepka was shown seemingly conclusive video evidence that his caddie had shared information with another caddie about what club his boss had hit for his second shot on the 15th hole. Sharing such information violates one of golf’s basic principles. Faced with the video evidence, Koepka could have said, “In the interest of fairness to the rest of the field and the tournament itself, I’ll assess myself a two-shot penalty.” He didn’t do that, and his first-round score stood as 65, not the 67 many thought it should have been.

And that made Rahm’s job that much more difficult, and his victory that much more of a relief for anybody still old-fashioned enough to believe golf has a value system that makes it unlike any other sport.

I just don't get their logic.... Either change the rule or enforce it, but the charade is unseemly.

Geoff had an interesting take that harkens back to 2019:

Last year Rahm played the final round with a gimpy Tiger Woods and finished T29. But ever the self-proclaimed historian, Rahm took bits of wisdom from sources far and wide and fed them into

his constantly-running brain server. He’s gleaned insights from Woods, former champion Jose Maria Olazabal and caddie Adam Hayes among others en route to what seemed like an inevitable victory at the place so good to Spain. Oh, and an early week practice nine tidbit picked up from Tony Finau, who lost to Woods in 2019, helped at Amen Corner.

“I played nine holes with him on Wednesday,” Rahm said while wearing the Green Jacket. “I asked him when him and Francesco hit those shots in the water, ‘Did you actually hit a good shot?’

“He said, ‘Yeah, it was I good shot, it was just a yard too far right and spun in the water.’ Then he mentioned Tiger's shot went left of the bunker to that Sunday pin.”

Rahm, ever the calculating mega talent who merges shotmaking, artistry, cold-blooded relentlessness and a wicked propensity to make left-to-righters, infused that wisdom into his a stress-free final round 12th hole par.

“So when I got there today, dry land is mission No. 1, right?” he said. “So I learned from what I did this morning, try to basically make a hole-in-one to the third round pin and hit a perfect shot because I was about three feet from it, right. That's what I had to do, hit it right over the center of the bunker and hope it hits green. And then after that, hit a great lag putt, tapped it in and moved on.”

Don't you love how their minds work?  I say that affectionately, but you can be 20 yards left on No. 12, but you can't be six inches too far right.... which is what I call a mistake, not a good shot.

The hardest thing to do in golf is to win when you're supposed to, which includes getting it to the house on a Sunday afternoon, most especially this Sunday afternoon.  This whole bit was amusing, but only because he had that four-shot cushion:

Armed with a four-stroke cushion, Rahm clipped the ancient pines with his 18th hole drive and was forced to hit a provisional before word reached the tee that his ball was safe. For the record, he was credited with a 193-yard tee shot.

“I think that was karma,” Rahm said. “I was just telling Adam how great I hit a low fade the entire week. Hit pretty much every -- the fairway all four days on 17, which I've never done. And I was bragging about it a little bit, and, of course, on 18, that happens, right, which was maybe two feet from missing that tree.

“But it will be a good story in the future, I guess.”

As former Masters Champion Trevor Immelman said during the CBS telecast, Rahm thought his miracle par was an appropriate as-Seve-would have done it conclusion. Another reminder that great minds don Green Jackets.

I've been reliably informed that the rain in Spain falls mostly on....wait, where was I?  Geoff had some date and Spain-centric bits:

Jeepers, were there some stunning coincidences with Sunday, April 9th and Spaniards.

• Rahm is the fourth to win joining Ballesteros, Olazabal and Garcia. Also…
• The last April 9th finish of the Masters was won by Garcia in 2017. 

• Seve’s 66th birthday would have been April 9th, 2023.

Rahm’s win is forty years to the day of Ballesteros’ second Masters victory.

• His caddie number this week was 49.

In addition to those doozies…

• This was the sixth total Masters win by a native of Spain, surpassing South Africa’s five.
• Rahm is the second player from Spain to win two different majors (Seve Ballesteros Masters/The Open). And he’s the first to do the Masters/U.S. Open combo.

Sorry about the messy formatting above, which has prevented me from inserting a nice screen capture of the winner and Ollie.

