The post This ‘lewd’ Masters gesture was regrettable but also forgivable appeared first on Golf.

The post This ‘lewd’ Masters gesture was regrettable but also forgivable appeared first on Golf.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — According to a Yahoo Sports headline, my favorite Scottish golfer, Robert MacIntyre, is “under fire for lewd gesture in Round 1.” Your fire, people. All Bobby Mac did was give the wee loch that fronts the 15th green the ultimate golf emoji: He stood in the fairway and flipped it the middle finger.

When MacIntyre played at Bethpage Black last year, representing Europe at the Ryder Cup, he and his teammates endured far worse.

None of this is to say that MacIntyre’s gesture is good form for a golf professional playing in the Masters, because of course it is not. But it is further proof, in a first cousin sort of way, of something Bob Jones, the great amateur and co-founder of Augusta National once said: “Sometimes emotions cannot be endured with a golf club in your hand.” In other words, Jones was known to throw a club now and again in his tempestuous youth.

In 1921, as a 19-year-old, Jones, competing in the British Open at the Old Course, in St. Andrews, Scotland, tore up his scorecard and walked off the course after 11 holes in his third round.

Ben Crenshaw, the two-time Masters champion and course architect, grew up worshipping Jones. Crenshaw’s nickname, all through his 20s and 30s, was “Gentle Ben.” Those who knew him knew it was a nickname dripping with sarcasm. He’d cite the Jones quote about club-throwing now and again.

In his hundreds of press-tent interviews, Tiger Woods was prone to using all manner of multi-syllable words. Consequently has to be in his top-50. But on the course, now and again and under his breath but those tee mics have good hearing, he’d hit a fast off-the-map pull hook and the next thing you’d hear was the most telling quote ever: “F— you, Tiger.”

Bob MacIntyre has some company. Also, he grew up in a country where you don’t find lakes guarding greens, ever. His middle finger surely was directed at himself, for rinsing the shot in the first place, but also to Robert Trent Jones, the course architect who expanded the terror of that water hazard decades ago.

Anyway, MacIntyre paid the ultimate price. His box for 15 has a 9 in it.

If form holds, he’ll probably win the Masters someday. Good course for lefties, for one thing. Also, Jones came back and won the ’27 Open at St. Andrews. Later, he was given the city’s highest honor. If Robert MacIntyre ever gets a green coat, he’ll forever be telling the story of his “lewd gesture” on 15 in the Thursday round of the ’26 Masters.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.

The post This ‘lewd’ Masters gesture was regrettable but also forgivable appeared first on Golf.

The post How to get tickets for the 2027 Masters at Augusta National appeared first on Golf.

The post How to get tickets for the 2027 Masters at Augusta National appeared first on Golf.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Apologies, but if you are reading this, you are probably not at this week’s 90th Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.

But don’t fret, because like the 91 players in the field this week, you need to be optimistic, too. There’s still a chance for you to get tickets for next year. Here’s how you can do that.

How to get 2027 Masters tickets

Your first step to get tickets for the 2027 Masters is to enter the Masters ticket lottery, which is your best way to find yourself at Augusta National come this time next year.

The application window is not open at this time, but here’s what you need to do so you are prepared. (You can also go to the Masters site and it will help you set a calendar invite so you remember to apply.)

When it’s time to apply — the window goes live June 1-20, 2026 — go to the Masters site here and either log in to your existing account or create a new one. Select which days you want to attend and how many tickets (1-4). You can select all the days if you like (Monday through Sunday) although if you win it will only be for one day, and you won’t get to decide which.

For those who win the lottery, you’ll be notified and need to supply payment in July.

Ticket prices for next year have not yet been announced, but for the 2026 Masters it was $125 for Monday and Tuesday, $150 for Wednesday and $160 for tournament rounds on Thursday to Sunday. The tournament-round price was a $20 increase from 2025.

This is your best chance to get Masters tickets — unless you somehow stumble into a coveted Masters badge — because doing so from third-party sites could potentially lead to your tickets being canceled and you banned from future tournaments.

The post How to get tickets for the 2027 Masters at Augusta National appeared first on Golf.

The post Bryson DeChambeau gets terse with reporters after nightmare Masters start appeared first on Golf.

The post Bryson DeChambeau gets terse with reporters after nightmare Masters start appeared first on Golf.

On Wednesday at the Masters Par 3 Contest, Bryson DeChambeau glowed on TV screens across the country. He was all smiles, as he often is, yucking it up with movie star Kevin Hart, who caddied for the two-time major champion in the laidback event.

But just one day later, viewers were presented with a much different version of Bryson DeChambeau.

Following a nightmare start in the opening round of the 2026 Masters on Thursday, a fuming-under-the-surface DeChambeau was terse with reporters, partly blamed the wind for his struggles, praised the 3D-printed iron he made for himself and, finally, offered up a one wordless response that is sure to become a golf meme for years to come.

