2023 Masters Preview

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Hello Friends, 

At our house we have had this week circles for months. Sometime in February my son saw a commercial for The Mario movie which comes out on Thursday. He told me it came out on April 6th, and I knew immediately that was going to be a conflict with The Masters. At first, I thought maybe he would forget about it, and we could catch it next weekend. Apparently, this movie is the talk of kindergarten though. Between egg hunting and golf watching we are going squeeze in Mario Saturday afternoon though. Hopefully Mario can defeat Bowser. Thankfully, The Masters app is so far superior to all other golf apps I will be able to follow the action. 

Anyway, what a year it has been in golf! Last year the only thing going on with LIV was Phil had gone into hiding. Now we have a new competing tour and a new structure to the old tour. Fortunately, The Masters has brought everyone back together for the highly anticipated week. 

We have Jim and Trevor in the booth this week. Jim has given away his final final four tie and is totally focused on golf this week. Trevor replaces Sir Nick in a very welcome change. And of course, we have by far the best app in golf in service for the one week. I remain baffled that neither pro golf tour can create a functioning app. 

The changes to the 13th hole are the most discussed and I think they will be great.
Finally, do a reverse rain dance if you could because the forecast looks shaky. Enjoy the week! 

    Sam Bennett‐ US Amateur Champion‐ Sam is and has always been a scrappy little guy who plays with a chip on his shoulder. He went through a murderer’s row of the best amateurs in the world to win the US Amateur last year and claimed, “I feel like I’m the dog in this race now.” Aside from winning the U.S. Amateur he made the cut in the US Open after qualifying here in Columbus. He is in his final season with the Texas A&M aggies where he is playing great. 

Ben Carr‐ US Amateur Runner‐Up‐ Ben is in his final season at Georgia Southern. During his college career the rules have changed so much that he can now solicit a great selection of items right from the Georgia Southern website. If you are interested, you can get the same menu of services from any other Georgia Southern golfer for half price. Strike now before he wins The Masters! 

Gordon Sargent‐ NCAA Champion‐ Gordon is in his second year as a Vanderbilt Commodore after winning the NCAA championship last year. He was given a special invitation to The Masters somewhat unexpectedly, but maybe they will invite the NCAA champion annually going forward? Augusta works in mysterious ways. Gordon is certainly deserving of an invitation if anyone is. He is currently the #1 ranked amateur in the world and some are calling him the best college player in over 10 years, which I can assure you is rankling Sam Bennett. He is freakishly long so maybe they will pair him up with Bryson and let them have at it. 

Harrison Crowe‐ Asia‐Pacific Amateur Champion‐ Harrison was, and probably still is, more famous for a video he was a part of last summer than winning the Asia‐Pacific Amateur. Last summer he was in St. Andrews for a trip and was filmed hitting a shot from The Dunvegan over another building and onto the 18th green. Like his hero Cam Smith, Harrison is a mullet sporting Australian. 

Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira‐ Latin America Amateur Champion‐ A few weeks after the heroics of his countrymen bringing home the World Cup, Mateo won the Latin America Amateur title. The previous year Mateo had finished second by a shot in the same event. He also finished second in the Western Amateur last summer to Ohio’s own Austin Greaser. Unfortunately, Mateo won’t be able to pick the brain of his countryman El Pato Cabrera, but he is teammates at Arkansas with John Daly II so if he needs any tips, he can find John Sr. down the street at Hooters. 

Matthew McClean‐ Mid‐Amateur Champion‐ I happen to have an optometry appointment next Monday which I made months ago. Thankfully, I am not a client of Matthew, who is an Optometrist, because he will be traveling back to Belfast on Monday. Due to heavy rains in the start of the week, the US Mid Am was a marathon last fall with many starts in stops. In the end the final was between two Irishmen. McClean and Hugh Foley had spent three weeks together traveling in America, staying together and playing in the Mid‐Am. When both made the finals, it was a little bit odd that they carpooled to the final match together. Of course, Matthew won both the mid‐am over his good friend Hugh and his spot in The Masters. 

Aldrich Potgieter‐ British Amateur Champion‐ Aldrich is the second youngest British Amateur Champion ever. The only one younger is Matteo Mannassero, who I haven’t given up on yet. Aldrich was born in South Africa and raised in Australia. He currently studies at acclaimed Louis Oosthuizen Junior Golf Academy. He has also received an invitation to the Memorial so he will be in Columbus in two months. 

