18 Parting Thoughts from the 2026 Masters Tournament

Rory McIlroy is the Greatest European Player Ever

And top 10 all-time. There’s no doubt about it anymore. With his sixth major championship he has now gotten his nose in front of Seve Ballesteros and tied Nick Faldo for the all-time most from a European player. When you compare McIlroy’s overall resume with Faldo’s it’s not all that close.

At the risk of sounding corny, it feels…just for Rory to shake off all the major heartbreak and jolt his career back on track. And to do it at the one course that tortured him more than any other for that decade-long slog when his legacy veered dangerously close to what might’ve been territory.

Which, of course, sounds harsh. Between 2014-2025, during that barren stretch in the majors, he did everything there is to do in golf apart from winning a major. He won the Players, the FedEx Cup, the DP World Tour Order of Merit, Ryder Cups—all multiple times. But a player in his position is always going to be remembered by one number primarily. That number is now six. Two ahead of Scottie Scheffler, whom he bested on Sunday. (How sweet, by the way, that we finally got Rory v. Scottie in a major?) One ahead of Brooks Koepka. Even with Phil Mickelson and Lee Trevino. One behind Palmer and Snead and Bobby Jones.

McIlroy didn’t freak out when he lost his six-shot lead on Saturday. Or when he found himself three back after a shaky start on Sunday. Why would he? As he said himself in so many words last year: anything from here on out is gravy. He’s accomplished everything there is to accomplish in the sport. The only thing that’s left is chasing the legends of eras past.

A Brutal Showing for the non-Hatton LIV Contingent

It was not a good week for those not named Tyrrell. Not good at all. I had Bryson DeChambeau at third in my pre-tournament field ranking and Jon Rahm second. My thought process: they’ve both played excellent on LIV this year, they both have major championship pedigree, and we’ve seen in the past that LIV players absolutely can contend (and win major championships).

I stand by that last point. I don’t think playing on LIV automatically torpedoes your future in majors. But we call balls and strikes here, and this was a pretty horrific showing. You can chalk it up as a small sample size, and that’s valid, but we only get to see these guys compete against the PGA TOUR guys four times a year and this one was one-way traffic. Just one of the 10 LIV players in the field finished the week under par.

Carlos Ortiz: +11, CUT

Cameron Smith: +7, CUT

Tom McKibbin: +7, CUT

Bryson DeChambeau: +6, CUT

Bubba Watson: +5, CUT

Charl Schwartzel: +12, 54th

Sergio Garcia: +8, 52nd

Jon Rahm: +1, T38

Dustin Johnson: E, T33

Tyrrell Hatton: -10, T3

Pour One Out For Justin Rose

Justin Rose and Augusta National are golf’s most toxic relationship this side of Keegan and the Ryder Cup. He just keeps putting himself in position, keeps doing everything right, and it keeps not happening. 

Sunday’s round got off to a magical, inspired start. A chip-in on 1. Holing a bomb for birdie on the brutally difficult 5th. A slice from the trees to tap-in range on 7. When he birdied the par-5 8th you thought surely—surely—this would be his year. 

Nope. 

He looked a bit antsy through the middle part of the round. Like he could sense it was getting away. Always the class act, he spoke at length after yet another almost at Augusta. That’s now a third-place finish to go along with his three runner-ups at the Masters.

“Chance that got away, obviously,” he said. You know, I was by no means free and clear and was nowhere close to having the job done. But I was right in position.”

This game can be cruel and unusual.

Death, Taxes, And Xander Schauffele at the Majors

Nothing to see here, just another excellent finish for Xander Schauffele at a major championship. That now marks 15 finishes of T18 or better in his last 16 major championship starts. He entered the week around -150 to finish in the top 20. There’s no better bet in the game right now than X at the majors.

Shane’s Ace Roster Is The Stuff Of Legend

I can’t begin to express what a flex it is to have aced half the par 3s at Augusta National in the Masters Tournament. That’s on-your-tombstone type stuff. Shane Lowry’s hole-in-one roster, to borrow a term from the youth, is truly insane.

• No. 6 at Augusta
• No. 16 at Augusta
• No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass
• No. 7 at Pebble Beach
• No. 2 at Memorial Park

It’s four super models and the girl next door. Shane’s as down-to-earth as major champions come, and any time he does something cool he takes a moment to acknowledge just how incredible his journey in this game has been. You get the sense he has deep gratitude for the life he’s living.

