Masters Thursday - Go Time (Weather Permitting) Edition

In the most significant development in the golf world this week, The Wednesday Game™ resumed operations yesterday....  I know that because of how knackered I feel this morning.  Back nine fatigue most certainly affected my golf game, so we can only hope it doesn't similarly degrade my blogging.

I don't have a weather update, but we're within an hour of when the old guys were scheduled to kick things off.  It's a time for bold predictions, my first being that Jack will be in the middle of any photos of that honorary threesome.... I find it actually appropriate that in a game of gentlemen, we still can make room for Watson's antipathy for Gary Player.  It's human nature, even A Tradition Just Like Any Other....

The Chairman - Always of interest, this Masters tradition has assumed heightened importance in our turbulent times.  James Colgan sets the table:

There are a few laws of Augusta National.

The first is the simplest: Only the chairman speaks for the club, and the chairman only speaks once. That happens every Masters Wednesday, 11 a.m. local time, when the current chairman (Mr. Fred Ridley) walks into the hilariously ornate interview room at Augusta National and delivers remarks. The Chairman’s Press Conference is a tradition unto itself at the Masters, dating back to the days of club founder Clifford Roberts, and Ridley, dressed in a crisp green blazer, continued it Wednesday on a gray morning in Augusta.

If you weren’t listening closely, the press conference didn’t sound like much. In fact, you probably thought you’d witnessed Ridley employ the second law of Augusta National: do not, under any circumstances, reveal anything to the press. The chairman delivered his remarks in his typical staid drawl, kept his hair immaculately coiffed to its usual salt-and-pepper part, and politely avoided stepping on third rails with the practiced deftness of a skilled attorney (which, it turns out, he is).

True enough, although it's not quite right that they don't reveal anything.  Though they are cautious, which seems appropriate to their quasi-official status.  But see if you think Colgan is overly clever here:

For 40 minutes, the chairman dodged, filibustered, and sidestepped. On the topic of the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi PIF, he offered only that he hoped there would be a resolution with a “focus on the partners who pursue the values of golf.” On a potential LPGA event at Augusta National, he gently demurred that the club would “have to think long and hard to have another golf tournament.” Asked if the club would ever consider certain course changes, he quipped that “ever is a very long time.”

But if you were listening closely, you didn’t need Ridley to spell it out for you. You saw the dodges and the filibusters and the sidesteps and understood that they really meant something else. Which means you also understood the third law of Augusta National: The chairman’s answers tell us everything, even when they’re not answers at all.

I think he answered both cited questions reasonably.  In the case of the LPGA, it's a hard "No" and I also have no problem with how he dispensed with that other quite ill-formed query.

For instance, James, any quibbles here?

Take, for example, Ridley’s stance on the distance explosion in professional golf. For the first

time on Wednesday, Ridley announced that Augusta National will support the USGA and R&A’s decision to roll back the golf ball to shorten the length of drives by as much as five percent. The news is momentous — all but ensuring the rule change will survive challenges from golf’s equipment manufacturers and some of its players — but how the chairman announced it was equally important.

“Adding distance to the Augusta National golf course has become standard operation over the past two decades,” he said, delivering the setup for a bone-dry punchline. “I’ve said in the past that I hope we will not play the Masters … at 8,000 yards.”

Ridley would circle back to the 8,000-yard comment only once throughout the presser — saying that 8,000 yards is a “red line” for the club if it hopes to continue hosting the Masters in a manner that maintains the course’s historic challenge — but he would apply the same subtlety liberally across almost every question he faced.

My quibble would be with James' use of "For the first time", since last year Ridley expressed support for the then-pending proposal from the governing bodies.

Via Geoff, here's more from Fred on this subject, to me the most important topic he addressed:

On how the USGA and R&A change in testing procedures to curb distance might impact the Masters. “Assuming that these regulations are adopted by the PGA Tour and the other tours, and I certainly hope they will be, I think were they not adopted it would cause a great deal of stress in the game, which it doesn't need right now.”

On the distance decision and future course changes. “If you use 5 percent as an approximate number, a player hitting it 320 yards is going to lose 16 yards. So that's not insignificant. What we found, though, over the years is that we lengthen the golf course, everybody says it's really long, and then two or three years later it's not so really long. So my guess is that even when this change is implemented that maybe other aspects of technology that are within the rules and the physicality and ability, technical ability of the players will catch up.

On whether a “rollback” might mean adjustments. “I don't believe that we will start building new tees closer to the greens. It's a possibility, I suppose, but I doubt it. Particularly since this is not going to be implemented for quite some time.”

On adding more tees. “We have some more room, but we don't have a lot. So I'm holding to that 8,000-yard red line, and I just hope we never get there.”

Never is a long time, Fred.

The reason I place such importance here is because of the3 club's critical third vote in this debate.  Obviously the USGA and R&A will play their Opens under any new equipment regulations.  With the Masters conforming, it becomes inconceivable that the PGA of America wouldn't also conform, leaving us to wonder about the spoiled brats of the PGA Tour.  You'd think they'd have little choice but to go along, but then you look a who is actually calling the shots there these days.....  

I thought he handled the OWGR issue reasonably well, though how you heard it likely depends upon where you sit:

On giving exemptions for season-long play to the LIV league. “I think it will be difficult to establish any type of point system that had any connection to the rest of the world of golf because they're basically, not totally, but for the most part a closed shop…but I don't think that that prevents us from giving subjective consideration based on talent, based on performance to those players.”

Performance, Fred?  You sure you want to go there?

And this nagging but silly question:

On holding another event for the world’s best women. “We really have a limited period of time we could play any additional event. We close in the third week of May. Then you add the element of something that was brought up I think in the first question about sort of the mystique and the magic. And we need to make sure that we really respect the mystique and the magic of the Masters. So we would have to think long and hard to have another golf tournament.”

He's exactly right, but where is Talor Gooch when I need an asterisk.  I'd feel much better about his being correct if he hadn't unnecessarily destroyed the LPGA event that had the most similar mystique.

There's quite a bit more at both linked pieces, so have at it....

An Homage - We love our Masters traditions, of course with the exception of the pimento cheese sandwich, but did you ever wonder how it originated?

The Augusta Chronicle’s Doug Stutsman highlighted a nice and long overdue acknowledgement. During Tuesday’s practice round Canadians Corey Conners and Mike Weir invited countryman

Gary Cowan in to hit a “Skip It” shot. Cowan is believed to be the originator of the now traditional practice round habit of players to heed the calls of patrons to send a ball atop the 16th hole pond.

Ben Crenshaw and Cowan were playing a practice round 52 years ago when Cowan was playing as the reigning U.S. Amateur champion. Upon reaching the 16th tee Cowan turned to Crenshaw and said, “watch this.” He skipped a 3-iron across the pond and onto dry land, before daring Crenshaw to do the same.

“Ben couldn’t believe what I was doing,” said Cowan in reflecting on 1972 to the Augusta Chronicle.

And on Tuesday, two-time U.S. Amateur winner Cowan returned to repeat a trick shot that now is a staple of the tournament and the subject of merchandise offerings.

Stutsman considered the various players who claim to be responsible for the tradition. But this one belongs to Cowan.

LIV Bits -  The defending champion has always been a mixed bag.  His reverence for the game and its history seems genuine, but where is that damn asterisk when I need it?  I suggest you disable your BS Detector for this rationalization:

In an interview published by the BBC on Monday, Rahm said he thought his signing could be a

"tipping point" with other big-name players signing with LIV. In the Augusta National interview room on Tuesday, he was asked if part of his motivation for leaving the PGA Tour also was to attempt to bring the game together, and whether or not he expected more movement on that front by now.

"I understood my position, yes," he said. "And I understood that it could be, what I hoped, a step towards some kind of agreement, yes. Or more of an agreement or expedited agreement.

"But, unfortunately, it's not up to me. But I would hope it would be something that would help expedite that process. But at the end of the day, I still did what I thought was best for myself."

So you just did it for the good of the game?  Because, yanno, there's a perception that you cashed a big honking check, but I'm glad it wasn't about the money.

At least dinner Tuesday seems to have come off well:

On what would’ve been the 67th birthday of Seve Ballesteros, the table of 33 champions welcomed its newest member — Jon Rahm — before flooding the room with memories of Augusta’s first European victor.

“It was a great night; an emotional night,” said Larry Mize, the 1987 winner. “Ben (Crenshaw) made sure that tonight was all about Jon, Seve and Jackie Burke.”

Rahm sat at the head of the table, side-by-side with Ben Crenshaw, marking the first time a LIV golfer played host to the dinner.

And even though the narrative of PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf remains heated to some, for one night, the sides united.