1992 Champion‐ Freddie “Boom Boom” Couples‐ With his old friend and roommate Jim Nantz retiring from announcing college hoops it only makes you think we are one year closer to Fred being done here. I really like what I am seeing from Fred though. Fred has been as vocal as anyone against the LIV Tour. It has been particularly amusing given his apathy about (almost) everything for the last 40 years. In the fall Fred posted a 61 in the second round of the SAS Championship which propelled him to his first win in over five years on the Senior Circuit. He has continued to play well this winter and spring. Fred hasn’t made the cut at The Masters since 2018 but I have a good feeling about it this week. 

1985 and 1993 Champion‐ Bernhard Langer ‐ Bernie shot his age twice enroute to his senior tour record setting 45th win earlier this year. Even though he didn’t adopt the anchoring ban it is still an impressive feat. He has a chance this week to become the oldest man to ever make the cut in The Masters. 

1987 Champion‐ Larry Mize ‐ This is it for Larry. The Augusta native will make his 40th and final appearance at The Masters this week. He hasn’t made the cut since 2017 and he hasn’t played in a Champions Tour event since August. I don’t think he makes the cut, but he will beat a few people. 

1988 Champion‐ Suspenders Lyle‐ Following the 1987 champion again, the 1988 champion is also calling it quits this week. We will all miss his style choices and ability to tell it like it is. However, he only broke 80 once in the Cologuard Classic during his most recent Senior Tour event. 

Raise a Coke and a pint the 1987 and 1988 champions Friday afternoon. 

1994 and 1999 Champion‐ Jose Maria Olazabal ‐ Jose will be making his 33rd career start The Masters this week. Even he admitted he was in shock after making the cut in 2021. He has only played in three Champions Tours events so far this year with a best finish of 52nd. I don’t think he can go out this year with Sandy and Larry saying goodbye, but the end must be near for Jose. 

2000 Champion‐ Vijay Singh ‐ Vijay turned 60 this winter. His workout and practice regime haven’t waivered though. He and Qass got a big win in the PNC parent‐Child in their 16th try. However, he hasn’t made the cut at The Masters since 2018. 

2003 Champion‐ Mike Weir‐ It has been 20 years since Mike beat Len Mattiace in a playoff to become the first lefty to win a green jacket. Since then, 5 more green jackets have gone to left‐handed golfers, of course none to Mike, whose game famously fell apart about 15 years ago. Since 2011 Weir has played in every Masters and made the cut twice with his best finish being 44th. In happier news, Mike and Bachelor alum Michelle Money have decided to tie the knot after seven years of dating. Michelle has been on hand to see only one cut made in those seven years. 

2004, 2006 and 2010 Champion‐ Phil “Nutbag” Mickelson‐ Hi Flyers Captain‐ I have not been a Phil fan for many, many years. However, I am thrilled to see him back this year. He feels like an old uncle who is just going to say whatever he wants and stir the pot. Last year he went into hiding after his comments about the Saudis were outed/reported. A reasonable decision I suppose but who knows what was going on there. Given the results of his play in the LIV it seems he will have plenty of free time on the weekend for takes. It will be interesting to see what he does. I am sure it will be exciting. 

2011 Champion‐Charl Schwartzel‐Stinger GC‐ If the LIV itself ever becomes more than a curiosity, a great trivia item will be the fact that Charl Schwartzel won the first ever event. Since the inaugural win Charl has returned to his normal play, which isn’t good. Charl will be joined in The Masters by 18 other LIV guys so just shy of a quarter of the field. It will be interesting to see what happens both with the LIV guys in the tournament and interacting with the PGA tour players. 

Not everyone will make the cut. In fact, only the top 50 and ties will. 

Sepp Straka‐ Sepp is back for his second straight Masters appearance. As an Austrian who moved to Georgia he is both the only Austrian in the field and one of the many people who went to college in Georgia in the field. Of the 88 players in The Masters this year exactly half, 44, are from America. There are five each from Australia and England, four from Canada and South Korea (4 from Ireland and Northern Ireland combined), and three from Spain and South Africa. 

As far as colleges are concerned there are 8 players who went to University of Georgia, plus one each from three other Georgia colleges. There are three from Oklahoma State, and two each from Arizona State, Arkansas, Cal, East Tennessee State, Can’t Read Can’t Write, Texas, Texas A&M, UNLV and Wake Forest. There are also 30 people who I don’t think went to college, but I wouldn’t swear by that number. 

In conclusion, if you want to play in The Masters it is best to be born in America and go to college in Georgia or not at all. 

Kevin Na‐ Captain Ironheads GC‐ I think it was classy of Kevin to name his LIV team after the late great Ironhead Heyward. I also appreciate that Kevin admits he left for LIV for the money. He essentially took the golden parachute. Wherever he has been playing he has been bad. However, as a captain he made the shrewd move to recruit Danny Lee who won the second LIV event of the year. 

