AUGUSTA, Ga. — Greetings from the Augusta National Golf Club, and welcome to a newsletter where we spend an inordinate amount of time breaking down a dinner photo of men of various ages, sizes and fashion senses.
Is it stupid? Of course it’s stupid, but that’s kind of the entire point.
One thing I wanted to point out before we get to 14 Masters Eve thoughts is that we’re giving away two OGIO golf travel bags to readers this week. Eligibility to win = be subscribed to the newsletter and comment on this tweet with who you think is going to win and why. You don’t even have to be correct. All you have to do is comment.
Also, don’t forget to join our fantasy contest right here before Round 1 starts!
Name drops today: Max Homa, Sandy Lyle, Fred Ridley, Justin Everdeen and Jason Day.
Thanks to — you guessed it — OGIO for presenting today’s newsletter.
I am traveling this week with both their Alpha mid travel cover as well as their Renegade vault carry-on. Both are tremendous pieces of luggage and the best I’ve ever had in both categories.
I don’t know that OGIO makes a bag big enough to carry all my hopes and dreams for a certain 2015 champion at this tournament this week, but if someone does, it’s them. Because when it comes to stuff you really care about, you can be assured that OGIO makes a premium (and amazing) version of it.
OK, now onto the news.
Bryson's garage.
1. Late on Tuesday, I walked out to the 18th green to watch Ludvig finish up his practice round. It was after 6 p.m., and I was lugging around merch for my children and one of our subscribers.
After the round ended, he made his way from the 18th green over to the clubhouse, stopping to sign autographs and take pictures with kids.
When he went through the walkway by the big tree near the clubhouse, a group of men in green jackets began congregating for their exclusive dinner.
Ludvig walked the other way toward the locker room as shutters clicked, wives smiled and grown men tried to contain their giddiness over Rory’s insane wine menu.
The Masters is nothing if not a collection of tensions. The tension of the tournament being held in a rundown old town but also at the most prestigious and beautiful golf course in the world. The tension of intimacy this course creates in person with the grandeur that is perceived on television.
Add another one to the list: The tension of somebody who’s come close multiple times walking off to the left while his peers — who played just slightly better than him the last two times — gathered to the right.
It was a small thing, perhaps a tiny thing, but the accumulation of tiny but meaningful moments is part of what makes this place so great.
[Jason here] Everyone is ragging on Spieth's purple on purple outfit, but I'm grateful that I can run this illustration back from last year. Never change Jordan.
2. Speaking of the champions dinner! I don’t know when this happened exactly, but the annual image coming out of that room is somehow one of the more anticipatory moments of major championship season (very normal sport stuff that a dinner photo is such a meaningful thing in our ridiculous sport).
Here’s what dropped on Tuesday evening.
Some thoughts.
• DJ’s mega white teeth-black shirt combo is amusing and just in general, the black shirt really needs to go. Green on black with a dark gray tie is 🤮
• Likewise, Spieth needs an intervention. We cannot be doing green on purple on darker purple. This is what happens when Greller’s not there to step in.
• Sandy Lyle looks like he’s about to lecture for 90 minutes on applied mathematics. Also remains the GOAT Wiki page (Masters record: One top 10, one win).
• Jose Maria looks like he’s ready for Rory’s wine choices. Also, this made me laugh.
• Danny Willett stands out as a, “Wait … what exactly happened here” guy.
• They jammed the winner of two of the last four — and maybe the second best player of the last 40 years — in the corner like he’s at the kids table! Somebody on Twitter said he legit looks like he’s photoshopped in.
• Rahm looks dapper. Tie is a little bright for me. But he’s got a good vibe going. You can hate on the haircut (fair), but I think everything he’s doing there is pretty strong.
• Faldo makes DJ (!) look small.
Wagyu Filet Mignon, Sautéed Brussles Sprouts, Glazed Carrots, Vidalia Onion Rings à la Normal Sport
• I don’t understand how Adam Scott is 16 years older than Scottie Scheffler. Makes zero sense.
• Crenshaw looks like he’s fun as hell to have a great dinner with. Just the man. Also, agree with this take.