Frustrated DeChambeau reacts to struggles in Masters opening round

Coming into this week’s Masters, DeChambeau was riding high. He’d just won back-to-back LIV events, earning him elevated placement in the pre-tournament Masters odds. So high, in fact, that oddsmakers deemed Bryson to have a better chance of winning the green jacket than defending champion Rory McIlroy.

But in a mirror of last year’s final round, Thursday’s opening day of the 2026 Masters saw McIlroy rise to the top of the leaderboard, and DeChambeau fall far behind, risking irrelevance on the weekend.

By day’s end, McIlroy had shot 67 to tie for the early lead. DeChambeau had shot 76 and will have to fight to make the cut on Friday.

It’s safe to say that after the round, DeChambeau was not amused with his results.

While he often is positive, thoughtful and long-winded in media interviews, DeChambeau was none of the above on Thursday evening. Perhaps understandably so, given what had unfolded at Augusta National on Thursday.

News

The first question was about Bryson’s biggest disaster of the day. At the treacherous par-4 11th, he twice failed to escape the greenside bunker, eventually walking away with a triple-bogey 7.

What happened on 11?

“Bunker was softer than I anticipated,” DeChambeau replied curtly.

How cognizant were you of not going left given what happened last year in the final round? (When DeChambeau hit his approach on 11 into the greenside pond, resulting in a devastating double bogey.)

“The ball flew 12 yards farther than I wanted it to. I had a good shot.”

How is the 5-iron treating you? (The 5-iron that DeChambeau 3D-printed himself, which he enthusiastically shared in his pre-Masters press conference, along with plans to eventually build an entire set of self-made irons.)

“Good. It was great on 7. Hit a good second shot. Wind didn’t hit it off the left. Irons are still something I have to work on.”

Are you satisfied with the 5?

“Yeah, yeah. I mean, I only hit it once today, so…”

When Bryson was then asked how long it would take for him to make one of his homemade irons, he appeared to grow increasingly impatient and eager to move on.

Still, he reeled off an explanation in monotone bullet points.

“Prints in eight hours. Machines, they’re three or four hours,” DeChambeau began. “Then you have to cut grooves in it and do a bunch of other stuff. So you can have something within a day and a half.”

But it was DeChambeau’s response to the next question that betrayed his true state-of-mind following a grueling and unsuccessful hike up and down Augusta National’s pristine hills.

When asked if he would consider printing and building a new iron for the weekend rounds, a flabbergasted DeChambeau responded with facial expression that became an instant meme, then said, “No. It has to be USGA-conforming. There’s a whole process you have to go through.”

DeChambeau did provide a small window into his gameplan for Friday considering his lowly leaderboard position, saying he had to “hit my irons better,” while also lamenting the tricky winds at Augusta.

“Just going to give what the golf course gives me. I have to try to hit my irons better. I drove it left numerous occasions,” he said. “Did a great job on 18. Wind didn’t hurt it like we thought, and that’s this game. That’s the golf course.”

He continued: “You know, everybody has an ability for weird things to happen, and today I just did not have my irons under control, which is weird. It’s been good coming into it, so…”

When one reporter then tried to return to the 5-iron line of questioning, DeChambeau had officially had enough.

“That’s a longer conversation. It’s not for here,” he replied.

And with that, the scrum was over, and DeChambeau was left trying to figure out how to figure out this bedeviling golf course on Friday.

He tees off for Round 2 at 1:20 p.m. ET.

The post Bryson DeChambeau gets terse with reporters after nightmare Masters start appeared first on Golf.

The post 2026 Masters live updates: Scottie Scheffler tries to chase down Rory McIlroy on Friday appeared first on Golf.

The post 2026 Masters live updates: Scottie Scheffler tries to chase down Rory McIlroy on Friday appeared first on Golf.

Round 2 of the 2026 Masters goes down on Friday at Augusta National. Rory McIlroy begins the day tied for the lead, but World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is hoping to chase him down in the second round. GOLF’s writers and editors are providing live Masters updates on Friday’s second round all day long, from on-site at Augusta and beyond.

Masters Round 2: What you need to know

The opening day of the Masters saw an increasingly hard and fast Augusta National put the best golfers in the world to the test. McIlroy, the defending Masters champion, put together a five-under 67 to take a share of the lead with Sam Burns.

They have plenty of company near the top of the leaderboard, though, including Scheffler, Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth, who tee off in the early wave on Friday. Major champions Jason Day and Patrick Reed start the second round tied for third.

Notable Round 2 tee times: Jordan Spieth (9:55 a.m. ET); Justin Rose (9:55 a.m. ET); Scottie Scheffler (10:19 a.m. ET); Jason Day (12:56 p.m. ET); Patrick Reed (1:08 p.m. ET); Bryson DeChambeau (1:20 p.m. ET); Rory McIlroy (1:44 p.m. ET);

Quick links: How to watch Masters Friday | Masters Round 2 tee times | Scores on Masters.com

Follow live updates from Round 2 of the 2026 Masters below.

The post 2026 Masters live updates: Scottie Scheffler tries to chase down Rory McIlroy on Friday appeared first on Golf.