2017 Champion‐Sergio Garcia‐ Fireballs Captain‐ Maybe the most ridiculous thing that has happened during the golf season is Sergio calling Rory immature. Sergio is acting the same way he did in 1999 when he broke onto the scene at Medinah. He has been awful on LIV. 

Gary Woodland‐ Gary is taking a page out of Tiger’s old book saying, “it’s close” despite all evidence being contrary to that. Gary has been bouncing in and out of the top 100 in the world this season. On top of his recent struggles, Gary has missed the cut in five of his last seven starts at The Masters. 

Bryson DeChambeau‐ Crushers GC Captain‐ Two years ago Bryson was the most exciting player in golf. He played bully ball on his way to the 2020 US Open victory. He came into The Masters with the second‐ best odds of anyone to win and claiming the course was a par 67 for him. Now he is just gone. He is doing random YouTube challenges and playing middle of the road golf on LIV. Personally think he should bulk back up to his post pandemic weight when he was living on protein shakes and possibly other ways to enhance his weight gain. That was peak Bryson. 

Harold Varner‐ Range Goat‐ All four of the Range Goats are in The Masters. You would think this would be good for the team in the LIV golf standings, but the Range Goats stand at 8th in the yearlong standings. Harold specifically is 36th. Harold was one of the few guys who left for LIV and admitted the obvious truth that they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. 

Cameron Champ‐ Cameron has been awful leading into this week. He has missed nine out of twelve cuts. He has only has one skill that is not below average on tour, which is driving distance. The only reason I am not totally discounting his chances is he was in a similar position last year. Last year he finished 10th with both bad form and just long drives so I guess there is hope. 

Billy Boy‐ Billy Boy has two impressive streaks going at The Masters. First, he has played 28 rounds there over the course of eight tournament appearances and has never broken 70. Second, two years in a row he has had to apologize following the event for losing it out on the course. I don’t think either streak forecasts a good week for Billy. Look for him under the Oak tree though for a wide‐ranging discussion. 

Mac Hughes‐ Mac won the Sanderson Farms tournament in early October. He had done almost nothing until the match play championship where he beat Max Homa before losing the quarterfinals. This will be his fourth Masters appearance. So far, he has missed the cut and finished 50th and 40th. 

Kevin Kisner‐ It has been a brutal year so far for Kisner who hasn’t finished inside the top 30 all season. He has also missed four cuts. He has never played well at The Masters with his best finish being a 21st in 2019. Kevin is currently in his last trip around the sun before he turns 40 and the way he is playing it will also be his last Masters. 

J.T. Poston‐ The self‐described, “The Other J.T.” was hot last summer with several good finishes including a win at The John Deere. Might make the cut, might not. He won’t be involved Sunday afternoon. 

Keegan Bradley‐ Hopefully Keegan is able to control his excitement about Rick Pitino walking through the door to coach his St. John Johnies. Keegan is having his best year in 10 years this year thanks largely to moving from a bad putter (compared to other pros) to an average putter. Due to his improvement, he will be making his first appearance at The Masters since 2019 and just his second since 2016. He has never finished better than 22nd at The Masters. 

Ryan Fox‐ Like his fellow Kiwi, Phil Tataurangi, Ryan is the son of a famous Rugby player. In fact, Ryan’s father was one of the stars of the All Blacks, the only rugby team I have ever heard of. Unlike Phil, Ryan is built like a Rugby player. Ryan is a long hitter and is in the midst of the greatest stretch of his career. Hopefully he can make the same seismic impact Phil did in his one Masters appearance with his T39 in 2003. 

Brian Harman‐ Surprisingly he is 27th in the world with two top 2 finishes in the fall moving from his normal position hovering around 60th in the world. His whole family is great scuba divers and spear fisherman. One of the many Georgians who are good golfers who don’t seem to do anything crazy. 

Danny Willett‐ Danny should have had his first win on American soil since the improbable 2016 Masters win. This time it was Danny choking it away. On the 72nd hole in Napa, Danny had a one shot lead and a 4 foot putt for a birdie. Meanwhile Max Homa was off the green. Max ended up making his chip and Danny three putted to lose it in regulation. Doesn’t seem great for his chances this week. 

Harry English‐ Based on his stats, Harry is not flushing it, but he has had two good finishes this season. This is only his fourth start at Augusta which was a surprise to me. 

Tyrrell Hatton‐ Tyrell will be making his seventh Masters start on Thursday. He has never played well with his best finish being 18th in 2021. On the other hand, he is playing very well this season. So, what will give. I am guessing it will be his streak at The Masters that will continue because Tyrell will not be able to control his emotions. 

