OT: The Masters

[Guru]

LOCK HIM UP!

[DuckIII]

What Scheffler did today is one of the greatest sports performances I have ever seen in my life. I’m rooting for him to win just for the sake of the story at this point. Unbelievable.

[DuckIII]

I see a lot of good young players that look like they could become stars, but most don't. I thought Cam Smith was on his way to multiple majors the way he can putt, and he still might be. Morikawa, Mathew Fitzpatrick, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffle, Whyndam Clark, Will Zalatoris, Cameron Young, plus a few other I'm forgetting. It's interesting when a player does move up to that next level like Scheffler has, or John Rahm.

I don’t think you have to have a ton of majors to be a star, but you do to be a legend if that makes sense.

Morikawa is definitely a star. He has 10 Tour/Euro wins, 2 majors, top 10 finishes in 7 majors, 2 Ryder Cup teams and he’s only 27. To your point, he could fall off. JT and Jordan are perfect examples. But Morikawa stood out to me as not really belonging on the list.

Schauffle possibly as well, except that he has no majors. Other than Scheffler though, he’s got to be the most consistent male golfer in the world over the last 3 years.

Back to the original thought, with some guys the talent just jumps out. That’s Aberg. Doesn’t mean he’ll become a consistent multi-decade superstar, you are right. In golf that is reserved for only a handful of truly dominant all time greats. There’s probably like 10-12 of those guys ever and maybe 3-4 in the post-Nicklaus era. Rare air.

[Dresden]

I see a lot of good young players that look like they could become stars, but most don't. I thought Cam Smith was on his way to multiple majors the way he can putt, and he still might be. Morikawa, Mathew Fitzpatrick, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffle, Whyndam Clark, Will Zalatoris, Cameron Young, plus a few other I'm forgetting. It's interesting when a player does move up to that next level like Scheffler has, or John Rahm.

I don’t think you have to have a ton of majors to be a star, but you do to be a legend if that makes sense.

Morikawa is definitely a star. He has 10 Tour/Euro wins, 2 majors, top 10 finishes in 7 majors, 2 Ryder Cup teams and he’s only 27. To your point, he could fall off. JT and Jordan are perfect examples. But Morikawa stood out to me as not really belonging on the list.

Schauffle possibly as well, except that he has no majors. Other than Scheffler though, he’s got to be the most consistent male golfer in the world over the last 3 years.

Back to the original thought, with some guys the talent just jumps out. That’s Aberg. Doesn’t mean he’ll become a consistent multi-decade superstar, you are right. In golf that is reserved for only a handful of truly dominant all time greats. There’s probably like 10-12 of those guys ever and maybe 3-4 in the post-Nicklaus era. Rare air.

And to your point, at the top of the leaderboard right now are Shauffle, Morikawa, and Scheffler not far behind. Should be a good finish.

[DuckIII]

I love the leaderboard.

[molepharmer]

What Scheffler did today is one of the greatest sports performances I have ever seen in my life. I’m rooting for him to win just for the sake of the story at this point. Unbelievable.

His 42nd round in row at par or better, second only to Tiger's 52 in a row. When Scheffler looks human he still shoots a couple under par. When I watch him he doesn't seem special/dominating (ala McElroy) until I watch his shots relative to his playing partners. They'll have a couple bad drives, missed greens, poor chip/pitch shots, etc while Scottie simply rarely misses a shot. Then he'll hit a couple stiff for kick in birdies. Distance control is Tiger-esque and his bounce back percentage (bogie then birdie) is close to 50%, Unbelievable talent.

[DuckIII]

What Scheffler did today is one of the greatest sports performances I have ever seen in my life. I’m rooting for him to win just for the sake of the story at this point. Unbelievable.

His 42nd round in row at par or better, second only to Tiger's 52 in a row. When Scheffler looks human he still shoots a couple under par. When I watch him he doesn't seem special/dominating (ala McElroy) until I watch his shots relative to his playing partners. They'll have a couple bad drives, missed greens, poor chip/pitch shots, etc while Scottie simply rarely misses a shot. Then he'll hit a couple stiff for kick in birdies. Distance control is Tiger-esque and his bounce back percentage (bogie then birdie) is close to 50%, Unbelievable talent.

He’s Nick Faldo with elite physical attributes. He’s a robot.