“We’re a fraternity,” said Crenshaw, who emcees the annual supper.

Added Charles Coody: “It couldn’t have been more congenial. Even Tom Watson at the very end of dinner, he stood from his chair and said how happy he was to see the camaraderie within our group. It was a wonderful night.”

Not exactly sure what Coody meant about "Even Tom Watson", but whatev....

Adam Schupak has a Sergio v. Fred cage match on this subject, though it's quite as incendiary as we might hope.  Fred has done himself no favors with some of his comments in recent times, Cam Young is still awaiting his invite to the Ryder Cup in Rome, for instance.  His comments here are more measured:

Couples, winner of the Masters in 1992, has been unafraid to voice his displeasure with LIV and

the players who left the Tour he’s called home for more than 40 years.

“I don’t think I’ll ever understand it. Maybe I’ll go to one and see what it’s really, really like. I know how great they are as players. I get it all, and I get the 54 holes and you drive a cart to your tee and shotgun. That’s easy to pick on. Sometimes I’ve picked on comments that people have made, and I’ve picked on comments that they talk about the Tour, which I’ve said I have now 44 years invested in, and I don’t want anyone picking on a tour that I think is very good,” he said. “Now, everything can get better, but let me tell you, if the LIV Tour is better for golf, I’m missing something there. But again, I’m not here to bash them anymore. I’m going to see them all tonight (at the Champions Dinner)…I love DJ. I love Brooks (who won’t be at the winners-only affair). I don’t know if they even comment on the LIV Tour. They just play golf. So please don’t tell me the LIV Tour is as good as the PGA Tour. I don’t want to hear it.”

Fair enough, although it's strange that the Tour's reaction to LIV never included criticisms of the field size and shotgun starts, which we now know ids because its elite players want similarly tiny fields.   

But it's Sergio that is most interesting here, and Schupak doesn't let him off the hook (saving me the trouble of doing so):

To Garcia, who defected to LIV Golf and gave up his PGA Tour and DP World Tour membership, the media is to blame for making a story about the fracture in the professional game and the bad blood that exists.

“I mean, you guys love these things. You keep building up these things, and there’s nothing. There’s nothing,” he said. “You guys love to kind of dig and just kind of try to make it sound like we get in the locker room and we’re fighting each other and stuff like that. It’s not like that. At the end of the day, it’s golf. We’re all trying to play the best way we can, and that’s it.”

He's always been a mature statesman of the game for sure.  Except, yanno, when he's not:

Garcia’s comments don’t pass the smell test. For starters, he and McIlroy had a very public fallout of their friendship, which has since been ironed out, and Garcia also was reported to have gone on an expletive-laden rant at the 2022 BMW International Open Germany when he was fined and suspended by the European circuit.

Robert MacIntyre, who reportedly witnessed the Garcia’s tantrum tweeted, “Amazing how fast you can lose respect for someone that you’ve looked up to all your life.”

Oh, Adam, that's the least of it, although I suspect you were under a word limit.... This is a man that spits in cups and damages greens...

But then he adds this, which is great if you think he really believes it:

But Garcia did make one point that showed he has at least an ounce of self-awareness: “People have to realize one thing, that the future of the game – we’re not the future of the game. Neither me or Rory, no, we’re not the future. We’re the present of the game, but the future of the game is those kids that are watching us play, that want to get into the game, that want to play, and then maybe become professionals. I think that’s what sometimes people forget.”

I have my issues with Rory these days, but those two names don't belong in the same sentence.

Who Ya Got? -  Don't have much for you here, as everyone has the same guy.  Here's a sampling from ESPN:

Matt Barrie

Winner -- Hideki Matsuyama: I get it. It's Scottie Scheffler vs. the field. But what fun would that be? Matsuyama knows how to win at Augusta (2021), and he's finally healthy again. He comes to the Masters in form. A winner at Genesis, followed by finishing T12, T6, T7.

Tory Barron

Winner -- Brooks Koepka: Eat, sleep, win majors. Koepka should have received a nice confidence boost (not that he needed one) after last year's second-place finish in Augusta. "Big-game Brooks," who has finished in the top 11 in each of his past four Masters starts in which he was healthy, is going to do what he does best and take home his sixth major title.

Elizabeth Baugh

Winner -- Rory McIlroy: Never mind that he missed the cut last year -- it's impossible to rule out the No. 2 golfer in the world. This year there's added pressure of this being his 10th attempt to complete the career Grand Slam. On top of that, he'll be playing with a competitive grouping of Scheffler and Xander Schauffele. The stage is set for him to lock in and finally get the elusive green jacket.

Michael Collins

Winner -- Scottie Scheffler: I know this seems like a blasphemous thing to say, but Scheffler can win with his B game. We haven't seen odds this low or ball striking this good since Tiger Woods. I just don't know how you bet against him at the start of any tournament he plays in.

Jeff Darlington

Winner -- Ludvig Åberg: He's too good to call him a long shot -- and he's too inexperienced to consider him a favorite -- but Aberg seems like he was built for these big moments. Maybe it's a premature point to pick him, but I'd rather be on this bandwagon too early than too late.

Michael Eaves

Winner -- Brooks Koepka: I get the impression that Koepka is still mad that he didn't finish the job here last year, and a mad Brooks Koepka is a motivated Brooks Koepka. Oh yeah, by the way, he owns a career average score-to-par of minus-0.39 per major round, best in the Masters era among players with 100 major rounds. The majors are his thing, and wants this one even more now.

Peter Lawrence-Riddell

Winner -- Jon Rahm: The first repeat winner since Tiger Woods in 2002? It's a little harder to pick Rahm since he hasn't played a ton of competitive golf this year after moving to LIV Golf. But as Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed showed last year, there are going to be LIV players in the mix this week, and Rahm is the best of that bunch.

Andy North

Winner -- Scottie Scheffler: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. How can you not pick him?

Laura Rutledge

Winner -- Scottie Scheffler: I'm going to go out on a real limb here and pick Scottie Scheffler. He has been so dominant even when he hasn't played his best. He is as sure a bet as you'll find right now when it comes to major contenders, so I can't pick against him.

Mark Schlabach

Winner -- Scottie Scheffler: I've already written that Scheffler would win by 4 strokes if he's even an average putter this week. I think his new mallet putter gets hot, and he wins a second green jacket by 5. It might not be a daring pick or very original, but you're supposed to pick the golfer who's going to win. Scheffler's stellar ball striking and magical hands around the greens will help him win his second major.

Curtis Strange

Winner -- Scottie Scheffler: I always like to pick the less-obvious favorite, but I think I'm smart enough to pick Scheffler this year.

Paolo Uggetti

Winner -- Brooks Koepka: While Koepka doesn't arrive at this year's Masters with a recent LIV Golf victory under his belt, there is a sense of inevitability with him when it comes to major championships that remains -- just look at what happened at Oak Hill. Last year, Koepka had a real shot at securing a green jacket and let it slip away. This year, he won't.

Scott Van Pelt

Winner -- Scottie Scheffler: Scheffler because when he's on the first page Sunday and you didn't pick him, you're going to ask yourself, "Why didn't I pick him?"

Is this Scheffler guy good or something?

Which, according to this, is a problem:

Masters 2024: Golf has a Scottie Scheffler problem

Golf has a Scottie Scheffler problem. So what if he’s posting Tiger-like numbers, or one of the few stars who has shined in a year plagued by power outages. That his cool, unruffled nature is a welcome diversion from the sport’s melodrama. He is as unproblematic as it gets, and that’s a problem, because golf mistakenly thinks Scottie Scheffler is boring.

Which is ridiculous. Waiting, lag putts, laying up; there are a lot of boring things in golf, including, at times, golf. What Scheffler is doing is far from dull. Eighteen top-10s in his previous 24 starts, highlighted by two wins and a runner-up in his last three appearances. First in strokes gained overall, SG/tee-to-green and approach, and in scoring average. Back-to-back Player of the Year honors and looking like a good bet for three in a row. For the last decade, golf has wondered when, if ever, it would see another dominant performer, and now such a man is on stage and the game is unable to see him.

I think the only Scheffler problem will be if his wife goes into labor....

Maybe just some sleeper picks to ponder:

Sleeper pick: Grayson Murray, +40,000. Grayson has won this year, and drives it well. Looking at his most recent results, he closed out the Players with a Sunday 64, and considering his odds, I think this is a great little pick.

That's certainly out there....

Sleeper pick: Rickie Fowler, +8,000. He hasn’t played great this year, and you might be surprised to learn this is his first Masters in four years, but he’s always played well at Augusta (five top-12 finishes) and maybe, just maybe, someday he’s going to win the big one. Logic says it might be on a course he’s got more familiarity with than about three-fourths of the field. (Sleeper pick runner-up: Russell Henley.)

