Subscribe now!
.svg){kind=spacer}
Issue No. 183 | April 12, 2025
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Just beyond lunch on Friday afternoon, I paced Amen Corner as the tournament started to take on its form. Men in the exact same logos as every other man, each of them thinking they are unique. Women in small dresses and large hats. Children scurrying about as the sun began to pound.
Right up next to the rope stood a family of three, two of them in black hats with white block letters. They were not logoed. I had never seen the hats before. As they turned around, I took a peek. All they said was “Believe.”
Rory McIlroy took his stance on 12.
I don’t know if I can.
Before we get to the rest of Rory’s round and the end of a bonkers day, a shout out to today’s newsletter presenter, Holderness and Bourne, which is outfitting me all week at ANGC.
They sent me some new goodies for this trip — like the Lawson Hoodie and the Sherwood Pullover — that feel even better than their old stuff (which was already great!)
I texted one of my contacts over there today and told him I want to put Norman (our ridiculous little sheep logo) on everything they have!
OK, onto Round 2!
1. We’ll get to Rory, I promise. But we started Thursday with the very normal moment of an amateur golfer taking a pee in a creek right out in the middle of the most famous golf course on the planet on Thursday, and we got a version of that — a much different version, but a version nonetheless — early on Friday morning when the tournament leader started walking down No. 2.
I looked up as Rose stretched to the sky and then … wait … he … got on his hands and knees with his face pointed back toward the first tee box like he was going to do a vinyasa in the fairway of a sliver of land somebody once entitled “pink dogwood.”
Ostensibly, Rose was removing the sunscreen from his hands, though eschewing the traditional method of using … you know … a towel.
An amusing moment in a week overflowing with them, and it led to one of the great tweets of the tournament thus far.
[Jason here] This is a proud moment for my golf / Grayson Perry loving heart.
2. Nick Dunlap followed his 90 on Thursday with a 71 on Friday that could have been better. He had it all the way to 4 under on the day before making bogey at the last three holes. I was desperate for him to get it to the house in the 60s, mostly because it would have amused me to see somebody miss the cut without a single round in the 70s or 80s. That cannot have ever happened.
Dunlap had some incredible quotes afterward about how his trainer went and bought balls from Target that he hit into the woods at his rental house, but the one that got me was this.
I had more of a knot in my stomach today than I've ever had starting a round of golf.
Nick Dunlap | 2025 Masters
Biggest stage in the sport, and you go out believing you’re going to bomb. Imagine doing a set as a musician or a comedian — the biggest crowd you’ve ever had — with no clue how it’s going to go but all the belief in the world that you’re going to end up on your face. That’s brutal, and I respect him for showing up and grinding something — really, anything — today at ANGC.
Overheard at Moe’s, “That Nick dun lapped hisself.”
Also, a poll: How would you rather get to 160?
I put this on Twitter and was surprised about the results, although not surprised that Shane Bacon said 101-59.
3. You know how everybody on ESPN redefines LeBron’s legacy after every quarter of every big game? I find it to be absolutely preposterous, and yet I find myself doing the exact same thing with every Masters.
Rory shot 72 yesterday with all the momentum in the world? He’s cooked! No juice. Doesn’t have it! Rory shot 66 today on a day when he absolutely had to have it? I honestly think he could end up as one of the 12 best players of all time.
This plays out with so many different players in so many different ways, and while I think it’s pretty unjustified after the second quarter of Lakers-Warriors Game 3 of the Western semis, it actually might be at least a little bit more justified here at ANGC.
The biggest event, once a year, and you may only play in one or three or eight of them if you’re really lucky and great. So yeah, it does feel fair to change the legacy traj of different guys on a day to day basis, although we still probably do it a bit too often and with too much conclusiveness than we ought.
4. Bernie, man. I didn’t think the most emotional moment I would have on Friday would be a 67-year-old man walking between two green lines over to a little shingled hut where you write numbers on a piece of paper.
Langer won the Masters the year I was born. I was three weeks old when he put on his first green jacket. I just turned 40 last month.
And so, in literally seeing the passing of time in his life and knowing that he would never do again what he once was able to do, I could feel it in myself. That is a heavy thing, one I rarely pause to grapple with but that always leaves me wobbly.
