By Derek Duncan
Perhaps no other golf course has been altered more thoroughly or more publicly as Augusta National. Each off-season, behind closed gates, the club makes alterations to the holes, some minor and others profound, shoring up perceived weaknesses and to protect it against anticipated offensives.

Much of the work that’s done is almost imperceptibly sculptural, like the fine grading of slopes and mounds around greens, on putting surfaces or on tees. Every several years, changes are introduced that are more structural, like the modifications of the 11th hole in 2022 that included a realigned tee, the removal of a grove of trees down the right side and the deepening of the bailout area right of the green.

Lengthening holes is a necessary step to maintain validity as the world’s highest-profile tournament venue. The club has long asserted its primary goal is to safeguard the integrity of the prescribed strategies of each hole, and adding back tees is a good-faith effort to ensure that Scottie Scheffler is hitting somewhat comparable clubs into greens that past champions have. The only way to honour the “momentous decision” that Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones envisioned for the second shot at the 13th, for example, is to add yardage so players are hitting longer irons into the green instead of lofted clubs.

But at some point, Augusta might run out of room. The club has already gone to extreme measures to stretch holes in order to preserve historic shot values — in 2018 they rerouted a section of Old Berckmans Road in order to extend the fifth tee 40 extra yards, and in 2017 the club purchased, for an undisclosed price (but reportedly in the eight-figure range), a section of land behind the 13th tee belonging to neighboring Augusta Country Club that will eventually give them the flexibility to stretch that hole up to, perhaps, 75 yards.

This year the 15th hole was lengthened from 530 yards to 550 yards to make the choice to go for the green in two more agonizing. But to do so a type of rampart had to be built up to support the new back tee. Heavily landscaped, it’s graded into a hillside near the 11th fairway. The tees of numerous other holes are already up against natural and infrastructural boundaries limiting future expansion.

Outside of the game’s governing bodies further regulating equipment, or the club introducing a reduced flight Masters tournament ball, don’t put it past Augusta to come up with heretofore unthought-of solutions to this issue when price is no object. Acquiring land and rebuilding boundaries is already in the playbook. Certain holes possess no obvious solutions — to protect their character, modifications would have to be made at the green or through bunkering.

Holes such as one, three, five, eight, nine, 10, 12, 14 and 17 have no place to go. But for others, considering normal logistical realities, how much room exists for more yards, and what are the alternatives if nothing more is done to control the lengths players hit the ball?

Let’s look at the geography of the Augusta National and possible options for the future.

Hole 2

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

The tees are set tight against the northern corner of the course with outbuildings on the other side of the fence, so there’s no room for extension there. But added length is not currently needed at this par 5 — it continues to function as intended with players attempting to hit the green with long irons and hybrids. However, if that changes, the club could choose to relocate the entire green complex, moving it 15 to 20 yards further back into the open space behind it.

That might seem desperate or far-fetched, but with modern GPS mapping and construction technology, the precise elevations and measurements of the existing green and surrounds can be recorded, and the features reproduced in exact form on a new section of land.

Hole 6

Dom Furore

As it stands, there’s no potential to lengthen the par-3 sixth since both the tees and the green are boxed in by the fifth and seventh holes. The hole plays 180 yards downhill, just a short iron for the pros. This is a potential criticism of Augusta National — three of the par 3s can often be played with the same club depending on pin positions or conditions —usually a 7, 8 or 9-iron.

In a scenario where all cards are on the table, the club could use the opportunity to convert the sixth into a 200- to 205-yard hole by shifting the entire fifth hole to the west (to the right if looking from the tee box) where there’s 30 to 35 yards of available space, re-creating the wave-like green in exact form. This opens enough room for a tee extension on No. 6 and more diverse club selection among the par 3s.

Hole 7

JD Cuban

There’s no room to go further back on No. 7 — the hole’s already been narrowed and stretched 90 yards since 2001, transforming it from the course’s second sporty short par 4 (along with the third) into a long, US Open-type of hole. It should be a candidate for a significant restoration in keeping with the spirit of the way it played for decades, but it’s hard to envision the club doing much here — the tightness of the drive and the small, partitioned green have proven to be significant if restrictive defenses.

But like the second hole, if a move ever needs to be made, the entire green complex can be shifted 10 to 20 yards farther back into the same hillside.

Hole 11

Ben Walton

Eleven has become the blockbuster film franchise that lurches in different directions each time the story is rebooted. No other hole has been as continually adjusted and redesigned, beginning with Robert Trent Jones’ major remodel in the early 1950s and continuing in stages through 2022. Interestingly, there’s still room to take the tees on 11 back another 50 yards. The club would love to disperse that land elsewhere, because the appetite for stretching a par 4 that’s already the most difficult hole on the course to 530 or more yards is low.

If nothing is done to control the flight of the ball, the par 5 15th might need to be extended further at some point. There’s another 10 yards on the existing back platform built for the 2022 Masters, but if they need to push it back even more, the entire 11th hole could be shifted southeast, or to the left, to orient the tee shot away from the new 15th tee. The land is there, and a reconstruction that opened up the left side of the 11th fairway would recreate the old left-to-right drive and leave an approach angle that must cross over the corner of the pond guarding the green.

Hole 13

It’s no secret that Augusta will utilise the land it acquired behind the existing 13th tee at some point — the question is, when will the shot data the club collects finally indicate it’s time? The strongest drives on this par 5 currently leave approach shots in the 180- to 210-yard range, an easy call if the lie is good.

The ability to shift the tees back 30-40 yards — at least to begin with — would mean players would have to drive the ball 300 yards or more, turning it over with high, right-to-left spin, just to reach the same position. For tee shots that aren’t perfectly positioned, those decisions to go for it would once again become far more momentous.

Hole 15

Mike Ehrmann

Don’t be fooled by the fact that no eagles were recorded at 15 in 2022 — that was due more to the cold, blustery weather than the added length. Give the players another year and more normal conditions, and the longer hitters will again be taking aim at the green. That might, at some point in the future, inspire the club to continue to move the tees back (see: Hole 11). Now that they are creating landforms, why stop?

Hole 16

There’s no apparent reason to lengthen 16 — the hole is either a birdie hole, a reasonable par or a hard par all based on where the hole is cut. But if the club wanted to gap out the par-3 distances, there’s room to take the tee back another 15 yards, and the angle can be altered as well to orient the tee shot more toward the pond.

This would be an easier candidate to stretch to 200-210 yeads (see: Hole 6), but the tiered green isn’t as receptive to 6-irons as it is to 8-irons.