Rickie took himself out of contention yesterday.  Shoulda rinsed a couple on No. 9....  But do we allow runner-up sleeper picks?

Sleeper pick: Byeong Hun An, +15,000. Not only has he been playing some great golf this season, but his game is a great fit for Augusta. Absolutely bombs the ball off the tee and has the short game to work with the slopes around Augusta. If he has an above-average putting week, he will have a chance. Si Woo Kim (+10,000) is another intriguing option. He’s played well to start the year, posting elite approach and around the green numbers. He could improve his chances by snapping the putter and moving to the 3-wood earlier in the week this time.

Also taking two bites of the apple...

Sleeper pick: Nicolai Hojgaard, +15,000. A rising Ryder Cupper at 150-1? Sign me up. Nicolai’s got ball-striking prowess for days and, most importantly, the spunk to show up at Augusta National and genuinely believe he’ll leave with a green jacket. For six times the odds of fellow Masters rookie Ludvig Aberg, I like it. And if you’re looking for comatose sleepers? Look no further than Adrian Meronk.

Not just a sleeper, but a comatose version thereof..... A little redundant for my taste.

Sleeper pick: Erik van Rooyen, +15,000. He may be available at this price because he’s been so bad in major championships. But he’s a different player now! For bonus picks, gimme Stephan Jaeger and Si Woo Kim (both at 100-1), Ben An (150-1) plus Harris English (125-1) and let’s throw some darts.

I like this one, but only if he's regrown the porn 'stache.

Sleeper pick: Gary Woodland, +25,000. I know, Woodland’s still working his way back after having major surgery to remove a brain lesion last August, but isn’t Augusta where magic happens? There wouldn’t be a better story than to see the 39-year-old shock the golf world by earning his first-ever green jacket, so I’m here for it. Plus, he’s already a major champ — having won the 2019 U.S. Open — and he had his best-ever finish at the Masters last year (T14), so give me this and let’s all remember why we love the game of golf so much.

Nice guy, but hasn't shown any form since returning.

Sleeper pick: Nick Dunlap, +25,000. Remember all the noise amateur Sam Bennett made last year at Augusta? Well, while Dunlap isn’t an amateur any longer, he and Bennett are the most recent U.S. Am champions — and I like this prodigious newcomer to play his way into the final group, just like Bennett did last year. For many who’ve watched Dunlap’s meteoric rise from college sophomore to PGA Tour winner in the past few months, it’s not a question of if Dunlap wins a green jacket, but when.

He's an intriguing young talent, yet his green jacket still seems far short of inevitable to this observer.

Sleeper pick: Keegan Bradley, +17,500!!!!!!! These odds are just silly. Criminal. They’re worse than Tiger’s or Phil’s (125-1). As disrespectful as leaving him off the Ryder Cup team would have been. Oh, that happened? Keegs is going to be eager to prove himself as a major champ once again. He had a good January with a playoff loss at Sony and a T11 at Pebble. Though, these odds are probably a product of missing three out of his past four cuts. While he never has recorded a top-10 at the Masters, he’s also missed the cut only once in seven tries.

I could see Keegan winning another major, maybe.  It seems unlikely that it would be this one, though.

Sleeper pick: Si Woo Kim, +10,000. Heading into last week’s Texas Open, Kim was third in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green on the PGA Tour. I like that. Just needs a hot putter for four days.

There's about thirty guys in the field that could win with a hot putter for four days.  Thing is, all of those superior ball-strikers are sleepers because their putter don't heat up all that often...

I am going to leave you here.  They've announced a 9:30 start to play, so we should have a reasonably full day of play.  Enjoy.

Masters Tuesday - Eclipsing In That Amen Corner

I don't have an abundance of time, as I need o free up my afternoon to take advantage of today's balmy weather.... Perhaps "need" isn't quite the right term...

Once In A Lifetime - Forget that garden gnome, the Lords of Augusta are still pretty deft, as Geoff explains:

The big moon-blocks sun duel felt like a bit of an “eh” moment at Augusta National. Standards are high here. And with so many practice round patrons making their first visit, they were understandably far more enthralled by the course, landscape and overall experience.

Down at Amen Corner when 76% “obscuration” occurred, a solid five-minute window of zero wind did seem noteworthy. The expected darkness felt more like a light layer of smog given the beige tint and soft light. And for those wondering if squirrels started appearing and red birds stopped singing? No luck. But two Canada geese did sit on the Rae’s Creek bank until the weirdness ended.

Patrons could view through Masters-branded eclipse glasses featuring detailed instructions that would have made Clifford Roberts proud. And they will prove to be charming one-off keepsake given that this is the last April eclipse of our lifetimes.

I'd actually like to have seen those instructions, but can't find them even with Mr. Google's assistance.  But 76% is quite disappointing, so it's good they played on (unlike my Yankees, although that time change seems to have worked out).

Of course, with the gnome long out-of-stock, folks have to hoard something:

A Tiger Sighting - Not quite as rare as a Nessie sighting, but the dead-enders will be over-interpreting this for sure:

The patrons who set 4 a.m. wake up calls to be the first on site received a pleasant surprise with the early 10th tee twosome featuring Tiger Woods and Will Zalatoris. For a surprisingly long

time, they were the only players on the course. Woods gave the early faithful some entertainment with an approach on No. 11 to within five feet, a mere 10 feet on the 12th and reached the 13th with a long iron that created the first roar of 2024. The five-time champion hit several pitches and long putts on every green and looked fully engaged walking alongside new looper Lance Bennett.

“He played great today,” said Zalatoris. “He outdrove me a couple times so there was some chirping going on. He looks great. He's moving as well as he can be.”

Woods’ gait looked smooth and he even inquired about Zalatoris’ putter. Oh to have a thought bubble…

Only chirping?  To paraphrase Elain Benes, I guess Will is deemed to not be tampon worthy....

Everybody Talks About The Weather.... -  It's a really good forecast for the week, with just the one exception:

I didn't know Accuweather buried ledes, but those "couple of showers" seem less important than that which follows...  We may not see any golf on Thursday, and it sounds like the kind of day on which they will not allow spectators on the grounds.

Golf In The Time Of LIV - Some disparate bits loosely related to our bifurcated game, beginning with this curious item (or perhaps it's only the header):

What LIV Golf and the Masters share in common

Ummm....thirteen players?  That is, assuming they remember to bring their golf pants with them.

Perhaps you should read the whole thing so that you can tell me what the authro's point is, except for the blindingly obvious bit that those thirteen guys playing in Miami were focused on the bigger event the following week:

There were a bunch of flights from Miami to Augusta on Sunday, some you could actually get on.

Southwest had a 3:45 p.m. departure with various golf hands on it, people who didn’t need to witness the shotgun end to the LIV event at Trump Doral on Sunday evening. Delta had an 8:50 p.m. flight. And then there were those flying, as the jet-rich like to say, “private.” Phil on one plane, Dustin on another, Sergio on his own, to cite three former Masters winners. LIV Golf doesn’t do that all-aboard flight thing anymore. It did, early on — party at 30,000 feet! — but that was then. Guys want to do their own thing. Golfers always have been that way, unless you’re on a Ryder Cup team, or the RangeGoats.

We’ll save the CO2 emissions analysis of all this private-jet travel for another time. LIV Golf, the PGA Tour, Augusta National in all its greenery — studies in conservation these are not.

The point for now is that Augusta was in the air all through the LIV event here. Jon Rahm, your reigning Masters champion, tied for fourth at Doral. That paid $833,333. Wheels up when he says so.

Yes, the Range Goats are just like the Ryder Cup, as Talor Gooch famously said way back when.  Though I'm kind of surprised they're so invested in the Masters, despite the inevitable asterisk with which the champion will be burdened.

Amusingly, there is one similarity that the author completely whiffed on.  Both have absurdly small fields, something I've been ranting about since 2014.

This nest one seems like more of the same:

Tiger Woods? Fred Couples? LIV Golf? Will the 2024 Masters offer clarity?

How are they looking in the golf landscape? It’s divided-golf season three, and the Masters is serving as a barometer in a way. In 2022, LIV Golf, the upstart, was two months away from kicking off a feud with the PGA Tour, the established brand, but there was talk. Tension. Then, Phil Mickelson, a three-time green jacket winner, missed the event, after comments involving the league. Last year, there was curiosity. There was commingling of PGA Tour stars and LIV stars, and there were some double-takes Ooh, look, there’s Rory McIlroy talking to Brooks Koepka — or more accurately, there’s the PGA Tour’s Rory McIlroy talking to LIV Golf’s Brooks Koepka. Ooh, look there’s a logo from the Fireballs, one of the LIV Golf teams. Weird, right? Maybe, maybe not.