The post 2026 Masters Friday TV coverage: How to watch Round 2 at Augusta National appeared first on Golf.

The post 2026 Masters Friday TV coverage: How to watch Round 2 at Augusta National appeared first on Golf.

The second round of the 2026 Masters begins Friday morning, April 10, at Augusta National. Here’s everything you need to know to watch the tournament on Friday, including full Masters TV coverage, streaming info and Round 2 tee times.

How to watch Masters on Friday

Rory McIlroy finished the 2025 Masters on top of the leaderboard. Now he’s starting this year’s Masters in the same place.

The defending champion made six birdies on Thursday, including three in a row on the back nine, to shoot a 67. McIlroy heads into Friday’s second round tied for the lead with Sam Burns at five under.

MASTERS LIVE UPDATES: Follow Round 2 action at Augusta National

News

Jason Day, Patrick Reed and Kurt Kitayama are tied for third at three under, and a foursome of major champions are one shot further back. That group includes World No. 1 and two-time Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose and Shane Lowry.

You can watch the second round of the Masters on TV via ESPN, which will air coverage starting at 3 p.m. ET on Friday. Masters.com, the Masters app, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+ and the ESPN App will provide wall-to-wall streaming coverage beginning Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Below you will find everything you need to know to watch the second round of the 2026 Masters.

How to watch on TV Friday

ESPN will air second-round TV coverage of the 2026 Masters on Friday from 3-7:30 p.m. ET.

How to stream online Friday

You can stream the second round of the 2026 Masters via Masters.com, the Masters app, the ESPN App, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+ and DirecTV, with several streaming options available. Check out the full 2026 Masters Friday streaming schedule below.

Masters On the Range: 8:30-10-30 a.m. (Masters.com, Masters App, Paramount+)
Featured Groups: 9:15 a.m.-7:30 p.m. (Masters.com, Masters App, Paramount+, Prime Video, ESPN App, DirecTV)
Featured Holes (4, 5 and 6): 8:45 a.m.-3:30 p.m. (Masters.com, Masters App, ESPN App)
Featured Holes (Amen Corner, 11, 12 and 13): 10:45 a.m.-6 p.m. (Masters.com, Masters App, Paramount+, Prime Video, ESPN App, DirecTV)
Featured Holes (15 and 16): 11:45 a.m.-7 p.m. (Masters.com, Masters App, Paramount+, Prime Video, ESPN App, DirecTV)
Round 2 Prime Video Coverage: 1-3 p.m. (Prime Video)
Round 2 ESPN Telecast: 3-7:30 p.m. (ESPN App)
Full Round 2 Stream: 1-7:30 p.m. (Masters.com, Masters App)

2026 Masters Round 2 tee times (ET)

Tee No. 1

7:40 a.m. – Samuel Stevens, Sungjae Im
7:50 a.m. – Andrew Novak, Tom McKibbin, Brian Campbell
8:02 a.m. – Mike Weir, Wyndham Clark, Mateo Pulcini (A)
8:14 a.m. – Zach Johnson, Michael Kim, Nicolai Højgaard
8:26 a.m. – Danny Willett, Davis Riley, Ethan Fang (A)
8:38 a.m. – Adam Scott, Daniel Berger, Brian Harman
8:50 a.m. – Fred Couples, Min Woo Lee, Fifa Laopakdee (A)
9:02 a.m. – Sergio Garcia, Aaron Rai, Jacob Bridgeman
9:19 a.m. – Harry Hall, Corey Conners, Michael Brennan
9:31 a.m. – J.J. Spaun, Maverick McNealy, Tyrrell Hatton
9:43 a.m. – Jon Rahm, Chris Gotterup, Ludvig Åberg
9:55 a.m. – Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka
10:07 a.m. – Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, Justin Thomas
10:19 a.m. – Scottie Scheffler, Robert MacIntyre, Gary Woodland
10:31 a.m. – Harris English, Marco Penge, Si Woo Kim
10:51 a.m. – John Keefer, Haotong Li
11:03 a.m. – Naoyuki Kataoka, Max Homa, Carlos Ortiz
11:15 a.m. – José María Olazábal, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Aldrich Potgieter
11:27 a.m. – Angel Cabrera, Sami Valimaki, Jackson Herrington (A)
11:39 a.m. – Charl Schwartzel, Max Greyserman, Ryan Fox
11:51 a.m. – Vijay Singh, Matt McCarty, Rasmus Højgaard
12:03 p.m. – Kurt Kitayama, Kristoffer Reitan, Casey Jarvis
12:15 p.m. – Bubba Watson, Nicolas Echavarria, Brandon Holtz (A)
12:32 p.m. – Cameron Smith, Sam Burns, Jake Knapp
12:44 p.m. – Keegan Bradley, Ryan Gerard, Nick Taylor
12:56 p.m. – Dustin Johnson, Shane Lowry, Jason Day
1:08 p.m. – Patrick Reed, Tommy Fleetwood, Akshay Bhatia
1:20 p.m. – Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele
1:32 p.m. – Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley
1:44 p.m. – Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, Mason Howell (A)
1:56 p.m. – Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Alex Noren

The post 2026 Masters Friday TV coverage: How to watch Round 2 at Augusta National appeared first on Golf.