“I’ve been lucky to experience some cool things in my career…today was another” Lowry said on Twitter after the round. The walk up 18 at Portrush with the Claret Jug locked up. The putt to clinch the Ryder Cup at Bethpage. And the extreme dopamine rush of making holes in one at iconic places. What a career.

Scottie’s Sassy Response a Product of the Flawed Press-Conference Dynamic

It really wasn’t that bad of a question. You hear a version of it a lot.

Q: That was a 65 today. What did it feel like it could have or should have been?

Scottie hated it.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: “That’s just a terrible question. Next question. Awful.”

He smiled and laughed afterward to soften the blow, and later in the presser he checked himself once again.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: “I already ripped on one question that wasn’t that bad, so I’m not going to rip on another one.”

It’s not the first time he’s given it back to the media this year. He did it all week at TPC Sawgrass. My read: they’re overexposed. A golf tournament is a single competition—but it takes place over 4 days, and there’s pressure on writers to produce something every day, and it results in essentially interviewing a basketball player after every quarter. The player doesn’t want to talk five minutes after their round. We know this from last year when Shane Lowry had to end his scrum before he said something he would’ve regretted.

I just don’t see that much value in the daily interviews immediately after the round. They’re not going to say anything consequential mid-competition. If they’re going to talk every single day, give them some time to digest.

The Coachella-fication of Masters Week Is Complete

It’s not just the Masters for players; it’s the Masters for broadcasters. A good week can bring some serious goodwill. A bad one can light social media on fire.

Let’s start with the good: Amazon Prime Video. This was their first year as a broadcaster at the Masters and they’re just the fourth company in history to have that honor. They brought early-round coverage two hours earlier than normal and…that’s exactly what they did. They simply provided more of the Masters coverage we know and love. A debut without controversy, which is exactly what they were after.

ESPN, on the other hand, were absolutely hammered in the Twitter streets. The Par 3 contest has become the Coachella of golf: cute outfits, Instagrammable photos and celebrity collabs with some golf in the background. I didn’t blink when they announced Jason Kelce as an interviewer, but he became the center of the broadcast. Kevin Hart on Bryson DeChambeau’s bag. In a vacuum this Wednesday show would’ve been mildly off-putting—but it came amidst wider discourse that some of the Augusta mystique seems to be evaporating with each additional piece of on-the-ground #content. The merch hauls. The HOW MANY PRIVATE JETS FLY INTO AUGUSTA THIS WEEK? The YOU WON’T BELIEVE HOW MUCH THIS MASTERS HOSPITALITY COSTS.

To Augusta National’s credit, and in contrast to conventional wisdom, they are keenly aware of public discourse. They will know that they perhaps jumped the shark a bit this year with the Par 3 contest. Club chairman Fred Ridley self-reflected and self-deprecated on their decision to have Dude Perfect play frisbee on Amen Corner a few years ago.

“In retrospect, I like those guys, but that may not have been the best idea,” Ridley said with a sheepish smile. “But it does point out that we try things every once in a while that are a little bit nontraditional.”

Smart people, and smart organizations, learn from experience. They change their minds with new information. We love the Masters because it’s different. It doesn’t chase engagement by tapping in celebrities. Other tournaments do that. This one doesn’t need to. That’s why the Kelce of it all irked so many online.

All that said, Augusta does not control social media. Perhaps this is just the time we live in, where no experience is truly complete until it’s turned into a post. I also fully acknowledge that I sound like that cranky old neighbor yelling at the clouds about gentrification. How dare these other people want to enjoy something for the same reasons I enjoy it? This is an inevitable result of our game crossing over into general sporting culture. I’m not saying I don’t like it. It’s probably still a net positive. But it is different.

Max Homa Is Sneakily Becoming An Augusta Specialist

Entering this week Max Homa had two top-10 finishes in his last 25 starts: a T9 at the Utah Championship in the fall and a T5 at the John Deere Classic. Naturally, he finished with a bogey-free 67 to add to his growing fondness for Augusta National. He took T12 last year in the midst of serious struggles—that’s how he got into this year’s tournament—and T3 the year before in 2024.

“Yeah, it feels high,” Homa said of his satisfaction with the week. “I would like to be in contention earlier, not need a miracle on Sunday. But for not having it all and feeling like I left some out there, I’m really proud of just the golf. My brain was so good. Yeah, it was fun.”