And this year at ANGC? After 10 months of bargaining on a proposed funding deal between the Tour and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, the backer of LIV?

Is it acceptance? Frustration? Is it nothing at all? What will Augusta chairman Fred Ridley say on the matter in his annual state of the union comments? Will he push for a deal? Or won’t he? Will LIVers have a path to future Masters tournaments? Or won’t they? Will what he and Augusta National say influence others?

All good questions, and as we scene-set for the Masters that starts Thursday, we’ll begin there. It’ll be one of the items to watch this week. As of now, the pros on each side are coming together just at the majors, and there are but only four of those.

Actually, they're rather lame questions, the more so given that the author is supposed to be providing answers thereto.

I am interested in what Chairman Ridley might say, but more so on the proposed change to the golf ball.  Not sure what he can add on LIV at this juncture, excepting for the standard wishful thinking.

Lastly, the most amusing aspect of the LIV v. PGA cage match is listening to the LIVsters shoot their mouths off.  First it was Brooksie telling us he never would have jumped had he though he could stay healthy, now it's this guy shooting his tour in the foot:

It was to be a sticking point for Jon Rahm as he mulled whether to make the jump from the PGA Tour to the LIV Golf League late last year. In the end, the fact that LIV events were just 54 holes,

and included shotgun starts, didn’t keep the Masters champion from making the move and signing a reported $350 million deal with the upstart circuit, but it’s something he hopes might still change in the future.

“I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but I definitely wouldn’t mind going back to 72 holes,” Rahm said in an interview with the BBC ahead of his title defense at Augusta National.

Previously, when Rahm had been asked about LIV Golf events, he had lamented the format as taking away from the competitiveness of tournaments. Rahm notes that the tradition of 72-hole events created a legitimacy that LIV events would be lacking.

But Jon, how is LXXII pronounced?   Awkward, no?

Not sure about this logic:

While that sentiment seems to remain, Rahm now contends that expanding to 72 holes might also increase the potential that the PGA Tour and LIV’s financial backers, Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, might reach an agreement and unite the two groups so that the game’s best players would compete again on a regular basis beyond the four men’s majors.

“If there ever was a way where LIV could go to 72 holes, I think it would help all of this argument a lot,” Rahm said. “The closer I think we can get LIV Golf to some other things the better. I think it would be for some kind of unification to feed into a world tour or something like that.”

My take is that Rahm jumped assuming the June 6th announcement was a done deal, and now he has to hang out with PReed and Poults.... 

OK, I lied..... that "Lastly" above was premature, as Eamon Lynch is in the building:

Lynch: Call for unity rings hollow from people who divided golf for their own greed

I'm guessing he'll name names:

Adlai Stevenson described Richard Nixon as the kind of man who would cut down a tree then

mount the stump to deliver a speech on conservation, so one wonders what he’d say of Bryson DeChambeau, one of the arsonists who set golf’s house on fire and who is now complaining that others aren’t moving quickly enough to extinguish the blaze.

At last week’s LIV tournament in Miami, DeChambeau demanded reconciliation in a sport that’s been bitterly divided by things like the now-withdrawn antitrust litigation filed by, um, Bryson DeChambeau. “We can’t keep going this direction,” he said. “It needs to happen fast. It’s not a two-year thing. Like, it needs to happen quicker rather than later just for the good of the sport. Too many people are losing interest.”

One assumes he means people are losing interest in the PGA Tour’s product, unless LIV’s turnstile numbers have plummeted from the hundreds to the tens.

That lede is pretty damn amusing in a golf context, given that no one is cutting down more trees these days than golf courses....

This is similar to the comments cited above, with which the LIVsters seem unhappy with their lot in life, at least now that the checks have cleared.  But Eamon makes another point, to wit, that many of these guys are on the clock:

DeChambeau’s win at the 2020 U.S. Open earned him a 10-year exemption to that major and five years’ worth of free passes to the other three. His eligibility for the Masters, PGA Championship and the Open expires in 2025, so unless he earns a place in the field by other means – or the qualification criteria is rewritten – DeChambeau will be boxed out of three-quarters of the events that matter most. No wonder he insists that reaching a deal is a matter of urgency, that it can’t be a drawn out process for a couple of years. All for the good of the game and the fans, you understand.

They believe that they will be spared any consequences, just because they're so damn special.  There's a further issue that some of those early LIV deals will be lapsing, which could get interesting...But the idea of Bryson missing majors is less than devastating, no? 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes - The most substantive change this year is to the 2nd hole, a seemingly minor tweak to the tee:

The hole, named Pink Dogwood, was already the longest on the course, and will now play 585 yards — a 10-yard increase of its former length. Augusta National’s total yardage for the Masters now stretches to 7,555 yards. In the history of the Masters tournament, the second hole has played as the second-easiest, surpassed only by the 13th, a 545-yard par-5.

The new teeing area appears to be pushed as far back and left as possible. The hole plays as a downhill dogleg left and has long been regarded as a great birdie opportunity, even for shorter hitters. This is the first time the club has made changes to the second hole since 1999, when Tom Fazio added a new back tee moved the right fairway bunker even farther to the right.

At first glance, the tee shot looks like it could prove to be more challenging from the new starting point, but after playing the hole on a recent scouting trip, Rory McIlroy said the change is relatively minor.

“I thought it was going to be a different visual than it used to be, but it’s — I thought whenever someone said they moved it back and to the left, I thought the tee box was going to point you out towards that right bunker and you’re going to have to hit more of a draw around the corner,” McIlroy said ahead of last week’s Valero Texas Open. “I mean, if you didn’t know, you would think you were on the same tee box, it doesn’t look that much different. You can still see left of the bunker and I thought it was really going to force you to hit some sort of draw shot around the corner, but you can still hit a straight away shot and keep it left of the trap. It’s not as drastic of a change as I thought it was going to be.”

The funny bit?  In an article about this new tee box the accompanying photo is of......  wait for it....the green.

The Jones Boy - A couple f Bobby Jones item, including this bit on a curious aspect of Jones' participation in those early Augusta National Invitationals:

The prevailing narrative of Bobby Jones is that following his historic 1930 Grand Slam, winning

all four of golf’s then-major championships, he retired from competitive golf and preserved his status as a lifelong amateur.

However, that is a myth, says David Owen, Augusta National’s leading historian, who notes that not only did Bobby Jones compete in the Masters 12 times, he (arguably) competed as a professional.

Owen asserts that Jones’ decision to retire was more so about his desire to accept two very lucrative deals, one with Spalding to endorse golf clubs and the other with Warner Brothers to make instructional films. (Our Luke Kerr-Dineen recently unearthed these instructional videos and broke down what we can learn.) The problem is that after accepting these offers, the USGA ruled that Jones was now a professional, Owen says.

“Jones had a real visceral dislike for professionals,” Owen told Golf Digest+ members during our Happy Hour. “At the time at golf tournaments, they would speak of gentlemen and players. The gentlemen were the amateurs, and the players were the professionals. … Jones was snobbish about that. He would not compete as a professional.”

This is its own interesting story, as the USGA has a bit of a history of tormenting amateurs, which also ensnared Frances Ouimet.  That said, Jones was clearly pushing the limits here.

Here's another little know fact, that Jones really wanted a U.S. Open for his new club:

The issue in 1933, however, was that Augusta National Golf Club, co-founded by Jones and Clifford Roberts, was in serious financial trouble and having difficulty signing up any members. After failing in a bid to have Augusta National host the 1934 U.S. Open, Jones and Roberts decided to create their own tournament, the Augusta National Invitation Tournament (later called the Masters).

Ironic, to say the least, because of the extent to which the USGA covets the Masters' popularity, which was the driving force behind the deal with Fox.  There likely wouldn't have been this upstart competitor had they gone South with the Open.

Also not widely understood is how close the fledgling club was to failure given that it opened during the Great Depression:

How could the club market a top tournament if their co-founder and the game’s greatest star didn’t play? If the tournament was to be a success, it needed Jones. As Owen writes in his book, “The Making of the Maters,” “No Jones, no tournament, no club."

Yet if Jones were to play in the Masters, he would need to play as a professional, seeing as his income in 1933 was over $100,000, much of which related to his endorsement deals. For reference, Paul Runyan, who won nine events that year and led the money list, had earned less than $6,500 in tournament earnings, Owen notes in his book.

That wonderful photo of Jones putting at the '34 Masters includes the eventual champion, Horton Smith, watching him.

