The 150th Open at St. Andrews: The grandest stage and setting in major championship history

Xander Schauffele has won his last two starts heading into The Open

Jack Nicklaus has repeatedly said that in order to be remembered as a truly great player, winning The Open Championship at St. Andrews is a must.

Bobby Jones first inspired that thought, claiming that no golfer’s career is complete without capturing that win.

Tiger said The Old Course is golf, “how it should be.”

Spieth called it the best tournament professional golfers play.

For Rory, it’s the ‘holy grail” of the sport.

Jon Rahm appeared to have visible chills running up his spine when he spoke earlier this week of the impact Seve Ballesteros’ win at the Old Course had on him and the entire country of Spain.

Seve’s win was in 1984. Rahm was born 10 years later. 

The richness of the history at St. Andrews permeates through time in a different manner than any other golf tournament, and the rarity of the opportunity to win the 150th Claret Jug at St. Andrews is not lost on anyone.

The unending barrage of footage, photographs and anecdotes passed on through the broadcast and from players both current and past conjures up a magical intrigue and mystique around St. Andrews. 

If you polled every player who’s teed it up in all four majors and asked them which one is the best in professional golf, I’d be surprised if The Open wasn’t the most popular answer.

There is something pure and fulfilling about seeing the best in the world return to where the game began and embrace a test of golf in its purest form as it was intended. Balls bounce, run and roll in ways unfamiliar to the eyes of most fans (and some players too) who have no true relationship with links golf. Inviting that element of randomness into the equation is largely what makes The Open the most captivating tournament on the calendar.

Major championship weeks have a true knack for extracting the most captivating storylines within the field and drawing them to the forefront of a four-day conversation. And there hasn’t been a stage or setting with quite the grandeur as the 150th Open at St. Andrews.

Talking yourself into picking a winner at St. Andrews is like weighing your options in line for movie tickets; the cast is full of A-list actors, but which one is attached to the most interesting plot line?

It’s not difficult to envision Scottie Scheffler flighting his ball around the Old Course, quickly adding a second major, and turning this heater into a historic one.

If not Scheffler, then Rahm, who almost assuredly drops F-bombs every morning when he wakes up and sees any number lower than 1 next to his name in the official world rankings. The history of the game is also clearly meaningful to Rahm, who would be the first Spaniard to win an Open since Ballesteros. 

This is the last of Xander Schauffele’s four annual opportunities to change the narrative about himself, and The Guy Who Never Wins is suddenly The Guy Who Can’t Stop Winning. Three victories in a row and a maiden major at St. Andrews would certainly make up for the many close calls he’s endured over the years.

Without defending his title, Collin Morikawa’s sequel to his links golf debut at Royal St. George’s a year ago would be forgettable. Retaining the Claret Jug, however, would re-ignite the conversation as to whether he will win ___ or more majors.

Simply put, one player’s legacy and career trajectory will be forever changed come Monday morning, and the uncertainty in knowing who or how is gripping.

Nicklaus correctly said on Monday that there are more good golfers now than there ever has been, making the question as to who will conquer the unpredictable championship even harder to answer.  

One aspect of the typical unpredictability of an Open is expected to be tamer this week, with rain and wind projected to be at a relative minimum for the Old Course. But, as one element of potential surprise fades, another challenge arises in the form of a seriously firm golf course.

The idea that we will see the major scoring record (62) fall this week has been a popular take on in the pre-tournament lead up, and Paul McGinley said on Golf Channel that he expects to see drives reach, “near 500 yards” if winds are favorable and the firmness holds.

If that ends up becoming remotely accurate, the Claret Jug will truly be up for grabs. With the emphasis taken off driving accuracy and shifted toward short game and putting, few other players come to mind quicker than Cam Smith.

Smith has cooled off since his two early season wins at Kapalua and The Players, and his cooling off truly began with the aggressively fatal mistake at the 12th hole at Augusta. Since squandering any chance of catching Scheffler that day, Smith has flown incredibly close to the sun and shot himself out of tournaments (see: a third round 73 at the PGA, final round 77 at the Memorial) he otherwise was on the verge of taking.

A second round score of 75 exhausted his chances at the Scottish Open last week where he was fifth in strokes gained putting. The glaring weakness in his game is an inaccurate driver, and Smith is coming off his most accurate driving performance (+13% adjusted driving accuracy) in more than two calendar years, per DataGolf.com.

If Smith can dial in his aggressive mentality on the Old Course’s most tempting holes and limit his mistakes, he will have a great chance to be major-less no more and leave Schauffele as the best player in the world currently without a big trophy.

