Masters Thursday: What the heck happened to Rory late?!
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Hello and welcome to this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. Well, Justin Rose is your first round leader at the 89th Masters, carding a 7 under 65 that his peers, Rex, were calling absurd and ridiculous. That is three shots clear of defending champion Sky Scheffler, Ludwig Oberg, Corey Connors, Bryson DeChambeau, among those. Another shot back, Rory Falters late for a 72. Did I get everything? Yeah.

Is that everything that I could pack into the intro about what happened here at Augusta National? No, and thanks for joining us. Be sure to check out tomorrow night's podcast. Yeah, no, I think you covered it. You did a very good job. And I think it was...

One of those days, it was an Augusta Thursday is simply what it was. It was interesting watching Rory go out. I think at one point in the afternoon, I was having the conversation that I cannot wait to get to tonight's pod. Just a point in Labner's face and there he got off to a good start, get off his back. And now, of course, we don't have that. We'll get in to Rory a little bit more. I thought it was interesting. Again, a very quintessential Masters.

I was talking with Colin Morikawa about how his day went, and it was very up and it was very down. At one point, he goes 13, and he's in the lead by himself and ends up finishing pretty much middle of the pack. And he said, this only happens here. He said, at one point today, I felt like that's the worst possible score I could have shot. And at one point today, I felt like that's the best possible score I could have shot. That defines Augusta.

I mean, if you take Justin Rose's round out of it and he went absolutely ballistic on the greens were the best putting performances of his entire career. I mean, this, this was a grind for virtually everyone. Victor Hovland, who has played a handful of these now said that that was the firmest he's ever seen the opening round at the masters. And of course the winds are exposed to, to pick up on a Friday and,

and then we're going to have cooler, drier conditions on the weekend. And so this place could, of course, become a torture chamber. You hate when I do this, Rex, because I've been mentioning Roy's opening round at the Masters for like the past two months. But here's the trend, and here's the stat for the day. You ready for this? Since 2006, no player has been worse than T11,

after the opening round and gone on to win. The average position all time of the first round leader is in sixth place. And so keep in mind right now, as we're recording this podcast, 26 players are inside the top 11. All are one under or better. In other words, within six shots of Justin Rose's lead, you know, who's not T11 or better Rex.

Roy McRoy, after making two double bogeys in the last four holes. Let's get into Justin Rose. I believe that's going to be your topic for the Live From Hit that is upcoming here on Live From the Masters. You sure? I haven't heard. You sure? I don't know. I have absolutely no idea, but what were your thoughts?

on Justin Rose. He did come a little bit unglued late. I think was pretty fortunate to come away with a par on 17. Blew it way right in the trees on 18. Bogie the last to shoot 65. Nonetheless, ties his lowest career opening round score at the Masters.

I will say I've never heard the phrase Indian summer of my career. And apparently, please, you guys let us know. You're always good about letting us know. Apparently, is that a thing? Is that a British saying? Because apparently what he's saying is he's getting later in his career at 44. Twilight.

Twilight. Yes, but I'd never heard it referred to as Indian Summer, but he kind of embraced that. He likes that, and he goes back to essentially maybe the last two years. I had a chance to talk with his swing coach, Mark Blackburn, about the idea that last year's Open was really an epiphany for him. It showed him that, yes, even at this advanced age, at the time 43 years old, you can still compete. There's going to be courses where you can't compete. He used Valhalla as a perfect example. A Bombers golf course, probably not going to be his best performance

But he put up a solid week. These are all incremental gains that he felt like showed him the right direction. And I think what we see today, it's fun when you go back and you look at actually Justin Rose's career on this golf course. And he's actually played this golf course so well. This is his second 65. And as you pointed out, I think there's a razor's edge to this golf course that has only grown significantly.

it's only gotten harder with the conditions in the day and for him to play late in the afternoon and the hardest of the conditions. And other than 18, have a really stress free day. I'm not saying that circle back around to your stat. I'm not saying Rosie was an outlier because I don't think he's going to go away. However, I don't see him shooting another 65 either. I don't, that pace is not going to continue. So I think there's going to be an adjustment somewhere up and down there, but again,

I will give him more credit. He wasn't in your top 10. He wasn't in my top 10 when we did those last Sunday. He wouldn't have been in his top 10.