This look back at Langer’s Masters career is awesome.
Today’s newsletter will continue below for Normal Club members and includes …
That 66 … and the silver lining of Rory not leading.
An incredible moment from Scottie on 18.
Some great Justin Rose comps.
If you aren’t yet a Normal Club member, you can sign up right here.
If you are, keep reading!
Welcome to the members-only portion of today’s newsletter. I hope you both enjoy it and find it to be valuable to your golf and/or personal life. I got a nice email from someone on Friday who said he can’t imagine not paying for it in the future because of all the value it brings him. I’m grateful for that and hope all of you feel the same.
5. The second into No. 13 could feasibly end up being the most important shot of Rory’s career. Is that hyperbole? Maybe, he might lose buy seven. Also maybe not, he might win the next three majors.
Here’s the thing I’m having trouble reconciling after two days: Do we trust the decisions he’s made at this course through the first two rounds? I tried to ask him about how he’s felt about his decision making through 36, but I was never called on in the presser.
Obviously, the decision on 15 on Thursday was dicey, and 17 in that same first round was rife with uncommitted shots. But are we positive he made great decisions on Friday, or did he just get good outcomes?
Here’s what he said about the shot into 13.
When the ball was in the air, I was like, “You idiot, what did you do?” It's a pin that even if you do hit it into the hazard, it's … not a routine up-and-down, but it's a little easier than, say, where the pin was yesterday in that front section.
Yeah, I rode my luck a little bit with that second shot, but was nice to take advantage of it.
Rory | 2025 Masters
That is … concerning and something to watch over the next two days. A harbinger of what’s to come, or the twist of luck he needs to finally snap the last part of the Rubik’s cube in place?
His golf has been extraordinary this week. Full stop. Even with the gaffes on Thursday, he’s first in ball-striking and third from tee to green. Arguably as good and (mostly) as smart as he’s ever been at Augusta National through the first two days.
He uses the word “resilience” all the time, and he did it again in his presser to describe his bounce back from yesterday’s disappointment. He is a different golfer than he used to be. More shots, more grit, more of everything. He has the aura of a champion right now. It feels different than before (I am for sure talking myself into this … and also it does feel different).
And honestly, there is a silver lining to Thursday’s finish. Because it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t lead outright at this point.
It might all get to be a little much.
Maybe it already is.
6. Oh yeah, we’re just getting started on Rory. Here’s as honest a take as I can give you: Of course I want Rory to win the Masters. Of course. Yes. That would be the coolest.
I am a fan of golf, golf history and of Rory McIlroy.
However, I struggled to find the emotion of him and this place on Friday because I had mostly given up the narrative on Thursday after the 72.
I wrote on Friday morning about how he was probably cooked at this tournament, and just as much as I want to enjoy who wins these events, I also want to be correct about my takes.
Those takes …
In the short term: Nobody comes from outside the top 10 to win here after the first round, and Rory was outside the top 25 after Thursday’s clunker.
In the long term: I have mostly stopped believing that he can win this tournament and have started to buy into the fact that, 10 years from now, he will give a depressing interview like Ernie Els once gave about this place.
Again, in my position covering the golf, it is sometimes difficult to reconcile what you know you want with what your takes have been.
In the end, though, what the heart desires will always win out, and the heart desires to believe in something despite the possibility (perhaps the probability) that this will go down as the most crushing one of them all.
I am, for the record, ready to get blindsided and absolutely obliterated by what’s to come this weekend. You can put that on a hat in block letters!
Why would anyone choose this? Why would anyone choose to engage in such painful and avoidable behavior? Well, the first answer to that is when you grow up on Spieth, everything else feels much less self-destructive in retrospect.
The second answer is actually one I think Rory gave before the tournament started.
At a certain point in someone's life, someone doesn't want to fall in love because they don't want to get their heart broken. People, I think, instinctually as human beings we hold back sometimes because of the fear of getting hurt, whether that's a conscious decision or subconscious decision, and I think I was doing that on the golf course a little bit for a few years.
Rory McIlroy | 2025 Masters
Is he talking about himself … or about us?!
Is this time actually different?