Speaking of major-less, Will Zalatoris has three legs of the Career Runner Up Grand Slam in just nine starts. The Open is the only major Zalatoris has not come runner up in, with his only appearance resulting in a withdrawal last year at Royal St. George’s.

The doubters will repeat the same tired reasons why he can’t pull one out:

“When it comes down to it, he can’t putt.” False. His three best putting performances have been in the majors and it’s not even close.

“He’s never played here before.” And? Have you seen him strike a golf ball?

“He’s never won on Tour before, he doesn’t know how to.” Do you recall who he lost to at the U.S. Open? That guy had never won before either.

Finally getting over the hump at St. Andrews would be an epic way to win your first major, and Zalatoris is a major player. Fast and firm should be music to his ears.

Until he gets that elusive first one, I’ll be picking him to win every single major. The dude just shows up.

I am now imagining Zalatoris standing next to John Daly, Zach Johnson and Tiger Woods at the next Open Champion’s Dinner. Talk about a range of body types.

Highly recommend watching this video.

The list of names who have won the Open at St. Andrews is downright elite.

Jones, Snead, Nicklaus, Ballesteros, Faldo, Daly, Woods.

With all due respect to Louis Oosthuizen and Zach Johnson— who most recently won at the Old Course in distinctly different yet entertaining fashions— we are due for a massive name to win here.

There are three players that move the needle unlike anyone else, and a win from any of them would set the golfing world ablaze until April.

When Spieth came to St. Andrews in 2015, he was in pursuit of his third consecutive major win. At age 21, he ran away with the Masters and stole a U.S. Open from Dustin Johnson. He was buzzing with the most electricity a golfer had been able to generate since Tiger.

Spieth came up one shot short of a playoff and I am still convinced he won that day. Avenging that loss and breaking his five-year major drought at St. Andrews is the third best outcome for golf fans this week.

The next best comes from the only other golfer to garner a similar amount of electricity during his career. At the time of the 2015 Open, when a soccer injury kept him away from defending his 2014 Open win, it was not unreasonable to think that Rory McIlroy could win 10 majors by the end of his career. He hasn’t really come close to winning one since.

His only Open start at St. Andrews featured a wild 63-80 start in 2010 that dashed his chances of catching Oosthuizen en route to a disappointing T-3 finish.

His second attempt here comes at an extremely opportune time. Aside from playing rock solid golf this summer, he is also the unequivocal leading voice for the PGA Tour in its existential battle with LIV Golf. If winning the Canadian Open during LIV’s debut was an on-course boost the PGA Tour needed, imagine how a Rory win at St. Andrews would ripple across the golf world. Can his major drought really extend to nine years?

Tiger might be the first to congratulate Rory on 18 green if he were to win, but he’s likely envisioning other Sunday plans.

Before he quieted everyone by making the cut, it didn’t quite make sense for Tiger to play Augusta in April. Looking back now, it makes a lot of sense. This Open has undoubtedly been on Tiger’s radar throughout his entire recovery process, so walking difficult tracks and competing against the strongest fields was valuable for his endurance more than anything. And it’s showing.

Before he tees off Thursday, he will have walked nearly 60 holes over four days and has been ramping himself up to go in a way that fosters a genuine belief and confidence that he can contend in this one. He’s also spoken openly all week to media about how this is likely his last chance to play competitively at St. Andrews.

After several days walking, playing and soaking in the scenery, Tiger said it, “does feel like it's the biggest Open Championship we've ever had."

I sense that this is a tournament where everyone watching will know that history is unfolding as it is transpiring. At a place where special things tend to happen, I would be shocked if we didn’t get an all timer this week.

Phil’s Noisy Silence: There’s a foreign aura around this year’s PGA Championship

Part I: The Defendingseless PGA Champion

A year ago, I was fortunate enough to land tickets to the second and final rounds of the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. I stood on the 18th green as Phil Mickelson was awarded his sixth major championship trophy— this one as improbable and magical as any win in the history of the sport.  

Looking back a year after the fact, I vividly remember being aware and cognizant enough to realize that I was watching history unfold as he made his way around the Ocean Course that Sunday afternoon.

As he approached his tee shot in a greenside bunker on the fifth hole, I asked myself, “Do I really want to further kill my dying phone battery and take a video of a bunker shot this early on? Ah, might as well. It is Phil in the sand.”

By that point, I knew he was going to win that day and I think it’s safe to say that everyone there did too.

The energy was indescribably different than any other sporting event I had ever been to.  

At a golf tournament, noise comes and goes in spurts. Any eruption from the crowd or burst of momentum around a certain player spikes and falls again as quickly as a ball apexes in the sky and drops back down to the ground. There are no walls nor roofs to contain any sustained undercurrent of noise, no continuous clapping or cheering.

