Day: April 14, 2025

A pretty chill weekend, at least for me. We knocked out a bunch of yard stuff over the past few days. I installed some new exterior lighting with a huge assist from a friend. S and I ripped out some dead plants and replaced them with new ones. Our lawn crew came for the first time on Friday. If not for all the washed-out mulch from the storms of two weeks ago, our front yard would look like a million dollars. Saturday I pulled out the pressure washer and blasted six months of crap off of the pool cover. We won’t open the pool for another three weeks, but at least that collected layer of dirt, tree debris, pollen, worms, etc is gone.

In other words, my friends, we are deep into spring. Last week was unseasonably cool and this week was predicted to be the same. Then, magically, every day’s forecast got nudged a few degrees higher yesterday. It won’t be as warm as friends and family in Kansas City and Denver have been experiencing, but I also won’t be wearing a coat to the gym in the morning.[1]

On to the other stuff we should cover.

The Masters

RORY!!!!!!

Fucking finally!!! In typical Rory fashion, it was not easy. Or, rather, for two-plus days it was very easy and then the last two hours threw everything about the Rory McIlroy experience at us. Wait, let me correct myself. Two holes into Sunday’s final round I was ready to turn it off as he had already blown his lead and trailed Bryson DeChambeau.

I’m glad I stayed tuned. That might have been the best Masters Sunday ever. You had a popular star racing to a historic win, only to fall apart, get it back together, fall apart again, and figure it out in the tournament’s biggest moment. You had multiple people making runs. The last two hours were engrossing, exhausting, and exhilarating.

A four-shot lead and the tournament was seemingly over as Rory stepped to his third shot on the 13th. Which he proceeded to, inexplicably, shank into the water. That was a mistake I would make. There is no way a PGA golfer with a three-shot lead on the back nine of a major should ever make.

Over the next five-plus holes he added another horrific approach shot and missed four short, makable putts. Make any of those putts and he wins in regulation. He also threw in two of the best shots of his entire career, hell two of the best shots you’ll ever see on the back nine of a major, and had either of them been hit at simply an A level rather than A+, could have cost him the tournament.

Thursday Rory trailed Justin Rose by seven strokes at the end of play. Sunday when Rory got to –14 Rose was seven shots behind him. Then Rose began a miraculous run through the last nine holes, briefly taking the lead, capped by a 30-foot bomb on 18 to get to –11. When is where Rory finished when he pulled his par put to win ever-so-slightly.

It seems especially cruel to begin a playoff on the 18th hole. Especially in this case, where Rory had just gagged the tournament away when all he had to do was finish the hole in four shots. He looked shellshocked. I would have been shaking uncontrollably, barely able to grip the club. Instead he piped his drive into the perfect spot, then answered a terrific Rose approach with an even better one, his ball trickling to three feet. This time he nailed the putt and 11 years of chasing golf’s Grand Slam was over. Fourteen years after a meltdown on the back nine cost him a chance to win the Masters as a 21-year-old, he had finally grabbed his green jacket.

That was one of the realest moments of celebration and relief you will ever see.

I, like so many people, love Rory because he has a wonderful game when he’s on, as good as anyone who has ever played. But, like Phil Mickleson, he has these remarkable breakdowns in the biggest moments. Phil’s were generally because of hubris and stupidity. Rory’s seemed more relatable because they were often inexplicable or maybe mental? Any one who has ever tried to play golf understands that kind of failure more than Phil’s.

I also love Rory because he is one of the most thoughtful, honest, emotionally available athletes in any sport. He has been the conscious of the sport over the past five years as so many of his contemporaries have taken the Saudi money and fled the PGA. Notably to some of us, he also approaches life in general from a different perspective than 90–95% of other pro golfers. I wouldn’t say he’s a bleeding heart liberal, but he’s called out politicians like our current president for their hate and lack of empathy.[2] He does not fall into that convenient conservatism so many golfers adopt because they hate taxes or just grew up around the privileged at country clubs and can’t see any other perspective. Rory’s parents were working class. He grew up playing on muni courses. He, for the most part, seems to have never forgotten that.

