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Issue No. 184 | April 13, 2025

AUGUSTA, Ga. — When I was in college, my father and I used to come to this tournament and sit next to the massive pine on No. 16 quite close to the spot where Tiger chipped in at the end of his win in 2005.

I loved craning my neck to look at the leaderboard on No. 6. I loved trying to figure out what the leaders were doing and if anyone would make a charge. I loved watching everyone play through No. 16 and doing the math on what it would take to win.

But most of all, I loved squinting up the hill on No. 15 as player after player stared down into this roiling nook of the property. Where a 3-3 finish might win you a jacket or at least give you a chance. There was nothing like watching Tiger or Phil or Ernie pace the top of that hill, asking themselves what they needed and if they had what it took.

On Saturday, many years after those college trips with dad, I walked up the left side of 15 because I wanted to remember what it felt like to look back at the hill, at the last time in a round when players feel like they have control of the board.

There are levels, but “at the Masters with at least a handful of legacies hanging on every swing and the tournament rumbling toward its natural end with the crowd favorite over the ball” is a special kind kind of silence.

It sounds like you are thinking through a megaphone. You barely want to breathe.

I never saw it land, but I certainly saw him walk. I looked toward the middle of the green, but I could have closed my eyes.

The explosion said it all. Another 3 in play.

“It’s over,” I said out loud to nobody but myself.

That feeling, that magical feeling of galleries trying to will someone home and that same person hitting a shot like that, well, it certainly makes it feel like it’s over. Even if it’s not.

“The shot of the fu***** tournament,” gasped the gentleman in front of me. “No,” I thought. “That was the shot of his entire life.”


I have many thoughts. Many many thoughts. And we still have 18 holes to go. We’ll get to them all, but first I want to thank Ship Sticks for presenting today’s newsletter.

I used Ship Sticks to get my clubs to Augusta this year, and the experience could not have been better. Unfortunately for them, I may need to ship my emotions home in the biggest box they have.

Will keep you updated.

In the meantime, use the code normalsport for 20 percent off your first use with Ship Sticks.


Also, congratulations to the following on winning our giveaways from Saturday.

Turtlebox: Someone who hasn’t responded to an email.
OGIO: Ditto!
Precision Pro: Jim H.
Meridian: J.B.

Here’s a nice thing one of them said about Normal Sport.

As I've gotten older I love reading about real life stuff and Normal Sport offers a uniquely personal glimpse into the joys and struggles of life through the lens of golf and the golfers we love to root for (and against)!

And speaking of that ….


15 Thoughts on Round 3 of the Masters

1. We know one thing on Sunday with Rory is irrefutable: There will be tears. We just don’t know why.

I once told Rory that he reminds me so much of Federer. Every tournament, he said to me, he absorbs the crowd, receives everything from those around him, but he doesn’t give them much.

Then, at the very end — like Fed collapsing at Wimbledon and crying on the grass — it all comes pouring out.

That will happen again on Sunday.

Either 11 years of frustration and fear and fury will flow sink down forever into these hills, or he will weep his eyes out at the best chance he’ll ever have to do the only thing he ever wanted.

We are at the point of no return.

You know it. I know it. Most importantly, he knows it. The question: Is everyone ready to hang on for five hours while all of that teeters just above the void?


2. This is, almost unquestionably, the best he’s ever played here. The most complete he’s ever been. He’s driving it like an absolute monster — his first two drives on Saturday were a combined 700 yards — but it’s that 75 percent holdy wedge that’s going to help him win the tournament.

It’s the shot we used to scream about from 125 and in. He figured it out, though, and I’ve never seen him hit it better.

Current strokes gained ranks this week.

Driving: 2nd
Approach: 1st
Ball striking: 1st
Tee to green: 1st
Overall: 1st

Is this really happening?

The hats are inevitable.


3. My question: Does he want the fight? The answer through 54 is a resounding, “hell yes.” One person fairly close to Rory told me this week is the most relaxed he’s ever seen him in his career. I don’t know why that’s case, but it does undoubtedly seem to be the case.

It’s also the case that he is hitting championship golf shots. No. 1, No. 4, No. 5, No. 9, No. 11, No. 12, No. 15 (!!) and No. 17 come to mind from his round on Saturday. All just proper big boy championship shots.

You know Bryson’s going to brawl, all hopped up on nothing but driver shafts and desire. He’s going to walk to the first like Tyson in his prime. Punching the air, dancing as he goes. He must be a nightmare to play against, to have on your hip for 18 holes.

Rory said on Saturday night that he would stay in his own world. With Bryson off doing whatever Bryson does, Rory said he would be in a cocoon throughout the day.

Rory wanted the whole damn world on Saturday afternoon. Will he bring that same energy to Round 12 with somebody who already cleaned his clock?


4. How difficult all of this will be. Bryson has so little to lose. He’s already playing with house money and with nothing but time ahead. Rory knows his chances are waning and that this one is the best he’s ever had. How mentally difficult it will be to get through 18 holes with the burden of your own dreams, not to mention everyone else’s.

One of the most difficult things Rory has to contend with every second week in April is how desperate ANGC’s membership is for him to join their ranks. For him to win a jacket that matches all their own.

Scottie talked before the tournament about how much freedom Rory plays with. How flow-y he is. That will never, ever feel tougher than it does on Sunday afternoon.

On Monday, I wrote about how this week is so good because it sometimes feels like it’s barely about the golf. It’s about what happens when your mind is mush and your emotions are on fire.

To me, [the Masters] means a lot of things, but one of my favorites is that I find it to be a crevice into which I can look to see what these men I cover are truly all about.

The Masters is somehow both grandiose and intimate. The entrance to the biggest stage in the world is also just another side street in a broken down old town. Because of this juxtaposition, the tournament seems to compress its contestants’ souls in ways we rarely see in sports.

I want Rory to birdie the 9th on Sunday to go up four on Scottie and Bryson with just nine holes between him and the immortal slam and nothing but terror in his eyes. Because where else can someone who has the entire world feel such fear about obtaining what he has not?

Time passes, opportunities elude, the entire thing was smoke.

For minutes, though, maybe even seconds, golf gives us – the Masters provides us – what we know we want the most. 

Competition matters. Beautifully struck shots are great.

But in the end, when the week is cracked open and everyone is bare, it is the humanity this event engenders – all the fear and joy and sorrow and elation we can possibly contain – that is truly undefeated.

Sometimes you get it all in the same round. Sometimes on the very same hole. Nowhere more so than every spring at this wonderfully terrible place.

And now that exact scenario — Rory making birdie at No. 9 to go up four on Bryson and Scottie — may somehow actually happen?


5. Bryson is the greatest character. Almost cartoon-like. Whipping up the fans on 16 and 18, running up the crosswalk to scoring, slapping hands like Cal Ripken making the rounds at Camden after he broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak.

Patron high five stat tracking coming in 2026.

Hitting balls under a full moon.

Pounding bags and bags of balls, nearing quadruple digits for the week.

Individual sports are constructed with a universe of characters, and there have been few better ones over the last decade than Bryson. He is easy to hate and has also somehow become almost endearingly easy to love.

Mostly though? I appreciate his absurdity and how it helps my own personal chess board as I move pieces around and think about how they compare and contrast. How they’re the same and they’re not. How brilliant it is when not everyone’s unique.

This post will continue below for Normal Club members and includes …

  • The case for both players to win.

  • The most encouraging Rory stat.

  • A mini essay on dreams.

If you aren’t yet a Normal Club member, you can sign up right here. If you are, keep reading!


Join the Normal Club to read the rest …

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