I mean after all, it’s an inherently slow moving game stretched across five to six hours and we were watching a 50-year-old man play golf; visibly measuring every step and breath he took that afternoon. Talking above a whisper from the sidelines is frowned upon.

But the silence in between his golf shots that day was loud.

Now, one year removed from the chaotic scene of hundreds of fans breaking through the ropes around the 18th fairway and enveloping the most charismatic golfer of his generation, the silence between his last professional golf shot (Jan. 27) and his next one (?) is more deafening than ever.

I will not be at this week’s PGA Championship, and neither will Mickelson. The fact that a healthy major champion will not be defending his title is unprecedented.  

I fully expected to struggle comprehending how he won this tournament a year later, but no one could have foreseen the greater struggle in comprehending what will keep him from defending his title at Southern Hills this week.

Mickeslon hasn’t been seen or heard from in a public setting since February. Trying to explain his hiatus to those who only recognize him for being a southpaw golfer who rose to fame concurrently with Tiger Woods is exhausting and difficult to say the least. 

Last fall, PGA Tour Hall of Famer Greg Norman was named commissioner of a proposed golf league financially backed by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund called Public Investment Fund. He then was named CEO of LIV Golf Investments, also backed by Saudi money, which established a $200 million commitment in prize money over a 10-year span— presenting the opportunity for players to take home far larger paychecks than they could on the PGA Tour.

Aside from that, the LIV Golf events would have no mid-tournament cut, and would not require its members to play a demanding schedule with only 10 events per year initially proposed.

Essentially, the draw for players to jump ship and join the LIV Golf league is all about the paycheck. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia could “sportswash” its less-than-pleasant human rights record by establishing a successful new golf tour with the best players in the world (ideally the PGA Tour’s brightest stars) serving as the faces of it.

For the PGA Tour, this, of course, was going to be a problem. To have one of the best players in its history (Norman) heading up a directly competitive league and attempting to lure some of its most valuable members away was not something to take lightly.

Mickelson began pouring gasoline on the Saudi-backed LIV Golf fire when he gave an oddly ironic interview on Feb. 2 to Golf Digest, claiming that the PGA Tour operated with “obnoxious greed” in the way it owns players’ media rights amongst other gripes. He claimed his interest in the LIV Golf series was all about using leverage to change the PGA Tour for the better. The viability of some of his complaints remain cloudy.

From there, Mickelson’s flirtation with being the face of the upstart league came to a head on Feb. 17 when journalist Alan Shipnuck released an early excerpt from ‘Phil’, his newly released biography of Mickelson.

In the excerpt, Shipnuck revealed that Mickelson had called him and spewed inflammatory comments, briefly acknowledging and brushing aside the atrocities committed by the foreign regime who would (maybe) be signing his new paychecks.

“They’re scary motherfuckers to get involved with,” Mickelson said in the excerpt. “We know they killed (Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal) Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape how the PGA Tour operates.”

Sure it is, Phil.

Five days later, he put out a statement apologizing to just about everyone but the PGA Tour and let the world know he would be stepping away from golf to work on the man he wanted to be.

 As of last week, he was committed to both defending his PGA Championship title and playing in the first LIV Golf event in June. Six days before the first tee shot at Southern Hills, the PGA Championship announced that he had informed them he decided to back out of playing. No comment or direct statement came from Mickelson. He still remains on the list of players set to tee it up at the LIV Golf opener on June 9.  

Without getting too much more granular on the Saudi golf saga (I highly recommend either of these timelines put together to fill in the gaps) the larger issue is trying understand the true motive and intentions behind his actions.

Why tarnish this legacy?

He won a major championship at 50 years old, disposing of names like Rahm, Koepka, Scheffler, Spieth and McIlroy along the way. Fans swarmed him on his final walk up that fairway in a display so rarely seen on a golf course that no one really knew what to do when it happened.

Imagine telling Phil Mickelson in 2019 (when he claimed his last win prior to the ’21 PGA) that he would simultaneously pick up his sixth major championship and the title of oldest major champion of all time, vaulting him comfortably into the discussion of the top 10 to ever do it.

The ride into the sunset does not get anymore glamorous or easier than that, and he would agree. He could have coasted onto the PGA Tour Champions where he’d be hitting his patented “bombs” and “hellacious seeds,” whipping up on other washed up senior players, and collecting his PGA Tour pension all the while.  

Guaranteed paydays from “scary motherfuckers” can’t be enough to throw away your legacy on the tour that’s given you the life you have—even if your gambling debts are as astonishingly massive as they’re reported to be.

