This Should be an All-Time Masters Sunday

4. For the record, I regret absolutely nothing about what I said or tweeted on Friday evening. Vince.gif was sent. I yelled on our podcast about 10 majors and plenty of other irresponsible things. I take back none of it.

What I didn’t see coming because I didn’t want to see it coming but should have seen coming because if it was anyone else I would have been hollering about it was this: He finally got got with his misses.

A more sober writer would have said, He’s kind of scrambling his face off. I’m not sure if that’s sustainable. But instead, I just waved my hands in the air and said, He’ll figure out driver. He’s the best to ever do it.

He hasn’t yet, and it caught up to him on Saturday. The question is whether he can summon something for 18 holes on Sunday.

The truth is that he wasn’t lapping the field over 36 holes because he flushed it over the first two days, which is how he lapped fields when he was 23. He was lapping the field because he’s never been better at papering over his mistakes.

I truly don’t know what that means for Sunday. Nobody can snap back into it like he can (Andy noted on Saturday that when he needs big shots, they’re often there). And there’s a couple of safety nets — both a jacket he already has and a wedge game that looks like the best in the world — that have never been there before.

If he gets it done again it will be, from a pure golf perspective, I think maybe more impressive than last year when he was flushing everything he looked at.

5. Here’s a thought: What if this is his last best chance to win the Masters? Sounds crazy, right? But who knows. It’s the third best chance he’s ever had behind 2011 and 2025, and maybe he never gets another setup like this again (I realize as recently as Friday I said he may win like four of these).

You can’t waste them. Not at this place. Not at that age. Not at this stage of your career. Also, here’s a fun question I was thinking about in the middle of Round 3 as Scottie shot 65 and Rory shot 73: Who ends their career with more majors.

Twitter results.

I would have bet Rory at the start of the day, and now I’m back on Scottie. Which I realize is sociopathic behavior, but that’s how thin the line is on this question. If Rory does win on Sunday, Scottie will have to have Vijay Singh’s career the rest of the way to get ahead of him.

6. Is this a safe place? I think I’m … rooting for Justin Rose on Sunday. More than Cam, more than Rory, more than Scottie and even more than Haotong.

Justin Rose!

Rose is a little like Ernie Els to me in that it would feel weird if he wasn’t at the champions dinner 15 years from now. He’s been so great for so long, and I would really, really love to see a 66 from him on Sunday for a two-shot win over Cam and Rory.

How can you not root for Mr. Handsome.

7. For a bit, I thought Scottie was going to shoot 62 on Saturday. How insane would it be if he went into the weekend 12 back and went on to win?

He’s so in it right now and looked so much better on Saturday than he has maybe since he won Palm Springs back in January.

I walked with his group for a while, and he hit the filthiest little approach on 14 that made my eyes bulge. He had to keep it low and let it feed into this funnel area but not with too much speed and if he left it short it would run back down the hill. You can watch it here, but it doesn’t even come close to doing it justice.

All that to say, Scottie from a dozen down after two rounds to win his third Masters in five years and tie Rory and Brooks with five majors would legitimately be the golf story of this year.

8. I loved this from JMO early on Saturday morning. I get that if this was Bryson or another young stud, we would be talking about how thirsty they are. But context matters and seeing the old heads enjoy their (earned) week at ANGC to the fullest is one of my favorite parts of this event every single year. And his caddie still has to wear a jumpsuit even when they're not competing! There is truly nothing like it.

9. Here are a few of my notes from the grounds on Saturday.

• Overheard at the Masters from a patron: “Oh that guy eagled No. 3 … which is a par 3 … that’s a hole in one!” It’s not.

• The green on 15 looks cooked.

• Had a couple of Lady J sightings on Saturday. Looked resplendent, and she is dialed in.

• Justin Rose compresses the golf ball. Not sure if that comes through on TV that well, but he hits it so, so good.

• One oddity is how few fans are on the back nine early in the day, even for guys like Rahm and Morikawa coming through. You can set up shop at 17 and have a front row seat to some awesome, awesome golf for most of the day.