Even his loyal muse didn't quite buy his arguments:

Jones eventually agreed to play in the inaugural Augusta National Invitation Tournament in 1934. The loophole? The club would avoid making any distinction between amateurs or professionals in the tournament programs, pairing sheets, etc.

Jones finished T-13 in the 1934 tournament, which would have earned him low amateur honors, except for the hidden fact that he wasn’t an amateur.

“Even O.B. Keeler, who had built his sports writing career by celebrating Jones’ amateur achievements, took it for granted that Jones was now a pro,” Owen writes in his book. “He describes Charles Yates, who finished three strokes behind him [Jones] in the inaugural tournament, as the low amateur.”

This is a wonderful piece, but you should really read Owen's book if it's of interest.  I can promise you you'll learn much that you didn't know.  To the modern observer, the Masters seems like it must have been preordained, but is in fact one of life's happy accidents.

I'll leave you with this wonderful video of himself playing the 12th hole:

Bobby Jones playing the 12th hole in the 1937 Masters pic.twitter.com/MsOI6yhasX

— Simon Haines (@Hainesy76) March 28, 2024

What, you thought Freddy was the first to leave a ball on that bank?

Is this a great week, or what?  More to come as the week plays out. 

Weekend Wrap - Total Eclipse Edition

I didn't intend to ghost you all last week, though I did at least provide a warning.  The intention was to blog on Thursday, but that violent Wednesday storm left us without TV and Internet most of Thursday morning.  I would have caught up on Friday, but my brother, nephew and I were lucky enough to be attending Opening Day in the Bronx, which included a shockingly early departure time to accommodate MetroNorth's convoluted service to 161st Street.

So, what would you like to talk about.  The weekend golf exceeded low expectations, but there is that little event that begins on Thursday....

Plus One - I watched a bit more of that final round than expected, as Denny McCarthy will rue the mess he made of the 11th hole.  Just a little blogger humor there, kids, as his par there was easily his worst hole in that back nine 28:

Bhatia finished off one of the most impressive and improbable wire-to-wire victories in recent memory, fending off a heroic charge by runner-up Denny McCarthy on Sunday afternoon, and finding his way into the winner’s circle at the TPC San Antonio Oaks Course.

McCarthy forced a playoff with an incredible string of eight birdies over the final nine holes, and after he buried a seventh straight birdie putt on 18, it appeared he might be poised for his first PGA Tour victory.

Bhatia responded with a huge birdie putt of his own on the tournament’s 72nd hole, and then watched as McCarthy made a surprising and fatal mistake by chunking a wedge from 99 yards out on the playoff hole — and splashing it into a creek.

Am I the only one that thinks Akshay sounds like Pig Latin....Yanno, Ixnay and Amscray the Akshay... OK, maybe that's not important now.

We left for dinner before they putted on the 72nd hole, but I did feel like I needed to root for Bhatia when I learned that McCarthy was already in the Masters, but Ashkay needed the "W" to qualify.

There were a couple of odd bits, most notably this:

Despite being four-under for the day as he played the 72nd after starting the day with a four-shot lead, Bhatia could only watch as Denny McCarthy erased his once six-shot lead with a back nine

28 at the Valero Texas Open, draining the last of seven straight birdies on the 18th green.

While Bhatia said he had run through all the possible scenarios, but there was no way he could have foreseen what happened next.

He calmly stepped up and drained a 12-footer to match McCarthy at 20 under with a Sunday 67, but apparently injured his shoulder in celebration.

As Bhatia walked up to his third after laying up on the first playoff hole, his trainer pulled him away from cameras to tend to the shoulder, which Bhatia said had “popped out” during his 72nd-green celebration.

“This shoulder I’ve had some issues with and yeah, when I made that putt and I kind of raised my arm, it kind of came out of socket and went back in,” Bhatia said.

No idea what that's like, since you actually have to make a putt to experience it, but so much for our game being a non-contact sport.

As for the runner up, better methinks to just say you chunked it:

Bhatia returned from treatment and stuffed his wedge shot to five feet to put the tournament on ice. But McCarthy will go on to rue his approach shot. He explained the distraction that may have caused it to reporters afterward.

“Wish I could have had that wedge shot back there,” McCarthy said. “I backed off a couple times. There was a bug on my ball and some noise in the stands and a bug jumped back on my ball. I probably should have backed away again, but I thought I could kind of not let it distract me and maybe it did a little.”

Was it the bug that cost McCarthy the $1.656 million first-place prize (he still takes home more than $1 million for runner-up)? Who’s to say for sure?

Will McCarthy back off the next time a bug flies on his ball? Most likely.

“Maybe a learning experience for me,” he said.

I hope that bug learned a valuable lesson, but geez.  Those mental coaches sure have their work cut out for them....

Woad Is Us -  Quite the finish on Saturday at Augusta National:

After USC’s Bailey Shoemaker posted a course-record 6-under 66 to take the clubhouse lead at 7

under, Woad birdied three of the last four holes to overtake her. Woad joined Arnold Palmer in 1960 and Mark O’Meara in 1998 as champions at Augusta National Golf Club who birdied their final two holes to win by one shot.

“I was hoping it was going to be like a nice, stress-free day,” said Woad, “but it was far from that. In the end, it’s a cooler way to finish.”

Woad had English national coach Steve Robinson on the bag, and the pair put together a meticulous plan to attack the final round. They knew which hole locations they wanted to play short, and which ones were better to be long. With Woad’s magnificent approach play all week, most of the time, things went according to plan.

The mess of a bogey on the par-5 13th, however, proved an exception. Robinson gave her a pep talk after that hole and again on the 14th, though he wouldn’t divulge what was said.

It was an interesting situation because Shoemaker finished before Woad got to those two Par-5's.  Woad had a Simpsonian mid-round walkabout, including that dreadful bogey on No. 13.  The key bit was when Woad made a mess of No. 14, and faced a long par putt to keep her hopes alive.  

I still have tremendously mixed feelings about this event, though I'm reliably informed that bemoaning the demise of the Dinah Shore caused by Augusta National is no longer fruitful.  But, if you're going to brand this as the Augusta National Women's Amateur, shouldn't the event actually be played there?  Just askin'...

But let me throw in an especially stupid bit from this week's Tour Confidential, which is predictably a Masters preview version thereof.  Here's the query:

This is the one time a year we get to hear from ANGC chairman Fred Ridley. Lots has changed since last year; what are you most hoping we get his thoughts on? Or, better yet, what’s the one question you want to ask him?

Which elicited this profoundly silly answer from Ryan Barath:

Barath: I hope he talks about how the men’s professional game can be brought back together, and encourages both sides to come to an agreement. As for a question, I would ask “With Augusta National now hosting a women’s amateur event, along with the Masters, does he ever envision a time in the near future when professional women will have their own event held at Augusta National?”

NEVER.  And appropriately so.... 

As maddening as it is that they insisted on big-footing the Dinah, it was entirely appropriate that, when they decided to do something for the distaff set, that they opted to support it at the amateur level.  This is actually a way of growing the game, as is ANGC's support of men's amateur events, and has the added benefit of adhering to the history of the club and a certain Mr. Jones.  

The irony is that the event they destroyed, was the Women's Masters.  It featured so much that we associate with the Masters, being the first major each year, played at the same venue and including the best amateur players.  But in providing this opportunity to the girls, they picked a week that denied some of them the opportunity to play in a major, proving ( along with their refusal to make the club available for the first two rounds) that their commitment to women's golf is limited to times of convenience to them.

Wouldn't that be a question for Fred Ridley?  Didn't you understand that you'd destroy the preeminent women's professional event and why are the women second class citizens at ANGC?  

Whoa, Nellie! - As the song goes, this girl's on fire:

The LPGA tried a brand-new format. Nelly Korda won anyway

Unfortunately the did so on a weekend so filled with televised sports that they couldn't get arrested.

It's the format that interest me most, because match play is so problematic.  We love it, or at least we think we do, but the events tend to not work especially well.  What the ladies did was a hybrid event, using 54 holes of stroke play to seed an eight-player match play bracket.  That's obviously a limited amount of girl-on-girl action, but it solves some of the limitations of typical 64-player match play fields.

Of course, I saw none of the weekend play, so I have no clue whether the event worked.  Obviously the hottest player on the planet won, though one has the nagging sensation that she's peaking a bit early.... Especially since Nelly's win came the week that, had Augusta National not killed off Dinah, would have been a major on a course you'd expect Nelly to eat up.  But we'll always have Houston....

A Masters Tease - We'll just riff on the Tour Confidential musings, and be back with flood the zone coverage as the week progresses.  Where would you expect them to begin?