Hole 18

Adam Glanzman

Given the amount of technology, subterranean networks and hi-tech infrastructure already embedded in Augusta National, not to mention the penchant for emphatic change, it’s a small step for the club to begin relocating greens and even entire holes if the mandates of professional tournament golf go unchecked. The tee at 18 has almost nowhere to go, but the green complex could slide up farther on the hill, where the club has another 25 yards to play with. This is already a demanding uphill hole, but in good conditions many players are hitting short irons into the green—given history and the desire to control outcomes, you know Augusta would like to see that change.

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The post Nine holes Augusta National could change to spice up the Masters challenge appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Stephen Hennessey
There was an awkward exchange in the media room ahead of the 2022 Masters, in which a European reporter stumbled over a question in which he asked Scottie Scheffler: “I’ve been asked a lot, like, what are you like? I have no idea other than you being a very, very good golfer.”

Scheffler politely laughed off the question, recommending the reporter ask his wife. During his prolific stretch of four wins in a six-event span, punctuated by his three-stroke victory at Augusta National, golf fans have gotten to know a little more about the world No. 1.

You know Scheffler is a gritty competitor on the course, but you still might not know too much more about him off the course. Leave it to us to tell you all about golf’s new superstar.

1. Scottie Scheffler grew up in Texas but lived in northern New Jersey until he was six years old.

Though he’s grown up in Texas most of his life, he’s got strong Jersey roots. His mother, Diane, was high-school classmates of the late actor James Gandolfini at Park Ridge High School. His father, Scott, attended St Cecilia’s High School in Englewood, New Jersey (where the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi was a gym teacher).

When Diane got a job as COO of a law firm in Dallas, the Schefflers moved.

The new Masters champion recalled hitting shots in his backyard when asked about his Jersey upbringing during Masters Week. Scheffler called himself a Bruce Springsteen fan thanks to his Jersey roots.

2. The Schefflers borrowed money to join Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, mostly so that Scottie had a place to practice. He began working with his swing coach, Randy Smith, at age six.

Scheffler is still a member at Royal Oaks and plays most of his golf there while he’s home.

Smith, a mainstay on Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers ranking and coach to Justin Leonard, Colt Knost, Harrison Frazar and other tour pros through the years, recalls meeting Scheffler when he was “no more than 3ft tall.”

“I walked down, his parents were there and they introduced him,” Smith recalls, “and he took his hat off, shook my hand, then went back to hitting balls.”

3. Scheffler grew up dreaming of being able to hit on the side of the Royal Oaks range where the tour pros practiced. Now he does … watch the video below as we explore Scheffler’s life at home in a recent video.

Watch below:

Scheffler was short for his age until he hit a growth spurt his sophomore year of high school. He still loves basketball—telling Golf Digest in 2014 that it’s his favorite sport to watch on TV—and while shooting around, he once hit 30 3-pointers in a row.

He always knew, though, that golf was his sport. As he told our Keely Levins in 2018: “In high school, I narrowed it down to just basketball and golf. My whole life, I knew how much I loved golf. It was the one sport I always wanted to be playing, regardless of the season.”

4. Scheffler attended Highland Park High School in Dallas, the same high school where Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matt Stafford went (though Scheffler is younger than them).

Scheffler’s first PGA Tour win came on Super Bowl Sunday at the WM Phoenix Open — the same day when Stafford won his career-changing Super Bowl with the Rams.

5. In high school, Scheffler started dating his wife, Meredith, and they’ve been together ever since.

Meredith was new to Highland Park her sophomore year, and recalls sitting next to Scottie in a math class. They started dating as seniors.

In the above ‘At Home’ video we did with the Schefflers, Scottie calls Meredith his best friend. And she has clearly been a huge influence on him.

Ahead of the final round of the Masters, Scottie admitted that he was “crying like a baby” on Sunday morning, unsure if he could handle the pressure. It was Meredith who assured him to be himself and trust the game that got him in that position.

6. He won the US Junior Amateur and earned an invitation to play in his first PGA Tour event at age 17.

Among many amateur accomplishments, this was the biggest. Scheffler defeated current PGA Tour player Davis Riley, 3&2, at Martis Camp in Truckee, California.

7. In his first PGA Tour event as an amateur, he made a hole-in-one.

With the US Junior Amateur title, he received an exemption into the 2014 Byron Nelson Championship. The Dallas native made the cut — then aced the 221-yard second hole with a 5-iron. He carded three rounds in the 60s and finished T-22.

8. An esteemed collegiate career at the University of Texas set expectations high for Scheffler as he turned pro.

Scheffler won national Freshman of the Year honors after winning back-to-back events (the Big 12 Championship and Western Intercollegiate) and was named to the 2017 Ben Hogan award watch list.

9. It might be time for a car upgrade: Scheffler still drives the same car he had in college, a Chevy Suburban with more than 175,000 miles on it.

Scheffler’s father handed his old car to Scottie while he was in college. We’d guess he might splurge on a new ride, given all the cash he’s made this season.

10. Scheffler represented the US at the 2017 Walker Cup, as a part of a star-studded squad.

The team, which consisted of current PGA Tour pros Collin Morikawa, Will Zalatoris, Maverick McNealy, Cameron Champ, Doug Ghim and Doc Redman, crushed the Great Britain & Ireland team 19-7 at Los Angeles Country Club.

11. At the 2020 Northern Trust, Scheffler shot a 59 in the second round.

He became the 12th player to card a sub-60 round on the PGA Tour — and was the second youngest to do so.

Scottie Scheffler

12. Major championship success came early for Scheffler — even as an amateur.

He was the first-round leader at the 2016 US Open at Oakmont as a 19-year-old college sophomore, where his sister, Callie, caddied for him. Scheffler said that week: “I’m glad she was able to get the week off to come help me out. She’s a week into an internship, and she’s already asking for a week off. Hopefully she doesn’t get in trouble.”

13. Scheffler switched to a new putter ahead of his win at the WM Phoenix Open.

After a trip to the Scotty Cameron putting studio in California in the offseason, the Texan switched to a Cameron by Titleist Special Select Timeless Tourtype GSS — and went on to win his first tour event that week.

He also noticed the putter was slightly off the week of the Masters, so he asked Titleist tour reps to take a look. They noticed the loft and lie angles were significantly off—and so they tweaked the putter to Scottie’s liking the day before the Masters started.

14. In winning the Masters, Scheffler joined Ian Woosnam as the only players to win the Masters in their next start after becoming world No. 1.

Scheffler also joined Woosnam, Fred Couples, Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson as the only players to win the Masters while being world No. 1.

15. With first-place winnings of $2.7 million, Scheffler has now made more than $10 million in the 2021-22 season alone.

Of course, those are just on-course earnings. The endorsement opportunities will come quickly for Scheffler, who wears Nike apparel and just inked a deal with TaylorMade.

