At every Masters event there is always a group of storylines that the media likes to attach themselves to before the event. This year it was LIV vs PGA in the splitting up of the tours and for good reason I guess because the media loves to have things to talk about even though they are largely fabricated and no one really cares about them. Some of the LIV players played practice rounds with the PGA guys and they acted like very little was wrong except that they had to answer a lot of questions about it. There seems to be very little new ground to cover. Some guys wanted to play less and join a different tour. They started a new thing that has a team format. The other guys and their tour saw this as a threat and decided to change their tour so they could get more money and play less events. Both sides seem to be winning if you are a top player. The PGA’s response was to do lots of what Phil Mickelson asked them to do frankly.
Phil, for the uneducated golf fan, is the second most successful golfer of the last 30 years. He is the nice guy to the public as he has been known to stand for hours signing autographs for children. He greets fans with eye contact and flashes his ever present thumbs up gesture connecting with fans of all generations. He was the beloved figure that just two years ago at the PGA championship was swarmed by the crowds at Kiawah as he became the oldest major champion in professional golf history. He has been shit on by the media ever since. Branded a villain, the media persecuted him and ripped his life apart. Gambling, his comments on the Saudi backed tour, and the actions of the Saudis themselves seemed fair game to a media that was granted access by the PGA and acted accordingly. Phil is the nice guy that had the girlfriend that wanted to be treated like shit either subconsciously or consciously. For the record, Phil is married to his college sweetheart and he stood with her through breast cancer. Phil, might or might not be a nice guy, but his public persona is akin to Arnold Palmer who always tried to engage and connect with the fans. He is also an old golfer as far as golfers go so keep that in mind for later… In contrast to Phil, Tiger Woods has been in the words of the greatest golf writer of all time Dan Jenkins, an asshole.
Tiger’s success in winning 15 majors versus Phil’s 6 has evidently covered up a lot of warts. The fact that he is the David Simms character come to life and a moral pauper should count for something, but access to Tiger is the lifeblood of the PGA tour and with it comes the requisite kissing of the ring. Tiger was gushed on as was Freddie Couples, the lead announcer Jim Nantz’s close friend since college who would go on to be the oldest man to ever make the cut at the Masters. This love fest for the PGA guys wasn’t even remotely hidden so it was quite delightful to see the success that the LIV guys had during the tournament. Brooks Koepka, the player who has had the most success in the majors in the last 10 years, who was left out of the pre tournament media sessions had the most success as he was your leader for the first 3 days before fading on the last day to John Rahm. John is an excellent player who played very well. He was coached at Arizona State by Phil Mickelson’s brother, who happened to be caddying for Phil. Phil, who by the way shot the best round of the tournament, a 65, on Sunday and came from behind to be the clubhouse leader for over an hour before ultimately tying with Brooks for second place.
When John Rahm won his first major, Phil was sitting on the driving range and gave John’s wife a bottle of wine and shared the moment with them. There was no televised moment on the broadcast as the media continues to divide for ratings. Phil’s charge on Sunday was one of the least covered great achievements in tournament history. Freddie Couples would contend a little bit in his 50’s and the broadcast would lose their mind, but Phil was in the hunt on Sunday and they covered it with the enthusiasm of a earwax sandwich. The Masters was the most watched golf telecast in the last 5 years so this hyping up good vs evil seems to be working in the post Tiger era. Tiger limped around and made the cut because he didn’t forget how to play golf, and he is still 5 years younger than Phil. He withdrew again from a major tournament as the weather cooled over the weekend and the media reported that he had a plantar fascia injury that had flared up. That plantar must be the male equivalent of giving birth because Tiger played on a broken leg and a torn knee ligament in winning the 2008 US Open. When I see players with broken legs they usually don’t walk 18 holes and hit 300 yard drives so I will now use my birthday wish to ask for hoping to avoid this plantar disease, because Superman has seemed to have found his fifth kryptonite: faithfulness, sex addiction, drugs, driving vehicles and now the plantar. This is the media’s hero. The boyfriend that treats his girlfriend like shit. The PGA is the bitch in this scenario…and they have been acting it too…
A few takeaways from the week besides the media’s ridiculous coverage this weekend.
The LIV guys took 2 of the top 3 spots and this must be driving the PGA tour nuts.
Big mouths Rory and Justin both missed the cut as they are now officially marketing arms of the PGA tour and the mouthpieces of the media. During the opening rounds, they allowed themselves to be mic’d up during competition. I guess celebrity is all that matters now. They have allowed themselves to be the playing arm of the media for some time now.
Jordan Spieth took the 4th spot and is an incredibly thoughtful and respectful young man. He was shown as Rahm walked to the clubhouse and Jordan offered his congratulations. He must not be interesting or outspoken enough for the PGA tour to be their spokesman. C Thomas really likes him because he does it the “right way.” That might be true, but the right way would be finding more fairways. His short game is absolutely electric, and he might be the most wizardlike person with a wedge we have seen since Seve? I don’t know if Seve made as many shots as Jordan does but speaking of Seve…
Seve Ballesteros had a birthday on Sunday as he would have been 66 years old, I believe, but it was also 40 years since his win at Augusta National. Seve is more than a golfer to the country of Spain, he is a mythical conqueror and a legend. He is the Spanish golf equivalent of soccer’s Maradona to Argentina. There have been other golfers that have won at the Masters like Jose Maria-Olazabal and Sergio Garcia. None have captured the imagination like Seve, he was part matador and part short game magician. When Rahm hit his last drive on 18, it went waaay left. It went so far left that he actually hit a provisional which is another shot because the ball has a possibility of being lost. They found his original ball as it actually bounced way back out of the trees and back toward the tee box. Rahm, who has a fine short game of his own, hit a shot up the fairway and then hit a wedge close and sealed a 4 stroke win with a short putt for par. He called it a Seve par.
Rahm overtook Brooks around the 9th hole when Rahm left his second shot above the hole in a bad place whereas Brooks hit his shot to the correct location where normally it would spin back to the hole leaving Brooks a tap in for birdie. Brooks shot miraculously stayed up on the ledge by an inch or two and instead of a tap in birdie putting pressure on Rahm to make birdie, Koepka was in a terrible place to put and ran his putt by and missed the comebacker while Rahm makes. 3 shot potential swing by a few inches, such is golf and that is why it is great.
It was interesting to see the media slurp up McIlroy before the tournament and now they are licking the beard right off of John Rahm. McIlroy hasn’t won a major in 10 years and counting, but the PGA media doesn’t care. They are feeling the void from Tiger’s departure as a competitive player and the LIV tour. They also control access to the media sites and have relationships to spread the gospel of how noble the PGA is for their players. Nothing could be further from the truth, but truth is not what we get in the media anywhere today so we just recognize the farce that it is and move on.
Another key takeaway for Master’s lovers- the weather was so brutal in the early days that the azaleas weren’t quite at their best. It’s a shame because Amen corner, at least for me, signifies spring and the hope for a pleasant summer ahead.
Insightfully Yours,
G Spot Johnson