WHEW…what a week. Golf fans were treated to absolutely perfect conditions at Augusta National, the home of the greatest sporting event on the planet. Coming in to Sunday, there were so many storylines – who could catch Rory? How will the Greens roll? Can Justin pull it off? What we saw was simple: Augusta National showed it’s teeth – especially on the back nine, which proves the adage that my Dad (and others) have been saying for years: the Masters doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday. 100% correct. Augusta National was the BIG winner of the week.
Ultimately, Rory is a good champion. He’s an incredible golfer who can make a shot, or recover from a shot when needed. Arguably the greatest European player ever (time will tell), his golf game is proven. Outside the ropes, he’s got a lot going on: he was the voice for the PGA tour during the whole LIV split, and took some flack for it. There were all sorts of marriage questions after last year (which were weird/stupid), but seem to be put to bed. What I see now is a regular dude and dad who enjoys playing golf. He’s fun to watch.
My parting thoughts…
…inside the ropes:
- Justin Rose is now ‘the guy who needs to win a Green Jacket’. He’s such a class act and plays extremely well at Augusta.
- LIV players. Wow. It’s safe to argue that the LIV tour isn’t close to as competitive or demanding as the PGA tour. I expect to see more players defect back to the PGA like Koepka did.
- Sergio – what a douchebag move. Not in contention, a prior champion, and a dad, loses his temper early in his round, takes a massive divot on the tee box, and breaks his driver on a cooler. I was glad to see the Competition Committee join him shortly thereafter for a quick chat… When asked what was said, Sergio responded, “I’m not telling you that…” which means one thing: it was a very serious talk. Good. No place for that behavior at Augusta.
- How can you not love Shane Lowry? He does everything right. Gets an ace. Enviable wedge play. Always has a smile. Waits for Rory to congratulate him after he wins. We need more Shanes.
- Sam Burns is the new Brad Faxon. Dude can flat-out putt. Sunday wasn’t his best showing, but no one was making any putts yesterday. At all.
“outside” the ropes:
- Masters TV coverage/Streaming/Social/Online is by far the best experience in sports. By a mile. Pair it with all the data available, and it’s totally immersive.
- Badges are going to be even tougher to come by. I got several firsthand accounts of incidents…random patrons pulled aside and politely grilled, badges taken and replaced with one-day passes, etc. I also heard absolutely outrageous prices for badges (like $20K for four Wednesday badges). I expect the secondary market to shrink, but the risk profile will change. i.e., if you win the lottery and get badges, will you sell them for $20K and risk never going again, or head to Augusta?
- Saw quite a few bucket hats. But saw more visors. Glad to see them making more of an impact. I continue to be bullish on high-crown visors.
- I consider myself a traditional Masters fan – a bit of a purist, so take that into account with this thought: The par-3 tournament is unwatchable. It has turned into College Gameday (which is also largely unwatchable). ESPN has a bad habit of ruining things that worked, and what we saw on Wednesday was a prime example. I don’t care about celebrity takes – especially celebrities that don’t know what end of the golf club to swing. I think the kid caddie thing is cute, but it should be measured. My guess is that it was a negotiated Term with ESPN managing the Wednesday coverage. Regardless, Thursday to Sunday was ALL business. Note: my understanding is that ALL contracts with ANGC are 1-year terms. Keep that in mind.
- The Masters Merchandise. I’ll probably do an entire post on this, but my interest in the General Population merch shop is waning. I’ve got a couple of things on the way, but NOTHING like my prior-year hauls. Yeah, I’ll do a post.
Mrs. RCS and I did a Sunday Bet with three points available:
Winner (1 point)
Aggregate Sunday Scores (1 point)
Aggregate Tournament Scores (1 point)
Mrs. RCS Picks/Results:
Cam Young
Scottie Scheffler
Jason Day
My Picks/Results
Rory McIlroy
Shane Lowry
Justin Rose
Winner: Me (Rory) 1 point
Aggregate Sunday Scores: Me +5, Mrs. RCS Even, 1 point
Aggregate Tourney Scores: Mrs. RCS -29, Me -31, 1 point
WINNER: Me (2-1). She’s cooking me her world-famous chicken piccata. I’m pumped.
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I’d love to hear your thoughts. What did you like? What did you dislike? What are your parting thoughts?
Great analysis/commentary.
Being able to stream the Masters outside of the standard network time slots was pretty cool.
I had a friend of mine go down Thursday and I asked him to get me something from the merch tent. He came back with a standard Masters 2026 green cap, which was one of the few items actually worth buying this year he said.
Are LIV players totally irrelevant now? Sure, Hatton finished T3, but let’s be real- how many average golf fans know who he is?
As a cultural staple, there is trouble. The low brow influencers/celebrities. The tacky merch. ‘Taste of the Masters’ food. And I’ll disagree in the aspect of the amount of access that is granted now. 4 different networks airing coverage? Non-social media coverage. Complete over saturation of the tournament that has taken away from the luster, mystique and tarnishing the reputation of the tournament. It’s broadened its appeal so much to now welcome the sidewalk alumni types who buy pink ‘Pimento’ hats on Facebook marketplace at 300% markup. I would hope that Fred Ridley is getting raked over the coals for letting things get to this state.
Hot take!
I see your point- point of the alure of the Masters is that you never quite got the full picture of what was going on unless you were a patron.
Definitely agree re: merch and the par 3 was a catastrophe.
The No Laying Up guys said it well last night with their recap video when they said the Masters is still good but we should be paying close attention. I saw girls I went to college with posting pictures at the masters like they were at a bachelorette party.
NLU is the best
Yep, some of the best golf content out there!
I think they could solve some of the merch issues by leaning into the classic looking items and eliminating trendy stuff, e.g. the big letter and two-tone hats. I was there and completely shocked that you could not buy a yellow polo. Prints galore, but not a single solid polo in one of the two main colors of the tournament. Ridiculous.
Moving away from ESPN would also help. Marty Smith, Jason Kelce, etc. have zero business being on property in a “media” role.
The Taste of the Masters thing was kind of cool in 2020 when almost no one could go. But it does NOT taste like the Masters.
I like Ridley and think he’s done a lot of good things, but the pivot to embrace the “influencer” culture is not one of them.
All that being said, it is still the best sporting event to attend and its not even close. Saturday afternoon was electric.
The Masters is a religion in my home and has been for a while. We even host a Masters Sunday party most years, and it’s sort of the one sporting event where I really request complete freedom from domestic duties to enjoy it as much as possible.
Even I felt like this year was sort of off, and I’m not sure why. Not the tournament itself, though. I thought there was excitement, some drama, and it wasn’t in the bag for Rory until later in the round on Sunday. That makes it great. The leaderboard all week was exciting.
I think the ‘off’ feeling was this sort of mainstream saturation of the tournament. It’s getting a little more see and be seen, and a little less serious/exclusive. I don’t mind the quirky merch so much as I take issue with the boasting of one’s “merch haul”/etc. I don’t mind some of the broadcasters so much as the social media obsessed societal need to post about it like it’s Coachella or something.
The Masters is suppose to be different, maybe more ‘refined’. There’s a level of decorum and restraint the tournament demands, I believe. I suppose this year is part of the ebb and flow of society, and hopefully things will swing back around to what it was a few years ago even.
I still love it, it still remains one of my favorite sporting events of the year, and I still contend it is the most well-run event I’ve ever been to.
Okay, back outside to shake my fist at the clouds.