Scott Stallings‐ Amusingly, Scott’s invitation to The Masters got sent to the wrong Scott Stallings when it was sent in December. There was a mix up with Scott’s mailing address and it went to a realtor in St. Simons Island named Scott Stallings. Scott the golfer thought his wife was playing a prank until Scott the realtor got in touch with him. Scott the realtor’s wife initially thought they had gotten tickets to The Masters until she opened it. After it got straightened out Scott the golfer got Scott the realtor tickets to The Masters after all. 

Russell Henley‐ The Georgia native and resident has winning The Masters one of three things on his bucket list. The other two are skydiving and visiting Italy. A win this week would almost lock up a spot on the Ryder Cup team which will be played in Italy in September. Russell could kill two birds with one stone this week. Maybe he could skydive in Italy while he is over there too. 

Frankie Molinari‐ Frankie is grinding hard to return to some form in order to qualify for the Ryder Cup team in his home country Italy this fall. Unfortunately, he still has a long way to go. He has had a few good finishes but more bad finishes. Since his near miss at The Masters in 2019 he has two missed cuts and a 55th. I don’t see this week being a positive in his Ryder quest. 

Alex Noren‐ In the most recent major Alex was faced with a bit of a predicament as he was the first alternate at The British Open but also had a spot at The Barracuda in Reno. He left St. Andrews for Weno, Nevada on Tuesday. He would have gotten into the British had he stayed. So at least he finished second in Reno to help him qualify for the Masters. He is 33% in making the cut in three tries at The Masters with his one made cut being a 62nd finish. 

2012 and 2014 Champion‐Bubba Watson‐ Range Goats Captain‐ While a perusing the golf books section at the bookstore this winter I was surprised to see Bubba had written a book. I was the one who read it. I now know a lot more about Bubba but my general feeling of him was unchanged. To sum it up, Bubba an idiot and acts like a jerk. Someone, usually numerous people, point this out to him and he realizes he was an idiot. After some soul searching, he sees the errors of his ways and tries to improve. Unfortunately, the book ends before the LIV ordeal begins, but I have a feeling this will be another mistake Bubba makes, regrets, and tries to make amends for in his own unique way. 

Kazuki Higa‐ Higa got a special invitation from The Masters which surprised me. After looking into it, it was clearly a tribute to Ian Woosnam. With the Wee Welshman Ian Woosnam officially retiring from the Masters at the end of last year’s competition, it was very considerate of The Masters to extend a special invitation to the 5’2” Higa. Higa has had most of his success in Japan where he has won four times since the end of last year’s Masters. This will be his second major appearance after missing the cut in the British Open last year. 

Finally, I miss the old world rankings where three or four guys from the Asian tour could sneak into the top 50 at the end of the year and get a Masters invitation. I saw Satoshi Kodaira was playing in the Valspar last weekend and missed him a little bit. 

Big Trophy, Little Guy 

2007 Champion‐ Jerk Johnson‐ I don’t want to get political but I think we can all agree as a country we have been blessed by competent and stable leadership for at least the last seven years. Unfortunately, this fall we will be faced with a very polarizing person leading America as our Ryder Cup captain. The Jerk will be the captain of America as we take on Europe in the Ryder Cup in Italy. He will be going against Chicago’s own Luke Donald who will be captaining Europe. It will be nice to see two Midwesterners on the world stage but given the past shenanigans of our captain it will be tough to be too patriotic that week. 

It is hard to get these guys excited about much when it comes to playing nice golf courses, but even they seem excited about two more rounds at Augusta. 

Kurt Kitayama‐ I am not sure what to make of Kurt. A year ago, he was 150th in the world and joking referred to as The Kitty Kat on The Shotgun Start. What we have seen from him this year makes me think he might just be good? He has had a great year and is the only guy who isn’t considered either a star or rising star that has won one of the designated events. His rally after making a triple on 9 and then a birdie on 17 to win at Bay Hill was very impressive. I am curious to see what happens with the Quadzilla. 

Brooks Koepka‐ Smash GC Captain‐ Is it possible that Brooks decision to leave for LIV was he only cares about majors so if he is being offered a bunch of money to play the other events why not take it? Brooks held off the hard charging Bassy Munoz last week to become the first guy to ever win two LIV events. Last year was the first year since 2013 where he didn’t finish in the top 10 in at least one major. Last year he missed two cuts and finished 55th in the other two. Can he regain any of that form or is he just going to be playing on obsolescence and yelling at Florida Panthers players for the rest of his life? 

K.H. Lee‐ The husky boy makes his hay at the Byron Nelson which will be played in about a month. He has won that tournament two years in a row. K.H. Lee aspires to be both world #1 and worlds sexiest golfer. I am not sure how he is working towards the sexiest golfer title but making the cut this week would be a good start towards #1. 

