Roundup: Tiger Wins The 2019 Masters, Again!

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Tiger Woods captured his fifth green jacket as heroically as one can on tape delay a year later.

If you did not watch, you missed a super show (again) punctuated by the occasional chats between Woods and CBS’s Jim Nantz. Early on the conversation was a bit stilted but as both grew comfortable with the format, so as the action picked up on the back nine, Woods opened up in fascinating ways and Nantz asked all of the right questions.

Check out CBS golf’s Twitter account for all of them.

But a couple stood out. This with Tiger taking us through the 12th hole moment was very strong.

This about his hole-in-one career numbers has been mentioned to golf writers but never to a national audience.

Finally, a solid five minutes on the scene after sealing the victory with the Green Jacket now on.

The Masters website posted some images both on their site (larger here) and on Twitter of the Champions Locker Room Sunday night…2019. There is Tiger getting his jacket fitted and tightened up by an unidentified man (though I do see part of Sid Mashburn’s profile on the left).

And for most, the greatest image of all is Phil Mickelson’s note taped to Tiger’s locker.

A close up look at the trophy engraving, another first I believe:

https://twitter.com/TheMasters/status/1249472906209439744?s=20

The final round was uploaded to YouTube today:

Steve DiMeglio gets caddie Joe LaCava’s thoughts a year later.

This Sam Frommer oral history from published quotes at the Masters2020 blog is a nice compilation.

Yardbarker’s roundup of social media posts during the replay features a solid mix, including some big names.

Alan Bastable at Golf.com wrote about David Dobbins, a 60-year-old U.S. Army contractor with a flight school in Augusta who also has an ability to capture images. The shots show what we miss not having a blimp over Augusta National during the Masters. Something that stood out during the final round when a blimp shot replay of Francesco Molinari’s clipping the tree at 15 and hitting the pond would have come in handy, among other shots.

Finally, Tiger posted a makeshift Magnolia Lane in lieu of the chance to drive up the real one today.

Podcast: The Shack Show Episode 2 With Guest Charlie Rymer

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Charlie Rymer is my guest for Shack Show episode two primarily because I always enjoy hearing from Charlie but also because he’s one of the brightest people in golf. He should be at Augusta National this week working for Westwood One Radio where he’s done the tournament broadcast for over a decade now.

We spend a considerable amount of time discussing last year’s tournament won by Tiger Woods and working alongside Mike Tirico for his special call of the conclusion (embedded below). Plus, so much more about where golf is right now, Myrtle Beach, dewsweepers, the great lead broadcasters in golf, sunsets and where the game will be after the pandemic.

Show Notes:

Ridin’ With Rymer’s at PlayMyrtleBeach’s YouTube page.

A snippet from Charlie’s chat this week with Jack Nicklaus:

Mike Tirico’s call of the 2019 Masters with Charlie miraculously silent for almost two minutes!

"From Nick Saban to Bill Murray, stars recall Tiger's 2019 Masters win"

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An oral history of sorts, the team at ESPN.com put together this roundup of quotes and video clips featuring top athletes past and present remembering Tiger Woods’ unforgettable 2019 Masters win.

Arizona Cardinal Larry Fitzgerald:

"I was there for the first two days of the tournament then I watched the last two rounds at home. I was elated. To know him, the mental makeup, what the game means to him and how much he cares about the game of golf -- not only for himself, but in terms of the growth of it. I think it's something that's really changed, from the young Tiger when it was, he had blinders on, singularly focused on his achievements to now.

"As a fan of the game, it gave the game a shot in the arm. There are people that love Tiger, there are people that hate Tiger. No matter what, people are going to watch Tiger. They are going to watch to see him play poorly, they are going to watch to see him do transcending things. He's a polarizing figure. I heard people say Tiger moves the needle; Tiger is the needle."