Good for Rory for (finally) grabbing the Masters jacket he’s been chasing for so long. And thank goodness he did. I’m not sure he could have recovered had Rose won the playoff. Now, maybe, he goes on a run where those mental blocks that have plagued him fade and he wins a whole mess of majors over the next few years and ends up right where we thought he would he when he won four before he was 25.

Oh, as always, one of the great things about Masters week is Chris Vernon’s updates on Thursday and Friday. These never get old.

Pacers

Some end to the season for the Pacers. Thursday they had to rally to beat the Cavaliers B-team. In doing so they clinched the #4 spot in the Eastern Conference. Sunday their own mostly B-team came from 21 down to again beat the scrub Cavs in double overtime and clinch the franchise’s first 50-win season since 2013–14. Since mid-December, when they were floundering a bit, the Pacers are 39–17, the 4th best record in the NBA over that span.

Not really significant, but Johnny Furphy scored 17 and 15 in the final two games of the season. He was expected to be a full-time G-Leaguer this year. Thanks to a lot of injuries early, he got more minutes than expected and ended up playing more NBA games than G-League ones. It’s fun to hear the Pacers TV guys get fired up every time he enters a game. Oh, and he murdered Goga Bitadze Friday.

It’s been a weird second half of the season. Over the last 4–6 weeks the Pacers have had a ton of bizarre wins. There was a stretch in March where almost every game involved some crazy comeback or insane shots in the closing seconds.

In other words, I’m not sure if this team is quite as good as their record indicates. Or, on the other hand, maybe they’re a team that never gets down on themselves and are comfortable in difficult situations. Throw in the experience from last year’s conference finals run, and perhaps they are a super dangerous team?

They get a quick test. For the second straight year, they open with Milwaukee. Last year it was a 3–6 matchup, the Bucks owning home court. But Giannis did not play and Dame Lillard got injured during the series. This year Giannis is healthy (for now) but Dame is (likely) out for the playoffs. The Bucks are also less deep and a year older than a year ago. And a potential game seven would be in Indy. The fun part is these teams hate each other, so it should be an intense, physical series.

For all the flukiness, the Pacers also finally seem healthy and have their rotation locked in. Pacers in seven. I hope.

PT

L started physical therapy on Friday. If you’ve ever been to PT, you know these initial visits are filled with questions, tests, taking baseline measurements, etc. before you finally do some work. L’s therapist was impressed with the condition of her foot. In one measure, it was actually more flexible than her right foot, which the therapist attributed to tracing the alphabet with her toes since having her cast removed. The clearest difference was in the strength between the two, which we knew. When L had her cast removed she almost screamed at how skinny her left leg had gotten. I told her some of that was just from compression, not necessarily muscle loss. But she does have some work to do to get her strength back on that side.

She will begin weaning herself out of the boot this week, starting the day in a shoe then switching back to the boot after a few hours. The therapist didn’t make any promises, but when she heard CHS begins summer workouts in June, she acted like that might be a reasonable goal to be fully active for. That’s eight weeks away, which would be sixteen weeks after surgery, so right on schedule.

The best news is L’s only pain was in the incision line while doing her PT, nothing inside the foot where the bone was removed and tendon re-attached. She was sore Saturday, but otherwise seemed ok. We went out and shot some non-jumping shots for about 20 minutes.

So she’s on the right path.

It was both nice and a bummer to get a message from her AAU coach Saturday saying how much he missed her, both on and off the court. His daughter texted L directly and said the same thing. Their team had a rough weekend, although they had to play with a few replacement players thanks to spring breaks. Not that L is the best player on the team. But she is definitely a glue girl both during games and when the team is hanging out that they are missing. I think that was a little ego boost for L. It’s good to be missed.

Mom’s Day

S drove down to Cincinnati Saturday for M’s sorority mom’s day. It was a pretty low key and nice day. S got to meet some of M’s friends. And her boyfriend. Who she is bringing home next weekend for Easter. Oh boy…