Sam Burns‐ On his PGA Tour bio Sam Burns lists his favorite golf memory as David Toms winning the 2011 Crowne Plaza. Sam went to LSU so I can why this tournament mattered to him, but favorite memory? David shot a final round 67 to beat Charlie Wi by 1 stroke during the heyday of Charlie’s stack and tilt days. This is only Sam’s second Masters appearance after he missed the cut last year. But coming off his victory at the final match play event he has to be feeling good. 

Collin Morikawa‐ I am in a year long fantasy golf league and for the second year in a row I have Collin on my team. As soon as I submitted my team, I regretted it. There was a glimmer of hope after the first round of the players after he decided to go back to his trusty fade. Then he got the good weather for most of his second round and third round and was in reverse when Tom Hoge was breaking the course record and everyone else was going low. Finally, and I won’t put this all on him because it might be his fiancés dog, but the cut in Full Swing from Tony Finau talking about learning to play by hitting balls into a mattress in a garage to Collin’s dog on a private jet wearing shoes was a rough look for him. 

Si Woo Kim‐ Si Woo picked up his fourth PGA Tour title in January in Hawaii. He will turn 28 in June which is when South Koreans are required to begin their military service. This leaves him this year to win a major or I assume he is headed to the military. Given what we know about Si Woo the military doesn’t seem like his cup of tea. 

Jason Kokrak‐ Smash GC‐ When we were watching the first LIV event ever on television my son declared he liked Smash GC because their logo looks like a fish. Rain or Shine...Its time to Smash. Last weekend was the first time LIV was more compelling than the PGA Tour, so I had it on tv and my son was pleased to see his fish team on top of the leaderboard. Jason finished 14th last year at Augusta. 

Joaquin Niemann‐ Torkay Captain‐ “I think it is going to be more fun knowing that they hate us.” Joaquin is excited to take on his old pals this week. We will see how much this motivates him. He has finished 40th and 35th in the last two years Masters and I suspect he will continue that improvement this week. No matter how he plays we need to get to the bottom of why Torque was being pronounced Tor‐ Kay on Sunday. This has to fall on the captain’s shoulders. 

Louis Oosthuizen‐ Stinger Captain‐ The only time Louis has finished inside the top 10 at The Masters was in 2012 the year he lost to Bubba in the playoff. After a wonderful year in the majors in 2021 with three top three finishes, last year was a disaster. He had to withdraw from The Masters with a neck injury, finished 60th at the PGA and missed the cut in the final two majors. 

Tom Hoagie‐ Tom has made a lot of news this year with his air travel. First, he flew from Hawaii to Los Angeles to watch his beloved Horned Frogs play for the National Title. The game was an unmitigated disaster for the Horned Frogs and Tom was there to witness it. He then flew back to Hawaii to play in the next tournament. He also made news flying home from the players after winning $1.5 million (after setting the course record Saturday) when he tweeted he was seated in seat 21C. This is his second appearance at The Masters after finishing 29th last year. 

Shane Lowry‐ Shane finished third last year. He isn’t playing as well as he was last year coming in but he has been up to practice with Rory so that should help him. 

Mito Pereira‐ Torque‐ On 17 at the PGA last year Mito left his birdie out on the lip. If it rolls another half an inch, he goes to 18 with a two‐shot lead and probably doesn’t make the worst swing of the year off the 18th tee. He is likely the reigning PGA Champion and the first and sixth episode of Full Swing is dramatically different. Instead, he stood up on 18 and did what he did. He has now quite literally vanished onto the LIV Tour. 

Mito’s LIV profile picture 

Thomas Pieters‐ RangeGoats‐ After a breakout performance at the 2016 Ryder Cup, Pieters looked poised to become a superstar and future leader of Ryder Cup teams. Of course, that didn’t happen. This winter he reemerged back inside the top 30 in the world. Then he got upset that he didn’t get invited to the Genesis and joined the LIV tour. Throwing a fit is probably not the best way to manage a career. 

2018 Champion‐ Patrick Reed‐ Four Aces‐ I say this knowing I run the risk of joining the ever growing and comically long list of people he is suing. You have to give Patrick credit; he has signed up for a golf tour that virtually no one watches but was still able to find himself embroiled in a rules controversy/blatant violation of the rules in January about which palm tree his ball went into. 

Patrick must be pleased that Gary Player is around and spouting off again. He might be able to slide into second least likeable past champion. 

Tom Kim‐ I feel I must include for the people who don’t follow golf daily that Tom is nicknamed “Tom” because he liked Thomas the Train when he was a kid. His given name is Joo‐hyung. Tom, who doesn’t turn 21 until June, had a meteoric rise in the second half of 2022. He was the highlight of the President’s Cup. His 2023 has been solid but not as electric. The one thing that might be holding him back is his driving distance. With an average driving distance of 295 yards, he is only 122nd on the PGA Tour. He will be giving up 30 yards off the tee to Rory who leads the tour. 