3. I want to talk about Rory’s quote from last year about being willing to get your heart broken. Justin Rose basically said it again on Monday.
… I kind of realized that you can't skip through a career without a little bit of heartache and heartbreak, no chance. If you're going to be willing to win them, you've got to be willing to kind of be on the wrong side of it as well.
The key is showing up. The key is to try to be as free as you can in those moments. Yeah, you kind of have to hope a little bit along the way that it's your day.
… Hopefully with that mindset, keep chipping away, my day might still happen where a little bit of something goes my way.
That's the hard part. All we can do as players is to focus on our game, focus on our skill set, and make the odds in our favor the best we can.
Justin Rose
Make the odds in our favor …
Justin Everdeen
If you’re going to be willing to win them echoes what Rory said last year. This is a curious thing to me. I understand the concept, but I don’t totally know what it means in the context of playing golf.
Is it a physical thing, a mental one, an emotional position or a bit of all of the above?
So I asked Scottie about it.
I think a lot of the way I look at golf tournaments is I love being in that environment, I love trying to succeed and get the most out of myself when things are tough, and it's challenging playing, I think, late in tournaments. It's really difficult to win, and so being able to have a chance to do that is something that's special already.
There's certainly an aspect of putting yourself out there because, if you put yourself in the arena enough times, you're going to fail and you're going to succeed. That's just part of it.
There has to be some acceptance there that you're going to have maybe some great wins and you're also going to have some tough losses, but ultimately we just keep going.
Scottie Scheffler | 2026 Masters
I still feel like my questions have yet to be answered.
What does it mean to put yourself out there in terms of how you play the 15th hole or what you’re thinking when you get to the 18th tee? How does one put one’s self out there in those moments, and conversely, how does one not put one’s self out there?
My hunt for answers — which I’ve been on since Rory brought it up a year ago — will continue throughout this week. And I’ll keep reporting back.
4. Webb Simpson pointed this out to me in our podcast on Tuesday, but the par 3 contest is incredibly normal sport. It would be tantamount to Tom Brady bringing his kids to walk thrus the day before the Super Bowl or Vlad Jr. bringing his to infield/outfield the day before Game 5 of the World Series.
Strange, strange stuff, and it would only happen in golf.
5. Speaking of Justin Rose, we played a game of “if you took five shots off of any event(s) of [player X]’s major career, whose legacy would be affected the most?” last night. Jamie Kennedy thought of the game, and he and I talked with Joel Beall and LKD about it for an hour.
So for example, you can take one off of Justin Rose’s 2017 and 2025 Masters, and he gets two more major wins and still has three shots left to work with. Once you start really thinking about it, it’s an incredible exercise.
Rose would obviously be a huge beneficiary. He becomes a four-time major winner with the 2013 U.S. Open, 2017 Masters, 2018 Open and 2025 Masters and one of the best Europeans of all time.
There are plenty of others as well.
One of the fun ones — as Beall pointed out — is that it gives Spieth a shot at the slam in a single year. He won the first two in 2015, take two off and give him St. Andrews and then take three off and get him into a playoff with Jason Day at Whistling Straits with the slam on the line. Whew.
The more you play, and the more people you think of, the better it gets.
6. There are 1 million ways to try and figure out who’s going to play well at this event, but you could do worse than ranking everyone by SG over the first three months of this season and the last three years of play at Augusta National.
Here’s that list with their respective odds.
Here’s what stands out.
• Scottie has been devalued a bit this week for understandable reasons. But my gosh.
• I’ve heard a lot of “I don’t get it with Rahm,” which I guess is fair (?), but see above for why he’s a legit threat here.
• Xander and Rory are huge value. I talked to one person here this week who said he’s going to pick Rory. I asked why, and he said, “He’s just … so much better than everyone else.”
• Reed (44-1), Spieth (43-1), McNealy (80-1), Viktor (46-1) and Henley (48-1) are all value plays that I love.
7. The Rory thing this year is pretty fascinating. There has never been more attention on him as a person and never been less pressure on him as a player. The way he’s been treated so far … it’s almost as if he’s not even playing the tournament this year. Ironically, it turns out that the best way to get the spotlight off of yourself as it relates to winning the Masters is to … win the Masters.