I don't, yeah, I don't know that anyone would have done it. All those things being said, when you actually look at his record, you look at the things he does well, ball striking today, he putted really well. He is a good fit for this golf course. We shouldn't be surprised. I mean, he has proven yes, that he is a good fit for this golf course. Does have a couple of top 10 finishes on the season played well at Pebble beach played well, I believe at Bay Hill, uh,

as well. Like we mentioned the 65 that he shot in 2021. If you look at the rest of that tournament did not go, Jesse Rose's way did not break par, uh,

The remaining three rounds ended up finishing seventh. Of course, he had a couple of close calls, actually, in the mid-2010s. Lost to Sergio, chased him all the way to the end. Then he was a distant second place to Jordan Spieth in 2015. I was sort of reminded, Rex, that at the last Grand Slam event that we attended nine months ago at the Open Championship in that final round at Troon, I wrote Justin Rose.

Justin Rose was my profile subject. Did you forget? Did you forget that until just now? Uh, I forgot that that was the last major championship story that I wrote. And it was Justin Rose. He was 43 at the time chasing the Indian summer, whatever that means. I was essentially referred to it as a twilight of his career. But in talking that day to Mark Fulcher, his longtime caddy, who he is reunited with recently, uh,

in speaking with Mark Blackburn, who is a very accomplished coach, won PJ a teacher of the year award just a couple of years ago, like,

Everything is around Justin Rose in a position where he can succeed at this advanced age. He's assembled a team around him to really help him maximize his gifts. He's rebuilt his battered body. Remember, he had the back issues that seemingly came right after he ascended to world number one. He's put so much money into all of the treatment and the physiotherapist to make sure that he can maximize what his body can do now at 44. He has the new coach. He has his caddy back.

On the bag again, it's not going to be the consistent performance that Justin Rose was was able to accomplish in the mid 2010s. But there is still plenty of good. He understands how to play this golf course. He understands at this point his strengths and weaknesses. I don't think he's going to win the Masters, but I also don't think that he's going to just fade into oblivion at this opening round either.

No, I don't think so. And talking with Mark Blackburn, as you just pointed out, really good swing coach, has a lot of the game's top players. After the round, I put it in the context that we talked about this with Rory that and it was Jack Nicklaus who actually brought it up that maybe Rory needs to be a little bit more disciplined.

around this golf course. Maybe Rory needs to be a little bit more disciplined when it comes to golf specifically, but let's keep it to this golf course. And I kind of put it to Mark, would it be fair to say that Justin Rose has that discipline? He actually gave me a really cool anecdote of the team getting together in what they sort of call the pregame bus.

where it's the caddy, it's the swing coach, it's the physio, it's everyone going through exactly what they needed to do today, how they're going to play certain shots, what they're going to do on certain holes, where they're going to be aggressive, where they're going to lay back. Mark pointed out that very few players have as much experience on this golf course, and as we pointed out, successful experience. So, no, I'm 100% with you. I don't think he's going anywhere. Again, I'd be shocked if we see 65-65. I just don't think that's out there. But if he's not in the mix come Sunday, that actually would surprise me.

Okay, we probably could talk. Scottie Scheffler at this point, he did, of course, shoot a bogey-free 68, but I've got a feeling we're going to be talking about Scottie Scheffler for the next three days. To me, the biggest story of what happened on Thursday was not Justin Rose's 65. It was what happened to Roy McIlroy, essentially over the last 75 to 90 minutes. To say that I was shocked...

would be an understatement. I mean, this was a guy who was seemingly in full command of his game. I was remarking to anyone who listened, like, wow, look at these flighted irons. You know, he's sort of sawing it off. He's so much more in control. You know, he's not going full board with the driver. He's keeping it in play. Yeah, he wasn't making a lot of putts. You know, he missed a shorty on one. He had a couple other chances as well, didn't even capitalize on number two. And yet he was four under par recs.

standing on the 15th tee. How would you describe what happened to Rory over those finals four holes? And where does it leave you at this point on Thursday night? Soft, unforced errors.