The “leverage” argument doesn’t pass any kind of litmus test when you really dig into how the PGA Tour distributes its revenue and consider the initiatives it has started to protect and keep its best players around.

The nuances and pain points involved in the LIV Golf/PGA Tour are numerous and frankly quite complicated. Trying to boil them down into a manner that is digestible is perhaps even more difficult.

Mickelson’s decision not to play this week is equally hard to come to terms with. All that’s for certain is uncertainty. Golf fans are a forgiving breed, especially toward the game’s biggest stars; just look at Woods. There’s more keeping Mickelson away than him simply not wanting to answer questions this week.

Rory McIlroy said it best this in his press conference at Southern Hills, calling it “unfortunate” and “sad.”

“I think he should be here this week celebrating what a monumental achievement he had last year,” McIlroy said.

Much like the crowd that stalked him around Kiawah Island that day, the noise surrounding Mickelson today is unrelenting. It won’t be dissipating anytime soon either, not until we hear from the man himself.

A second PGA win could go a long way for Justin Thomas

Part II: Finding appreciation for golf’s fourth major

 For a sport with televised events held on a nearly year-round basis, hundreds of courses on display across the globe, and multiple tours constantly traveling from one continent to the next, the pillars that professional golf stand upon are undoubtedly its four major championships.

The fact that they are unowned by any tour itself (possibly the largest misconception of the casual fan) sets the majors apart from any other tournament from the jump.

Augusta National has the Masters.

The USGA owns and operates the U.S. Open.

The R&A owns and operates the Open Championship (British Open)

The PGA of America owns and operates the PGA Championship. 

If you were to play a word association game with each of the four, it would be an easy start.

The Masters has the benefit of being held on the same historic course every year, making it easy to recall certain shots from certain holes on an annual basis. The memories are easily transferrable.

Green jacket. Azaleas. Amen Corner. Pimento Cheese. Augusta.  

The U.S. Open is known for its unrelenting setup and America’s national championship. Winning scores spilling over par is not uncommon, yet runaway victories are.

Thick rough. Narrow fairways. Distance. Take your par and get out.

The Open Championship has the distinction of being golf’s oldest major, first contested in 1860.  Considered the truest test of golf, the chatter around this one usually revolves around the rotation of historic courses and who can battle the elements best.

Wind. Rain. Undulation. Pot Bunkers. The Home of Golf. The Claret Jug.

For several reasons, the PGA Championship oftentimes gets lost in the major championship shuffle.

Before its move to mid-May in 2019, the tournament was stuck in an awkward place on the golf calendar. In its longstanding mid-August spot, the PGA Championship fought to keep the casual golf fans’ attention between end of summer vacations and shifting focus toward other sports. It has been held on prestigious courses and completely forgettable ones, but the perceived fatal flaw that has conveniently led it to be labeled as the “fourth major” is that the PGA Championship has an identity crisis.

Without a distinguishing characteristic to set it apart, it’s almost as if some want to discount its value as a major. But here’s the truth: the PGA Championship kind of kicks ass and it has for a while now.

No, there’s no distinct course setup year in and year out like those of the other three (although I think it most resembles the U.S. Open’s penal rough and emphasis on driving accuracy and keen play around the greens), but that variety adds entertainment value in its own right.

There is not a set rotation of courses on the schedule, making tradition and nostalgia for the tournament harder to establish. But courses like Oak Hill, Valhalla and Quail Hollow are plenty viable and would like a word.

Shifting the tournament to May and moving the Players Championship back to March has allowed the PGA Championship to serve as a focal point in an otherwise boring month for golf tournaments, and it helps bridge what was a long gap between the Masters and the U.S. Open.

Here are the names of the PGA Championship winners over the past decade:

McIlroy (twice), Jason Dufner, Jason Day, Jimmy Walker, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka (twice), Collin Morikawa, Mickelson.

I would love to recommend throwing out Jimmy Walker’s victory in 2016, but he held off Day’s repeat bid by one stroke and it came down to the last hole.

Every other name on that list besides Dufner and Mickelson has a very realistic shot to add another Wannamaker trophy to their mantle this week. Any time you have a host of past champions from the previous decade that are still contending in your event, you’ve got a sustainably exciting tournament. Not to mention that the past five times it’s been played dating back to 2017, there has been considerable drama on Sunday.

No mold shapes the championship one way or the other. Identity crisis solved: it’s just flat out entertaining.




Southern Hills

The PGA Championship returns to familiar major venue Southern Hills County Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma this week, where Woods last won the PGA in 2007. Fifteen years later, the course will look almost unrecognizable to most of the entire field, and even Woods too.