But mentally to be able to do what he did yesterday is just completely off the charts. To be able to compartmentalize those events and then tee off just a few hours later, without your routine, doing your stretches in a jail cell, getting mentally geared up in mere minutes after you figured you would not play at all that day (because you are in jail being charged with a felony!), with the entire world watching and talking about you, it’s just flat out unimaginable. It would have been amazing to shoot +3, let alone shoot one of the low rounds of the day.

If there was any doubt where this guy is headed, it was erased yesterday. What he did borders on ludicrous and will be talked about 50 years from now as one of the greatest major rounds of all time. And if he wins it will be remembered like Tiger at the 2008 US Open.

[DuckIII]

Not a robot today. Yesterday may have caught up with Scheffler. I still love this leaderboard and how many guys are right there in it.

[molepharmer]

Not a robot today. Yesterday may have caught up with Scheffler. I still love this leaderboard and how many guys are right there in it.

Agree. I do think not having his regular caddie on the bag to give him some feeling of normallacy(?) didn't help.

[DuckIII]

The number of holed shots in this tournament is wild.

[Dresden]

Yeah, it looks like what happened yesterday finally caught up with Scottie. Should be a great finish tomorrow though, with so many guys within 5 shots of the leaders.

[Chi town]

What a leaderboard!

Should be a fun watch tomorrow.

[DuckIII]

Yeah, it looks like what happened yesterday finally caught up with Scottie. Should be a great finish tomorrow though, with so many guys within 5 shots of the leaders.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see him struggle again somewhat today as well. But yeah, what a great and tightly packed leaderboard. Really looking forward to it.

[kyrv]

Well that was pretty darn exciting, really enjoyed it! Congrats, first time major winner, well deserved.

[DuckIII]

Excellent Sunday. Always happy to see an elite player finally break through for his first Major and Xander seems a good dude.

And Scheffler still finishes 8th. He’s just barely human after all.

[Dresden]

good for Xander- he was due to win one. Looks like for the near future, majors are going to come down to Xander, Morikawa, Scheffler and Holland. Or at least they will be in the mix.

I wonder if there will be any lawsuits stemming from the incident with Scheffler on Saturday.

[madvillian]

Great tourney, mediocre course at best. Because of the technology there's an ever shrinking number of places that will be a fair test of golf, even for the PGA, which is usually setup to produce some scoring, this was just too much.

Happy for Xander and Bryson becoming likeable was not on my bingo card for 2024 majors.

[Dresden]

Great tourney, mediocre course at best. Because of the technology there's an ever shrinking number of places that will be a fair test of golf, even for the PGA, which is usually setup to produce some scoring, this was just too much.

Happy for Xander and Bryson becoming likeable was not on my bingo card for 2024 majors.

I agree- the scoring is way too easy for a major. It doesn't seem that hard to fix- just grow the rough taller and make the fairways narrower. Another thing they could do is mess with the bunkers somehow to make it more penal to get in the sand traps. As it is now, players are so good out of the sand it's hardly a penalty at all.

[madvillian]

Great tourney, mediocre course at best. Because of the technology there's an ever shrinking number of places that will be a fair test of golf, even for the PGA, which is usually setup to produce some scoring, this was just too much.

Happy for Xander and Bryson becoming likeable was not on my bingo card for 2024 majors.

I agree- the scoring is way too easy for a major. It doesn't seem that hard to fix- just grow the rough taller and make the fairways narrower. Another thing they could do is mess with the bunkers somehow to make it more penal to get in the sand traps. As it is now, players are so good out of the sand it's hardly a penalty at all.

It was uncanny how often guys were able to get up and down or out of any sort of trouble off the tree. The only doubles and triples made were when guys hit it so far wild that it went OB or into the water, and those areas were hard to find even with wild hits.

In general a course like that is going to need faster greens and less rain and that's just not something you can control all the time so you're always taking a risk of a setup like this.

I don't think Valhalla is a bad course, it's just more suited to a random Tour event than as a Major host. Aside from the scoring the course just isn't that memorable. There's maybe two or three holes with any sort of strategy involved the rest is just bomb and gouge target golf.

[Michael Jackson]

Yeah I think Valhalla got the major because of Louisville politics. That city is pushing to grow etc…. I am down there a lot and the company I represent down there has. Valhalla membership. I have not played it but one day I will. Nice course but seriously when you have 2 people in the same event scoring a 62…. Too much of a scorers course.