Welcome to Masters week, where we have Tiger Woods making just his second start of the year, the defending champ now playing for a league he wasn’t involved in a year ago and a whole bunch of other meaty storylines we are about to tackle. Let’s start with Rory McIlroy, who again will have loads of pressure on him as he’ll attempt to win the Masters and complete the career grand slam. Why will this finally be Rory’s year? And why won’t it be?

Ryan Barath: In my heart, I want nothing more than to see Rory complete the career grand slam and get back to even with Brooks Koepka when it comes to major wins. He’s been playing well and I think if he can continue to minimize mistakes, he has a chance. As for reasons why not — golf is hard, and when you have all the best players in the world in one place, coming out as top dog gets even more difficult, and a bounce here or there could be what makes the difference.

Dylan Dethier: This will be Rory McIlroy’s year because he’s only been to Augusta National once in preparation for the event (instead of like, a half-dozen times last year), because he just visited golf’s King Midas, Butch Harmon (King Midas in a good way, I know that story has a dark turn) and because he hasn’t yet peaked this year, so expectations are in a more reasonable spot and he should be able to swing free. This won’t be Rory McIlroy’s year because Augusta National is a second-shot golf course and his approach play has been meh. Also because he stepped on the wrong azalea or something left of the 10th fairway in 2011 and got cursed forever.

Jessica Marksbury: Yes, Dylan! This will be Rory’s year because I think our collective expectations are a bit lower than years past. As Dylan mentioned, Rory has, outside of his hot start in Dubai this year, been a bit meh — that’s perfect! How often do players actually perform the way we think they will at Augusta, especially when they’re coming in hot? It’s tough to keep up that momentum on such a grand stage. For Rory, playing with the lead seems like too much pressure. I’d love to see him lurk in the background for 54 holes and then make a crazy Sunday charge for the win. As for why it won’t be his year, well, probably because the scenario I just dreamed is so, so hard that it pretty much never happens.

Jack Hirsh: I’m with Ryan here. I want to see Rory complete the career grand slam because he’s been one of the best players over the last 14 years and we have yet to see anyone complete the slam since Tiger Woods. But I think the 2011 debacle just created a mental block in his head that he just can’t get over. Think about how his best final round, the 64 in 2022, came when the tournament was pretty much already decided. Remember how we all said Sergio Garcia will win a major when no one expects it … and no one expected it in 2017? I think it might be a few more years, when McIlroy isn’t among the favorites, that he actually comes through at Augusta.

I'm amused lately at how lame these writers are at their jobs, because there aren't many insights to be found above.  Do they know it's been ten long years since Rory won a major, and do they ever ask themselves why that may be?

The first thing to remind everyone is that those four majors he won came in uniquely consistent conditions.... Does anyone remember how soft Congressional, Kiawah and Hoylake were (I don't need to mention the fourth, because Louisville in August will always be steamy).   The only bit in the Augusta weather forecast that should encourage Rory is thunderstorms projected for Thursday.  

The weaknesses in Rory's game, principally his lack of distance control with his wedges and his often woeful putting, will be of greater import in more difficult conditions, especially firm turf and with wind.  But, on the bright side, he should be a force in the TGL, should it ever get off the ground.  He's uniquely positioned to dominate in simulator golf, so he's gotr that going for him.

The World No. 1 enters the first major of the year in fine form after he nearly won three straight events in March. Who would you take to win this week: a trio of McIlroy and the last two Masters champs (Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler), or the field?

Barath: I’m taking the trio, but if there is one player outside of that who could be a deal breaker it’s Brooks Koepka. I bet some of my fellow contributors have a couple of other players they would likely place above those three so I’m interested to hear what everyone else has to say because it sure does feel hard to bet against Rahm, Rory and/or Scottie.

Dethier: I’ll take the field. It’s a terrible feeling not to have Scheffler on my side (not to mention the other two) but I’ll take the gang that includes Koepka, Xander, Spieth and, well, everyone else. It’s still golf. The favorites don’t win very often.

Marksbury: I’ll take the field, too. One of my favorite things about the Masters is the number of players who seem to play well there every year, regardless of their form coming in. Sure, Rahm, Scheffler and McIlroy are a formidable trio, but what about Jordan, Hideki, Adam Scott, Dustin Johnson, PHIL? TIGER?! And then, oh yeah, Mr. Five Majors, Brooks too! Goes without saying, the field is loaded.

Hirsh: Nope, sorry Dylan and Jess, I’m taking the trio. Despite my comments earlier about McIlroy, I can’t bet against those three. The best player in the world has won the Masters the past two seasons and Scheffler looks unbeatable right now. I’d be happy to take Scheffler over the field. I think not winning in Houston helped his chances since he won’t have the pressure of trying to win four in a row.

Always take the field, though an interesting curveball here.

Scheffler is at a Tigeresque moment, in terms of odds that is.  But Rory I don't like at all and I've no clue what to expect from Rahm.... 

Last year, Rahm won the Masters and later signed with LIV, admitting that the lifetime exemption he secured in the Masters was a part of the reason it made it easier to ditch the PGA Tour. How concerned should the Tour be of this happening again if other big-name PGA Tour stars — Rory, Wyndham, Viktor, etc. — win their first green jacket this year?

Barath: I bet the PGA Tour has a small amount of fear that a player could use the Masters as a springboard to take a BIG check and move to LIV. But, on the other side, it sure seems like

several LIV players including Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson are talking about getting “the golf world” back together, which doesn’t look great for LIV, either. At this point in time regardless of who wins, I don’t see any players switching leagues.

Dethier: I think the Tour should be mildly concerned. Winning the Masters means entry into the majors for the next five years plus entry to Augusta National forever. There are a few top pros who could still make the jump. At the same time, if a guy hasn’t left by now… I’d still be surprised to see the winner jump.

Marksbury: I think there’s reason to worry. A Tour player who wins the Masters will be worth a lot to LIV. And with unification seemingly on the horizon, if a player is offered a boatload to make the jump, believing he can likely return eventually, you can see why that would feel like a low-risk deal on the player’s end.

Hirsh: The PGA Tour should be concerned as I think the looming potential of another star’s jump to LIV, whether they make it or not, puts them at a further negotiating disadvantage with the PIF. But perhaps it could make them more likely to get a deal done faster, because as pretty much everyone agrees, golf’s reunification needs to happen fast.

I don't recall Rahm's specific comments, but isn't the issue really the five-year exemption into all the majors, rather than the lifetime Tuesday dinner reservation at Augusta?

But there's perhaps a bigger factor, at least for Rahm.  He jumped when it seemed the PIF-PGA deal was a certainty, so why not cash the check?  As of the current moment, our Magic 8-Ball indicates that the outlook is cloudy, so I suspect we're in a stasis at least until there's movement on the transaction front.

The other point to make is that it doesn't seem to help is that Rahm and others don't seem especially happy at LIV... 

Whose form do we like right now that we aren’t talking about as much as we should?

Barath: Corey Conners. He drives it well and hits his irons solid. If he can just get his putter hot for four days, I believe he has a nice chance.

Dethier: Xander Schauffele. He hasn’t won, but he’s done everything else. He’ll be in the mix.

Marksbury: Ludvig Aberg. Hard to believe the Masters will be his first major championship. But given what we’ve seen from him over the last year, he seems ready to make a big splash.

Hirsh: Dylan picked Xander? I’m shocked! Let me go with Sahith Theegala. Four top-10s already this year, third most on Tour. Finished ninth at Augusta last year in his debut and a lot of players tend to improve in their second try at the Masters.

Methinks the world is a bit early on guys like Aberg and Theegala, but that's different than being wrong....

Who is more likely to win: a LIV player, or a PGA Tour player?

Barath: Simply based on percentages, I’m going with a PGA Tour player.

Dethier: Yup. If Scheffler was on LIV (a big if), this would be a closer call.

Marksbury: This is tough, but I agree with Ryan and Dylan. Again, I’m taking the larger field, so the PGA Tour guys.

Hirsh: I think Scheffler has already won, so a PGA Tour player. But even if Scheffler pulls a DJ (falls down a flight of stairs and can’t play), it’s hard to pick 13 guys against the other ~75, especially when one of them isn’t Talor Gooch, obviously.

What's a fellow to do?  I was already considering not watching because of Talor's asterisk, but now I can skip it because Scottoe has already won?  And, as we know, chalk always prevails in golf.... Not!

This is the one time a year we get to hear from ANGC chairman Fred Ridley. Lots has changed since last year; what are you most hoping we get his thoughts on? Or, better yet, what’s the one question you want to ask him?