I don’t know. It sure didn’t seem that way on Thursday night!
What I do know is that Rory is trying to stare down predictions by Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson that he was going to win this week, sweep aside an opening 72 that dropped him seven back of the lead and carry around the burden of these expectations (these borderline presumptions) of everyone in golf.
If he’s able to do all of that and finally put a dagger in the demons that have plagued him for so long here … if this is actually the major he finally wins after all this hoopla and all these predictions and all the ways he has had his soul crushed here (even this week!), well, that will have been worth all the hoping, all the waiting, all the dream dashing that’s been done.
A 66-68-68 finish at this place with this board at this stage of his career, with the U-Haul of baggage he drags down Magnolia Lane every second week in April?
How can you not feel a nervous thrill about this weekend?
Even if you know the ending will most likely leave you wondering why you did it.
“Believe.”
Even if you know you shouldn’t.
7. SMartin, KVV and I earlier this week about which top 50 player we would bet our lives on would never win a major. I said Corey Conners. It’s not personal at all. He just doesn’t have it. Great ball-striker, but not a dog, not somebody who’s going to go take a major championship away from Bryson, Rory and Scottie.
That will be the entirety of my Corey Conners coverage this week.
8. Two great Justin Rose comps today: The first came from Data Golf when they compared him to Fred Couples. One major, double-digit PGA Tour wins. They tracked the Data Golf points by age, and the two lines are basically one line.
The other one came from the No Laying Up boys, who asked whether Rose or Adam Scott has had a better career. Again, one major, double digit Tour wins for both.
Obviously Rose has the Ryder Cup advantage since Scott can’t play in them.
Both are incredible comps.
I’ll just ask you guys …
9. Here’s the second round version of my “only Tiger has won from outside the first round top 10 in the last 20 years” stat.
If that last stat holds, your 2025 winner will be one of the following.
Rose
Bryson
Rory
Conners
McCarty
Lowry
Scottie
Hatton
Rasmus
Hovland
Day
That looks right.
I don’t think anybody is coming from outside of that group to win the Masters.
10. ANGC is exhausting. This is not an original take but more of a reminder. Rory said it after his round. Michael Kim noted it on Twitter. Here’s his quote.
Shane Lowry mentioned how pumped he is to get here and then when you play the tournament, you realize how brutally demanding this place can be haha.
Michael Kim | 2025 Masters
It is difficult to describe if you haven’t been but easy to understand if you have. Even when it’s not hot, the place just sucks everything out of you. You are bone tired and soul weary when you leave every evening, whether you played in the tournament or not.
Now stack five hours of intense decision-making on top of that, and the physical + mental + emotional test is incomprehensible.
…now stack range leading ball bashing stats (still short of Norman’s 800) on top of that.
Bryson talked about trying to balance all of this in probably my favorite quote of his this week.
[Not getting ahead of yourself] definitely can be tough at times when you're thinking about it. I think grounding yourself is super important, realizing where you're at, knowing how many holes you have left, knowing there's a lot of golf left.
Not getting too far ahead of yourself is important, and that's something that you have to learn over the course of time with a lot of experience.
You have to put yourself in position. You have to fail. You have to lose. You have to win. You have to come from behind. You have to hold the lead. All those expectations and feelings have to get conquered in your mind.
That's why this game is played between your ears.
Bryson | 2025 Masters
11. I’ll say it, I think the new 13 and 15 are kind of sick. We don’t see the roars we got used to seeing, but they are truer from a risk/reward standpoint than before.
Depending on the wind, it can actually be difficult to give yourself a putt for 3 on 13, and 15 is straight up a beast.
I’m still a bit undecided if I like them as much as before, but they have been good so far this year. There have been just three eagles on 15 and four on 13 so far through 36 holes.
That feels more testing than those holes playing basically as a combined par 9 like they used to.
ANGC home viewing experience.
12. Langer and Couples — combined age: 132 — grinding to make the cut on Friday was tremendous. Both of them missed it by one, and both gave exceptional quotes afterward.
Langer told SVP that Augusta National feels like his living room. It feels like home to him. What a wonderful way to put it.
Here’s what Couples said.