The Tour Confidential panel had some thoughts on the winner as well:

Jon Rahm was four shots off the lead on Sunday morning, cut the deficit to two after the third round and cruised to a four-shot win at the Masters over Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson. What most impressed you about Rahm’s victory, and are you surprised he came all the way back to win?

Hmmm.... that Koepka guy was four up at the start of play Sunday and lost by four, isn't there a word for that kind of collapse?   Yanno, something like Normanesque?

Alan Bastable: Given how well Koepka was not only striking the ball but also putting, I didn’t

see him kicking away his lead. But who knows, maybe not having enough recent reps in 72-hole tournaments finally caught up to him. I was most impressed that Rahm overcame a double-bogey on the opening hole Thursday and still won (only two other players have done that in a major in the last 30 years) and also that he kept his cool and steel during the foul weather. His maturation has come a long way.

Jack Hirsh: What isn’t there to be impressed with Rahm? I’ll start with the most obvious one which was his driver. Aside from the one on 18, which he said he didn’t even care about because he was up four, he drove it on a string. I said his tee shot on 13 in the final round was probably the best in the history of that tee! He can work it both ways when he has to. Oh and what did he do after the smother hook on 18? Rope it down the middle. I really wasn’t surprised to see him come back, especially after he did it in Maui.

Jessica Marksbury: His calm demeanor and belief, especially between the end of the third round and the start of the final round. He was in complete control — and he knew it.

We'll get to Koepka in a moment, but Bastable hits on a point I made in the moment.  Gee, if only he had more experience at four day events...

But that was quite the display of ball-striking once he had a sniff of the lead and saw Brooks leaking oil.  So, the only remaining question is, can he separate himself from the pack?

LIV In Full - Gotta eat some crow here, as I didn't see this coming.....  In fact, I'm pretty sure I said something about Phil having his weekend free, so shall we wash that crow down with a claret?

After taking a two-shot lead into the final round, Brooks Koepka didn’t win, but his fine play — not to mention Phil Mickelson’s — still fired up the LIV Golf-vs.-PGA Tour debate. How much do you suppose Koepka’s week will help to bolster LIV Golf’s image/credibility?

Sens: Well, with three LIV players finishing in the top four spots, it dispels the idea that these guys were all going to instantly lose their edge. But I don’t think it does anything to change LIVs bigger image/PR problem, which is that the team concept feels forced and the events seem weightless. At the same time, the strong showing by Koepka and Co., doesn’t cast a great glow on the Tour, either, as it reminds fans of what’s been lost in the Tour vs. LIV rift. Now, we only get the very best of the best four times a year.

Umm, no.  It's actually three of the top six, which is still good enough that you don't to exaggerate it... 

Bastable: A few of my colleagues and I had lunch (humble brag alert) on the clubhouse’s second story veranda Sunday from where we spied PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sitting by himself on a bench that looks out toward the course. Would have paid him more than a penny for his thoughts, but you couldn’t help but think he wasn’t thinking about the day’s outcome and how it might influence the pro-golf war. Would a Koepka (or Phil or Reed) win really damaged the PGA Tour? Not in any tangible way. But it would have been a reminder to fringe fans that LIV, however you feel about the tour, has some serious talent. Heck, even without a LIV winner, as Sens points out, that point was still made this week.

Marksbury: Well said, Josh. And as Koepka said in his post-round press conference, “We’re still the same people.” This week’s performances seem to support that. If anything, I think LIV’s finishes at Augusta add even more intrigue and excitement to the major weeks where both LIV and the PGA Tour will go head-to-head.

Hirsh: I agree, this doesn’t change much of the public perception around LIV Golf, but it does prove these guys can still play. And hey, that intrigue is good for us!

I would argue that what they got was better than Norman's fever dream of an 18th green celebration.  Better because three of them were on that first page, and also that it wasn't Cam or DJ.  To me that gives a plausible argument about depth... well, not so much plausible as having an argument.