Right? Like we anticipate, we have seen in the past where he can just blow one way off the map and then he starts to scramble and things get sideways. If you watch, and I had to go back and watch these a couple of times, by the way, the McMaster's website is by far the best website in all of golf. Best in class. You guys are so good. And I had to keep watching it. Like what did he actually really do wrong here? And, you know, let's go to the first double bogey on 15 because, you know,

I think when I walked down to the scrum area, you mentioned that he's going to go to five. He's right behind the green on 15. So that was the last I'd heard. No, sir. No, sir. I did not mention that because about 30 minutes earlier,

Patrick Cantlay from a similar position, chip two balls in the water. So what's, so what stood out to me on 15 T is Roy McIlroy is if not the longest player in the game, one of the longest in the game. And yet he hit it just, I believe 294 yards off that T with the driver sort of smooth one out there did not catch the slope and left himself 235 yards into a green that was recently redone and players have remarked all week that

That is one of the, if not the most firm greens on the entire golf course. And I think we didn't have a chance to ask Rory afterward because he did not speak to the media. That's a little bit of foreshadowing of what we can anticipate. But he really liked the four iron that he hit. He started walking after it. It landed pretty close to pin high and went over the back. What I would love to know,

is did he hit that pitch shot cleanly? It certainly looked like a clean strike with this pitch shot from over the back on 15, but that didn't have...

Any check virtually at all. I mean, there was zero grab and it ended up trickling into the water, goes to the drop zone, blasts 30 feet past, ends up making a seven. The margin for error on that hole in particular now, especially after it has been pushed back in distance over the past couple of years, especially now with the green being as firm as it is after being redone, that is a really, really

really tricky shot to the point that Ludwig Oberg, who played alongside Rory said, look, even, even if I have a go club in my hand, you know, a four or five, six iron into that green, I'm still going to be thinking about laying up because if you lay up, you're not going to make worse than five. Whereas as you saw with Rory potential disaster looms, if you can make a double bogey seven.

No, and that's fair. And let's fast forward. Like, I'm not going to split hairs with you on that one. I would call it sloppy at the very least, maybe unenforced, but it's clearly sloppy. It's not as though he just showed up today and is playing this golf course for the first time. He's made not one, but two scouting trips up there. He should have had an idea what maybe other players in the field did not. Fast forward to 17. That was definitely unforced.

And sloppy because you missed the green from a position he probably shouldn't have missed the green from. And again, it looked like the firmness of the greens probably surprised him a little bit. You hit a mediocre ship from behind the green and then you do the one thing you can't possibly do. You probably get too aggressive on the first putt, which now leads you with a really, really difficult bogey putt, which you missed. And now everything that you've done all day long has now been washed away in a span of you called it 90 minutes.

I'll say it's closer to 60 minutes, maybe even less than that. Basically, it was dreadfully slow. It was, but everything came unraveled. And this is what Jack was talking about this morning when he was asked about Rory.

These are the mistakes. This is the lack of discipline that we see from him on this golf course time and time again. And this is what's kept him from a green jacket. We can talk about all of the other things in the stats and the people that have beat him. It's this lack of discipline. I mean, it was shocking because so for reference, Bryson was 50 yards further on 15 than Rory was. Clearly.