ESPN Solved My Broadcast Pet Peeve

I do, however, want to give ESPN some credit on something I’ve been hammering for years. This, a moment ago, is a malignant tumor on a broadcast. Simply lie to us. Pretend like you’re watching the shot for the first time. That’s totally ok. This is a show, after all.

I tip my cap to ESPN and Scott Van Pelt for how they handled Rory’s chip-in on 17 on Friday. The coverage was showing another live shot when one of those Augusta roars happened. Instead of completely spoiling the party, they carried Rory’s chip, including his pre-shot routine, and simply pretended it was live. The moment was 10 times more electric, and the sky didn’t fall because of a little white lie in the name of entertainment.

Let us pray this is the crossing of the rubicon. There is no excuse for this, a moment ago. Ever, ever, ever.

Thursday’s Course Conditions Are What Majors Are All About

That was as good a first-round viewing experience as I can remember. The course was, in a word, perfect. Good scores were out there so long as you were in total control. Rory McIlroy and Sam Burns shot 67. But ten guys failed to break 80, including world No. 8 Robert MacIntyre, who entered as one of the pre-tournament dark horses.

It separates the men from the boys. An entirely different test than we’re used to seeing week in and week out on the PGA TOUR, where truly bouncy courses are the exception rather than the norm. The West Coast swing brings rain and coastal moisture, the summer events midwest humidity. There are a few major-like tests sprinkled in—Bay Hill and the Memorial come to mind—but only if the weather cooperates. It did this week, and what resulted was a truly exacting test that required players to be in control not just of how far they fly it, but how it reacts once it lands.

Harry Hall learned this the hard way. He struggled to a five-over 77 in his first round at the Masters and after the round found himself in reconsider-everything mode.

Q. First round at the Masters, though. What do you take out of that?

HARRY HALL: I need to get a lot better.

Q. What are you going to do now?

HARRY HALL: I'm probably going to put -- I'm going to change my driver. I'm going to put two drivers in play tomorrow, different ones. I'm putting a new putter in play and going to figure out on the range. I don't think I spin my irons enough either. I went into a spinnier ball this week, but I still, you know, can't stop it on a dime like I need to. So I probably need to add off to my irons or do something to compete in these majors.

Yes! Yes, yes, yes. This is what major championship golf should be.

But Then Things Changed (But They Didn’t Have To!)

And then it got easier as the week progressed! I really thought we were in for a crusty treat after Thursday’s opening round and so did the players.

“I think this could be the toughest Masters we've played in a while,” Shane Lowry said. “You look at the forecast. They can do whatever they want with the golf course this weekend.

I think over the last few years we've had a day every year where it's been raining or it's been heavy rains. helped us a little bit, but I think before the week is out, it's going to get very, very crusty around here.

Apparently “they” wanted softer greens and more birdies. Despite precisely zero rain and very little moisture in the air, greens were softer on Saturday than they were on Thursday. Short-iron shots were spinning back. Birdies flowing. For me, that’s a miss. There are plenty of years where Mother Nature makes a bouncy Augusta impossible. We get plenty of those Masters. This one could’ve been special for a different reason.

Holes 13 & 15 Have Their Teeth Back

The lengthened back-nine par 5s are growing on me. They took a few years to get used to—I’d grown accustomed to both being legitimate eagle opportunities for the entire field. It’s like when you change something around in your living room; even if the new arrangement is better, you’re probably gonna hate it for a bit.

They have reintroduced risk-reward on those holes. Just short enough to be reachable, just long enough that you’re going to need to hit one helluva second shot. You used to just have to hit the fairway and you knew you’d get there with a club you can control. Not anymore on either hole.

Scottie Scheffler found the water on both par 5s on Friday. Viktor Hovland had an incredible round going Sunday until he found the water long of 15. There were birdies and eagles and a 10 from Haotong Li. There’s jeopardy in those holes again. I’m with it.

Our DOG of the Week is Collin Morikawa

Oftentimes when golfers have injuries you can’t tell at all once they step inside the ropes. These are creatures of intense habit, with everything from their pre-round routine to their dynamic lofts calibrated every single week. It is exceedingly rare for a professional to enter a tournament less than 100 percent…let alone whatever Collin Morikawa was at this week.

You could tell from early on that he wasn’t right. His ball speed, which crept toward 180 on the west coast swing, was down near 170 in the warmup rounds. He hit way fewer balls than his peers. BUt it didn’t take a data scientist to spot the difference: his swing looked different. His move is extremely reliant on his lower body clearing hard; that’s how he hits those full-release cuts. That’s his shot. How distressing it must have been to have to essentially piece-together an all-arms swing ahead of the biggest golf tournament in the world.

