I meant to do a whole preview and predictions post on the Masters, one of the best sporting events of the year. Life be lifeing though, and I’ve been mostly without Internet and time the last couple of weeks.
Full disclosure: I watched little of the Masters; the final round back-nine the extent of my viewing experience. But in watching the finale and reading up on the early rounds, here are some thoughts:
Pro Golf has Gotten Ridiculous
The whole LIV-PGA Tour war lost me a long time ago. Filthy rich golfers selling out for even more money doesn’t spark any sympathy for me. Saudi Arabia essentially buying a pro sport (and gain membership to the most elite of clubs) to boost it’s international reputation is embarrassing. The PGA Tour selling out loyal golfers and then copying some of LIV’s format changes – laughable. The whole thing bores me, honestly: why should I care about millionaires arguing and crying over more money. It’s their life and their ethics; it doesn’t entertain nor intrigue me.
With that, I no longer watch weekly golf. I have plenty of better things to do with my time and few worth rooting for, quite frankly. The exception being 6 events: the 4 major championships, the Ryder Cup, and the Olympics. (Side note – I cannot wait to tear the Olympic format a new one this Summer – stay tuned!) These 6 events are the only times the best in golf still get together, and I find worth tuning into.
The first of the 4, the Masters, always brings drama. A great golf course (with an ~interesting~ history it tries to sweep under the rug), Augusta National plays host every April to the most elite field in the game. Some cooler talk from the actual event:
Scheffler the Best Since Prime Tiger
Scottie Scheffler is an enigma. Not because of his shaky putting, but his personality. The dude is playing golf at an inexplicably high level, and always just looks like he is strolling around a park. His interviews are dull; I honestly couldn’t tell you a single thing about him. He is the first great player I can think of that just shows no personality whatsoever 99% of the time. He seems like a great guy with his priorities in line; he just doesn’t get the pulse rate moving much.
His golf mirrors his personality: boring and efficient. There are no swashbuckling feats of daring like Phil; no roar-inducing fist-pumps like Tiger. Just fairway after green after fairway after…zzzzz. Death to the rest of the field by devastating consistency. If his putting matches the rest of his game, we could be looking at a Tiger-like level of dominance against a deeper field of challengers than ever. I think that’s the biggest compliment possible.
54 Holes Not Enough
The LIV Golf tour infamously plays tournaments a full round shorter than is tradition. I think the mentality shift finally caught up to LIV’s finest this week. Recently dominant stars like DJ, Rahm, Brooks, and even Joaquin Niemann were nowhere to be found on the leaderboard. Sure, some LIV players made a splash or two, most notably Bryson DeChambeau contending early in the week, but none seriously threatened to win at any point.
Phil the Outcast
The final LIV mention goes to the figurehead of the defections, Phil Mickelson. The embodiment of the hero living long enough to become the villain, Phil the Thrill decidedly did not thrill this weekend. Now 53, the legend and lightning rod’s days of contending are numbered. Numbered, but not over, I predict.
Despite its beastly length, Augusta is surprisingly receptive to aging contenders compared to other tournaments. In the past 15 years, we’ve seen Bernhard Langer, Freddie Couples, and Phil himself all contend on Sunday post-50th birthday. Phil still hits it long enough that I am convinced he has one run left in him in the next 5 years. Will he break his own record for oldest major champion? That I find doubtful, but you heard it here first: Phil will contend on Sunday one more time before he hangs it up.
The Wounded Tiger
I don’t understand what Tiger Woods is trying to prove at this point. Having been under-the-knife a mind-boggling amount of times at this point, the 15-time major winner struggles to walk a course these days. By his own admission, his right ankle still prevents him from comfortable getting around a course for 4 days.
His place in golf’s history is secure; at his peak, arguably no one was as dominant and intimidating. He will always command respect from his peers for his achievements and padding their bank accounts. At this point, though, he plays so little that rust has crept in. He is limited in how much he can practice, after years of military-esque discipline. He has more surgeries than majors the past 15 years.
His psychology at this point evades me. Is he trying to somehow summon the strength for one final assault on Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major record? Perhaps he just loves and misses the competition, something that has been apart of him his whole life. Maybe he is setting smaller goals to achieve. I don’t want to get all depressing or invasive, but is there a chance he isn’t sure what else to do at this point? Golf has been the biggest part of him almost his entire existence.
Perhaps no man has had their mentality more examined and debated in sporting history; now as ever, he remains inscrutable. He’s also never been more human and relatable.
A Spectacular Swede
Luke Donald knew, man. The golf world collectively gasped last Fall when Donald announced a spot on the Ryder Cup squad for the recent collegiate grad. Ludvig Aberg showed out in Italy, and he played equally fearless and spectacular golf this week. One overly ballsy shot on 11 on Sunday shouldn’t take away from a major debut to remember. He is going to be a trendy pick to snag a major before the year ends.
An Augusta Critique
This is going to sound like heresy to some people, but in my opinion, Augusta is not the perfect golf course some make it out to be. Yes, it is astonishingly maintained and beautiful; yes, it has some of the best and most dramatic holes in all of golf. But it is not without flaws. Let’s take the rose-colored glasses off and discuss:
The Front 9 Loses Momentum
Long seldom-seen, the front 9 starts off like a rocket. A big number is in play on the tough 1st hole, but offset well by birdie chances at 2 and 3. The 4th is a fiendish long par 3, and the 5th has a fun, wacky green and insane elevation changes you can’t see on TV.
My gripe here comes after that: with the exception of the fun green and tight drive on #7, the remaining holes on the front aren’t visually interesting and rarely provide any meaningful drama. Think about it: how many times early Sunday afternoon have we seen early charges, only for them to fade out before Amen Corner (11-13) rolls around. The hour the leaders spend playing these holes are the most boring part of the day; rarely does anything of consequence happen.
The Climax Comes Wayyyyy too Early
My larger beef comes with the back 9, namely the finishing stretch. Amen Corner and holes 15-16 are perfection. Truly some of the best holes ever designed and providers of drama for generations. And even though 14 is pretty lame (yeah, yeah the green undulates a lot…big whoop), the 15-16 stretch ramps up the excitement to a fever pitch.
And then the bottom falls out. The 16th is, for me, the climax on Sunday. Now I didn’t run the stats on this, so feel free to argue with me, but I feel over two-thirds of the time the championship is decided after this shot. The reason being is that 16 is the last big chance on the course for a true meltdown; double-bogey is very much in play on this sucker of a par-3. And then we get to 17…
17 sucks. There, I said it! It’s just the most momentum and fun-sucking hole placed at a critical spot on the golf course. A basic design that leaves little room for big swings, it has added to exactly one Masters that I can recall, that being 1986 as Jack Nicklaus made his final birdie to Verne Lundquist’s epic call. A great tournament golf course should be designed in a way that the maximum drama happens at the end, and Augusta just doesn’t play like that…
Which brings me to 18. The chute hole. Let me say first that 18 is a great hole of golf. I just don’t think it’s the best finishing hole. Another instance of peaking too quickly, once a player hits the drive in play through truly scary lines of trees on both sides, they pretty safe. Unless a bad tee shot is hit, no big meltdown will happen for tour pros. Sure, a bad second shot can lead to a dramatic pitch-and-putt, but it doesn’t happen all that often. The final few shots are often a formality, and it grinds my gears a little bit.
I couldn’t agree more on all of this analysis…