A 2019 re-design by Gil Hanse changed the way the course plays. Some tree removal opened up the landscape more while still requiring disciplined shots off the tee.

I’m no golf course architect and won’t pretend to be, but Golf Digest and the Fried Egg did incredible flyover videos of the course ahead of this week’s tournament. 

This course will demand precision with the driver, plays long at just over 7,500 yards and has greens that are friendly to conservative yet precise approach shots and not so rewarding for aggressive ones that miss their mark. Shortgrass around the greens is not something golf fans or players are quite accustomed to seeing in major championships, putting an emphasis on how well players can get up and down from unique spots. Oh, and it’s almost always windy at Southern Hills. Golf Channel has spent hours discussing the wind conditions this week.




Another Grand Slam Quest for Jordan Spieth

There are only five men who have completed the career grand slam, and we’re nearing the point of an entire generation going without seeing one. The chance to root for a career grand slam only comes three times a year, which is pretty remarkable when put in perspective, but it has also been the case for seven years now.

Mickelson’s 2013 win at the Open Championship put that illustrious U.S. Open as the only unchecked major on his list. I’ll go ahead and declare that his grand slam chase is all but over.

A year later, McIlroy claimed an Open Championship of his own and cranked up the pressure around him every year at Augusta, needing just one green jacket to complete his slam. Still waiting.

Jordan Spieth looked like he was going to take all four down in one fell swoop, and captured golf fans with his wildly entertaining style of play and meteoric rise in 2015. After winning the green jacket at 21 years old, Spieth picked off the U.S. Open a couple months later, narrowly missed a playoff at the Open Championship at St. Andrews and finished runner up to Jason Day at the 2015 PGA. His win at the 2017 Open Championship put him one step closer to the Slam.

Most of those fans have stayed aboard the roller coaster ride that is rooting for Spieth since then, and the buzz around him this week is as loud as it has been in a few years. He does not look like the same golfer from seven years ago, but he looks like a golfer that is both mentally gathered and pretty well polished with his game right now.

His driver is no longer a liability but rather a weapon off tee boxes. Spieth is driving it just over 302 yards, nearly 13 yards better than Tour average at 289. And he’s doing it with accuracy, gaining strokes off the tee in his last four events.

His iron play is sharp, despite having to do a nerve-wracking pre-shot rehearsal before every swing, and his wedge still might as well be a magic wand in his hand.

"If you just told me I was going to win one tournament the rest of my life, I'd say I want to win this one," Spieth said Wednesday to the media.

I like his chances to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Woods this week.




The First Name Basis Club

If the pressure to complete the grand slam alone wasn’t enough for Spieth, the PGA of America heard that and stuck him in a grouping with Tiger and Rory for the first two days of the tournament.

I’m going to need a drone shot on Thursday and Friday above that group, because if there is any less than 85 percent of the ticketed fans clustered on this trio’s hole at one time, something is wrong.

For Tiger, the story remains the same as it was heading into the Masters a month ago:

1.     How in the hell is he here

2.     If he makes the cut, he deserves an ovation

I just don’t have any more words for this guy. What he did at Augusta was remarkable, anything else is icing on top (my tune on this will change come St. Andrews week in July).

For Rory, the major drought is now entering its eighth year. I suppose the only downfall of winning four majors in four years is the expectation you place on yourself, but I doubt McIlroy would trade any of those trophies to rid himself of that pressure. Nonetheless, it has been a long time since he fought off the waning daylight at Valhalla to win his second PGA Championship.

Things that have happened since Rory’s last major win:

            -Two presidential elections

            -Tiger won the Masters

            -Phil won the PGA

            -Koepka won four majors

           - I grew a full beard

I like his chances this week almost as much as I did that weekend in 2014 when stubble hadn’t even dreamt of forming on my chin yet.




Guys who could grab their second and change how we think about them

Previewing a major championship field should always start with who is expected to contend, but starting by looking at the current major champions in the field is a more fun exercise. There are plenty of one-time major champions at Southern Hills this week, but these are the ones who could really alter the way their career is viewed with another one this week.

Hideki Matsuyama: It wouldn’t be a stretch to say the sentiment around Matsuyama’s Masters victory a year ago was that it was thought to be a one-off occurrence, and I think he may have heard that.  

Since then, all he’s done is win two more times and he did it with fearlessness attacking flagsticks. His proximity to the hole on approach shots is frightening, especially when it matters most. He currently ranks 10th on Tour in that statistic, and this golf course sets up perfectly for his ball striking prowess. With a win, he would become (if not already) the most distinguished Asian golfer in golf history, and no one would be able to deem his green jacket victory as “cute” anymore.