The post I walked all 18 at Augusta National. These little details jumped out appeared first on Golf.

The post I walked all 18 at Augusta National. These little details jumped out appeared first on Golf.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — A couple hours after the 2026 Masters began Thursday morning, I set out to walk all 18 holes with three goals in mind: Watch some golf, offset the caloric intake of Augusta National’s press center (which Willy Wonka would deem a bit decadent) and take some time to admire the little things.

Our photographer Darren Riehl did the hard work. I mostly just pointed at stuff. Here begins our tour.

Editor’s note: This may be a strange, wandering story but it has good pictures, so feel free to skip the words and skim those.

No. 1

The entire Masters Tournament relies on a certain assumption of orderliness from its patrons. Even its insistence on calling them “patrons” helps set the tone. It’s easy to roll your eyes at some of that stuff, but here’s the result: When players walk from the clubhouse toward the 1st tee, they very often just walk through the sea of people gathered there. There are a few officials with ropes who can establish temporary order, if need be. Often need don’t be.

We’re behind Wyndham Clark, who’s bobbing and weaving without issue toward the practice green adjacent the 1st tee. If he tried this at the WM Phoenix Open, he’d emerge soaked in cheers and light beers. The group ahead is getting ready to play. Saquon Barkley is among those looking on from the left side of the tee. The green jacket makes an announcement.

Fore please! Now driving, Andrew Novak.

Fore please turns into fore left. The patrons duck for cover. It’s an organized setting but an unpredictable game.

No. 2

You know the hazards on the second nine here; there’s water on 11, 12, 13, 15, 16. You may not know there’s also a creek down the left side of the 2nd hole. And you really may not know the way Augusta National marks that creek; rather than automatically conforming to the usual shape and size of your standard penalty-area stakes, in line with Masters minimalism, the club has innovated with these undersized, understated mini-stakes.

No. 3

This is the trendiest hole at Augusta National; it’s always been excellent, but as a brain-bending short, tricky par-4, it seems to be having a bit of a well-deserved moment of appreciation. Also trendy: Drake Maye, who’s on the right side as we arrive.

A couple hours after our pass-through, Scottie Scheffler will drive the green, but that’s a rarity. What’s far more common are tricky, in-between wedge shots. In the span of two minutes, we see Andrew Novak playing a clever spinner from the pine straw that zips back past the hole, which one onlooker immediately declares “the shot of the tournament.” We see Brian Campbell taking the safe way out of his half-wedge, flying it well past the front hole location to the middle of the green. We see Tom McKibbin hit one low, glancing cleverly off the bank and trickling just past the hole. These guys are good. This course is hard. A leaderboard looms behind them.

No. 4

Augusta National’s lone palm leans over, glancing at the front right bunker. There used to be more of these.

No. 5

Do all the trees have numbers? And tags? Here, down the left side of the brutish par-4 5th, is No. 2230. There’s a lot of monitoring going on here, amidst the nature.

No. 6

The hill at No. 6 provides a particularly unique spectating perspective; I can’t think of any other hole in professional golf where the golfers hit directly over your head, with you facing their target. You can see the par-3 16th from here, too — it may be my favorite Thursday-Friday spot to sit and watch. (The 6th tee is at the top of the photo, if you use some imagination.)

Patrick Reed makes eagle, up ahead. It takes a minute for the leaderboard to change to a red 5, explaining the roar.

No. 7

The strange thing about Rory McIlroy’s miraculous recovery shot from the trees left of No. 7 — last year, that is, in the final round — is that he missed the short birdie putt that followed. The same strange thing is true of his miraculous approach at No. 15, which resulted in a short miss for eagle. That was a clean, miraculous result after a day of contradictory, messy storytelling. McIlroy double-bogeyed the first hole, opening the door to the rest of the field. Then he slammed it shut with a run of good play, then opened it again, etc. The only clean narrative came in retrospect, with his win.

Anyway, when you walk No. 7, it’s tempting to see where McIlroy played that approach shot through the trees. But that’s not pictured below. Here’s a little rope in its little rope spot. This is how they keep order at the walkways. They let you cross as soon as the players pass. The whole process seems to work more smoothly here than elsewhere.

No. 8

The leaderboards are famous around here. You likely know about the Masters no-phone rule; one of its effects is that there’s an outsized pressure on the changing of the boards and thus the updating of the patrons.

What that means is that it’s important to match the correct names with the correct scores. Here’s a look at how they do that, from the rear of the leaderboards: by writing the names in light-green chalk. Simple done right.

No. 9

You’re never far from much as a patron on No. 9, and as you work your way toward the green, you can hang a left, cross the 1st fairway and get to the merchandise shop, or the concession area, or a rocking chair. If you’re a golfer you can also hang a left and play down that same 1st fairway. Here’s Nico Echavarria taking the alternate path, though not on purpose.