Clearly he carried it a little bit further and rocketed down the slope. And then he was able to hold the green, ended up two putting for birdie there. So like the margin for error from what, again, he thought was a really good four iron. I have to give him a pass where he made the mistake was not sort of babying the pitch shot up there, leaving himself, you know,

10, 15 feet down the hill and try and make your four that way may have gotten a little bit too cute. It clearly flew it too far into the green and didn't have any check on that on 17. You know, I've been remarking all day how he was playing these sort of sawed off approach shots. He actually went full board at it from the first cut about 175 yards on 17. He wasn't even remotely close.

to hitting his number. I mean, he flew that past the flag that was located on the back portion of the green. I don't know if he caught a flyer or he just wildly misjudged the wind. I would think it's probably the latter, but I mean, that was landing pin high and rocketed 20 yards.

too far, left himself in a really difficult position. Again, stormed off the golf course, looked like he was going to hurt someone or something, didn't even think about stopping and headed right to the parking lot. How about the defending champion, Scotty Scheffler? Again, bogey-free 68, only hit 11 greens in regulation.

Is this, I mean, is this tournament already over Rex at 7 45 PM Eastern time on Thursday? I mean, it's not over, but the story that I wrote on golf channel.com was, this is more like it. This is what we've come to expect for all the hand wringing for all the second guessing that we've been going through this year, bogey free on a day like today, given that given the situation, it's not even like he kind of had two close scrapes with bogey, but he was seven for seven from the bunkers.

I mean, he was almost automatic is actually his approach play, which has been his hallmark was a little bit off statistically, but he did everything you need to do today. And you and I both were in the scrum when he spoke with the media and he sort of elaborated on what he touched on earlier in the week that this time around in this event,

He's finally prepared. I was speaking with someone from his team last night at the awards dinner about the idea that he essentially was four weeks behind, a month behind where he wanted to be because of that offseason wrist injury. If you check the boxes, that adds up because had he not had that injury, then yeah, you probably could have seen him coming into form later.

sometime coming into the Florida Swing. Certainly the Players' Championship would have been that. And everything you saw from him today is that looked like the guy from 2025, the guy I stood on stage last night and read all the accolades because it's not the guy that we're seeing this year that seems just a little bit off, good, not great. This was the guy from last year.

I mean, he's just such a well-rounded player that even though he hit 11 greens, like he's the best iron player on the planet. And oh, yeah, he's also the best scrambler. He's able to salvage if on the rare chance he does get out of position. He was only out of position, I believe,

twice the entire round. I think it was seven. Uh, he found the front bunker, uh, 17, one up and down and then 17 as well, where he, I mean, he just missed the fairway, had to hoist his approach shot over the tree, caught the front bunker and then, you know, hit a brilliant sun, uh, sand shot to about two feet. So, I mean, if, if he is going to do that, yes, this, this golf tournament is likely over from a strokes game perspective. He did everything. Well, I mean, well-rounded throughout the bag. Um,

Very, very few mistakes. Sky Shuffle will be going off on Friday afternoon in what is expected to be the most difficult conditions, wind gusts 20, 25 miles an hour. But I don't think it's anything...

to worry about. How about the other players, Rex? Bryson DeChambeau shooting 69. Kalamura Kawa, my pick to win the tournament, bogeying three of his last four holes to shoot even par. Zander came in at one. Brooks came in at 74. John Rohn came in at 75. What else stood out to you? I pitched a note on Morikawa that they don't want me to do on live from, but...

Why not? Sure. Why not? Because the idea, and I'll use Morikawa as just the example, where after that round, you would have thought maybe he was aggravated. Again, Eagle, Birdie, a couple bogeys come in at even par. However, someone like Colin had probably glanced at the...