But for me, when I get in Saturday night, everything starts to spin in a good direction. It's not any tournament -- the British Open is very fun. Other people can say, “Hey, I'm from Scotland, the British Open is the greatest.” The Masters is the greatest tournament of all time. It's just so unique.
Unfortunately I'm going to come out and watch a little bit tomorrow. I don't know who I'm going to watch, but I just -- I'd like to say I wasn't good enough. That's really kind of -- I just came up short. 77 was not a great score.
Fred Couples | 2025 Masters
Where else do the folks who just lost stay to watch who wins? What a unique and fascinating event this is. Something that all sporting events aspire to but none ever achieve. Imagine somebody missing the cut on Friday at Bay Hill and just staying around all weekend, maybe going to Harry Potter Land for a few days, then returning just to walk around and watch who wins on Sunday.
13. Shot you need to go find on Masters.com: JT’s third into 8. 😮💨😮💨😮💨
Shane has a few others.
14. This is out there on the NLU pod so I should confirm that, yes, I saw Caroline Wozniacki and her husband, David Lee, at the Masters on Friday.
The rumor going around is that she was on 15 when Rory doubled on Thursday. I find it to be 1. Odd that she’s here and 2. INCREDIBLY ODD that she would be following Rory (of all people!) around the golf course.
15. Here are your current top three in our major pool. I am currently T309 (which is sick).
You can look at the full standings here.
16. The broadcast was an electric factory for the last 45 minutes. Here are the last three things that happened.
• The best player alive sat on his butt in the woods next to a tree and his ball while waiting for a ruling about whether he could get relief (I think) from some wires running parallel to the 18th fairway.
• The most explosive player in the field who also has stated his disdain for ANGC in the past, dropped out of third place by missing a 1-foot putt on No. 17.
• The 2015 champion, who was laboring to make the cut, yelled f-bombs about losing a stroke to the trees on 18 and his beleaguered caddie told him, “Get over it.”
If you made me choose, I would say Scottie sitting inside of an overhanging tree on No. 18 made me laugh the hardest.
I mean … look at this!
This is not only a professional golfer playing a four-day event for like $20 million, but also one of the best golfers of the last 25 years who also has won two of the last three of these things! He looks like my 5-year-old after a tough day on the playground!
17. Speaking of Scheffler, he had himself a pretty bonkers back nine when it came to the actual golf as well. Here’s a full list of things that happened.
• He hit a shank (maybe semi-shank) on 11.
• He hit a ball long that disappeared into the azaleas on 12.
• He hit a ball into Rae’s Creek on 13.
He played those three holes in even par somehow before plunging ahead with another birdie at 14. There is such a doggedness there, that is perhaps even more obvious when he doesn’t have his best stuff (which, at 25th in ball-striking, he does not this week).
To: The azalea bush behind No. 12. From: Golf Twitter
There have been Fridays in the past — Spieth in 2015 and Scottie in 2022 come to mind — when it felt like we were watching the end of the tournament. Sure, you didn’t know exactly how it was going to go … but also you kinda did.
This year? That’s not the case. And while watching history like we saw in those years is fun, it’s probably even more fun to have the best player of the last three years right in the middle of a loaded top of the board going into Saturday.
The tournament doesn’t run through Scottie right now because he’s a half step slower than he was a year ago, but the even better news is that the tournament doesn’t run through anyone, which means the next 36 should be absolutely incredible.
Thank you for reading until the end.
You’re a complete and total sicko for reading a newsletter about a single round of golf that is 3,710 words (!!) long, and your support of our business is appreciated.
Issue No. 183 | April 12, 2025
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Just beyond lunch on Friday afternoon, I paced Amen Corner as the tournament started to take on its form. Men in the exact same logos as every other man, each of them thinking they are unique. Women in small dresses and large hats. Children scurrying about as the sun began to pound.
Right up next to the rope stood a family of three, two of them in black hats with white block letters. They were not logoed. I had never seen the hats before. As they turned around, I took a peek. All they said was “Believe.”
Rory McIlroy took his stance on 12.
I don’t know if I can.
Before we get to the rest of Rory’s round and the end of a bonkers day, a shout out to today’s newsletter presenter, Holderness and Bourne, which is outfitting me all week at ANGC.