No. 10

We’ve caught Bryson DeChambeau’s group now, which is alternately known as Xander Schauffele’s group, or Matt Fitzpatrick’s group, but based on the ooh that goes up as DeChambeau hits a towering draw around the corner, there’s one guy commanding outsized attention. Kevin Hart is in this gallery. So is Kai Trump. None of the above are pictured. Instead here’s a tree down the right side, an outlier among the pines, that Darren particularly liked.

No. 11

The course is firm and fast and it’s separating the guys in full control of their distance and their spin from those without. Here are Patrick Reed and Tommy Fleetwood and Akshay Bhatia. They’re a combined nine under par — for now. This must be the hottest group on the property. It’s a back pin and downwind, which means it’s playing less perilous than usual. None of them has to visit the lonely drop zone down the left.

No. 12

I’m struck by the stark difference between Augusta National’s two iconic second-nine par-3s. No. 16 is a hub of crowd activity from tee to green, while at No. 12 you play toward solitude. It must feel quiet over there.

No. 13

As we walk toward the green at No. 13, Shane Lowry pitches his ball over the creek and onto the middle of the green. It checks up and rolls in for a triumphant eagle. Later I’ll watch highlights and see that Ludvig Aberg has a chip for eagle from behind the green that trickles all the way back into this tributary. No. 13 is easy until it’s not. Here’s a side angle you’re not used to seeing, with the azaleas a few days past full bloom.

No. 14

There’s a large, thick stand of bamboo behind the tee box at No. 14. It seems out of place, but nothing’s really out of place on the former grounds of Fruitland Nurseries. Dustin Johnson tees off. Wayne Gretzky is just outside the rope line. Johnson instinctively tosses his broken tee on the ground at the end of the tee box — then reconsiders. He picks up the tee and hands it to his brother. A tee stub stands out here more than it might elsewhere.

No. 15

A cheer goes up as Fred Couples’ name appears atop the leaderboard; at 2 under through four holes, he’s been deemed worthy of the spot. He’ll still be under par when he gets to this hole a couple hours later — but he won’t be under par by the time he leaves.

No. 16

Augusta National’s tee markers, like most everything here, are simple, minimal and just about right.

No. 17

The Masters is an interesting cross-section of analog everything with groundbreaking technology. Here’s a well-sharpened pencil being used for some scoring-related purpose. You don’t see a well-sharpened pencil in use as much as you used to.

No. 18

Have you ever seen a ladder like this? I have never seen a ladder like this. This is how Augusta National’s scorers get up to the big leaderboard beside the 18th green.

18-hole summary

There’s a big scoreboard with everybody’s name and hole-by-hole score, listed alphabetically, by the 1st fairway — where most people enter and exit the course. When you finish, they put your name under the score you shot. It’s a good reminder that while the 60-something scores get all the attention, they’re heavily outnumbered.

If you’ve somehow made it this far, Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

The post I walked all 18 at Augusta National. These little details jumped out appeared first on Golf.

The post 10 years ago, Jordan Spieth exited the Masters crushed. And with 1 lesson appeared first on Golf.

The post 10 years ago, Jordan Spieth exited the Masters crushed. And with 1 lesson appeared first on Golf.

AUGUSTA. Ga. — Jordan Spieth swings. And Michael Greller screams. 

“Forrrre leeeeft!” 

And you salivate. The caddie’s two words — or their siblings, forrrre riiiight — now have a Pavlovian effect. When Spieth goes wayward with shots, you froth — because here comes a Spiethian treat, more often than not, so to the left of Augusta National’s 18th hole you must go, where, under a dozen or so thick tree branches, Spieth’s tee ball ended up. 

Spieth called for a rules official. Of course he did. “I just was curious as to how I could back in,” he said. “Like it’s supposed to be path of least resistance.” He pretzeled himself over the ball. Of course he did. He worked a punch shot back to the fairway. He dropped an iron to 10 feet right of the hole. 

He somehow parred. Or course, he did. Spieth Spiethed. After day one of the Masters, he was at even par, and five back of the lead. “I did well to get it out in the fairway, and frankly I don’t know how many people in the world make a four from that tee ball,” Spieth said. “So that was — I’m walking off with a smile on my face. I’m happier than you walk off bogeying to shoot one-under … and it’s funny how the game works, right?”

Right?

A decade ago, that was the thought, too, if you were thinking kindly. In 2015, at the age of 21, Spieth was your Masters winner. In 2016, after 63 of 72 holes, he was your Masters leader by five. And he finished three behind winner Danny Willett. And he hasn’t won here since.

Late Thursday afternoon, he reflected on some of that. There have been years of other near-misses. But 2016 is “up there with memorable tournaments for me, good and bad,” Spieth said. The large lead. The large lost lead. The opportunity to repeat. The current search for a second Masters win. But he said he felt he exited with something more than a seemingly awkward moment of fitting Willett into the green jacket. 

“I was super resilient,” he said in front of a couple of reporters. 

“It’s certainly gone both ways for me here, so stay within arm’s reach and try to make it go my way.”

