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Issue No. 179 | April 5, 2025
I recently promised the people my favorite Phil Masters memory, and I wanted to lead with that before we get into a few more numbers ahead of this year’s tournament.
There is (somehow) no video of this I can find, which perhaps makes it even better. The video I remember was on Vine (RIP), and it’s among my favorite Vines ever, which is basically just a list of the Golf Twitter crew videoing Phil doing ridiculous things over the years.
Anyway, everybody has a back nine Phil memory, and that’s where mine comes from as well, but probably not the one you’re thinking. The one I’m thinking of happened in 2015 when Spieth laid waste to everything and everyone he looked at and Phil and Justin Rose were just chasing all weekend.
Phil’s playing the 15th on (I believe) Saturday, and he has a look at the green on his second. Everything is still and silent with that familiar Saturday tenseness enveloping the broadcast. Phil hits this missile toward the green and almost half-groans out loud saying, “ohhh, I flushed it.”
Why is this my favorite Phil Masters moment?
In context of the tournament, he’s down like five to a 21-year-old with 20+ holes left in the tournament, not even caring about what’s happening with anyone else, chirping about finding the center-center at his favorite tournament and course in the world.
He is so often painted as this gunslinging maverick with an Enron-like tolerance for risk, and he is all of those things. But I think at his core, Phil is just somebody who is so enamored with what it feels like to strike a golf ball cleanly that it’s all he’s cared about doing professionally for the past 35 (!!) years.
Also, he has never changed and will never change. Here’s a clip from a FOX News interview earlier this week.
OK
No notes.
One thing I would love to see Phil get his hands on (other than another jacket) is today’s newsletter presenter, Meridian Putters. He would love the Kiawah option, which is the one I’ve had my eyes on for a while and hope to have in the bag shortly.
Earlier this week, I spoke with Meridian founder, Ryan Duffey, for an interview that will come out after the Masters, and I left the conversation full of energy for one reason.
Ryan is obsessed with making world class putters. I know about as much about manufacturing as I know about flushing shots on No. 15 at ANGC, but I got off the call juiced up because Ryan was juiced up about CAD drawings and how worm cam lets him look at different putter angles to get inspiration for what to make next.
Watching people obsess over the thing they are obsessed with is such an energizing experience, and that’s how Meridian was formed and continues to be molded.
OK, now onto the Masters stats!
Part 1 here.
1. OK, let’s dig into the stats with some high-low scores at ANGC.
High: 9-10-8-8-8-7-8-12-8-9-9-13-13-8-13-11-7-8 = 169
Low: 2-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-2-2-2-1-2-2-2-1-2-2 = 32
Notables …
• Ernie Els’ 6-putt at the first for a 9 back in 2016. A hole in which he took so many strokes that the Masters mis-counted and had to reissue the number he made on the hole!
• Making a 12 on No. 8 seems quite difficult. Shout out Frank Walsh in the 1935 Masters. He shot 82 that day in the second round and finished T43.
• Most holes had multiple of the lowest score. The only ones that didn’t are pretty famous. Oosthuizen’s 2 at 2. Sluman’s 1 at 4. Devlin’s 2 at 8 (didn’t know about that one). Maggert’s 2 at 13. And of course Sarazen’s 2 at 15.
• There hasn’t been a 1 at No. 12 since Curtis Strange in 1988.
• The 13 on No. 12 was Tom Weiskopf. Though I’m not sure how he holds the record after Spieth made a 22 there back in 2016. Here’s how one blogger wrote up the Weiskopf 13 (I found it fascinating).
We’ll pick it up after Weiskopf hit his first in the water.
[He] hit a sand wedge, but his 3rd shot went straight into the water. The 5th shot was basically a rerun of his first attempt, the ball landing on the fringe and finding its way back into the watery grave. Another ball came out of the bag, but Weiskopf chipped his 7th shot into Rae's Creek without threatening the putting surface.
"When you screw up like I was doing, you just stand there until you do it right," Weiskopf informed journalists, his struggles providing a big talking point after day one. Famously the 37-year-old had a reputation for being volatile - given the tags The Towering Inferno and Terrible Tom - and on a few occasions he had walked off courses mid-round when the going got tough.
But he was not going to give up at the 12th, even if he remained unable to find his range. For a bit of variety, Weiskopf hit his 9th shot short of the water and watched his ball barely trickle in. Finally, shot 11 found grass on the right side of Rae's Creek. Ironic cheers followed. "There must have been a lot of English blood out there," Weiskopf said. "That's what they call 'sympathy applause.'"
Writing in the Washington Post, Dave Kindred explained the reaction of the spectators. "The gallery was giggling. Galleries at the Masters are the aristocrats of sports customers. They don't run, they don't boo, they don't litter. But these people were giggling in the face of Weiskopf's tragedy, to say nothing of the poor fish."
A full 19 shots behind leader Seve Ballesteros, Weiskopf admitted that on walking to the 14th tee he was thinking of pulling out of the tournament, after dropping eleven shots in two holes. "But then I thought, 'That won't do any good.' I thought, 'I'm just trying not to shoot too high up in the '80s.'"
1980s Sports Blog
He bogeyed 13 and then birdied 14, which is the most golf thing ever.
