2024 Masters: The Cutmakers
The almost-winners who had moments during 2024 Masters week.
We march on with Part Two of our annual wrap of winners, losers and somewhere-only-we-knows from another special week in Augusta.
Cutmakers
Jon Rahm. He came into the tournament embracing the perks of defending and put together what sounded like an incredible evening. He earned raves from the past champions—until Ray Floyd had heard enough of Tom Watson and everyone called it a night. Then Rahm turned surly. “It's been nice to have some receptions walking up to some tees no matter what my score was and seeing the appreciation,” he said Sunday after a final round 76. “But when you don't have your best week, it's hard to have to stay now to put the jacket on somebody else and never really ever have a chance.” Coulda been worse Jon! You could have been enlisted to slap Pimento on white bread on the night shift. And while Rahm never looked as miserable as runner-ups forced to sit through cabin ceremonies of yesteryear—a cruel tradition now expired—it wasn’t the most jovial jacket awarding by outgoing champion Rahm. So much for $400 million delivering 24/7 happiness.
Butler Cabin Ceremony. You never let us down. What was going on behind the cameras? At least Neil Shipley stayed seated and never left midway through like last year’s low amateur.
Tiger Woods. A remarkable 24-consecutive cuts made sets the new record after a tremendous performance that required a rapid Thursday-to-Friday turnaround. But 82-77 on the weekend was painful to see. The stiff back and lack of golf conditioning remains an issue even as he appears to walk better, has all of the shots and can out-navigate the kids around a complex course. At least Tiger treated amateur Neil Shipley to a once-in-a-lifetime final round by making the low amateur feel welcomed while making Oakmont feel bad about all of the tree removal. Oh, and the Sunday Red Sun Day Red logo remains weird but good job jettisoning the S.D.R. initials that teed up the haters to hate.
LIV. Seven of 13 representatives made the cut, two managed to tie for T6, but only Bryson DeChambeau genuinely threatened the lead. Unlike last year when two players tied for second and made us question the PGA Tour’s run-up as the ideal Masters prep, cracks are turning into grand canyons after LIVsters Rahm and Phil Mickelson admitted expansion to 72 holes is just a matter of time. Not helping LIV’s street cred: DeChambeau suggested only Doral provided LIV players a big time prep test this year. And LIV dropping its OWGR application was highlighted by Chairman Fred Ridley in rejecting the league’s fantasy of seeing top players receive major exemptions.
Sharp edges. The Quad always supports the installation of graceful surface drainage to add interest over unnatural catch basins to move the heavy stuff into Rae’s Creek. This year we saw a new swale around the sixth green similar to work at the 11th and 17th or even the since-softened 13th hole work of the 1980s. Naturalists Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones would recoil at the steepness of some of the slopes given how they largely discourage the ground game and force a lob wedge recovery instead of providing options. Rory McIlroy diplomatically described the biggest change he’s seen to the course over his 16 years: “There's a lot of sharpness to the edges of the green compounds that didn't used to be there, which makes it -- the right of the 11th green, which makes it just a little trickier to chip to and just penalizes the misses a little bit more, which ultimately, I think, is a good thing.” But “sharpness” is more Pete Dye than Alister MacKenzie. Steep slopes up to a green take away the skill of hitting a nifty little bump-and-run option adored by the original architects.
Tinkerers, blamers-of-team-members, wannabe future captains of industry (with the initials P.C.), and current selectors of the next Ryder Cup captain. Rough week for the PGA Tour’s irreplaceable assets who’ve devoted too much time to board meetings and firing members of their “teams” in bids to avoid introspection. A bunch of guys should double down on what they’re not as good at these days: playing golf. Hopefully the rough week for the PGA Tour’s well-compensated but under-delivering stars humbled them into submission and will let grown-ups sort out the current mess.
Jason Day. The tournament asked him to take off his Lucky Strike-themed Malbon sweater vest. Instead of going into full whine mode, Day handled the light scolding with class and also offered humble remarks suggesting he, unlike some of his peers, understands his place in the game. The baggy pants? A massive misfire at a time as golf fashion makes strides with more athletic and functional clothes now seen outside of the sport. Still, it’s fun to see someone upsetting the conventional wisdom. But the windsail pants cut just doesn’t work for golf. Or anything else.
Ratings. I wrote too soon. A 20% overnight ratings drop for the final round continues a season-long trend where—who’d a thunk it—entitlement, greed, the power game, heavy turnover, slow play, NBC/Golf Channel’s diminished reach and continued strong recreational numbers appear to have accelerated 2024’s narrative. There are caveats: the Masters streaming experience remains superior to anything in sports and is not accounted for in the ratings. This means many of those golfers playing might have had the telecast playing on their cell phones. CBS averaged just 9.6 million Sunday with a peak of 12.6 million as Scheffler clinched the win. Saturday saw 6.6 million average viewers, down 11% from 2022 (last year was a rainout coverage last year). Also, SBJ’s Josh Carpenter notes that Nielsen’s numbers last year saw a bump due to “out-of-home” viewing, suggesting this year did not enjoy a boost from all of the heathens with one eyeball glued to the golf at Easter family brunch.
Gary Player. The three-time champion was on good behavior other than a weird video posted of him walking up Magnolia Lane. His traditional golf ball rant during the post-Honorary Starters press gathering? The one that made him sound positively bonkers a few years ago when he predicted 400-yard drives? Sadly, it’s looking prescient sooner than expected.
Caddie groupthink. Y’all look great in the coveralls.