Justin Rose‐ All his European contemporaries left for the LIV tour, but Justin surprisingly stayed. I was surprised at first, but I think I know why. He met with Westy, Poultry, Sergio and Steely Stenson last summer to discuss it. They decided that if Justin left for LIV the Mastercard commercial that includes, “now for the drizzle” that airs every three minutes during PGA Tour events would be pulled. But if Justin stayed on The PGA Tour the commercial will drive more fans away from the PGA Tour towards LIV broadcasts. 

Jason Day‐ All the sudden Jason Day is back on the scene. Jason could have more than one green jacket if just a couple things down the stretch had gone differently over the years. He has a 2nd, 3rd and 5th. Of course, he is made of glass so it could all fall apart at any minute. 

Taylor Moore‐ Taylor will not only be making his debut at The Masters this week, but he will also making his major championship debut thanks to his win three weeks ago at The Valspar. The former Arkansas Razorback could have played baseball at Arkansas but chose to play golf instead. He turned pro in 2016 and is in his second season on tour. One of the three results google suggests when I typed his name in is, “How tall is Greyson Sigg?” I don’t know how that is relevant, but the algorithm knows all. 

2013 Champion‐ Adam Scott‐ It has been ten years since Adam won his green jacket with the dramatic playoff victory against the 2009 Masters Champion Angel Cabrera. In hindsight especially, it is a good thing Adam pulled out that victory. The champions from 2007 through 2018 were ugly enough as it is. Nothing particularly new to report about Adam. He hits it great and looks great doing it. He can’t putt and looks awkward with his long putter. He will wear all tan/beige at least once this week. 

Adam Svensson‐ The Canadian is making his debut in a major this week 20 years after the only Canadian won The Masters. Adam started his golf career as a five year old and like most kids enjoyed driving the cart quite a bit. What makes it noteworthy is Adam drove a cart into a pond at the age of five. He was undeterred and got his first win on the PGA Tour on a cool day in Sea Island last November. 

Honest Abe Ancer‐ Fireballs‐ As a member of the Fireballs, Abe is learning at the knee of his captain and 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia. Honest Abe has also partnered with a local car dealer, Mark Wahlberg, to sell his tequila Flecha Azul. It is difficult to tell how the LIV boys are actually playing but Abe did win the PIF Saudi International Powered by Softbank Investment Advisers championship in February. He beat Cameron Young by 2 strokes. 

Tony Finau‐ Remember when Tony was better known as the cousin of that guy who played for Duke? Tony has finished in the top 24 of every event this PGA Tour season. As soon as the major season ended last year, he caught fire. He has cooled down some since then but continues to play well. He has also played will at The Masters with three top 10s in his five starts. It would be great to see Tony wearing the green jacket Sunday night. 

Tommy Fleetwood‐ Tommy now trails only Cameron Tringale for most money won on the PGA Tour without a victory, and he will pass him this season barring disaster. He is playing better this year than last but of course still no wins despite being close at The Valspar. He has made the cut at The Masters five years in a row with the results varying between T14 and T46. 

    I find it amusing both these guys went to East Tennessee State 

Seamus Power‐ Seamus was leading the FedEx Cup standings for a while this season thanks to his win at The Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Seamus hails from Ireland where his father was a livestock farmer. In his youth he played in the world racquetball championship. In the 1999 Racquetball World Championship Seamus was a top finisher in the U‐12 division. Following this he moved to handball where he dominated the local Ireland scene. He also got into golf and played junior golf with Rory and Shane Lowry. He ended up at East Tennessee State when his fellow Irishman Rory decided he didn’t need to spend any time in Johnson City, Tennessee and went pro instead. It seems to have worked out well for both guys. 

Adrian Meronk‐ Adrian and I share a birthday although he is slightly taller than me. Adrian is a 6’6” man from Poland. He is the best golfer ever from Poland. He hopes to play on the PGA Tour next season. Unfortunately, not all Americans have shown him a warm welcome. While he was playing the Honda Classic, a concession stand worker had gone into the locker room and stolen his trackman and his iPad. Fortunately, the thief wasn’t much of a crook. Both items were able to be tracked by Adrian’s phone and the items were quickly recovered and returned to Adrian. This will be his first Masters. Hopefully he gets paired with Kazuki Higa. 

 Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffle‐ Aside from Patrick’s new sponsor DeWalt, chronicled amusingly by Tron Carter at No Laying Up, there isn’t much new with these two guys. They are studs when paired together as teammates in the Presidents or Ryder Cup. They are 4th and 7th in the world. They do almost nothing in major championships. Patrick had two top 10 finishes in 2019, including almost ruining everyone’s day when he briefly got the lead over Tiger. This was news to me, but apparently, he finished 8th in last year’s British Open. Xander has had some more success and really could have won the 2021 US Open except he was protesting the arm lock putter style by using one. Anyway, I would like to see one of these two (or both) show something in golf’s biggest events. They have all the talent in the world. 

Matt Fitzpatrick‐ Following his win in The US Open there was a great and deserved appreciation for how hard and meticulously he works. He charts every shot he hits and inputs it into a program developed by a fellow US Amateur champion Edoardo Molinari. Thanks to all his dedication, he was a top 10 player at the start of the year. Unfortunately, his neck is hurt and he isn’t playing as well this year. 

Willy Zalatoris‐ Noted reporter Fred Couples reported Willy turned down $130 million dollars from LIV. That is a lot of money for a 24 year old with a bad back and a shaky putter. So far this year Willy has not been very good as he recovers from a back injury. However, has been awesome in his two Masters starts and in majors in general. Hopefully he is good to go this week. 

Min Woo Lee‐ Min Woo made his debut in the Masters with a 14th place finish last year. He played with Scottie in the final group of the players where he was electric on Saturday. He has amazing power, and he will be able to let it lose this week. Last year he had his sister, LPGA star Minjee Lee, as his caddie but he felt she showed off too much so she has been let go for this year. 

Keith Mitchell‐ Keith is the best dressed guy on tour. Of all the guys on tour Keith Mitchell seems to be the least likely to leave for LIV because he clearly likes to look nice when he plays. One great thing LIV is doing is showing how much better wearing pants instead of shorts looks. Keith always looks sharp out there in tailored slacks and a nice visor every time he tees it up. He would have fit in well in the 1980s tour. He has been playing great this year. 

1997, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019 Champion‐ Tiger‐ The last two years have given us an appreciation of his incredible ability to grind out a round. He can barely walk and last year at both The Masters and PGA he found a way into the weekend. The easy thing would be to miss the cut and call it a week, but he has ground out making the cut at last year’s Masters, The PGA and The LA Open this year. I suspect that he will be able to grind out a cut again this week, but we will be watching his suffering walk around early on Sunday. 

One other Tiger related item, the guy has had a ton of surgeries over the last 20 years. He has also been out of the public eye for lengthy periods of time. However, he has never done anything about his hairline. Unlike his fellow Nike athlete who plays for The Lakers he has accepted his fate as a bald guy. 

Back in the old days everyone who finished in the top 16 and ties qualified for The Masters the following year. That has been lowered to top 12 and ties for the past few years. Unlike Fred Ridley I am not just going to be making changes willy nilly. 

16)  2021 Champion‐ Hideki Matsuyama‐ Rumored throughout much of last summer to be headed to LIV for an enormous amount of money, Hideki has remained on the PGA Tour. The only other news on the Hideki front was his amusing disqualification from The Memorial last year when he had white out painted on his three wood for some reason. Hideki has finished inside the top 14 in eight of the last nine Masters, including of course his victory in 2021. 

15) Sahith Theegala‐ Sahith’s dad was my favorite guy on Full Swing. Sahith getting into contention would be great just to see his reactions all weekend. Sahith is making his Masters debut this week, but I am expecting a good week. Sahith got a little unlucky by graduating from Pepperdine in 2020 so his opportunity to get onto the PGA Tour was limited due to Covid‐19 stuff. However, when you are really good, they can’t keep you down forever. And he was very good last year and moved into the top 30 in the world this winter. He is a wild driver but that should be mitigated this week at Augusta National. 

14) Talor Gooch‐ Range Goats‐ After being a part of the dominant Four Aces last year, the world was shocked when the two former Masters Champions Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson got together to trade Talor for Peter Uihlein. Many people were scratching their heads at what Captain Johnson was doing but so far Uihlein has been playing with a lot of fire in his belly and Gooch finished 14th in the first two LIV events of the year. Coincidentally, Talor also finished 14th in his lone Masters appearance last year. 

13) Max Homa‐ Max has been one of the five best players in the world in 2023. Max has made a lot of fans with all his podcast appearances, but his play is now matching his level of fame. He has also been downright awful in majors so far. Hopefully, like he did in regular events, he will blossom into a good majors player. Last year when he finished 48th was a substantial improvement of the missed cuts the two previous years. 

12) Viktor Hovland‐ Viktor hits so many good shots but at this point he is the definition of a thrower instead of a pitcher. If the swing hard and flush it isn’t working, he doesn’t have much else. Fortunately, that is usually working well. Unfortunately, there are the occasional days/holes where he needs to do something else. He makes a lot of doubles and triples because his short game is shaky so any ball that doesn’t hit the green in regulation brings double into play. Many of us can relate to that aspect of his game. 