Shane Lowry: The major championship course most often compared to Southern Hills throughout the week has been Augusta National, where Lowry just finished T3 in April. He backed that performance up with another T3 at RBC Heritage the following week, and walked away from that feeling like he should have won.

The focus this week will be on approach play and play around the greens, and Lowry is on the short list of guys who excels at both. He’s first in proximity to the hole on Tour this season, and I don’t need to throw a stat at you to tell you about his wedge play. If Lowry takes a second one home this week, he’ll have was many major wins as Dustin Johnson, and one more than Justin Thomas, John Rahm and Scottie Scheffler.

Justin Thomas: Outside of his 2017 win at this tournament, the knock on Thomas has been his lack of contention in majors. And for a player with 14 wins on Tour before age 30, that is valid, and he knows it. Thomas’ game is in great form and he is as due as it gets for a victory. Getting one here wouldn’t necessarily change the way he is thought of because it’s more or less expected of him to win major championships, but getting out of that One Trophy Club might be all he needs to start sticking on Sunday leaderboards in the big ones.

Scottie Scheffler: Here’s what I wrote about Scheffler ahead of the Masters: “For the incumbent world No. 1, Scheffler, a win at the Masters would be his fourth in six starts and his first major victory. To accomplish his first four career victories and net upwards of $18 million in first-place winnings over the span of two months would be truly historic.”

Historic it was, and I refuse to be caught off guard if he’s claiming his fifth W on Sunday.  

Happy PGA Champioship week everyone.

PS: If you’re still here, I wanted to put on record three sleepers who I think could surprise everyone this week: Joaquin Niemann, Max Homa and Cameron Young. Cheers.

 




Understanding the Beauty of Masters Week

Two weeks ago, my cartner and I sat down at a local Mexican restaurant to defrost and forget about the disgrace we just made to the game of golf after playing a brutally cold and windy round. As we got ready to leave, a woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I minded to ask the bartender to change the channel on the TV from a March Madness game to the Golf Channel. 

I guess my head-to-toe golf attire wasn’t a dead enough giveaway as to what my answer would be. 

“Sorry,” she said, “my friend is winning the tournament and I’m from Austin where they’re playing right now.”

She was grinning from ear to ear, hardly able to contain her excitement.

Her friend’s name is Scottie Scheffler, and he would go on to win that tournament and become the No. 1 ranked player in the world just a couple hours later.

There is no question what channel the TV will be on this Sunday— not only at Fiesta Time Amigos in Louisville, KY— but across most of the globe. Masters week is upon us, and the 86th version of golf’s most esteemed championship is one of the most highly anticipated in a long time.

The beauty of the Masters is that it draws a wide variety of people together for, at the minimum, four or so hours on the second Sunday of every April. From country club pros to uninterested girlfriends to grandpas who can’t quite tell if they’re watching golf or tennis, millions of different eyeballs descend upon what’s happening at Augusta National Golf Club this weekend.

If there is such a thing as a Twice a Year Catholic (I may or may not be able to personally confirm this phenomenon), then the Once A Year Golf Fan absolutely exists in April. When the Masters falls on Easter, the hypocrisy in these folks really shines. These are the viewers who tune in on Sunday at 5 p.m., see a few putts go in, watch Fred Couples make a coherent golf swing at age 62, and impulsively book their first and last tee time of the year for the following weekend before firing a round in the triple digits and giving up the game until the next Masters.

Then there are the casual golf fans. These people will try to convince you they watch golf on a regular basis even though it’s obvious they exclusively watch the four major championships every year. The casuals will be chomping at the bit to tell you, “he’s just not in good form right now,” or, “the tempo in his swing is off,” when Rory McIlroy inevitably makes his first bogey on Thursday.

Next are those who watch a green jacket ceremony once a year and ask, “So how many points did Tiger get this year?” as soon as they realize he didn’t win the whole darn thing. Yup, you guessed it: These are the non-golf fans. Even they cannot accidentally avoid seeing some of the coverage.

Lastly are the dedicated golf  fans  nerds who feel bothered and annoyed when they aren’t able to catch the finish of a playoff between Kramer Hickock and Harris English at the Travelers Championship in July while everyone else is at the lake or the beach. Week in and week out, these are the guys and gals who dig into strokes gained metrics and play fantasy golf. They field dozens of texts from friends on Wednesday evening of Masters week asking who they should throw their money on to make the cut. (If you haven’t gathered it yet, this is me. I am one of these nerds).

No matter where you fall on the golf fan spectrum, the Masters has meaning to you in some way. 