The funniest bit is that my small-sample size poll Sunday morning yielded a unanimous "Not Brooks" vote tally, and we were in the Spanish Armada in viewing the early stages of the broadcast.  But after Phil finished strong and posted -8, both Employee No. 2 and I had moments of rooting for Brooksie as the far lesser evil...  Just funny what this game does to you.

But first, no one said these guys still couldn't play.... excepting, of course, for Brooks and Phil.  The former due to recurring injuries and the latter due to demographics.  In the three LIV events to date, Phil has finished T27, T30 and T41, results that sre both objectively poor and not much of a trend line to speak of, and that's before we deal with the field strength.  

I've never bought into Phil's act completely, and in recent years (many would say since September 2014) I've turned hostile to the man.  But I've always steered clear of criticizing his golf career, because he's obviously a transcendent talent.  But I remain mystified that he would squander his good name for thirty pieces of silver, walking away from Ryder Cup captaincies, the senior tour and an honorary starters gig at this very venue.  Yesterday my feeling was one of sadness, that he didn't allow us to revel in what should have been one of those glorious Sundays that Augusta can deliver for the old-timers.  

Koepka is a far more interesting case, because if he's actually healthy, it could get interesting.  But the devastating point for the LIV apologists is that he's been pretty candid in telling us that he only went to LIV because of the injuries....  Yeah, that's a great slogan, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddle masses.... they'll be rallying around that flag.  That's why that "We're still the same guys" is so laugh-out-loud funny, because he most of all didn't think he was the same guy.

But you'll recall that we had that Eamon Lynch column last week to the effect that even a LIV winner would change the arc, and Josh's answer above sounds the same notes.  Straw men aside, no one has ever said they have no talent there, just that they don't near enough and no way to replenish it....

I'm going to move on, but this is a subject we will no doubt revisit in the coming days.  

Ghosts of Tiger - Eamon had a column on this:

Lynch: At the place where it all began, the end has never seemed closer for Tiger Woods

So where on that continuum is Tiger Woods?

He’s certainly well shy of embarrassing himself, and like Arnold in his latter years has earned the right to do so if he chooses (but he won’t). Nor can he be accused of selfishly taking someone

else’s place in the field, since he’s earned the berth he occupies. On paper, at 47 he’s still of an age where opportunities to win are fewer but not finished. But in practice, he’s so banged up that winning or even contending has never seemed more distant in the rearview.

There was an ineffable sadness in watching Woods limp around the golf course he bestrode like a colossus in 1997, when he won the Masters by a dozen strokes. There’s an understandable desire to focus on his swing mechanics, to find positive signs that the weaponry is intact. Now and again it is, but his is an artillery gun borne on a rickety wagon, too unpredictable and unstable to be relied upon in the battle.

I certainly think that's right, although I also think there's a distinction here that is missed.  Tiger can still play golf at a fairly high level, he just can't walk.  I don't mind so much at the Masters, because his slot wouldn't be filled if he didn't play.  The issue for me is that in the next three Masters, he'll be using a scarce resource to play.

I'm not at a point where I think he should have stepped aside, but that day is coming.

Tiger Woods withdrew from the Masters before the resumption of Sunday’s third round, citing a reaggravation of his plantar fasciitis. The cold conditions weren’t ideal for Woods, and he was limping badly on Saturday, but how does this change your opinion on how often we’ll see Woods in majors going forward or how effective he can be?

Hirsh: I think people are getting ahead of themselves when talking about Tiger’s future after this week. He got dealt just about the worst hand he could have been given with the already difficult walk here plus the weather and having to get up early to play multiple rounds. He still made the cut. I think there are slightly healthier days ahead for Woods when he doesn’t have to deal with the plantar fasciitis. I’ll say good chance he skips Oak Hill next month, 50/50 on the U.S. Open in LA, but I’d put money on him being at Hoylake in July.

Bastable: Gosh, I don’t know. On Saturday, as I hyped for this site, he was limping so badly he looked like he was walking barefoot on broken glass. Yes, the conditions were brutal but that’s as bad as we’ve seen him. Huge props to Woods for making the cut (truly, that’s an incredible accomplishment), but I am not bullish about the rest of his 2023.