11) 2020 Champion‐ Dustin Johnson‐ Four Aces Captain‐ DJ is just being DJ. He is only guy on LIV that would be welcomed back with open arms even though he was the first to leave. He will just go play golf this week and see what happens. 

10) Justin Thomas‐ JT is the most exciting shot maker in the game these days. He is always trying to hit the miraculous shot. He is so talented that most of the time this works out, however, occasionally it leads to disaster. Those disasters combined with a so‐so putter means JT doesn’t win as much as I think he could. He needs to take a page out of David Sims book and realize fairways and greens are good. 

9) Sungjae Im‐ The consistency of Sungjae is incredible. For the past two years he has been ranked between 30th and 18th. This is incredible with one win that time frame and a bunch of finishes between 5th and 10th. Last year Sungjae was your round 1 leader. He struggled a little in round 4 but finished 8th for his second top 10 in three years. 

8) Chris Kirk‐ Chris had a fantastic victory in the Honda after coming back from the depths of depression and alcoholism. He was raised in Georgia and is one of the eight former bulldogs in the field this week. This will be his first start at The Masters since 2016 but he is having a great year. 

7) Jon Rahm‐ Well Jon, what have you done for me lately? If they had played The Masters on March 6th instead of April 6th Jon would have been the overwhelming favorite. He had won three events by that time and was seemingly unbeatable. He was forced to withdraw from the players due to some stomach issues and was so so in the match play if that means anything. We will see if he peaked to early or got some well earned rest before The Masters. 

6) Corey Conners‐ The smooth swinging Canuck made my day Sunday with his second victory at the Valero Texas Open. He was the only guy on the leaderboard who was already into The Masters. Corey has finished inside the top 10 at Augusta the last three years and there doesn’t seem to be any reason he can’t do it again. He is one of the best players in the world from tee to green and not once he gets on the green. 

5) Cameron Smith‐ Captain Ripper GC‐ Cam winning the British was an incredible display of putting on the final nine holes. It felt like he just took Rory’s lunch money and there was nothing Rory could do to stop it. Cam clearly has a game tailor made for Augusta. He has finished in the top 10 in four of the last five Masters. He has not played that great in the three LIV events but the courses LIV is playing don’t really cater to his game. 

4)  2022 Champion‐ Scottie Scheffler‐ Scottie has been on his defense tour all season having won three events prior to last year’s Masters victory. In the first three he gave a very spirited defense with a win in Phoenix, a 4th at Arnold Palmer and a 4th in the match play. He also added the win at The Players. The way he plays is called boring, but I really enjoy it. He makes golf seem so simple. Hit the ball out into the fairway, hit it onto the green and putt. If you miss the green just chip it in or very close and move on to the next hole. 

3)  2015 Champion‐ Jordan Spieth‐ Conversely, Jordan makes golf look like the hardest thing to do in the world. Jordan is the only pro golfer who I truly have any emotion tied to their performance every week. It has been an exciting spring with Jordan being near the lead numerous times. It also makes me think there is no chance he will win this week but will be very much in it on the back nine. Every tournament, including many of the last 9 Masters, we walk away from the event saying, “if only he had putted/driven/not hit in the water on 12” he would have won. Unfortunately, he always does one of those things. It is just a surprise to all of us which one will happen. 

2) Cameron Young‐ For years I expected if Webb Simpson ever had a chance to win The Masters it would be on a year when the final round was on Easter Sunday. Unfortunately, Webb isn’t in this year’s edition of The Masters. However, Cam has recently retained the services of Webb’s long time bag man and friend Paul Tesori. Paul also caddied for a Masters champion 22 years ago when The Victorious Lion, Vijay Singh, won his green jacket. Cameron continues to play really well and not win with another 2nd place finish in The Match Play. He finished 2nd in two of the four majors last year. 

1) Rory McIloy‐ Big Jay has released Rory from managing the tour so he can focus the golf this week. As I watched the final episode of Full Swing, I remember thinking that it felt like if Rory won The Brisitsh Open he might win 5 more majors but if doesn’t win he won’t win another one. He looked so sad on 18 when it was official that he wasn’t going to win. But Rory has been inspired for the last year. He seemed to be cruising to another non‐competitive top 5 last year. All the sudden he caught fire to close the gap on Scottie down the stretch and then thrillingly made that bunker shot on 18. Since then, he has been playing great and leading the battle against LIV. Sometimes the right guy wins at the right time. He didn’t get the win at St. Andrews, but he will complete the career grand slam this week. As the rolling Stones say, “you can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.” 

Redemption at last