• Multiple times this week, I have a seen a European Ryder Cup wives contingent hanging out or walking together. On Saturday, it was Lowry-McIlroy-Fleetwood and I believe Rose. They must just make more putts!

• Rory’s second on 15 felt so, so similar to both the third and fourth rounds last year.

• Am I crazy to think that Harry Diamond looks slightly like Rafa Nadal?

• Rory has seen so much of the property this week that I am convinced he would have missed the cut at a U.S. Open. And now he might be about to win the Masters.

10. One thing I have been thinking about a bit since the third round ended is … what if Rory had lost last year? Blowing a five-shot lead with eight holes to play and then a six-shot lead at the halfway mark the following year, all of it with the grand slam on the line.

My experience being on the grounds here is that this tournament lacks a tension past tournaments with Rory in the mix have had. Last year’s back nine was tense. This year doesn’t feel that way. Maybe it will on Sunday, but there is a sense of, OK, we can all just enjoy this Masters because this man’s existential nature isn’t hanging in the balance on every single swing.

Also, I have definitely convinced myself that this would not be a crushing defeat like last year would have been. This is self-protective, sure, but also I think it could be easy on Sunday evening to talk yourself into, He just didn’t have his stuff this week, but we’re headed in the right direction. He’ll get another shot here!

11. That being said, I’m not totally sure how to feel right now about him going into the final act.

We know the back half of Sunday here is barely about golf. And part of me thinks if he can just get it to No. 10 with a one- or two-shot lead, Rory (the all-time great) will take over for Rory (the 36-year-old from Northern Ireland who is missing left) and somehow get him into a second jacket. That is what legends do.

The other part of me is thinking, Did you watch anything that happened last year? And also I am a bit unconvinced that he even believes any of this himself.

One of the best things about Rory is that he seems to feel the way we probably think we would feel in these big moments. Seems to sometimes lack confidence the way we all sometimes lack confidence and is often open about all of these realities. All of it makes him relatable and easy to root for.

Conversely, I’m not sure if any of it creates the best mental and emotional path to winning major championships. Bryson would blame the equipment. Spieth would talk about how close it is. Brooks would blame anything. Rory? It has clearly crept into his head that he may not have the goods this weekend and that he can only blame himself.

Which means Sunday is going to be not quite as fascinating as last year but must see nonetheless.

12. I haven’t watched a ton on TV this year since I’ve been running around the golf course, but the parts I’ve caught on CBS have looked very cool. Specifically some of the new camera angles (like the one below on 12) and this wild drone tracer, which is so sick and so additive to the broadcast.

13. What’s at stake on Sunday for the top five on the board?

Cam: Joins Morikawa as the best under 30 American star not named Scottie and ascends to an entirely new level as someone who will take a green jacket, a Players Championship and a great Ryder Cup record into his 30s.

Rory: If he wins, I think he immediately moves past Phil and becomes one of the 10 best players of all time. Last year was for the slam (obviously), every one thereafter will be to move the legacy up a rung.

Burns: Moves him out of Scottie’s shadow and into the Xander-Morikawa group of American stars.

Lowry: Earns him a future Ryder Cup captaincy, if he hasn’t earned it already.

Rose: Moves out of the Adam Scott-Sergio Garcia group of guys who should have more than one major championship win. A win here more properly matches his career resume to how good he’s actually been.

Day: Probably the same as Rose — moves him out of that one-major group to where he’s thought of more highly, though it would be weird for Jason Day to have more majors than Adam Scott and Sergio Garcia, both of whom have had more sustained success for a longer period of time.

Scottie: We would have to (right now) start having some potentially uncomfortable “top 10 of all time” conversations.

14. My prediction: Rory wins with a 3-under 69. Cam got some outrageous breaks on Saturday (No. 9 and No. 13 stand out) that aren’t really being talked about much.

I think losing the lead — while not as advantageous — is in some ways helpful to Rory because he has to just go play and won’t be thinking about how not to blow another lead.

And for the rest of us, because there is no concern about him completing the grand slam, the fact that so many different golfers are truly in it should make for one of the more compelling “I have no idea who’s going to win this” Sundays in recent years.

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.