He is loose and free in a way that he wasn’t going into the PGA and U.S. Open last year. I honestly would not be surprised at all to see 67-66 and a four shot lead on Friday evening. Like, not at all.
Talk about injecting some juice into the event.
Only Tiger (2001-2002) and Faldo (1989-1990) have gone back to back here in the last 35 years.
8. Also speaking of Rory! I have been thinking about this quote from his presser.
And there's still a lot that I want to do. You think every time you achieve something or have success that you'll be happy, but then the goalposts move, and they just keep nudging a little bit further and further out of reach.
I think what I've realized is, if you can just really find enjoyment in the journey, that's the big thing because honestly I felt like the career grand slam was my destination, and I got there, and then I realized it wasn't the destination.
Rory McIlroy | 2026 Masters
Buddy, the entire human condition in two paragraphs.
I think this is why he reacted the way he did after last year’s Masters. Grumpy and annoyed with media, dealing with the aftermath of something that seemed like it would fulfill him — and probably did for a while — and then realizing that it it wasn’t the destination.
I would pay money — lots of it! too much of it! — to watch him and Scottie have a conversation about this exact thing. I will even moderate! I would love to moderate! Let’s make it happen at some point.
9. A question: If you got to play six holes at Augusta National, which group of six would you choose?
Holes: 1, 4, 8, 14, 15, 18
Holes: 2, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17
Holes: 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 16
I found the exercise to be difficult in terms of splitting them up evenly. You have to separate the back nine par 5s and No. 12, but then one of those three is also going to be grouped with No. 16. I think those four are probably the most desirable holes on the course to play, and whichever group has two of the four in it will probably win.
But I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
10. I loved this from Ludvig.
[The Masters is] very different. It's very different because a normal tournament seems like there's a lot of phones up. You want to take videos and pictures and keep up with the scores. That's very different here. It feels like the fans are a little bit more engaged in the golf. They're a little bit more attuned to what's going on. It's a cool environment to play. It feels like good golf shots are being appreciated in a different way. And it's also quite nice to just leave your phone somewhere.
Ludvig
Ludvig talks as clearly and simply as he swings.
It is the best place to engage with a golf tournament for this exact reason, and I have to agree with him that it’s quite nice to leave your phone pretty much anywhere else.
11. Because the storylines have been a little more tepid than they usually are, I’d like to offer this prediction: the golf course — always a storyline here — will become an even bigger one this time around.
Fred Ridley said something surprising on Wednesday when he noted that the first year they lengthened No. 13 it resulted in more players going for it than before because fewer drives were up in the trees and pine straw and more were in the fairways (albeit pretty far back). I think Nos. 13 and 15 have regained their juice and should star in fast, firm, hot conditions like we’ll get this weekend.
Spieth said something about the course on Wednesday that made me smile.
Greens are going to be firm. It's going to be probably a more challenging green-in-regulation year. So it's going to be important to be coming out of the fairway just because it's going to be hard to get it to stay on some of the greens if you're not. And then it's going to probably get brown and crusty. Just with the weather coming, it's going to be so nice that I think they're going to let it go a little bit.
Jordan Spieth
I think they’re going to let it go a little bit.
I need it. I cannot wait for it.
Let the best championship golf course in the world be the star of the show.
12. Ridley was exceptional throughout his annual presser. He is the rare executive who can speak spontaneously with ease. I could have sat there for another 45 minutes. I wanted his thoughts on how media has evolved since he played in the tournament in 1976 and what most surprised him about Rory’s global media tour over the last year.
He did speak brilliantly on the distance issue, and I wanted to highlight the part I enjoyed the most here.
Until recent years golf has been a game of imagination, creativity, and variety. The game has become much more one-dimensional. As players drive the ball prodigious distances and routinely hit short irons into par-4s and even some par-5s, this issue goes beyond competitive impacts. Increased course lengths results in more time, more cost, and more environmental concerns.
The data that has been shared with all stakeholders makes one thing clear: The impact to the recreational game will be immaterial. All of us in this room and millions of weekend golfers around the world will be hard-pressed to notice the effects of this change, and I do not believe our enjoyment of the game will be affected.