Debut Podcast! The Shack Show, With Guest Michael Bamberger

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The Shack Show is here and begins an odyssey that hopes to add some substance and, in these bleak days, a bit of diversion. The show will evolve, as it already has signed joining up with the good folks at iHeartRadio. For now, The Shack Show will feature conversations with figures in golf and focus on select topics. While the frequency may vary, I hope to keep these chats at a manageable length. Because as a podcast listener for over a decade, I know you have more choices than ever.

To kick off the show in this postponed Masters week, I chat with noted Golf Magazine/Golf.com writer and longtime book author Michael Bamberger. We discuss Bamberger’s new book The Second Life of Tiger Woods (reviewed here), the 2019 Masters, Greg Norman and golf before, during and after this pandemic.

I hope you’ll enjoy the pod and subscribe wherever you get podcasts. For The Shack Show or podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartradio app, the Apple podcast store, the Stitcher option, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

As always, you can listen below as well:

"On the death of a brother, Tiger's epic Masters and the bonding power of sports"

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A touching read from ESPN.com’s Ian O’Connor. Just a snippet…

As a sports journalist, you are not allowed to root for a team or an athlete. You are allowed to root for the best available story. So I was rooting for Tiger Woods for selfish reasons, at least until I saw the look on Dan's face with two holes to go.

Then I stopped rooting for Tiger to win for me. I started rooting for Tiger to win for him.

GQ Profile: Brooks On Selling His Rae's Creek Troubles, Golf Losing People As A Gentleman's Sport

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GQ’s Daniel Riley does a fine job until a late unraveling in profiling Brooks Koepka for GQ. As always, please hit the link, things aren’t great at Conde Nast these days.

The most compelling stuff is early on, including this on selling his 2020 Masters water ball shot knowing Tiger still had to play the 12th.

“My theory is if you don't show them anything visually, they can only go off one of their senses: sound,” he explained. “How did the ball sound when it came off? They don't know if I hit it a hundred percent or 90 percent. And they've gotta judge it by the strike.” But if he starts cursing or sulking, Tiger will know it was the shot, not the tricky wind, that foiled him—and calibrate his own approach to No. 12 accordingly. “And so I didn't have any reaction. I just handed it right back to my caddie. And it might've confused him.”

Then there are his thoughts on golf as as “a gentleman’s sport” and why the sport loses a lot of people playing up that notion.

“One thing I'd change is maybe the stuffiness. Golf has always had this persona of the triple-pleated khaki pants, the button-up shirt, very country club atmosphere, where it doesn't always have to be that way. That's part of the problem. Everybody always says, ‘You need to grow the game.’ Well, why do you need to be so buttoned-up? ‘You have to take your hat off when you get in here.’ ‘You're not allowed in here unless you're a member—or unless the member's here.’ Really? I just never really liked the country club atmosphere. I know that drives a lot of people away from liking me. But just 'cause this golf club has such prestige and the members are all famous and have a lot of money…like, why can't I show up and just go play the golf course? Why do I have to sit in my car and wait for the member?

Well, if you want to charge lunch to Chuck Underwood’s account, it’s a good idea. Go on…

“I just think people confuse all this for me not loving the game. I love the game. I absolutely love the game. I don't love the stuffy atmosphere that comes along with it. That, to me, isn't enjoyable. When I practice, I don't think I've ever tucked my shirt in. I show up to the golf course, half the time my tennis shoes are untied, I'm chippin', puttin', shirt's untucked, I've got my hat on, and I'm not wearing a belt, because who wears a belt when it's untucked? But a lot of clubs, if I walked up like that, it'd be: ‘Sir, you need to tuck your shirt in. You need to take your hat off when you get in here.’ ”

You can take the boy out of Florida but you can’t take the Florida out of this boy!

And here’s where the story unravels in unnecessary fashion.