Dethier: I want to know why Jon Rahm’s public appearances haven’t included a green jacket since he left for LIV.

Marksbury: Given the news of the ball rollback last year, I’m curious about his thoughts on that front — especially if the PGA Tour opts out of adopting the proposal.

Hirsh: Well, all my colleagues took my best ones. So I’ll go with something that probably wouldn’t be pressing enough to ask, but something we would all want to know: “Would Augusta ever consider sharing details on the Masters app with the PGA Tour to make their app better?”

Jess hits on a good one, especially given Fred's comments last year when bifurcation was the word of the day.   But a nice slam of the Tour in that last bit.

It's Not You, It's Me - I haven't had a chance to blog golf's most recent divorce, but fortunately the TC gang got there:

Surprising news dropped that Justin Thomas and caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay are parting ways after about 2 1/2 years together. Anything to read into with this? And would you consider this odd timing, a week before the biggest tournament of the year?

Barath: Pardon my take but JT has kinda low-key stunk this year, and considering he’s not likely

to fire his coach (his dad), he probably felt the need for a shake-up and Bones was the one to get cut. As for timing, I don’t read too much into it.

Dethier: I was surprised because you’d think you’d want some consistency heading into the major season. At the same time, if you think you need to make a change, you’d want to do so before major season. Now my question is how much Bones we’ll see on TV this season…?

Marksbury: Definitely weird timing! They seemed like a pretty solid duo. The partnership must have come to a real breaking point to make a move like this pre-Masters — a course Bones clearly knows so well. But Bones has plenty of options. He was great during his stint as a broadcaster, and could also be a coveted get on the bag for some other up-and-comer — or even an established player! — if he’s interested in continuing on that path.

Hirsh: I’m not reading into the split, sometimes it just happens and it seems like Bones wanted to get back into to TV. Why the split couldn’t wait until after the Masters, when Bones wouldn’t have been covering it for NBC (since they don’t broadcast it) is more concerning.

I don't think there's been anything low-key about JT's stinkage, as I've been wondering about Bones' career choice for some time.  He lucked into that PGA, but otherwise he's been quite dreadful.  

the real question is what does Bones want to lug around the golf course, a staff bag or TV sound equipment?  

Have a great week, enjoy your eclipse and we'll continue this as the week progresses. 

Weekend Wrap - April Fool's Day Edition

Not much to wrap these days, as the glide path to Augusta seems longer than ever.  As you might have heard me say a few hundred times, the problem with making eight events Patrick friendly is that it leaves 40-something events that, by definition, aren't so very special.

On a brighter note, the bride and I played a delightful nine holes in yesterday's beautiful weather.... Oh, and have you looked for the Houston Astros in the baseball standings lately?  Just sayin'.... According to reliable reports, the PGA Tour event was only the second most painful thing to happen n Houston this weekend....

Houston, We Have a Non-Event - I did flip the channel over to NBC just in time to see the rousing conclusion of the event, and perhaps Scottie hasn't solved quite all of his putting woes.  Dan Hicks & Co. were trying painfully hard to make it seem to matter, but why was Scottie even playing the event?

I'll leave you find a game story on your won, my efforts being limited to grabbing this from the Tour Confidential panel:

1. Scottie Scheffler’s run at three straight wins fell just short at the Texas Children’s Houston Open. Scheffler missed a 5 1/2-footer for birdie on the 72nd hole that would have forced a playoff with Stephan Jaeger, but instead the miss handed the 34-year-old Jaeger his first career win in his 135th start. What did you learn about Scheffler over this last month?

Nick Dimengo: That he’s got Tiger blood, so to speak. During Woods’ dominant decade, he never took a tournament, round or hole off; he went out every week expecting to win. Scheffler may be ways away from what we saw with Woods, but the same winning mentality is there.

Tiger blood?  I think there's a point to be made about Scottie's consistency, but what he does against such a week fields isn't going to be very instructive.... 

Josh Sens: That he has both a dominating game and the mindset to treat every week as a big week, regardless of the event. He’s not pulling a Brooks Koepka and saving his ammo for majors only.

I don't think his ball-striking actually has an OFF switch.  It would be interesting to compare his ball-striking and putting numbers, because the little action I saw featured some especially uninspired misses on short putts/  The question is how badly can he putt and still win, and I suspect the answer is pretty badly.

Josh Berhow: That the rest of the Tour needs to play its absolute best to beat him and then also hope Scottie isn’t firing on all cylinders. Everyone has some funky stuff happen to them over the course of 72 holes, but Scottie made two double bogeys on a careless three-putt from inside 7 feet and a wedge that he thought was perfect that spun off the green and into the water — and he still nearly won. But he’s got that fight in him, too. Look at the 18th hole on Sunday for example. Skinns needed birdie and pulled it left into a bunker. Jaeger needed birdie to seal it and hit a so-so shot to 20 feet. Scheffler knew he needed birdie and hit a dart to 5 feet. He missed the putt, sure, but he’s got another level to his game others don’t.

Or, to put it another week, if he's average with the putter, can anyone beat him?

The Tour now heads to San Antonio for another event we here at Unplayable Lies will feel free to ignore.

Whoa, Nelly! - Been waiting to see what the girl has.  It's taken a bit of time, as some injuries and/or illness have intruded in odd ways, but the girl is officially on a heater.  Not that this TC panel Q&A is at all enlightening:

2. Speaking of winning streaks, don’t forget about Nelly Korda, who won the Ford Championship on Sunday to claim her third straight win on the LPGA Tour. Korda also won last week, and her first win of this stretch came in late January at the LPGA Drive On Championship. What’s gotten into Korda so far in 2024? And is her streak actually more impressive than Scheffler’s recent run since it spans a longer time frame?

Dimengo: Yes, it’s more impressive than Scheffler’s — because golf is hard, and to maintain that kind of consistency over four days (let alone three different tournaments) is insane! As for what’s

gotten into her, I might have to ask her coach, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jamie Mulligan, who may have a better answer than I ever could.

Sens: What’s happening mechanically I couldn’t say. But so much of golf comes down to mindset. The confidence and calm to stay in the moment and swing with absolute belief. Korda is fresh off a voluntary break from the game, which she seemed to relish. She herself said it. That’s just golf. Sometimes everything clicks and the mental and physical positives keep feeding off each other. As for which is more impressive, that’s splitting hairs. But you could make the argument that Korda’s streak is more impressive. Not because of its length but because the women’s game isn’t divided, like the men’s game, with top players splintered off on different circuits. Only at the majors do you have to beat “everyone.”

Berhow: She hits it far and she’s pretty accurate, and her ball-striking is some of the best on tour. She rarely misses greens and is a good and streaky putter. But more than all of that, she’s just smart and consistent. She knows what she does well and plays to her strengths. It’s very Scheffler-like, in a way, in the fact that she’s just always hanging around. It’s boringly good. Her bad rounds are never really bad enough — or frequent enough — that it keeps her out of contention. I also think she’s a little refreshed to start this season, as Sens mentioned, which can go a long way. As for if her streak is better than Scottie’s, it’s hard to say. She had less attention around her and had a big break in between the first and second win, but they are both ridiculously impressive in their own way. It will be fun to see if Nelly can make it four in a row, because this week’s event in Vegas will make players flex both stroke-play and match-play muscles.

The Nelly Korda Era was heralded a few years back, and has mostly laid an egg for the reasons noted above.  I'm interested to see what the girl can do, but these are a series of really weak events from which to draw conclusions.

But it does tee up an interesting summer, so let's see what the girl can do when things get real.

On Tiger - We'll have to give the TC panel credit for impulse control, as they deferred this inevitable bit until the third question this week:

3. Only one more PGA Tour event sits between now and the Masters, and Tiger Woods is among those already prepping for the first major of the season. Woods made a weekend trip

to Augusta National — reportedly playing with Justin Thomas and club chairman Fred Ridley — and all signs point to him teeing it up for his 26th Masters in less than two weeks from now. Woods knows the course better than anyone, but based on his minimal starts and health the past couple of years, what should we expect from him at the 2024 Masters?

Dimengo: As always with Woods, it comes down to his health. I know he withdrew from the Genesis last month due to illness, but even during his brief appearance at that event, nobody really got a glimpse of how he’s playing or feeling physically. At Augusta, I expect him to make the cut; he knows the course better than anyone. The five-time champ should consider anything better than T25 a huge victory (although you know he won’t).

Sens: It’s easy to get carried away with romantic expectations. But if we are being reasonable, it’s hard to imagine him getting through two competitive rounds on such a hilly course without some serious discomfort and awkward swings. I hope he contends. But I wouldn’t wager on him to make the cut.