2. One of the weirder stats I've ever come across in my Masters research: Smylie Kaufman played in just one Masters but he played in the final pairing on Sunday.
He has to be (has to be!) the only golfer in the history of the sport who has played in the Masters and also never had anyone tee off after him on a Sunday at ANGC.
Also …
3. This one feels like a riddle.
In 1995, Jack Nicklaus played the par-4 5th hole in 3 under for the week but did not make a birdie, which feels impossible! His scores.
R1: 2
R2: 5
R3: 2
R4: 4
There have been nine 2s in the history of that hole, and Nicklaus had two of them in the same tournament in 1995 … when he was 55 years old.
More fun with single hole scores over the course of a tournament: Three players have made 1-2-3-4 on a hole in a tournament before (shout out to the Rocket Mortgage 3-1-3 challenge).
Curtis Strange on No. 12 in 1988
Corey Pavin on No. 16 in 1992
Ian Poulter on No. 16 in 2008
A reminder here that we are running a $4,000 Masters fantasy contest for Normal Club members*. If you haven’t joined the Normal Club, you can do so here. You will get a link to our contest in your “thank you for joining our club” email.
*Those who live in Nevada, Washington and outside the U.S. and Canada are not eligible to enter because of sweepstakes laws. All other states (and Canada) are eligible, and I am told by Splash Sports — which runs our contest — that anyone who has had issues registering should be good to go by early next week. If not I am happy to refund anyone.
4. The list of players with the most birdies in tournament history is hilarious and amazing. Here it is.
Career: Jack Nicklaus (506)
Tournament: Jordan Spieth (28 in 2015)
Round: Anthony Kim (11 in 2009)
Two rounds: Tiger and AK tied (16)
Three rounds: Spieth (22)
Four of the biggest cookers in major championship history.
5. One of the most revealing stats is this one on most leads or co-leads after one of the first three rounds of the tournament.
Arnold Palmer: 14 (4 wins)
Jack Nicklaus: 13 (6)
Gary Player: 8 (3)
Jordan Spieth: 8 (1)
Raymond Floyd: 8 (1)
Justin Rose: 7 (0)
Sam Snead: 6 (3)
... Tiger Woods: 5 (5)
Tiger led after the second round in 1997 and after the third round in 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2005. He’s never led after the first round of the tournament.
Here’s another amazing (and related one). Most times winning with at least a share of the 54-hole lead.
T1. Arnold Palmer (4)
T1. Jack Nicklaus (4)
T1. Tiger Woods (4)
There is something about knowing and understanding the 72-hole rhythm of a golf tournament that those guys had that others did not. Of course you have to be better than everyone, but as many players — Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler — have proven many times, you can be better than everyone in a given week and not peak at the right time of the tournament. Tiger did it so many times.
Think about how crazy it is that he’s never led this tournament after the first round, but he’s led it five times after 72 holes. Rose has led it four times after the first round and one (kind of) after 72 holes (when he lost in a playoff to Sergio in 2017).
That’s pretty amazing.
6. Some old-young stats.
Oldest to finish in the top 10: Nicklaus -- 58 years old in 1998
Youngest to finish in the top 10: Spieth -- 20 years old in 2014
Youngest to finish: Tianlang Guan — 14 years old in 1998
Oldest to finish: Fred Couples — 63 years in 2023
Oldest player in the field: Fred McLeod — 79 years, 345 days
Seventy-nine years, three-hundred forty-five days! What a sport!
7. The other day I asked Rick Gehman if he had any data on a previous Masters where the top two guys were as big of Masters favorites as Rory and Scottie are this year.
Here’s what he came up with.
Implied win = percent chance one of the two players wins based on the odds.
Year | Players | Implied Win |
|---|---|---|
2007 | Tiger, Phil | 53 percent |
2008 | Tiger, Phil | 52 percent |
2003 | Tiger, Ernie | 51 percent |
2001 | Tiger, Phil | 51 percent |
2006 | Tiger, Phil | 44 percent |
2000 | Tiger, Duval | 42 percent |
2009 | Tiger, Phil | 42 percent |
2002 | Tiger, Ernie | 41 percent |
2005 | Tiger, Phil | 40 percent |
1988 | Norman, Seve | 39 percent |
1989 | Norman, Strange | 37 percent |
1985 | Watson, Seve | 37 percent |
2025 | Scottie, Rory | 36 percent |
What’s interesting about this is that in every scenario above involving Tiger — other than 2005 — he was just the overwhelming favorite and whoever was second was kind of tacked on with a 9 or 11 percent chance to win.
In 2005, the odds implied that Tiger had a 22 percent chance and Phil had an 18 percent chance (Phil won it in 2004). This year is the only year post-1990 in which something similar is the case.
Scottie is a Tiger-like 22 percent and Rory is just over 13 percent.
Doesn’t happen often. Which is why I think this is the Scottie-Rory Masters.
It’s also your Masters. I’m heading to Augusta on Monday, and we will be doing tons of giveaways all week (more details in this newsletter).
I can’t wait to send out daily newsletters from ANGC and for our Normal Sport community to continue to grow. Thank you for choosing to read a golf newsletter (!) that is 2,011 words long. I’m grateful for that and so glad that this is a real job.