The post 15 things you might not know about Masters champ Scottie Scheffler appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
With a sample size approaching nearly eight years and almost 30 majors, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what has been plaguing Rory McIlroy in the four biggest events on the calendar since he last won one in 2014. He has been, quite simply, awful on Thursdays.

Yet still, it doesn’t make the statistics any less shocking when you actually see them laid out. Or any less depressing.

As the saying goes, you cannot win a tournament on Thursday, but you can certainly lose it. That’s just what McIlroy has done over his last 27 majors since winning career major No. 4 at the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla. According to the Twenty First Group, McIlroy is a cringeworthy 35-over par in the first round of major championships since Valhalla. Ouch.

The stat is made much more painful to look at when you see just how fast of a starter the Northern Irishman was in majors between 2010 and 2014, when he picked off four of them and the question became “when will he get to 10?” as opposed to the question we’re asking now of “when will he win another?” During that four-year span, McIlroy was 19-under in the opening round of majors, 16 strokes better than any other player.

Incredibly, McIlroy has still managed to post 14 top 10s in the 27 majors since his last win, a product of his ability to go low on the weekend while seemingly out of contention. Last week’s Masters served as the latest proof, with McIlroy opening with a round of one-over 73. He then went 73-71-64, playing the final 54 holes in eight-under to finish in solo second.

Since the 2014 PGA, McIlroy is a ridiculous 68-under par in rounds 2-4 of major championships. There are only two players who have done better in that same span: Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth. In that time, that duo has combined to win seven major championships.

As for McIlroy, he’s won zero in that span, his slow starts proving to be too difficult to overcome. Should that change in the near future, perhaps McIlroy might find his major mojo again.

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The post The rather-obvious-yet-still-shocking stat that explains Rory McIlroy’s majors drought appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
Playing the coulda-shoulda-woulda game is about as futile as it gets in golf, especially at the Masters. However, Harry Higgs might allow himself to play it over one shot from Sunday, because he coulda-shoulda-woulda earned an invitation into the 2023 Masters had that one shot gone differently.

Of course, Higgs hit 71 shots on Sunday, 290 for the week, so he could coulda-shoulda-woulda’d all of them, too. Like we said, a futile effort.

But this one has to be particularly painful. In the final round at Augusta National, Higgs almost pulled off something only Louis Oosthuizen can say he’s pulled off in Masters history — make an albatross at the par-5 second. Oosthuizen accomplished the incredible feat in 2012, propelling him into a sudden-death playoff later that day with Bubba Watson, which he lost. Here’s how close Higgs came to history:

Harry Higgs was THIS close to an albatross pic.twitter.com/xOOcgKhFHX

— GolfBet (@GolfBet) April 10, 2022

Man, what could have been. We’re not saying Higgs may have removed his shirt, but given how lenient Augusta National has (seemingly) gotten in some areas, we’re not ruling it out, either.

Of much greater importance, though, was Higgs’ final-round 71, which, again, would have been 70 had this albatross dropped. Had that been the case, Higgs would have tied for 12th as opposed to 14th. Why does that matter? The top 12 finishers including ties receive an invitation into next year’s Masters. Higgs came about a half-inch from securing another one of those glorious envelopes. Brutal.

That said, he could have avoided double bogey at the first hole and secured an invite for 2023, too. Again, coulda-shoulda-woulda gets us nowhere, but it still has to hurt. The good news is Higgs can still gain entry into next year’s field in a variety of ways based off his play, which is clearly pretty good right now. That T-14 finish gives him two top-15s in two career major starts, the other a T-4 at the 2021 PGA Championship, which got him into the 2022 Masters field. The big rig is quietly becoming a force in the majors.

One other silver, er, crystal lining — Higgs’ eagle earned him a pair of crystal highball glasses with the Masters logo on them, so he won’t be leaving the property empty-handed.

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The post Masters 2022: Here’s why Harry Higgs’ near albatross on Sunday wound up being particularly painful appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Max Adler
AUGUSTA — Is this the first Masters in history where the practice rounds were more electric than the tournament rounds?

No disrespect to champion Scottie Scheffler, but the unfortunate obverse of wire-to-wire victories tends to be evaporating excitement, even when it’s the world No. 1 pitted against the globe’s next hottest player in the final group on a Sunday. A four-putt finish is no exclamation point, but the sentence was already running on when Cameron Smith’s tee shot floated away in Rae’s Creek at No. 12.

Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa capping their tournaments with holed bunker shots together thrilled, but in this 86th edition the climax was unquestionably Tiger Woods mid-week.

No need to rehash the narrative arc from the Daniel Field jet tracker to the coy press room remarks to the Thursday red figure (71). The chat on the grounds of Augusta National began with a frenzy, as it did everywhere golf is talked. While it’s unremarkable for an exciting thing to become less exciting, the point here is to properly celebrate Tiger’s 78-78 finish. He has reminded all of us what it means to compete.

Jack Nicklaus said he would never be a ceremonial golfer, and Tiger has maintained with adamance he will never enter a tournament he doesn’t believe he can win. But neither really means it. And even if Tiger does mean it now, maybe that softened a little this week and will more so in the future. Jack played majors until age 65.

If the middle act of this Masters was a gift to golf fans, let the closing act be inspiration to golfers. Across all ability levels, people give up every day. While ‘giving up’ has varying meanings — not entering tournaments, not entering certain tournaments, or never placing your hands on a golf grip again — it’s especially preponderant among better amateur and club golfers. Tiger Woods is 46 years old, the age in life when goals often shift to simply not getting worse, or not getting worse too fast. When your game isn’t what it once was or what you’d like it to be, it can be tempting to pack it in.

But to enter a golf tournament is a special experience. At the Masters, on the first tee there’s a wooden box of scorecards and pencils and lifesaver mints, just as there probably is where you play, even if that’s the fifth-flight net bracket. So what if Tiger played far beneath the standards of his prime and finished 47th? He was here.

Does Tiger consider this Masters one of the greatest achievements of his career? “For not wining an event, yes. Without a doubt,” he said, limping but smiling on Sunday. “The amount of texts and Facetimes and calls I got from players that are close to me throughout this entire time has meant a lot.”

While most of us (thankfully) have not been through comparable ordeals and never will, the support from your golf buddies would be the same. Enter a tournament maybe you can’t win.

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The post Tiger Woods and the subtle art of not giving up appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

A dramatic week produced one winner but plenty of other revelations about golf, its assortment of characters, and its most celebrated venue

By Dan Rapaport
AUGUSTA — The spring of Scottie continues. Scheffler seized control of this Masters on Friday afternoon and never let go, picking up his first major championship and becoming the latest Texan to get his hands on a green jacket. There is so, so much to discuss. Here are 18 parting thoughts from Augusta National.

