{"id":16215,"date":"2025-04-14T10:24:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T14:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=16215"},"modified":"2025-05-29T10:00:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T14:00:04","slug":"weekend-notes-138","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/weekend-notes-138\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t open the pool for another three weeks, but at least that collected layer of dirt, tree debris, pollen, worms, etc is gone.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s forecast got nudged a few degrees higher yesterday. It won\u2019t be as warm as friends and family in Kansas City and Denver have been experiencing, but I also won\u2019t be wearing a coat to the gym in the morning.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

On to the other stuff we should cover.<\/p>\n

\n

The Masters<\/h3>\n

RORY!!!!!!<\/p>\n

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\u2019s final round I was ready to turn it off as he had already blown his lead and trailed Bryson DeChambeau.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 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\u2019s biggest moment. You had multiple people making runs. The last two hours were engrossing, exhausting, and exhilarating.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

Thursday Rory trailed Justin Rose by seven strokes at the end of play. Sunday when Rory got to \u201314 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 \u201311. When is where Rory finished when he pulled his par put to win ever-so-slightly.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

That was one of the realest moments of celebration and relief you will ever see.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I, like so many people, love Rory because he has a wonderful game when he\u2019s on, as good as anyone who has ever played. But, like Phil Mickleson, he has these remarkable breakdowns in the biggest moments. Phil\u2019s were generally because of hubris and stupidity. Rory\u2019s 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\u2019s.<\/p>\n

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\u201395% of other pro golfers. I wouldn\u2019t say he\u2019s a bleeding heart liberal, but he\u2019s called out politicians like our current president for their hate and lack of empathy.[2]<\/a> 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\u2019t see any other perspective. Rory\u2019s parents were working class. He grew up playing on muni courses. He, for the most part, seems to have never forgotten that.<\/p>\n

Good for Rory for (finally) grabbing the Masters jacket he\u2019s been chasing for so long. And thank goodness he did. I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

Oh, as always, one of the great things about Masters week is Chris Vernon\u2019s updates on Thursday and Friday. These never get old.<\/p>\n