When he opened with a two-over 74 a WD seemed more likely than a top-10 finish. He bounced back with rounds of 69-68-68 and made five consecutive birdies on the back nine on Sunday.

“It’s going to be one of the best tournaments (I’ve played) forever,” he said Sunday. “I’m going to to remember this one for many reasons, but just more how strong the mind is, to be able to go out and convince yourself that everything is going to be okay.”

What an amazing effort to finish inside the top 10. DOG mentality.

They Are and Always Will Be ‘Just Like Us’

I always like to highlight a ‘Pros: they’re just like us’ moment of relatability. We’ve got two this week. The first comes courtesy of Aldrich Potgieter, the 21-year-old bomber from South Africa.

It’s the first major of the year. He’s been thinking about this moment for weeks, if not months.

It’s the first hole of your golf trip. You’ve been thinking about this moment for weeks, if not months.

He’s nervous on the first tee. How could you not be? So much preparation, but that part’s done. Now it’s time to perform.

You suck at golf but maybe this is the trip where it all clicks. You’ve got a new driver and new golf shoes. This is your breakthrough.

He sends one way, way right, but the trees spit it out and he’s able to run one up there by the green left. Crisis, averted.

You pull-hook one but it’s so bad, it’s actually okay. You muscle one up by the green. Crisis averted.

He pulls the lob wedge, ready to show off the high spinner he’s been working on…and oh, no. oh no, no no.

You pull the lob wedge and fat it three inches.

Golf comes at you fast. Potgieter sent a hosel rocket racing across the first green and wound up making double bogey. He turned in 44. Masters hopes, dashed. Who among us hasn’t been through this unique form of sporting torture?

Our second comes via a man more than two decades Potgieter’s senior. Justin Rose was on the 4th green on Saturday with a 7-wood in his hand. It’s easily the hardest par 3 at Augusta National, and you’ve got to throw one way up in the air to get it close. Rose flushed it… and that was the problem. He immediately turned to his caddie and said, that’s the best 7-wood I’ve ever hit. He wasn’t planning for the career contact. Been there, sir. Been there.

The Amateurs As We Know Them Has Changed

The notion of the Amateur Golfer doesn’t really exist anymore in the NIL era. Mason Howell is an 18-year-old high school senior. Brandon Holtz is a 39-year-old real estate agent. Both were decked out in sponsor logos. The rules allow it, so the guys are cashing in. From their perspective it’s a no brainer. It’s just a very different world when a high schooler has a bank on his left breast and a law firm on his right. I selfishly miss the world when the amateur had just his home course logo or his college team.

A Trend That Makes Me Sad

For the second straight year, and for the fourth time in the last six, no amateur survived the 36-hole cut. As such, no amateur in Butler Cabin while the winner gets his green jacket. None were particularly close this year—Ethan Fang and Jackson Herrington scored the best of the six with a +8 total, missing the weekend by four.

It’s a curious trend given how advanced the college game has become. I would’ve loved to see Jackson Koivun, the world No. 1 amateur, get a crack this week. But he had two chances to make get into the field—get to the final of the U.S. Amateur or win the NCAA individual championship—and he couldn’t get it done.

A Figure I’m Still Thinking About

I moderated a panel for Wheels Up where I interviewed Ben Griffin and Ian Baker-Finch. It was a really good conversation about all things Masters and pro golf, but my enduring memory from it had nothing to do with what happens inside the ropes.

Baker-Finch, who just retired after 30 years as a broadcaster with CBS, shared that CBS brings a crew of 1,000 people to Augusta to contribute to the broadcast. One thousand human beings that you have to fly out, house and feed for a week. All to produce a few-hour television show. It takes a small city.

Bryson’s Golf: Bad TV. Bryson on the Mic: Good TV.

Bryson didn’t give us much to talk about with his game but he gave us yet another Bryson press conference moment. He is the gift that keeps on giving. On Thursday, after a frustrating four-over 76, he was asked a relatively innocuous follow-up question. He’d just told the reporter that it takes seven or eight hours to 3D print an iron, so the guy asked if he might consider printing some more for the weekend.

“Pffffffffffffft,” Bryson said, earning every last “f.” This is one of those deals where words on a page do not get anywhere close to justifying the disdain in his voice. Like, are you fucking kidding me, dude?

It’s a meme that will live forever. Just the latest in the lore that is Bryson.