We start, as always, with the winner. Scottie Scheffler is on one of the best runs in golf history. He entered the week as the world’s No. 1 player and he leaves as the undisputed best player in the world. And yet, on Sunday morning, as he watched the clock in anticipation of a 2.40pm tee time, he wept.

“I cried like a baby this morning. I was so stressed out,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do. I was sitting there telling [wife] Meredith, I don’t think I’m ready for this. I’m not ready, I don’t feel like I’m ready for this kind of stuff, and I just felt overwhelmed.”

Scheffler’s clearly coming out of his shell in the press room, and it’s wonderful to see. This anecdote is especially important for the message it portrays: It’s OK for men to acknowledge their anxiety, lean into their emotions and let them out. Scheffler wouldn’t have played the way he did had he bottled up that feeling rather than confronting it head-on. He spoke of the human propensity for making moments bigger than they actually are and how there’s little use in that practice. There’s (almost) always more to these guys than first meets the eye.

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Ben Walton

That 12th hole has a knack for drama, eh? Three years after Golden Bell handed Tiger Woods a fifth green jacket, it torpedoed Cameron Smith’s rally to seal Scheffler’s first major championship.

Smith had just birdied 11 to narrow his deficit to three and played first. Finding turf with his tee shot into 12 would’ve sent a clear message: Game on. He tried to play safely to the middle of the green into the famously finicky par 3, just as he did a month ago on the 17th at TPC Sawgrass. Neither was a perfect swing. At the Players, he caught it flush but pushed it about 10 yards. That was fine, because he had 15 yards to spare. At Augusta National, he wiped across a 9-iron and it never had a chance. That splash poked a hole in the 2022 Masters balloon, and Scheffler cruised from there. Smith is hardly the first to see his Masters dreams expire in Rae’s Creek, and he will not be the last.

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What a way to finish. McIlroy holes out on No. 18 to put pressure on the leader. #themasters pic.twitter.com/L5fWWbR9cj

— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 10, 2022

Scheffler owned the week, but Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa gifted us the indelible memory of this Masters. On the 18th hole on Sunday afternoon, McIlroy missed his approach in the bunker just right of the green. He splashed his bunker shot into the middle of the green and let gravity do its thing. It trickled down the slope and dove into the cup with perfect dying speed. He erupted in pure ecstasy, dropping his club and pirouetting with jazz fingers. Morikawa’s arms reflexively shot skyward as the crowd erupted.

Morikawa played next and, what’d’ya know, he jarred his as well. McIlroy, still buzzing, lit up in disbelief. This was golf’s version of one basketball player hyping up his teammate after he dunked over a defender. Both men walked off the course with smiles usually reserved for winners. Rory had just polished off the only bogey-free round of the week and tied the Masters final-round record with 64, and Collin had his fourth top-five finish in nine career major starts. It was a reminder that just because you didn’t win a golf tournament doesn’t mean you lost it.

[divider] [/divider]

He’s seen deeper depths in the World Ranking, but missing the cut at Augusta National for the first time felt like a low point for Jordan Spieth. Maybe it’s because he teased us last year with a spirited run at Augusta and Royal St George’s; the assumption was that Spieth would catapult up the rankings again and elbow his way back into the JT/Rory/Rahm tier. At his peak, Spieth thought little (if at all) of swing mechanics and technique. He strode around, eyes always forward, salivating at his next opportunity to carve an iron shot or nip a pitch. His move was never one you’d find in any instruction manual, but it was his, and it brought him 11 PGA Tour victories and three majors before his 25th birthday. When he picked up his 12th the week before last year’s Masters, then hung around all week at Augusta to finish solo third, you thought he’d wrestled the train back on to its tracks.

Then he turned up this year with a visibly different swing, tempo and a ponderous pre-shot routine. He’s a constant presence at the driving range and has been talking about trying to get back to his old swing’s DNA for three-plus years. Spieth actually hit it decently this week but putted miserably; surely the constant focus on his ball-striking has eaten into his putting practice. He’s fiercely loyal and seems rather averse to switching up his team, but you have to wonder if he’s as committed to his process — and those guiding it — as he states publicly. Either way, it’s no fun at all watching an all-time great dig deeper and deeper into the technical hole.

[divider] [/divider]

I watched Tiger Woods hit the ball horribly on the range on Thursday and shoot 71. I watched Tiger hit the ball beautifully on the range on Friday and shoot 74. Something clicked — how many times have you hit the ball well on the range, gotten to the first tee and suddenly have zero clue where it’s going? I’d guess that happens far more often than the inverse. Pros have an uncanny ability to flush away a bad (or a good) warm-up and begin their rounds with a clean slate. This, from Tiger, will help golfer’s of any level.

“I had a terrible warm-up session. I hit it awful,” Woods said. “I went back to what my dad always said. ‘Did you accomplish your task in the warm up? It’s a warm up. Did you warm up?’ Yes, I did. Now go play. That’s exactly what I did, I went and played.”

[divider] [/divider]

This Masters cycle reinforced how, all these years and all these injuries later, Woods still has a stranglehold on our attention. The will-he-or-won’t he before the tournament dominated headlines and had grown men tracking private airplanes. When the public finally got a chance to watch post-accident Woods play Augusta National on Monday, they turned up in comical numbers. It’s not just that Woods is still the proverbial needle in our sport; it’s that the needle might be sharper than ever. His career arc is straight out of Shakespeare. Prodigy, world beater, pariah, comeback, catastrophe, comeback. There could well be more interest in Woods’ every move than ever before.

Methinks his fierce commitment to privacy only feeds into the hype. Woods disappears from public view between playing tournaments, and he’s playing fewer tournaments than ever. Would anything Tiger says or does be such huge news if he said or did a bunch of things publicly?

Woods said he’s not sure if he’ll play in the next major championship, the PGA at Southern Hills, which begins in 39 days. We don’t pretend to know either. But his decision will be the biggest story in the lead-up. That much is for certain.

[divider] [/divider]

Gregory Shamus

Pardon the naivete, but I hope something finally clicked for Rory McIlroy on Sunday afternoon. At times, Rory has been a prisoner of his own thoughtfulness. He’s analysed his major drought and, somewhere along the way, decided he needed to play more conservatively in the early rounds.

“Just patience, discipline, don’t make big numbers,” he said in his pre-tournament press conference. “For me, anyway, it feels like a very negative way to think, but it’s the way to play around this place. You don’t have to do anything spectacular.”