When we pulled up to the security hut at Medalist, something happened that hadn't even occurred to me as being possible. Medalist was closed for the day, and there wasn't any way Brooks or Ricky (or Dan) would be permitted access to the driving range or golf course. I've been denied access to enough golf courses in my life that it didn't really shock me in the moment, but as we drove 30 minutes in the opposite direction to another club, I let the indignation creep in. A golf course just denied access to the No. 1 golfer in the world, as though it were a perfectly ordinary thing to do, which apparently it was. Still, I tried to imagine the security guard at Yankee Stadium denying Derek Jeter batting practice. Or the high school A.D. with the keys to the gym denying LeBron James a shootaround. Wild. And precisely what Brooks had been referring to when he was lamenting all the things that golf gets so absurdly wrong at this critical juncture for the game. What side of society do you want to be on? The one that makes sense? The one that's open and inclusive? Or the one that's rigid, pedantic, exclusionary, stuffy—all for the sake of, what, the enforcement of rules for the sake of rules? It was a buzzkill.

Or maybe they were just punching the greens and the place was closed? Just saying…

And Then Tiger And Joey Sat Down To Watch The 2019 Masters

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Great stuff here from The Scotsman’s Martin Dempster sharing Tiger’s retelling of watching the 2019 Masters final round broadcast with caddie Joe LaCava.

“I sat down and watched it with Joe [LaCava],” added Woods of a success that re-ignited his bid to chase down the record 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus after a drought of nearly nine years. “He came down to do a TV spot then he and I just sat there, had a few beers and watched it. We spoke about the conversations that we had over each shot; some of our friends and family who were there were like ‘Oh my God, you guys really talked about that?’

“But that’s what we were talking about, that’s what was going on. We were running through all the scenarios, Joe looking at the boards, I am looking at the boards. We were trying to figure out what was going on; who birdied what, who was 
making a move.

Molinari: "It started going the other way and it has been hard to stop it."

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Derek Lawrenson of the Daily Mail looks at the rise and flatlining of Francesco Molinari, 2018 Open champion who was in contention to win the 2019 Masters.

‘People told me it would be hard to beat last year, nearly impossible in fact, but until that day at the Masters I picked it up where I left off, and then it stopped,’ said Molinari. ‘Confidence plays a big part in any sport but particularly in golf.

‘I was feeling good coming to Augusta, everything was going my way. After that, it became many little things that I didn’t do quite as well. My ball striking wasn’t as good and I didn’t putt as well. For over a year, it felt like I was pushing a boulder going upwards but then it started going the other way and it has been hard to stop it.’

Some Packages In The Mail Are Better Than Others: Tiger Gets His Masters Trophy

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I believe the “in the mail” line was probably tongue-in-cheek since this hopefully arrived via a very nice, secure delivery truck. Or not!

Love box it comes in, too…

Came home to another package in the mail. I think I can find a spot on the shelf for this one. Thanks everyone for your support, and thank you to my friends at @themasters.

85.5k Likes, 1,232 Comments - Tiger Woods (@tigerwoods) on Instagram: "Came home to another package in the mail. I think I can find a spot on the shelf for this one...."

Good Jeopardy Golf Question: Who Was The Last Player To Win A Major Using A Persimmon Driver

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I think most of us believe it was Davis Love at Winged Foot but he had already made the switch to metal. I’m sure James Holhauzer would have gotten it right.

The last major, as this unbylined PGA.com story explains, was actually four years prior to when you might think. And you could put one in his hands today and the player in question would probably still shoot 69 and hit 12 of 14 fairways. After a good warm-up session of course.

How Nantz And Tirico Called The Final Masters Putt

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The contrast and moment is similar to trying to compare Vin Scully and Jack Buck’s calls of Kirk Gibson’s 1988 World Series home run since one legend was working television and the other legend on radio.

Jim Nantz was in Butler Cabin at that point for CBS while in the 18th hole booth Mike Tirico was working for Westwood One.

We were a little busy in the press building so I didn’t realize how long the CBS team went without saying anything: just over 2 minutes and 30 seconds. That is beyond an eternity in television history, but especially in modern TV.