As for professional golf, we hold firm in our belief that the greats of the game are defined not merely by how far they hit the ball, but their extraordinary skill in all aspects of the game. Their ability to shape shots, to take on risk, and to execute under pressure is at the heart of championship golf and is best displayed through a full spectrum of shot-making opportunities.
Regulation of the golf ball is not an attempt to turn back time or stifle progress. It is an effort to preserve the essence of what makes golf the great game that it is.
Fred Ridley
Ridley did not raise his voice, and he was not forceful. But it would be difficult to be more adamant or speak with more authority on the topic than he did here. ANGC doesn’t stand to gain from a rolled back golf ball — if anything they would gain from not rolling it back because they have the ability to add land more than other places. And while ANGC is not a governing body, other places are certainly influenced by this one.
So it was cool to see a wielding of the power that they have used for something that is (in my opinion) so meaningful and important.
13. One of my favorite parts of my first two days here has been sitting on No. 8 on Wednesday, watching Cam Young, JT and Keegan hit spinny pitches all over that green. ANGC is probably the best playground in the world to watch players with great short games hit short game shots.
I could have stayed out there the entire day, just watching guys hit balls off the bank and spin them back to the plastic markers their caddies threw down.
If you come to the Masters, sure, go see Amen Corner and shots on 12 and 16. But then pick a spot in the stands on No. 8 or No. 5 or No. 1 and watch guys go to work with their wedges. It’s a total treat on the grounds and one that delighted me on Wednesday.
14. OK, that’s enough talking. Time for a pick.
I’m going with an American.
Who has played on multiple Ryder Cup teams.
Has won multiple majors.
Recently had a baby.
And has crushed at Augusta National.
Nope, not that one.
Thank you for reading our outrageous golf newsletter that is sometimes (but often barely) about golf. Every edition is handcrafted by me (Kyle) and Jason. It is a labor of love, but as long as you keep showing up and we still have money in our bank account, we will keep handcrafting and delivering this thing to you with all the obsession we can muster.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Greetings from the Augusta National Golf Club, and welcome to a newsletter where we spend an inordinate amount of time breaking down a dinner photo of men of various ages, sizes and fashion senses.
Is it stupid? Of course it’s stupid, but that’s kind of the entire point.
One thing I wanted to point out before we get to 14 Masters Eve thoughts is that we’re giving away two OGIO golf travel bags to readers this week. Eligibility to win = be subscribed to the newsletter and comment on this tweet with who you think is going to win and why. You don’t even have to be correct. All you have to do is comment.
Also, don’t forget to join our fantasy contest right here before Round 1 starts!
Name drops today: Max Homa, Sandy Lyle, Fred Ridley, Justin Everdeen and Jason Day.
Thanks to — you guessed it — OGIO for presenting today’s newsletter.
I am traveling this week with both their Alpha mid travel cover as well as their Renegade vault carry-on. Both are tremendous pieces of luggage and the best I’ve ever had in both categories.
I don’t know that OGIO makes a bag big enough to carry all my hopes and dreams for a certain 2015 champion at this tournament this week, but if someone does, it’s them. Because when it comes to stuff you really care about, you can be assured that OGIO makes a premium (and amazing) version of it.
OK, now onto the news.
Bryson's garage.
1. Late on Tuesday, I walked out to the 18th green to watch Ludvig finish up his practice round. It was after 6 p.m., and I was lugging around merch for my children and one of our subscribers.
After the round ended, he made his way from the 18th green over to the clubhouse, stopping to sign autographs and take pictures with kids.
When he went through the walkway by the big tree near the clubhouse, a group of men in green jackets began congregating for their exclusive dinner.
Ludvig walked the other way toward the locker room as shutters clicked, wives smiled and grown men tried to contain their giddiness over Rory’s insane wine menu.
The Masters is nothing if not a collection of tensions. The tension of the tournament being held in a rundown old town but also at the most prestigious and beautiful golf course in the world. The tension of intimacy this course creates in person with the grandeur that is perceived on television.