You could sense he didn’t quite believe the words coming out of his mouth. If it feels like a negative way to think, it’s the wrong way for you to think. Young Rory couldn’t give a hoot if he made big numbers, for he knew birdies would flow nicely. Plodding around, picking up a shot here or there — it’s just not how he’s wired. He’s blessed with an electric game, one of the few capable of putting distance between himself and the best players in the world. He leaned into that swagger on Sunday and played like a man with a purpose, not one trying to avoid mistakes. What resulted was an eight-under 64, a solo second and, let’s hope, a newfound freeness in major championships.

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When Rory’s in full flight, he doesn’t walk, he bounces. When you watch as much golf as I do, you develop a sick ability to identify players from hundreds of yards away by their posture and their gait. Each player moves in their own specific way. Countless studies have proven that body language impacts brain chemistry — smiling actually makes you happier. The same is true with the way you walk. Watch Tiger and you’ll notice he never slumps his shoulders after a bad shot. He walks with pride, shoulders back, head held high. The same is true for Adam Scott. Looking at the ground after a bad shot only compounds feelings of frustration and dejection. Take it from Collin.

“You can always look at someone’s walk, and it’s funny because I played with Will Zalatoris yesterday, and he walks pretty fast,” Morikawa said. “When you look at someone’s walk, you can kind of see their demeanor and how they kind of move through things. From that first tee shot, I think both of us, especially [Rory], he was moving at a nice pace. He was moving at a comfortable pace. Not a rush, but not going slow and just getting to the next tee shot or getting to the next ball and just going from there.

“It was never staying on the shot he had just hit for too long. It was never rushing to the next shot. It was kind of just a good pace. That’s the biggest thing. It’s hard to describe how to do that. I mean, we can’t time out our steps, but, yeah, I think if you look at it as a whole, that’s kind of what it is. It’s a good rhythm. Not just in our golf swings, not just over the ball, but throughout the entire day.”

Next time you fat one into the water, focus on your walk.

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A note on the two biggest changes to the golf course from last year. The 11th hole has been improved considerably; the forest down the right side of the fairway was a vestige of a Tiger-proofing era when courses worldwide responded to distance with a whole bunch of trees. There never needed to be so many — three well-placed trees serve the same purpose as 30 — and there’s something fun about potentially having a window to play a miracle shot if you miss right. The increased mounding right of the green also punished that common bailout more sternly. If you played it well right of the water, you were faced with a touchy chip onto a green that’s hip high and slopes away from you, with water long. Good luck.

The 15th hole, however — dare I say it  — was made a bit more boring? Having two par 5s that are both reachable for the entire field and guarded by water has consistently provided high drama. The old 15th put players in an uncomfortable spot, especially if they drove it down the left side and would’ve had to hook one around the trees to get home. According to Rory McIlroy, our source for the true Augusta National changes — there’s always more than the ones the club officially announces — it’s not just that the hole has been lengthened, but the fairway now slopes more severely from right to left, so more balls ended up behind those trees. It all resulted in far more layups than we’d seen in prior years. Here’s what Cameron Smith said on Saturday evening:

“I think with that green firming up, it’s hard — you almost have to hit a perfect shot to hold that green. And the chip shot from over the back, as I’m sure you guys saw today, is pretty brutal. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be going for it.”

I understand what they were trying to do — turn it into a proper decision hole and keep up with ever-increasing distance — but the two gettable par 5s on the back nine have been woven into the fabric of the Masters. That wasn’t the case so much this year, especially considering there wasn’t a single eagle on the new par 5 all week.

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At the risk of sounding like a cantankerous old newspaper columnist, Tyrrell Hatton’s antics have grown a bit tired. It’s probably a product of the Masters unequalled coverage, which documents each and every one of his countless gripes. Seeing him pop up on to your Twitter feed with a funny one-liner is one thing, but watching him moan at anything and everything for a full 18 holes was not a pleasant experience. On Thursday, he responded to a poor putt on the 13th green by putting his putter under his arm like it was a gun and fired off a few shots. On Friday, he pulled his tee shot into the hazard and then tried to smash his way back home to England through the tee box. Cameras also caught him saying simply, “I hate this place.” After the round, he turned it up another notch.

“You can hit good shots here and not get any reward for it. It’s unfair at times. I don’t agree with that. If you hit a good shot, you should end up near the hole. Not then short-sided into a bunker because of the slopes that they’ve created and stuff. Yeah, I don’t think it’s a fair test at times, and when you hit good shots and you’re not rewarded for it, it shows. … I’m just trying to ideally get off the golf course as fast as possible.”

I’ve never seen anyone talk like that about Augusta National. I’m sure that went over well with the greencoats.

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Cameron Smith’s short putting and CBS’ worm cam are a perfect match. He’s reached that prime-Tiger level where any putt between four and eight feet doesn’t just seem to always go in, they go in dead centre. Smith is 28 but looks and putts like a kid half that age. His stroke is completely devoid of tension even in the nerviest moments and oozes an equanimity that cannot be taught. He’s the last guy I’d want to play against.

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Tiger seems to come up with a brand new word once a fiscal quarter. He was big on “activating” the glutes, then moved on to the “kinetic chain”, all the while keeping some greatest hits like “feels” in the rotation. We knew he’d bring some heat this week after such a long layoff, but he delivered beyond our expectations.

“The ankle is always going to be an issue,” he said on Friday, “but more importantly, if I play golf ballistically, it’s going to be the back.”

Ballistically!

Then, for good measure, he blessed us with a hall-of-fame nickname for Stewart Cink. “It’s fun to hear the roars, to hear the hole-in-ones. I think Kitchen made one the other day.”

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This was my fourth trip to Augusta National, and each year I notice something new. Typically it’s a few new buildings — they spring up between Aprils each year and yet somehow look as though they’ve been here since Bobby Jones’ days — but this year a hidden staircase caught my eye. It runs from the area left of the 16th hole up toward the fifth green. I had no idea it existed, and now I do.

The Masters app remains the gold standard in golf, and it’s really not close. Turns out a club governed by CEOs and billionaires can accomplish some pretty cool things when they combine all that brainpower — and bring in a tech behemoth like IBM to facilitate its offerings. The app doesn’t glitch or lag. It uploads video of every shot almost instantly. It looks and functions smoothly.

It’s surely a significant financial commitment, but you get what you pay for, and the Masters has emerged as the world’s biggest golf tournament with a number of small decisions that add up. Investing in technology that significantly improves the fan experience is one of them. The other governing bodies don’t have the same resources as Augusta National, so it’s not fair to expect them to be able to keep pace. But the PGA Tour’s gotta up its app game.

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The massive tree outside Augusta’s clubhouse doubles as a yearly hang for movers and shakers. It’s where the members, their guests, athletes and celebrities trade pleasantries and set up home-and-home trips to their respective clubs. This year, however, an expected face turned up: Harris English, the world No. 23 golfer and a Georgia boy through and through.