Sens: Tiger got caught in a perfect storm this week. And while Oak Hill in May seems like a long shot, I think we will see him make a go at the U.S. Open. He’ll have two months to rest and rehab. It’s hard to picture him being a big factor in majors going forward though. He’s an ancient 47, and he’s up against a wave of young talent that he helped inspire. Tiger himself seems to be coming to grips with that. As tough as that might be for his fans to swallow — the idea of Woods shifting into a more ceremonial role — it’s got to be even tougher for Woods himself.

Marksbury: After what we saw this week, it’s hard to imagine Woods ever getting into contention again. But it’s never wise to underestimate him! I think he’ll continue to pick and choose courses that may be best suited for him. And I was very encouraged to hear him talking about the Champions Tour in such a positive way. Seems crazy to think about, but senior events aren’t far off on his horizon.

It's quite the conundrum, no?  No one wants to let go of the Tiger era and I personally find that grind to make the cut one of the most profound pleasures of our game.  But the late-week DQs are accumulating, and that's not a great look.

Lucky Thirteen - I hope we'll get more data, but this was the Tc panel's take:

In the lead-up to the week, there was much speculation about the newly lengthened par-5 13th hole to which the club added 35 yards to protect the integrity of the design and better test the field. Mission accomplished?

Hirsh: Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. I’m not a rollback guy and I’m not a build-an-8,000-yard-golf-course guy, but what Augusta National did here was perfect. Guys were still hitting their tee shots in similar positions as last year, which means they were taking driver instead of 3-wood. I don’t think anyone got much closer than 190, which considering guys used to hit driver over the trees and then wedge in, is a win. Most guys ended up having around 210-240 yards, which is right in the range that makes it the “momentous decision” Jones and Roberts intended it to be. Overall the hole played easier than last year, but that’s more to do with the soft conditions than anything.

Sens: Agreed, Jack. With the wild weather, I’m not sure this week gave us the most accurate barometer of how they’ll attack this hole in the future, but the fact that we won’t likely be seeing 8-irons into the green anymore is a great thing.

Bastable: Fun fact for the haters: there were eight eagles on the 13th hole this week — two more than a year ago! But yeah, overall, I dig the change. Anytime you can make the world’s best golfers deliberate a bit more over a shot, that’s a win for us watching at home.

Marksbury: I think they got what they wanted. From home, I didn’t notice a difference in the level of excitement. There’s still plenty of drama on the back nine, with or without the added length on 13.

I think that's mostly right, but I'd like to know the eagle count for more than just last year, because six seems like a low-water mark.

What we hear is that the guys have trouble drawing the ball with their drivers these days, which only increases my admiration for that tee ball Rahm hit on this hole yesterday.  

Alas, I have to get on a call, so will wrap our preliminary Augusta musing here.  But we'll have much more to reflect on in the coming days, so please do check back early and often.

Masters Thursday - The Calm Before The Storm Edition

I saw more of the early featured group streaming than the later ESPN linear coverage, but it was their day to score.  Current forecast has this thing wrapping up early Wednesday morning, so buckle in.

The Leaders - That board is stacked, no?

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 at

the 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:

Now, if they'd paired that shirt with those pants...

Interestingly, no one seems to find it notable that Viktor shot his 65 paired with Tiger.  I'm old enough to remember when that was a thing... especially when it's the first time:

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.

Can we ignore that third guy on the lead?

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 major

championship 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:

Masters 2023: Tiger Woods looks gassed

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?

Let me rephrase.  Would you rather play early or Saturday?  Well, maybe not Saturday either:

I assume those are steady-state winds, and that it'll be gusting at 20+ mph.... 

Udder Stuff - I love the Masters and I'm guessing I'll be blogging it into the start of next week, but there were a couple of stories of greater import that have gotten lost in the shuffle.  First, Fred Ridley gave his State of the Masters presser on Wednesday, and seems to be inclined to be a team player as per this Eamon Lynch header:

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 take

effect — 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 federal

court, 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:

Lynch: A LIV win at the Masters would be a pain for the PGA Tour, but won’t save the Saudi circuit

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!