For example, so far this week I have caught myself doing the following:

  1. Listening to the soft piano keys of the Augusta theme song on a loop in the background while sifting through emails at my desk.

  2. Spending half an hour deciding what the main course on my champion’s dinner menu would be.

  3. Falling asleep to YouTube replays of the 2015 and 2012 final round broadcasts.

  4. Looking at drawings and trying to understand how the new changes to the 11th hole alter the perspective of the tee shot for the players.

It might seem borderline psychopathic, but I would be more concerned if I wasn’t exhibiting these kinds of behaviors on Masters week. 

Put simply, it is an event that instantly changes how we view players for the rest of their careers and lives. Someone will have the chance to permanently weave themselves into the fabric of the pageantry and tradition at Augusta National.

There is perhaps no better example of this than that of last year’s champion, Hideki Matsuyama, who was unexpectedly cast as a global ambassador for the game of golf after becoming the first Japanese golfer to win the Masters, or any major for that matter.

Watching the gravity of the accomplishment slowly wash over Matsuyama as he walked to the scoring room was a refreshing change of pace from a standard fist pump celebration, and even a Tiger roar. The reverence of the moment resonated with fans literally all over the world.

His caddy put the flagstick back in the 18th hole and turned to make a pronounced bow toward the golf course for crying out loud. Spielberg couldn’t have written that.

On Tuesday, Hideki served his champion’s dinner of sushi and miso glazed cod to all of the past winners of the tournament. Think you’ll ever catch Patrick Reed, Vijay Singh and Bernhard Langer chopping it up over a plate of sashimi anywhere else in the world besides Augusta National? There is simply no place like it. 

The drama never wanes by the time Sunday afternoon arrives. One way or another, the tournament is guaranteed to deliver meaningful moments that manage to stick even in the minds of those with little to no interest in golf.

Your dad probably remembers where he was when he watched Jack Nicklaus win an improbable sixth green jacket in ‘86, much like your co-worker still gets excited telling you about Tiger running away from the field in ‘97.

Grandma probably remembers watching Bubba Watson sob uncontrollably 10 years ago after capturing his first win at Augusta, and who could forget the chills that ran down the back of their neck three years ago when Francesco Molinari dumped one in the water at No. 12, making Tiger’s path to a fifth green jacket all the more likely.

I have no doubt that the 2022 Masters will pull its weight and give us all something to remember for years to come as well. Here’s what I’m most interested to see this week.

Tiger Woods’ World Golf Hall of Fame exhibit

The tiger effect

It would be irresponsible not to start with the most monumental of storylines this week, and that is that Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods is teeing it up on Thursday. Less than 14 months ago, Woods was involved in a single car crash that nearly took his leg and/or his life. In the immediacy of the news about the crash, the thought of him golfing again took a distant backseat to the thought of him walking again. 

As time progressed and he played in the PNC Championship with his son Charlie in December 2021 (albeit while riding in a golf cart), I did not believe we would see Tiger play competitively again until maybe the Open Championship at St. Andrews in July. The way he spoke about his body and endurance just two months ago was discouraging and didn’t make a Masters appearance this year seem likely at all. 

Then he showed up at Augusta last week. Then he came back again on Sunday. By Tuesday I had convinced myself he could make it through two rounds maximum, but then came the social media reports of him carrying his driver 298 yards, and Fred Couples said he was keeping pace with Justin Thomas in a practice round. I now believe he can not only make the cut, but possibly make some other golfers sweat on the weekend. 

I can’t decide if Tiger merely pushing the peg in the ground Thursday morning is enough to warrant his upcoming performance as one of the best stories in golf history, but I do know that if he so much as makes the cut, it will be remembered as one of the most incredible stories in sports history.

One thing is certain: a lot of people will be “working from home” on Thursday, and employers should not be surprised to see a drop in productivity beginning at 10:34 a.m. 

Who cements his legacy most with a win?  

Having the previous year’s champion put a distinctly vibrant colored jacket over your shoulders just has to feel cooler than being handed a trophy. Only five of the top 50 (and three of the top 18) players in the current Official World Golf Rankings have had that distinct honor. In other words, all of the big dogs are vying for a career-shifting victory this weekend.  

John Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay could all rise to No. 1 in the world with strong enough finishes this week. 

For Rahm, it would pair nicely on the mantle with his 2021 U.S. Open trophy and would cement his legacy as one of Spain’s elite golfers along with Seve Ballesteros, José María Olazábal

and Sergio Garcia. 

For Morikawa, it would notch him the third leg of the career grand slam and his third major championship win in his first nine attempts. 

For Hovland, a maiden major victory at Augusta could catapult his confidence during a year that already sets up nicely for him from a major championship venue standpoint. 