Add another one to the list: The tension of somebody who’s come close multiple times walking off to the left while his peers — who played just slightly better than him the last two times — gathered to the right.
It was a small thing, perhaps a tiny thing, but the accumulation of tiny but meaningful moments is part of what makes this place so great.
[Jason here] Everyone is ragging on Spieth's purple on purple outfit, but I'm grateful that I can run this illustration back from last year. Never change Jordan.
2. Speaking of the champions dinner! I don’t know when this happened exactly, but the annual image coming out of that room is somehow one of the more anticipatory moments of major championship season (very normal sport stuff that a dinner photo is such a meaningful thing in our ridiculous sport).
Here’s what dropped on Tuesday evening.
Some thoughts.
• DJ’s mega white teeth-black shirt combo is amusing and just in general, the black shirt really needs to go. Green on black with a dark gray tie is 🤮
• Likewise, Spieth needs an intervention. We cannot be doing green on purple on darker purple. This is what happens when Greller’s not there to step in.
• Sandy Lyle looks like he’s about to lecture for 90 minutes on applied mathematics. Also remains the GOAT Wiki page (Masters record: One top 10, one win).
• Jose Maria looks like he’s ready for Rory’s wine choices. Also, this made me laugh.
• Danny Willett stands out as a, “Wait … what exactly happened here” guy.
• They jammed the winner of two of the last four — and maybe the second best player of the last 40 years — in the corner like he’s at the kids table! Somebody on Twitter said he legit looks like he’s photoshopped in.
• Rahm looks dapper. Tie is a little bright for me. But he’s got a good vibe going. You can hate on the haircut (fair), but I think everything he’s doing there is pretty strong.
• Faldo makes DJ (!) look small.
Wagyu Filet Mignon, Sautéed Brussles Sprouts, Glazed Carrots, Vidalia Onion Rings à la Normal Sport
• I don’t understand how Adam Scott is 16 years older than Scottie Scheffler. Makes zero sense.
• Crenshaw looks like he’s fun as hell to have a great dinner with. Just the man. Also, agree with this take.
3. I want to talk about Rory’s quote from last year about being willing to get your heart broken. Justin Rose basically said it again on Monday.
… I kind of realized that you can't skip through a career without a little bit of heartache and heartbreak, no chance. If you're going to be willing to win them, you've got to be willing to kind of be on the wrong side of it as well.
The key is showing up. The key is to try to be as free as you can in those moments. Yeah, you kind of have to hope a little bit along the way that it's your day.
… Hopefully with that mindset, keep chipping away, my day might still happen where a little bit of something goes my way.
That's the hard part. All we can do as players is to focus on our game, focus on our skill set, and make the odds in our favor the best we can.
Justin Rose
Make the odds in our favor …
Justin Everdeen
If you’re going to be willing to win them echoes what Rory said last year. This is a curious thing to me. I understand the concept, but I don’t totally know what it means in the context of playing golf.
Is it a physical thing, a mental one, an emotional position or a bit of all of the above?
So I asked Scottie about it.
I think a lot of the way I look at golf tournaments is I love being in that environment, I love trying to succeed and get the most out of myself when things are tough, and it's challenging playing, I think, late in tournaments. It's really difficult to win, and so being able to have a chance to do that is something that's special already.
There's certainly an aspect of putting yourself out there because, if you put yourself in the arena enough times, you're going to fail and you're going to succeed. That's just part of it.
There has to be some acceptance there that you're going to have maybe some great wins and you're also going to have some tough losses, but ultimately we just keep going.
Scottie Scheffler | 2026 Masters
I still feel like my questions have yet to be answered.
What does it mean to put yourself out there in terms of how you play the 15th hole or what you’re thinking when you get to the 18th tee? How does one put one’s self out there in those moments, and conversely, how does one not put one’s self out there?
My hunt for answers — which I’ve been on since Rory brought it up a year ago — will continue throughout this week. And I’ll keep reporting back.
This post will continue below for Normal Club members (all 1,038 of them) and includes notes from the grounds on Wednesday, another Rory thing I’ve been thinking about and my pick to win the 2026 Masters.
By becoming a member, you will receive the following …
• Access to 100 percent of our content this week.
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