They sent me some new goodies for this trip — like the Lawson Hoodie and the Sherwood Pullover — that feel even better than their old stuff (which was already great!)
I texted one of my contacts over there today and told him I want to put Norman (our ridiculous little sheep logo) on everything they have!
OK, onto Round 2!
1. We’ll get to Rory, I promise. But we started Thursday with the very normal moment of an amateur golfer taking a pee in a creek right out in the middle of the most famous golf course on the planet on Thursday, and we got a version of that — a much different version, but a version nonetheless — early on Friday morning when the tournament leader started walking down No. 2.
I looked up as Rose stretched to the sky and then … wait … he … got on his hands and knees with his face pointed back toward the first tee box like he was going to do a vinyasa in the fairway of a sliver of land somebody once entitled “pink dogwood.”
Ostensibly, Rose was removing the sunscreen from his hands, though eschewing the traditional method of using … you know … a towel.
An amusing moment in a week overflowing with them, and it led to one of the great tweets of the tournament thus far.
[Jason here] This is a proud moment for my golf / Grayson Perry loving heart.
2. Nick Dunlap followed his 90 on Thursday with a 71 on Friday that could have been better. He had it all the way to 4 under on the day before making bogey at the last three holes. I was desperate for him to get it to the house in the 60s, mostly because it would have amused me to see somebody miss the cut without a single round in the 70s or 80s. That cannot have ever happened.
Dunlap had some incredible quotes afterward about how his trainer went and bought balls from Target that he hit into the woods at his rental house, but the one that got me was this.
I had more of a knot in my stomach today than I've ever had starting a round of golf.
Nick Dunlap | 2025 Masters
Biggest stage in the sport, and you go out believing you’re going to bomb. Imagine doing a set as a musician or a comedian — the biggest crowd you’ve ever had — with no clue how it’s going to go but all the belief in the world that you’re going to end up on your face. That’s brutal, and I respect him for showing up and grinding something — really, anything — today at ANGC.
Overheard at Moe’s, “That Nick dun lapped hisself.”
Also, a poll: How would you rather get to 160?
I put this on Twitter and was surprised about the results, although not surprised that Shane Bacon said 101-59.
3. You know how everybody on ESPN redefines LeBron’s legacy after every quarter of every big game? I find it to be absolutely preposterous, and yet I find myself doing the exact same thing with every Masters.
Rory shot 72 yesterday with all the momentum in the world? He’s cooked! No juice. Doesn’t have it! Rory shot 66 today on a day when he absolutely had to have it? I honestly think he could end up as one of the 12 best players of all time.
This plays out with so many different players in so many different ways, and while I think it’s pretty unjustified after the second quarter of Lakers-Warriors Game 3 of the Western semis, it actually might be at least a little bit more justified here at ANGC.
The biggest event, once a year, and you may only play in one or three or eight of them if you’re really lucky and great. So yeah, it does feel fair to change the legacy traj of different guys on a day to day basis, although we still probably do it a bit too often and with too much conclusiveness than we ought.
4. Bernie, man. I didn’t think the most emotional moment I would have on Friday would be a 67-year-old man walking between two green lines over to a little shingled hut where you write numbers on a piece of paper.
Langer won the Masters the year I was born. I was three weeks old when he put on his first green jacket. I just turned 40 last month.
And so, in literally seeing the passing of time in his life and knowing that he would never do again what he once was able to do, I could feel it in myself. That is a heavy thing, one I rarely pause to grapple with but that always leaves me wobbly.
This look back at Langer’s Masters career is awesome.
Today’s newsletter will continue below for Normal Club members and includes …
That 66 … and the silver lining of Rory not leading.
An incredible moment from Scottie on 18.
Some great Justin Rose comps.
If you aren’t yet a Normal Club member, you can sign up right here.
If you are, keep reading!
Normal Sport is supported by exactly 738 deranged individuals. By becoming a member, you will receive the following …
• The entirety of our best coverage of the year (at majors like this one).
• The delight of helping us establish this business in its first year.
• First access to future merch drops.
By clicking below to join the Normal Club, you will also have less explaining to do with your spouse re: your CC statement than going to the Masters merch shop. Marital counseling is way more than $82.
