Every year, I tell myself that I'm going to spend Saturday and Sunday watching the Masters, and most years I do not fulfill that promise. This year, however, things worked out and I got to see most of the play on Saturday and all the play on Sunday. Here was the final top ten:
1. R. McIlroy (NIR): -12 (67+65+73+71=276)
2. S. Scheffler: -11 (70+74+65+68 = 277)
T3. T. Hatton (ENG): -10 (74+66+72+66=278)
T3. R. Henley: -10 (73+71+66+68=278)
T3. J. Rose (ENG): -10 (70+69+69+70=278)
T3. C. Young: -10 (73+67+65+73=278)
T7. C. Morikawa: -9 (74+69+68+68=279)
T7. S. Burns: -9 (67+71+68+73=279)
T9. M. Homa: -8 (72+70+71+67=280)
T9. X. Schauffele: -8 (70+72+70+68=280)
A few observations:
1. As you can see, it was a pretty crowded leaderboard. But the whole story was whether Rory McIlroy would repeat. After his 65 on Friday, he had a six-shot lead with 36 holes to go. By the end of the day on Saturday, he had fallen into a tie with Cameron Young at 11 under. After the 6th hole on Sunday, he was 9 under and several strokes off the pace. But from there to the end, he was rock solid. He had a two-shot lead going to the last hole, and took an easy bogey for the one-shot victory.
2. Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are the two best golfers in the world, and they had a very strange battle over the weekend. After two rounds, McIlroy was 12 shots ahead -- 132 to 144. Over the next two rounds, Scheffler played almost perfect golf -- he was the first man since 1942 to play the third and fourth rounds without making a bogey. He made up eight shots on Saturday and three more shots on Sunday, outscoring McIlroy 133 to 144 over two days. But that still left Scheffler one shot behind. The golfing world will be excited to see the rematch next month at the PGA in Philadelphia.
3. Rory won four majors between 2011 and 2014 -- and then didn't win another major tournament for 11 years. Now he's repeated as the Masters Champion, leaving him with six majors in total: 2 Masters, 1 U.S. Open, 1 British Open, and 2 PGA's. Much has been made of the fact that Rory is one of only six men -- including Nicklaus, Woods, Hogan, Player, and Sarazen -- to win all four majors. But only eleven men in history have won more than six total majors, and you've heard of all of them.
4. With six majors in total, Rory is now tied with Lee Trevino, Nick Faldo, and Phil Mickelson. McIlrooy and Mickelson are the only men to pick up their sixth Major Championship since Tiger Woods did it back in the early 2000's. Brooks Koepka has five majors. Scheffler has four. No other active player has won four majors.
5. The LIV guys were not competitive in this tournament. Now that Koepka has left LIV and returned to the PGA, it seems to me that the only truly world-class golfer in LIV is Bryson DeChambeau. But this year DeChambeau was six over after the first two rounds, and as a result he missed the cut.
6. The Masters seems to be as popular as it has ever been in my lifetime. All sports are doing well these days, but even by that standard, the Masters appears to be unusually popular.