If anything, it’s what made him charming over the past 10 years. There was some of that on Thursday. He was two-under through Amen Corner, then bogeyed the 14th hole, after his tee ball finished up against a tree, and the 15th hole, on a three-putt from 30 feet. But then came that par on 18.  

“What I’ve learned the last 10 years,” Spieth said, “is a lot — anything can happen.”

This year, the results have been mixed. Eight starts. Just one missed cut. Five finishes in the top 30. But zero wins. He’s talked often of how things have felt right, but the scores haven’t reflected that, and Thursday was more of the same. The bogey on 15 was an example. 

In the par-5’s right greenside bunker after two shots. Made a bogey six. 

“Just I don’t take four to get in from a greenside bunker on 15 very often,” Spieth said. “You know, just had a lie that I thought it was going to come out super fast and didn’t. And then I was — I wasn’t tentative on the greens. I just thought they were quicker and I left a number of putts short. You can’t leave the five-footers downhill for your par putts if you can get it below the hole.

“So I made kind of a couple mistakes in that regard. Got away with one or two and didn’t on 15. That’s the kind of stuff that’s been happening. I’m in position to make birdie and walk off with a six on a random hole. Give me a dozen balls in there I probably make birdie on 10 and make bogey on one and par on the other, you know what I mean?

“I feel good about it. It’s like close to clicking and it just didn’t quite click today.”

But maybe Friday. He’ll be back again. 

Funny how the game works, right?

The post 10 years ago, Jordan Spieth exited the Masters crushed. And with 1 lesson appeared first on Golf.

The post At the Masters, the player/coach relationship is crucial. And different appeared first on Golf.

The post At the Masters, the player/coach relationship is crucial. And different appeared first on Golf.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — A head coach to your favorite golfing stars offers this: “You hear this more at Augusta than anywhere else: ‘I can’t take my range game to the course.’”

This is not a pre-tournament comment. It’s something you hear after the Thursday rounds have been posted.
 
There’s a reason for that as there is a reason for everything. The tournament practice range at Augusta is about 300 yards wide, flatter than the famous club driveway behind it, with only about a dozen pins and a dozen pines at which to aim. On the course itself, once you’re off the tee, there are few flat lies, lots of pine straw, greenside grain leaning this way and that — and a nervous system in overdrive. So in that sense, the range and the tournament course — on Thursday, on Friday, on the weekend — are on different planets.

But there’s something else that happens more at the Masters, the first Grand Slam event of the year, than anywhere else. At 4:30 Thursday afternoon, there were six players on the range and six instructors. There were two players on the putting green with instructors. There was another player by the chipping green, his coach behind him. Over the course of the afternoon, more players came to this temple of practice for a post-round session, every last one (but one) accompanied by a teacher. Every coach had either a phone or a tablet in hand and many of the players had Trackman devices diagnosing their every swing.
 
This is a relatively new development, player and coach continuing to work together after the start of a tournament. In the 1990s, you would often see Ernie Els and sometimes Tiger Woods on a range without an instructor with a tournament underway. (Every blue moon, you’d see Els or Woods alone on the range, the caddie sent home for the day. Incredible to watch.) But over the past 10 or 15 years, and you see this more at Augusta intra-tournament than anywhere else, the professional golfer has morphed from lonesome cowboy to CEO of Team Your Name Here.
 
In 2015, Jordan Spieth won the Masters. In 2016, he was the third-round leader after an indifferent Saturday 73. He had been going it alone that week. Saturday night, he made an emergency call to his swing coach, Cameron McCormick, looking for help with a case of the short rights. McCormick arrived Sunday morning. Whatever they worked on worked, until it didn’t. Spieth shot a Sunday 73 and Danny Willett won by three. Over the past decade on the Augusta range, you see a player, you see an instructor and a gizmo.
 
“It’s probably been a real thing for the last 10 or 15 years,” Adam Scott said Thursday. He’s 45 and has been a touring pro playing the world for 25 years. “There aren’t 85 coaches here this week, but then there’s someone like Pete Cowen who has a bunch of guys. And I’m not just saying [swing] coaches. There are chipping coaches, putting coaches, psychologists. There are a lot of coaches.”
 
But only one coach is allowed on the range with the player at Augusta and it’s always the main swing coach. It’s good for business. A swing coach at the Masters is usually highly invisible, but when you’re on the inside it’s an enviable place to be.
 
“Ideally, you’ve got everything organized before you get here,” said Scott, who shot a first-round 72. “I feel a lot of the time when I had a coach here they were just watching and not saying too much. Even on a day like today, when you’re a little off, sometimes you just need someone to say, I didn’t feel good today, but I don’t think it’s bad. What do you think? ‘Nothing wrong with it. Go hit 20 balls and come back tomorrow.’ But it looks like everyone is going for perfection.”

Augusta National is not a course that lends itself to perfection. Things go wrong. It’s kind of a head game, because Augusta National, the club, sells the pursuit of perfection, but things go wrong from Thursday morning to Sunday night, for every last player.
 