English grew up in Valdosta, went to UGA and lives in Sea Island. He had surgery to repair a torn labrum on February 16 and thought about playing in the Masters before deciding it wasn’t worth the risk of re-injury. He pulled out on Thursday before the tournament and turned up to watch the action nine days later.

“It’s only a 3 1/2 hour drive,” he said. “So I figured, why not?”

Now that’s a golf guy.

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Justin Thomas acknowledged early in the week that he’s badly underachieved in major championships since his PGA Championship victory in 2017. For a man with 14 PGA Tour victories at 28, you can count on one half of one hand the times he’s had a legitimate chance down the stretch on Sunday of a major. Then he opened with a four-over 76, which he blamed on … a lack of focus?

“It’s weird, man. I couldn’t get focused. I couldn’t get — I couldn’t get in the moment. I couldn’t get present,” he said. “I just … all I could think about was anything other than what I was doing.

“I’m sure it happens to y’all too. You just wake up some days, and you don’t want to do anything, and I unfortunately had to go play the first round of the Masters. It’s bad timing, but at the same time it is what it is, you and have to deal with it.”

Huh? I’m still processing that one. On one hand, we want athletes to be honest, to avoid press-conference mad libs, and this certainly isn’t that. On the other — if you can’t get up for the first round of the Masters, what can you get up for?

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Jon Rahm shed light on an interesting choice modern professional golfers have to make: whether to bring their kids on the road and homeschool them, or accept not seeing them for large swaths of the year. Some guys, like Matt Kuchar, have chosen the homeschool route. Rahm and his wife, Kellie, are going the other way. There are positives and negatives to each choice, and I’m not here to preach. It just stood out as an insight into a world that none of us are familiar with.

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Andrew Redington

The Par-3 Contest has turned into a three-hour montage of family fun. It’s delightful. What other opportunities in life do you get to sit back and watch fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, celebrate being around one another? The golf is secondary, just as it is when you play with your dad or your kid. It’s an excuse to spend a few hours outside together, with no screens in sight, and revel in the warmth of familial connection. A celebration of life and the role golf plays in it.

MORE MASTERS 2022 STORIES
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Every Tiger Woods Masters record
The entire field at Augusta, ranked
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The post Masters 2022: Scottie’s tears, Rory’s bounce, and other parting thoughts from Augusta appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
AUGUSTA — Tiger Woods limped off the gloriously sun-drenched stage of Augusta National Golf Club much too early on Sunday, but although his 24th Masters was completed, he left behind his progeny to bask in the spotlight, a battle of wills having been rejoined for the distinction of trying to follow in his footsteps.

The names keep changing but they are of one identity. Scottie Scheffler is only the latest in line, not just winner of the green jacket after his three-shot victory in the 86th Masters, not just owner of the world No. 1 ranking, but also wearer of the mantle of he who best emulates the game’s most dominating player.

They keep climbing over one another for the honour, submitting their streaks of greatness, maybe winning a major, claiming that transient piece of real estate known as the No. 1 ranking whose importance seems increasingly meaningless as it increasingly changes hands.

Thanks to a final-round 71 that included an inconsequential four-putt at the last, Scheffler, a thoughtful, unassuming Texan, won for the fourth time in his last six starts, a searing run reminiscent of many breathtaking stretches Woods orchestrated to help him procure 82 PGA Tour titles and the top of the world rankings for a record 683 weeks. While a prodigious display of uncanny golf execution has propelled Scheffler to these heights, the truly formidable work begins now — sustaining it while accepting that there is nothing he can do to blunt a challenge from the next determined talent.

“It’s a perfect example of the Tiger effect,” said reigning US Open champion Jon Rahm, who shot 69 on Sunday in the company of Woods and who saw a 36-week run as world No. 1 come to an end two weeks ago when Scheffler overtook him by winning the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. “We all grew up watching Tiger. We all grew up wanting to be him, and we grew up with the dream of being major champions.”

Rahm rattled off the names since 2015 who have exhibited their spurts of excellence: Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay. He rightly included himself in the mix as well as Rory McIlroy, who surged with a final-round 64 to abscond with second place. And, of course, he had to throw in the newly minted Masters champion, who calmly led after each of the final three rounds and finished with a 10-under 278 aggregate total.

All but Johnson and McIlroy are in their 20s. “With the advancement in golf, in all of us thinking of ourselves as athletes, you can see the difference,” Rahm, 27, added. “Everybody can reach a new level.”

Or the same one.

Since Spieth overtook McIlroy in August, 2015, the No. 1 ranking has changed hands 32 times among nine players. On 20 occasions, the reign at the top lasted four weeks or fewer. The longest anyone retained it was Johnson’s 64-week run from February 19, 2017 to May 12, 2018.

“In all the parity, it seems like tournament wins mean more than maybe getting to No. 1 in the world,” Cantlay said. “Unless someone could hold No. 1 in the world for six months or a year at a time, then I think it would mean something. I feel like it gets discounted when you hold it for a week or two and then someone else takes over.”

“Since 1997, watching Tiger, listening to Tiger, everybody has changed,” said two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson. “I think the talent level is through the roof right now. Think about it. We can sit here and debate year after year, week after week the field strength … just a bigger crowd playing the game of golf, so it’s harder to stay No. 1 because there’s other talent coming after you.”

When Harold Varner clipped him with a 92-foot eagle putt on the 72nd hole to win the Saudi International, Watson, 43, told the 31-year-old Varner to enjoy it, but not for too long. “I said you can’t party for a week, man. You got to go home and practise. These young kids are trying to beat you,” Watson said. “Not that he shouldn’t celebrate his victory. But he has to now reset and be hungry again. These guys are hungry.

“Yeah, everybody out here that just won a trophy might have lost a little bit of hunger, and the other guys are hungrier. That’s where to be No. 1 or to stay at top 10 is not as easy as it used to be.”

Scheffler, 25, shows no signs of slowing down, but neither did Spieth in opening 2015 by winning the first two majors, or Koepka when he won four majors in eight starts in 2017-19, or Johnson in late 2020 when he won the Masters or Rahm in the middle of last year, or Cantlay near the end of it when he succeeded Johnson as the FedEx Cup champion.

As Woods himself said on Saturday, the top players hope for a two- to three-month window of high-calibre play, preferably during major season, to make their mark. This from the guy whose letdowns — what ones there were — were barely of that duration over the course of more than a decade. Woods bequeathed to the following generation the inspiration to reach the highest level but not his secret for staying there.

A scramble for supremacy has ensued.

“No one has really been able to sustain a run at the top of the world rankings for very long, which is different than the era before where Tiger seemed to dominate the world rankings and was maybe only briefly interrupted every once in a while, usually due to injury,” Cantlay noted. “I think it’s a different paradigm for the sport with guys getting hot for certain periods of time … and then somebody else takes over.”