Berhow: So many things have to go right for him these days. The cold, rainy weather didn’t help his chances last year, and he needs to avoid nagging injuries before and during the tournament. I still think he can make the cut — which isn’t as difficult to do at Augusta compared to other majors — although not sure he’d be in contention come Sunday. But if everything lines up, he’s proven you shouldn’t bet against him.

I'm old enough to remember when he was teasing us with the concept of playing once a month this year.  But, not withstanding that he finished all of one round in LA, he couldn't be bothered playing another event.  The Masters cut is so easy to make that I'd never predict otherwise, but there's no basis to assume that he can play at a high level for four days.  

Today In LIV Nonsense - A couple of items for you here, leading with this howler:

4. While the PGA Tour heads to San Antonio for the Valero Texas Open and its final Masters tune-up, LIV Golf returns to the states after stops in Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. While Anthony Kim won’t be in Augusta, it will be the first time we see the mysterious star teeing it up in the U.S. since 2012. What kind of reception do you think he’ll receive at Trump Doral in Miami?

Dimengo: Kim’s return to pro golf is a fascinating one, and I think even the most casual fans are rooting for him to play well. Who doesn’t like a good comeback story? I expect bigger crowds and more support for him in Miami, given the attention he’s gotten since his first LIV tourney.

Fascinating?  Not to ordinarily casual fans, perhaps, but obviously to the most casual fans..... What attention?  Sure, he'll get more support in Miami, because there was absolutely no one there in Saudi and Hong Kong.  

Sens: My sense is that Kim was more fascinating to fans in his absence than he has been in his return. He will get a warm reception, of course. But unless he plays exceptionally well, I’m not expecting a lot of pomp and circumstance around him. At this point, he counts mostly as another very good golfer who isn’t Tiger Woods. Which is part of the problem pro golf is up against in these divided days in the game.

Berhow: It might be a better playing experience for Anthony, since he’ll see and feel a little more love than what he probably got overseas, but the watery course he’s going to face might actually give him more headaches than the other two. I still think it would have been better to have this week be his LIV debut, but I also see the PR narrative of slowly dipping the toes into the water. Anyway, if he’s got something super low in his back pocket, this would be a good week to trot it out.

Hey, somebody has to finish behind Graeme McDowell....  What nobody mentions is the Asian Tour event he played after those two LIV events, which might have been even more embarrassing.  The story only works if he still has any skills, and thus far those haven't been in evidence.  And given that LIV stands accused of being a clown show, this was a strange way to rebut those allegations.

This next item falls into the Stupid Is A Stupid Does category:

Professional golf’s growing entitlement problem extends beyond the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. Just listen to Chris DiMarco, who joined the Subpar podcast with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz this week and his comments came off as anything but humble.

The ongoing discussions between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – the financial backers of the Tour’s rival, LIV Golf – have hung over the game like a cloud for nearly a year now. When asked about the current state of the professional game, the three-time PGA Tour winner from 2000-2002 didn’t waste any time and unloaded thoughts on the money being thrown around and why the PGA Tour Champions, of all tours, deserve more of it.

“We’re kind of hoping that (LIV Golf) buys the Champions Tour,” DiMarco said. “Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from (TPC Sawgrass at the Players Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

Chris, perhaps you didn't hear, but they only want to invest in professional tours.... Seriously, where'd you get the 'shrooms?

I'm typically not a fan of punching down, but Eamon Lynch addresses DiMarco's nonsense with deftness, making some relevant points such as this:

Talk to most any player on the Champions Tour and you’ll find they are pissed at how the PGA Tour they helped build is being treated by the current generation as wholly their asset to remortgage, at how naked greed is trumping any sentiment about the greater good of the game. The flat-bellies might dismiss veterans with ‘get off my lawn’ memes and eye rolls, but theirs are important voices in any conversation about the Tour’s future. Which is why some experienced hands will find it frustrating that one of their own mounted a dumb argument—that senior purses aren’t adequately financed—and chose a dumb time to do it.

Just when I'd accepted that we can't grow the game without paying Patrick, I'm now informed that we have to pay Chris as well..... Anyone else?

But reality's a bitch, and Eamon serves up a heaping platter thereof:

The new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises, is going to reshape men’s professional golf.

Along the way, every budget line in the Global Home will be subjected to close scrutiny and value assessments not rooted in sentimentality. That will include all the tours operating under the mothership’s umbrella. The degree to which the Champions Tour is subsidized by headquarters is often exaggerated. According to one source familiar with internal accounting, it’s no more than a few million dollars annually. That’s pennies for an organization now valued at $12 billion, but pennies are snatched back first in pursuit of dollars, and this is not the time to suggest that even bigger handouts might be in order.

There’s an understandable disconnect between what the Champions Tour is commercially and what many of its members imagine it to be competitively. Players see a cutthroat circuit where every buck is hard-earned, which is fair enough. But the business of the Champions Tour is essentially that of an elevated pro-am circuit, with 200-odd amateurs paying to play both Wednesdays and Thursdays, with another 100-ish on Mondays, if there’s demand. Television viewership is meager, worryingly so since a decent percentage of those watching could be in danger of expiring during the broadcast window. The value of the Champions Tour lies in being an on-site entertainment platform that can support itself (albeit in orthopedic shoes), not as a product with a monetizable audience of scale and global growth potential.

There's a new sheriff in town, thanks to that $1.5 billion from SSG, and the return the Tour needs to generate thereon.   

It's ironically amusing, in that those elite players that seized control of the Tour at the famous Delaware meeting have shown their contempt for the Tour rabbits of the world, carving them out of the big money events.  Next they'll shown their contempt for those that preceded them by attacking the subsidy of the Champions' Tour...  Chris just doesn't seem to get that it isn't about him....it's about Patrick.

But here Eamon himself might have been into the 'shrooms:

That might change after December 30, 2025, when Tiger Woods turns 50 years old and becomes eligible to join the circuit. If he can’t or won’t play, then the Champions Tour will never have been less relevant. If he does compete, even sparingly, Woods could boost the Tour’s value well beyond pro-am receipts. But until such times manifest, those who play out there are paid sufficiently within the parameters of what their tour is.

Oh, sure, Tiger is just dying to get out there to compete with, checking notes, Stephen Alker....

If you think I've been harsh, take a gander at this guy's reaction:

Of all the sick things said by pro golfers in the past few years, this from DiMarco might be the sickest. They’re lucky a senior tour even exists! https://t.co/IrTrbk9ReH

— Alex Myers (@AlexMyers3) March 27, 2024

Although, when DiMarco says that his tour is a joke, he's got a point....

That Fifth Major -  We keep hearing about how important Olympic Golf is, though we keep hearing it from Xander Schauffelle and Justin Rose.... But they're dropping like flies:

This summer in Paris will be golf's third appearance in the Olympics since the sport returned in 2016 after a 112-year absence. However, a number of marquee names bowed out of the 2016 Rio

Games due to fears of the Zika virus, and though turnout was improved at the COVID-delayed 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, some of the game’s biggest stars still skipped the proceedings. While participation is expected to increase in 2024, not everyone wants to compete.

Koepka, the reigning PGA champ and five-time major winner, has asked the International Golf Federation to have his name dropped from consideration, according to internal documents at the IGF. Koepka would have faced an uphill battle in qualifying for the United States team; the top two players in the Official World Golf Ranking are automatically selected from any country, with up to four qualifying if all are ranked among the top 15 in the OWGR. Because LIV Golf has not secured OWGR accreditation, Koepka has dropped to No. 31 in the World Ranking, 18th among all Americans. Hatton, who recently defected to LIV Golf, would currently just miss out on a spot for Great Britain as he currently ranks No. 16 in the OWGR while two Brits, Matt Fitzpatrick (9) and Tommy Fleetwood (10) ahead of him. However, unless he does well in the major championships, it’s likely he would continue to drop as the year progresses.

Scott’s withdrawal is not a surprise. The Aussie had previously stated his apathy of golf’s inclusion in the Olympics, referring to it as an “exhibition” and the the better idea would be to allow amateurs in the field. He passed on both the 2016 and 2021 games. Scott is currently 51st in the OWGR, third highest among Australians behind Jason Day (20) and Min Woo Lee (32).

It's mostly guys that weren't going to be there anyway, but Adam Scott is not wrong.  It is an exhibition, but so are those Signature Events, in case Adam didn't notice.  Maybe he's just pouting because he can't get a sponsor's exemption into the Olympics.

The bigger issuer might come form the mixed event they're trying to jam in.  Will the guys make themselves available for that?  

I told you I wouldn't keep you long.  We'll be taking it easy this week to preserve energy to flood the zone for Masters week, so please bear with us.