And that’s the point of the unnamed mental coach here — the players are searching for perfection on the range with a tournament underway, and it’s counter-productive. The real work, the mental coach said, should be between the player and the caddie, because the player and the caddie are out there together. You can’t make a lifeline call in tournament golf.
 
“Early in my career, there was a phase where the coach wasn’t around a lot, and I think that was good,” Scott said. “At 21, I didn’t know what bad golf was. I’d just go out and play.
 
“Later, it was more about taking it to the next level, with more eyes on it. That was how it worked for me, and it worked well. Now I have a lot less of that. I speak to Trevor [Immelman] often about how I feel and my swing but I don’t have him watching all the time. There are phases.”
 
Rory McIlroy, for instance. There have been times in his career where his lifelong swing coach was behind him every time he went to the range. And then there was last year, when McIlroy won the Masters. There was no talk about his team, no discussion of we did this and we did that. He and his caddie, Harry Diamond, were on the range. He and Diamond were on the 18th green Sunday night. McIlroy signed his playoff scorecard. The only other signature required was his opponent’s.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

The post At the Masters, the player/coach relationship is crucial. And different appeared first on Golf.

The post Fred Couples made a 9 at the Masters. Then he did something surprising appeared first on Golf.

The post Fred Couples made a 9 at the Masters. Then he did something surprising appeared first on Golf.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — If you can bear it, take a few seconds to imagine how it felt to be Fred Couples on Masters Thursday afternoon.

Your day starts with a warmup. But really it begins before that, when the first patron sees you on site at Augusta National, and you can feel the first thought in their head. You’re 66 years old, playing at Augusta National for the forty-first time, and the rumors surrounding your competitive retirement from golf’s first major have gotten so loud you can’t even pretend to ignore them.

But you believe you can compete — not in a vain way, but really believe it — so you’ve showed up again. And you’ve showed up even though you know certain members of the public are snickering at you. Or worse, overlooking you. And you’ve showed up with a bright yellow ball, because if they’re going to laugh anyway, you might as well laugh back.

You arrive on Thursday with something to prove, and though you’re realistic about your goals, things go well. The weather is good. The golf course is firm and fast, which plays into your strengths as one of the geezers who actually learned how to play Augusta National before the days of 350-yard drives and 9-irons into par-5s. You make birdies on a few holes early. You survive the turn unscathed. Suddenly you look up at the big leaderboard behind the 12th hole and you’re one under for the day, three shots off the lead, and royally spanking your younger, longer playing partners despite their insistence on outdriving you by 40 yards.

By the time your birdie putt drops on 13, you’re feeling it. You’re smiling at the crowd, and the crowd is smiling back at you. They’re beginning to believe, and damnit, so are you.

“That’s Freddie, alright,” they’re saying to each other, remembering some vision from the past so old it doesn’t even feel like a memory to you. “He’s making a move!”

Your last real risk arrives on 15, but thankfully, the green jackets have taken disaster out of play. The par-5 has gotten so long it’s a three-shot hole on your best day, so you lay up to the bottom of the hill and plot for a chip shot that will leave you with a 30-footer for birdie. At worst, you’re looking at an easy par and a pathway to the clubhouse with some real breathing room inside the cutline.

And then, just when the confidence is really beginning to flow, something mystifying happens. You skin two straight wedge shots within the span of three minutes, sending two balls in the water from 90 yards out. Before you can count your strokes, your dream is dead. A few moments later, the number on the scorecard confirms it: You’ve just recorded a nine.

“I’ve played I don’t know how many rounds, I’ve never done that,” you say. “Never hit a 90-yard shot in the water and then followed up with another one. I’ve played 41 years here. I’ve never done that.”

And then, even though you’re playing for pride, you know the air is out of the balloon, and so a bad situation becomes worse. You look up after punching out into the 18th fairway and laugh.

“What did I do?” you ask later, but you already know the answer. “I went quad-double-double. There’s not much regrouping from that.”

You walk up to the 18th and roll in a 20 footer for par. The gallery erupts, but you’re too furious to care. You pull the ball out of the cup and take a long, deep breath. You’ve just shot six over for the day, 78, and unless there’s one last true Masters miracle within you, you’re careening for a missed cut.

By the time you make it to scoring, you’re so ready to begin the walk to the parking lot that your feet are already moving in that direction. But ho boy — here comes a green jacket. A reporter has requested you. A singular reporter. And though everyone’s pretty sure this request is a bad idea, yourself and the green jacket included, you hear yourself say yes.

You stand in front of the reporter for a handful of truly painful seconds, hearing yourself recount the events of the last few minutes. It takes you a while to realize it, but you’re sporting the cervical flexibility of a barn owl — eyes and thoughts pointed at 12 o’clock but legs pointed firmly at 4:30. It’s as if your body is already beginning the long walk into the night, but your brain hasn’t realized it yet.

And then, just when you began to think your legs might walk you right off the podium, granting you the dignity of escaping from a closing-stretch meltdown on Masters Thursday in the comfort of your own thoughts, you’re asked why you bothered to say yes to this request in the first place, and you laugh.