Scheffler is a man who likes to live in the moment. He’s intent on it, in fact. Where did he learn that? From watching Tiger’s victory in the 1997 Masters on YouTube. Call it a history lesson. Scheffler was 10 months old at the time Woods triumphed by a ridiculous 12 strokes.

“I remember watching the highlights of him winning in 1997, kind of running away with it, and he never really broke his concentration,” said Scheffler, who admitted that he wore a shirt this week that resembled one Tiger had worn. “That’s something that I reminded myself of today. I tried not to look up. I tried to keep my head down and just keep doing what I was doing because I didn’t want to break my concentration. The minute I did was on 18 green when I finally got on there and I had a five-shot lead and was like, ‘All right, now I can enjoy this.’ And you saw the results of that. Thank you, Tiger.”

So, it’s head down now and plough ahead for the newest member of the major winners’ club. Good idea. The array of talent aligned against him would make his admittedly queasy stomach even more unsettled. Not that he doesn’t already know that; they were the impediments to his success until very recently.

Then again, it’s difficult to predict who will be the next threat. He might not have yet reached the PGA Tour. Four years ago, Scheffler needed an up and down on the final hole of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament to finish T-34 and earn his card. He converted, won Player of the Year while earning his PGA Tour card, and now he is world No. 1 with a green jacket.

So, yeah, Scottie Scheffler is the new king of golf. But uneasy lies the crown.

“It’s really hard to stay up there for a long time,” Rahm said. “Some players have been able to do it, but it’s just the next guy comes up, gets hot, and there you go. It’s a beautiful part of the golden age of golf we’re living in right now.”

MORE MASTERS 2022 STORIES
Every Tiger Woods Masters record
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The post Masters 2022: Scheffler is on top of the world … but recent history shows it’s a tenuous position appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dan Rapaport
AUGUSTA — The patrons formed a tunnel of pure adulation and serenaded their limping hero. Those who couldn’t elbow their way to high-five territory gathered just behind the press-only section, desperate to milk every last second of their proximity to Tiger Woods. Five greencoats mingled just outside the scoring area, looking for someone to chat with and needing no invitation to stick around. Bryson DeChambeau stood under the tree, dressed head to toe in Masters green. Joe LaCava had already jetted for the car, eager to unload the precious cargo into a trunk, but not before offering a “see you down the road” to some friendly media faces. Bubba Watson hovered nearby and caught the attention of Erica Herman. She peeled away from Sam and Charlie and Tida and Rob, pushed onto her tip-toes and embraced the big lefty.

“I hope you’re proud of him,” Watson said. She smiled, but she did not say anything.

No words could possibly express the mixture of gratitude and sheer amazement that pulsed throughout the acre just outside Augusta National’s clubhouse. Woods had just shot a round that, a decade earlier, would’ve prompted an existential crisis. Seventy-eight, for a second straight day. A 12-over weekend and a 47th-place finish. And yet there he was, smiling through the pain.

“To go from where I was to get to this point, I’ve had an incredible team that has helped me get to this point,” he said. “And incredible support from — as I alluded to in the press conference on Tuesday, the amount of texts and FaceTimes and calls I got from players that are close to me throughout this entire time has meant a lot.

“Then to come here on these grounds and have the patrons — I played in a COVID year, and then I didn’t play last year; 2019 was the last time for me that I experienced having the patrons like this, and it’s exciting. It’s inspiring.”

That he even considered playing in this event speaks to the potency of an inhuman work ethic paired with modern medical technology. Woods has rods and screws and plates in his right leg, which doctors rebuilt after the weight of an SUV crushed it to pieces. He still has difficulty walking on flat ground. Trudging up and down hills requires careful consideration. His one-under 71 on Thursday looks increasingly preposterous, and we don’t know the half of it. The few pros that’ve wiggled their way into his famously tight circle have seen pictures of the post-accident damage. They’ve received texts from Woods at ungodly morning hours as he preps for another day of rehab. Tiger did not take a single day off after he left his in-home hospital bed 11 months ago, refusing to accept any other outcome than walking Amen Corner on the second Sunday of April.

“This tournament has meant so much to me and my family, this entire tournament. I was explaining it there to Cara (Banks, Sky Sports) that you go back to the year I was born was the year that the first black man played in the Masters in Lee Elder,” Woods said. “He was an honorary starter last year. He was there when I won in 1997. Twenty-five years later here I am playing again.

“It’s meant a lot to me, and there’s no other place that — well, there’s no other place, no other major that we play in the same venue. St Andrews is, obviously, near and dear to my heart because it’s the home of golf, and I’ve been able to win a couple of Opens there, but we rotate. This is different. This is where all the great champions have ever played. They have walked these grounds.”

Woods has now completed 98 trips around Augusta National, none as painful as Sunday’s. His gait grew more labored as the round wore on and the ankle continued to swell. When asked after the round to describe his level of discomfort, he smiled with his face but shouted with his eyes. His playing partner, Jon Rahm, saw it clear as day.

“You can just tell that his leg is just not quite up there yet,” Rahm said. “I’ve seen him in the truck. He is limping in the truck. He is limping on the course. Obviously, he is trying very hard to play, but it’s not easy to walk up and down those hills. At the end you can just tell that his leg and his body are just not used to walking this much, right?

“I believe if at home he can walk and get strength up and stamina in that sense, he will be able to be competitive again. This is the hardest walk all year. He will be able to go somewhere where it’s a little easier to walk. It won’t be as long, and I believe he’ll be able to contend.”

Put yourself in Woods’ shoes — in those initial post-round moments, the last thing you’d want to think about is golf. A nice seet not an ice-cold bath. But that’s exactly where Woods’ head went: the future. Which, for him, means 5am wake-up calls and adrenaline-addled lifts. Let’s hope he also sneaks in some putting practice. Oddly, the least physical aspect of this game gave him fits over the weekend. Saturday could well have been the worst putting performance of his career, and Sunday wasn’t much better. Whether that’s due to rust or discomfort or fatigue, only he knows.

The same can be said for when we’ll see him next, though we know it won’t be often. Woods told Sky Sports that he will play in the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews, a dead-flat golf course he feasted on in his younger years. Between now and then are two major championships: the PGA at Southern Hills, where Woods won in 2007, albeit on an unrecognisable golf course from the newly renovated one that’ll greet the pros next month; and the US Open at The Country Club, where ankle-high rough awaits. Don’t count on him being there. Woods current game leans on guile and creativity. US Opens prioritise strength and consistency. Southern Hills is a much better bet.