For Cantlay, a green jacket would hush the chatter about his game not carrying over to marquee events. He has just two top 10’s in 19 major appearances thus far. 

For the incumbent world No. 1, Scheffler, a win at the Masters would be his fourth in six starts and his first major victory. To accomplish his first four career victories and net upwards of $18 million in first-place winnings over the span of two months would be truly historic. 

While they may not be able to usurp Scheffler as world No. 1 regardless of where they finish this week, I’m sure Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth would happily trade their world rankings for a fifth, first and fourth major championship, respectively. It’s a major, so Koepka will be relevant, Spieth could roll out of bed and shoot 68 at Augusta, and Xander has been knocking hard on Buter Cabin’s door for the last three years (T2, T17, T3).  

Cameron Smith could also vault to the top of the world rankings with a win, and seems absolutely primed to do so. For all the Once A Year Golf Fans who are asking, “what’s he done since finishing T2 here in 2020?” here you go: 

  • Set a PGA Tour scoring record for a single tournament at 34 under par while holding off John Rahm at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January. 

  •  Won The Players Championship in the most difficult conditions fathomable by recording a grand total of 10 putts on the back nine of his victorious final round.

Seems decent. 

Smith is dialed with his irons and remains one of the hottest and most unflappable putters on tour. He’s coming of a T2 and T10 in his last two Masters starts, and is the only golfer to ever shoot all four rounds in the 60’s at Augusta National. 

Will the tale of Rory McIlroy and the elusive green jacket continue?

For Rory, a win would be a relief. For a golfer on a first-name basis and who has been wildly successful at every other rung of the career ladder, never capturing a green jacket would feel cheap. 

Even contending on the weekend would be a welcomed sign. Outside of his collapse in 2011, the first round nightmares have kept Rory from truly threatening on the weekend. It’s bound to happen one year, but let’s just hope before he gets one year closer to his 40th birthday.

 

When the Bones are good  

Here are Justin Thomas’ last five finishes in the Masters: T22, T17, T12, 4th, T21. 

He plays well there. 

Jim “Bones” Mackay caddied for Phil Mickelson in 25 Masters, helping him win three of them. 

He caddies well there. 

Bones now caddies for JT, and that matters there. For a world-class ball striker who knows how to position himself well off the tee too, putting has always been the element of Thomas’ game that lags behind. That’s where Mackay can serve as a crutch with his wealth of knowledge and experience around the severely undulating and puzzling bent grass greens at Augusta.

Rahm gently complained earlier in the week about how tightlipped Tiger was with letting him on secrets about the golf course, and made sure to note that JT was getting, “a whole dissertation” from the Cat on all things Augusta. JT didn’t budge when prodded to reveal some of the knowledge Woods passed onto him. 

If I were to wager my hard-earned capital on golf tournaments, I would allocate a good portion of it toward Thomas to win this week. 

Where’s Phil? 

Consider this: If someone told you on April 6, 2021 that Tiger Woods would be playing in the Masters, Bones Mackay would be caddying for a top 10 player and Phil Mickelson would be nowhere to be found, you would have told them …? Yeah, I got nothing either.

This is where it gets too complex and difficult for the Once A Year’s, the non-golf fans and even the Casuals to understand “what’s going on with Phil?”, so instead I’ll point you toward this column from Eamon Lynch about why Lefty won’t be competing for the first time since 1992. 

Sleepers 

Not Spieth, not DJ, not Reed, and no, not Larry Mize, but Adam Scott is the former champion I’m looking at to make the most noise this week. The veteran Aussie’s game is in great form (he’s gained strokes on the field in both putting and on approach shots in five of his six stroke play rounds this year) and he seems a bit more relaxed in the latter half of his competitive career. You won’t see the same jitters crop up that caused the 2012 Claret Jug to slip out of his hands if he’s in contention this weekend. Scott knows this course and won’t be afraid to hit the ballsy shots when he needs to. 

Another former major champion who has quietly had a spectacular 2022 thus far is Shane Lowry. His worst finish on tour since February is a T35 and he’s backed that up with a T12, T13 and a solo second at the Honda Classic where he very well could have won had a sudden rain shower not fallen on him as he played the final hole. Lowry made a hole-in-one on the iconic island green at the 17th hole of TPC Sawgrass. I was at that tournament standing a mile away on the 6th hole when it happened. The roar of the crowd legitimately sounded like a small aircraft passing over us. Talk about a supreme confidence booster. 

PS: I just want to point out that Danny Willett has made the cut one measly time since stealing the 2016 jacket from Spieth. Happy Masters Week, everyone.