“I do it at Augusta. I love this place,” you say. “No matter what I shoot, I try. I get very frustrated. Because at any age you still want to hit shots. But I’m not going to run.

“If I was 35 and did that I would be going bananas on everybody,” you say. “And I would’ve ran right by and you told you to get out of my life.”

But today?

“It really was a fun day.”

And the craziest thing is that even though you don’t feel it, you know you mean it. You still play golf for moments like Thursday — not for the fleeting moments of magic, but for the brief, totally insane belief that the magic might stick around.

You don’t like to think about your game as timeless; you think about it as very much of this time. But there’s a reason why the patrons at the Masters cheer louder for you than anywhere else on earth: This is the golf course where time stands still, and you are the golfer who embodies it.

“I’ll end with this,” you say. “My first Masters I played in I shot 73-68, which was fantastic. I got paired with Tom Watson and I shot 80.”

“I couldn’t keep up with him. I was bogeying holes and didn’t want to get in his way and my score became irrelevant.”

“I think that happens at all acts of life. You just feel uncomfortable and can’t turn it around.”

The reporter seems pretty glad you haven’t thrown a 7-iron at him, so he’s not going to keep you, but he sure seems to think he’s seen some magic, and he sure seems to think that magic is lingering … even in an opening-round 78.

But you’re Freddie Couples, and you know better than that, so you laugh.

“Tomorrow I just have to go do the same thing. But maybe not finish 10-over par on two holes, or whatever the hell I did.”

You can reach the author at james.colgan@golf.com.

The post Fred Couples made a 9 at the Masters. Then he did something surprising appeared first on Golf.

The post Patrick Reed would be the Masters champion of our fractured times appeared first on Golf.

The post Patrick Reed would be the Masters champion of our fractured times appeared first on Golf.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — For years the Masters has marked a moment of reunion on the calendar — PGA Tour players alongside LIV golfers for the first time in eight months. And here, in 2026? No different. Except that one relevant player falls oddly outside of either camp: Patrick Nathaniel Reed. 

Reed is the only player in transition at the moment — “doing my time,” as he called it Thursday — playing a few scrappy international tournaments outside of the majors, as he moves from a life on LIV to a renewed life on the PGA Tour. That alone would make him the Masters champion of these weird, fractured times, were he to turn his first-round 69 into a second green jacket. 

But it would be so much more than that, right?

A Reed win would serve as an important reminder that it is players and their own history who make a golf tour, not the other way around. The wizards with the wands — the beloved ones and the heels — have been in control the whole time. Confident, self-assured players like Reed are the reason LIV was able to exist in the first place. (McKinsey and Co. advised LIV’s owners to pursue top talent exclusively.) Talent is a finite business. Reed is as talented as they come, and 2026 has showed it. 

The golf world started considering a Reed Masters run in January, when he blitzed through a few events in the Middle East, winning twice and losing in one playoff. He flew down to South Africa for a couple more in March, just before LIV held its own South African event, and managed a few solid results. About three or four weeks ago was when he really started dialing in his focus on Augusta National, just as everyone started to look elsewhere: to Collin Morikawa’s back, to Rory McIlroy’s back, to Scottie Scheffler’s second stint of paternity leave, to Cameron Young and Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.

Reed receded to the background, right until the moment he holed an eagle putt on the 2nd hole Thursday morning, and then holed an even longer eagle putt on the 8th about 90 minutes later. Just two shots back after 18 holes, he’s firmly at the center of attention once again.

A Reed win would guarantee him every ounce of Tour access he desires — not to mention a level-up in the Masters pantheon — but it would be more of an endorsement of the vibes he was seeking. On Monday, Reed said he wanted to “get back to the traditional way of golf,” by which he meant 72 holes of individual stroke play with a cut and the leaders going off last after everyone has cleared from the driving range. He saw that in Dubai when he won in January. It felt like “adrenaline,” he said, something he’ll have no problem finding on a weekend at Augusta National.

His Thursday finished with two moments that would test anyone’s mettle. He pulled his tee shot on 17 into jail, nearly onto the 7th fairway. He played an 8-iron over the trees and long of the green — which, with a back pin, was only slightly less jail. Then he pitched on to 7 feet for a putt as quick as you might find in a jail-cell floor. He escaped with par. His up-and-down on 18 was just as impressive, from the short greenside bunker, holing another squeamish 10-footer for par. 

Reed thought he played better than he scored and he better get comfortable with that. It’s going to be a central theme at a course so firm everyone is calling “crusty.” Reed broke a tee in one of the greens Thursday just trying to fix a ball mark. 

Through 18 holes, he has to consider this a massive step toward his future, staring up at a leaderboard that features Rory McIlroy, a player he has long felt a rivalry with, and Sam Burns, a player he has played alongside once in the last five years. He finds names like Day and Rose and Scheffler and Schauffele that, frankly, he’s been yearning to compete with.

So … here he goes.

The post Patrick Reed would be the Masters champion of our fractured times appeared first on Golf.