“I will try, there’s no doubt,” Woods said of the PGA Championship, which begins in 39 days. “This week, I will try to get ready for Southern Hills, and we’ll see what this body is able to do.”

The chapter ends on Tiger Woods' 24th Masters. #themasters pic.twitter.com/uNyEsieMXC

— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 10, 2022

This week. There will be no time to decompress from these grueling four days. He will not bask in the glory of what he admitted might be his greatest achievement that didn’t yield a trophy. Woods will never play a full schedule of tournaments again. Five back surgeries, five left-knee surgeries and who-knows-how-many surgeries on his right leg simply won’t let him. He will, however, maintain a full schedule of physical therapy and rehabilitation—all so he can play one, two, maybe three events for the rest of the year. He knows no other way.

“I don’t quite have the endurance that I would like to have, but as of a few weeks ago, didn’t even know if I was going to play in this event,” he said. “To go from that to here — we’re excited about the prospects of the future, about training, about getting into that gym and doing some other stuff to get my leg stronger, which we haven’t been able to do because it needed more time to heal.

“We’ll get back after it, and we’ll get into it.”

We is common parlance in modern professional golf. Players have larger entourages than ever, and caddies play an outsized role in the decision making progress. Gone are the days of “show up, keep up and shut up.” Still, to hear Woods, so fiercely individual in his prime, talk all week of a team effort speaks to the deep appreciation he has for those around him. For his doctors and “PTs”, as he calls them. For LaCava’s fierce loyalty. For Rob McNamara, always by his side. For Erica and for his children, who’ve sacrificed time with dad so he can do what he does best.

“Very, very thankful,” Woods said on Tuesday. That’s the word he most closely associates with this latest comeback. Not resiliency, or determination. Thankful. “For just everyone’s support, everyone who’s been involved in my process of the work that I’ve put in each and every day, the people I work with, my whole team.”

After fulfilling his media obligations on Sunday he bear-hugged Sam, then Charlie. Tiger needed his 13-year-old son to shoulder some of his weight just to make it up a short flight steps. Then he disappeared from view, accompanied by the people who matter.

MORE MASTERS 2022 STORIES
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Every Tiger Woods Masters record
The entire field at Augusta, ranked
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The post Masters 2022: Tiger Woods limps away from Augusta filled with — hope? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
AUGUSTA — Tyrrell Hatton isn’t the first golfer to express a strong dislike for Augusta National. In fact, he’s not even the best to do it (Lee Trevino owns that distinction, having gone as far as to skip the Masters three times during the prime of his career). But it’s possible that no player has ever ripped into the course quite like the 30-year-old Brit did on Sunday.

As you can probably surmise, it was a rough final-round for the, um, expressive Hatton. Actually it was a really rough weekend as Hatton shot 79-80 after comfortably making the cut. And after finishing in last place among those who made it to the weekend, he couldn’t wait to get away.

Well, after firing a lot of parting shots at the Masters venue.

“Yeah, but you can hit good shots here and not get any reward for it,” Hatton said. “It’s unfair at times. I don’t agree with that.”

Go on …

“If you hit a good shot, you should end up near the hole. Not then short-sided into a bunker because of the slopes that they’ve created and stuff. Yeah, I don’t think it’s a fair test at times, and when you hit good shots and you’re not rewarded for it, it shows.”

Tell us how you really feel! Anything else?

“I think it’s how the course is set up in general,” Hatton continued. “You don’t really have to miss a shot, and your next one you’ll have — you’re really struggling to make par. With how it runs off the greens here and the slopes that you are then chipping into and how obviously it’s cut, it just makes it really hard to even get chip shots close. I think everything is exaggerated here.”

But wait! There’s more!

“Yeah. I haven’t enjoyed it. When you are clearly bottom of the field during the weekend, even if I feel like I’ve hit good shots out there, I’ve not been rewarded for them, so it’s a case of just losing a bit of interest. Certainly with the scores I had going, I’m kind of just — it’s not even trying to build on anything for next week. I’m just trying to ideally get off the golf course as fast as possible.”

Forgive me but I couldn’t resist seeing how Tyrrell Hatton reacted to his 8 at 13 yesterday. This was after shot 6. Have the anger management classes paid off? pic.twitter.com/Rw8JgENgWi

— Dave Tindall (@DaveTindallgolf) April 10, 2022

Hatton, playing alongside Billy Horschel, who shot a final-round 70 to extend his own frustrating streak at the Masters, was part of the tournament’s featured groups coverage. So those watching saw plenty of angry reactions, but none more animated than when he appeared to mimic firing a gun around the property on the 13th hole during Saturday’s third round on his way to making a triple bogey.

Wow. By the way, Hatton has made the cut in four of six career Masters starts, including a T-18 last year. So it’s not even like he’s played that bad around here! And yet, well …

“I’m glad it’s over. I think that’s a pretty good way to sum it up. Obviously, disappointed, but I just never do well here,” Hatton added. “This course doesn’t really suit my eye, to be honest, so, yeah, it’s just one of those weeks that I feel like if I come back in the future, it’s just a case of trying to get through the best that I can.”

If I come back in the future. It wasn’t clear if Hatton was referring to possibly skipping the event — or, perhaps, wondering if next year’s invitation will get lost in the mail.

MORE MASTERS 2022 STORIES
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Every Tiger Woods Masters record
The entire field at Augusta, ranked
The history of honorary starters 
Now comes the hard part for Tiger

The post Masters 2022: Tyrrell Hatton might hate Augusta National more than any other person on Earth appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Stephen Hennessey
AUGUSTA — Rory McIlroy has had some dramatic moments at Augusta National. Nothing was quite as epic as his 18th hole and the celebration that ensued.

Delivering a big charge on Sunday, he stalled after getting it to seven-under for the round after an eagle at 13. So it was somewhat disappointing he missed the fairway, then hit into the sand at the 18th.

But as great players do, he manufactured an all-time great shot from the right greenside bunker, his ball rolling into the hole to cap a 64. And his reaction was just as good as the shot itself.

The 18th hole delivers iconic moments year after year. McIlroy’s shot will go down as perhaps the most memorable of the 2022 Masters.

Not to be outdone was Collin Morikawa, followed with his own birdie from the same bunker as McIlroy.

Afterward in his interview at Butler Cabin, McIlroy said that’s “the happiest I’ve ever been on the golf course.” A bit hyperbolic, but given his history at Augusta National, we don’t fault the four-time major champion feeling that way.

That’s as much fun as we golf fans have had watching all week (aside from, of course, watching Tiger Woods and his comeback.) Morikawa and McIlroy put together an epic day — combining to go 13-under on their final rounds alone. Two of the great players of their generation, celebrating some of the most dramatic moments at Augusta National.

Sports … golf … it’s all undefeated.

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