at the leaderboard or at the scoreboard and realize that plenty of guys played their way out of contention today. John Rom probably played his way out of contention. I can keep your, your dark horse pick. Phil Mickelson clearly played his way out of contention. We can keep going on and on down the list. It's the same. It's the reverse conversation that we've been having about Rory that you can't win it today, but you can certainly lose the tournament today. So I would say, and I, you're going to lean into your stat again, so please don't bore the audience with it, but anybody at even par or better, uh,

still has an opportunity, especially with what the conditions are going to be like tomorrow. I'm not expecting, certainly not Scottie Scheffler, to go in reverse. I'm not expecting Justin Rose to completely go in reverse. But I think there's still something to be done out there. And as you pointed out, the wins aren't going to get easier in the afternoon. So anyone going off early that maybe didn't have their absolute best off, Rory being the example, on day one can make a move. We're going to put a pin right now, Rex, in Jon Rahm.

who shot 75, the continuation perhaps of what was another... We're going to save that for tomorrow? Yes. We're saving that one for tomorrow? All right. Yeah, we're going to put a pin in that and see if Rambo can turn it around because to me that was one of the biggest surprises. He was certainly among my top five favorites, really played terribly on Thursday, could not make anything on the greens. All right, it is time now for Moving Forever Forward presented by Workday.

What are you most looking forward to Rex checking out on Friday? Twofold. We touched on the idea that Scotty Scheffler is Scotty Scheffler again. He put the cape back on and he's going to face a little bit different, more difficult conditions, but I love the idea that he leaned into that this week he's finally prepared that everything has fallen into place. Houston was a good warmup for him. He, he has been able to get the reps in and make sure his swing is where he wants it. And we know how comfortable he is on this golf course. And I don't care how difficult,

the conditions are going to be. He's going to be the guy to watch. He's going to set the pace. And it's not easy when you start chasing him down. Again, speaking with someone from his camp, the idea that

They wanted to point out that what he did last year and maybe to a certain extent in the year before was Tiger-esque. And I have made that same argument before, and I hate doing it because comparing anyone to Tiger is just blatantly unfair. But he is on a pace. And if he continues down this path, we'll probably have this conversation even more on Sunday to do something that really only Tiger has done, which is to win here three out of four years.

You say you don't care about what the conditions are going to be on Friday. The only thing I care about is what the conditions are going to be on Friday. Let me read the weather report from our friend Stuart Williams. Reading. Winds.

12 to 16 miles an hour with gusts of 22 to 27 miles an hour. It could be absolute carnage on a golf course, Rex. It already is among the firmest they've ever seen for the opening round of the Masters. You remember the high winds that Augusta has experienced these last couple years. Remember, it was 40 miles an hour gusts.

Each of the last few years, we're not going to get to that level, but the golf course, even after an inch of rain on Monday is could be a potential torture chamber for these guys. And so I'm curious to see if the conditions either deteriorate or intensify as the as the round progresses. Rory's going to be going off early, trying to avenge what was a very disappointing incident.

And to his opening round, Scotty Scheffler playing late on Friday when the golf course is going to be trampled on after 95 players have already gone through. You know you don't like these stats, but here's a good one. 18 of the last 19 Masters winners were within four shots of the lead at the opening round. And so essentially, Rex, this tournament is going to be won

By Justin Rose, Ludwig Oberg, Corey Connors, Scotty Scheffler, Bryce DeChambeau, or Terrell Hatton. That's it. At this stage of the seedings, it is just those players, historically speaking. That's a pretty good list. That's a pretty good leaderboard. You and I are both pretty excited about what

will come the rest of this 89th Masters. All right, we have plenty of writing to do. You have plenty of reporting to do on Live for the Masters. You guys on the drill, mbcsports.com slash golf for our latest news, notes, and updates. You can find Rex and I on Live for the Masters at about 1045 a.m. Eastern time on Friday together for our hit. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. Talk to you guys on Friday night. Such an agent of chaos. It's spring black Friday at the Home Depot. So what are you working on?

If you're sprucing up your lawn, you know there's no such thing as too much mulch. So don't miss this special buy. Five bags of Scott's Earth Grow Mulch for only $10 at The Home Depot. Promote healthier soil, prevent weeds, and beautify your yard with mulch that maintains its color for up to 12 months. Shop 14 days of deals during Spring Black Friday, now through April 16th at The Home Depot.

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