For perspective, Scully went a minute after “She is gone!” before resurfacing with the brilliant “in a year that has been so improbable the impossible has happened.” Then another thirty seconds. Both eternities but Nantz and Faldo stayed quiet even longer as Tiger greeted his family and friends.

John Ourand interviewed both Nantz and Tirico about their calls and the moment was a blur for both.

“I have a hard time going through it with great detail because nothing was scripted out, and I’m not exactly sure of what I said in that entire scene at the 18th,” Nantz said.

Tirico had almost the same reaction. When I talked to him on Monday following the tournament, he had heard his final call several times from audio clips online. But immediately after the tournament, when he was asked on Golf Channel to describe his call, he couldn’t remember. “I just did it from the top of my head,” he said.

And that’s why we have embeds these days and kudos to the Masters social feed for including the full clip.

Tirico, on the other hand, could not leave Westwood One listeners listening to crowd noise, so he offered this exuberant call:

Trying To Gauge The Financial Impact Of Tiger's 2019 Masters Win

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ESPN.com’s Tom VanHaaren goes pretty deep in trying to interpret numbers from Tiger Woods’s 2019 Masters win, including ratings, sales, views, impressions, etc…

Big numbers are bandied about and might prompt a pause, but these numbers do not lie:

According to CBS, the final-round coverage and encore presentation was seen by 37.2 million viewers, a 41 percent increase from 2018's live-only coverage.

The Masters tweets out video of the final putt from the champion each year. Reed's winning putt from 2018 has been viewed 393,000 times.

The same video of Woods this year, as of Monday morning, has been viewed 7.85 million times.

2019 Masters: How One Photographer Got Tiger's Iconic Reaction

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So many of the best in what’s left of the photography business undoubtedly have stories galore about trying to be in the right spot for Tiger’s winning reaction. Thankfully, as with past Woods 18th green reactions, there were great images to be had from both behind the green and on the sides.

Kohilo Kinno grabbed a full frame view of Woods that became one of the magazine’s few text-free covers, though there is no story about Kinno’s image and his name is only viewable in a size 3 font. Charming.

Thankfully, Golfweek’s Dan Kilbridge talked to Rob Schumacher about everything that went into getting his iconic shot that became the USA Today masthead, including luck.

Woods’ reaction was so subdued at first that Schumacher thought he might not show any emotion at all in the moments following his 15th career major victory.

“His back is to me and I’m thinking he’s not going to move and he’ll be facing the golfer’s right box,” Schumacher said. “So he made his putt. Slowly walked forward. Picked his ball up then faces toward the center of the green and I thought well, he’s not going to react. Then he slowly rotates counter clockwise and steps towards me in my box.”

2019 Masters "Quad" Supercut And Final Talley Of Shots Shown

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Two of my favorite Masters traditions arrived and one took longer than normal, but boy was it worth it: Michael David Murphy has not put together his usual Tiger Woods “supercut” of the final 18 holes, but all 72 holes of the 2019 Masters. That makes it a Quad Supercut!

You can see it all in about 14 minutes and it’s pretty mesmerizing to watch. (Embed below.)

Jeff Haggar at Classic TV Sports filed his annual tally of shots shown last Sunday and I apologize for not recognizing this always-fine piece of work. But as many have wondered, runner-up Dustin Johnson was in fact forgotten about by CBS, albeit on a Sunday when so many players put themselves into contention. Still, 10 shots for a runner-up is not many given that the telecast was Chirkinian-esque in how many shots CBS did show.

The Tiger haters will be sad to hear CBS actually showed more shots of Francesco Molinari.

CBS covered 69 of the 70 strokes from winner Tiger Woods (skipping only a tap-in putt on hole #1). Francesco Molinari actually received coverage for 70 shots. His final score of 74 included two penalty strokes, so CBS only bypassed two of his shots (a layup on 15 and his tee shot on 17). Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau were spotlighted for 59 shots each. Those four players accounted for 57% of the televised shots.

Haggar also broke the numbers down by holes shown most and one number will surprise you.