Golf Talk With Greg Holman – #24

Click play to listen to Greg’s Podcast, or read below.

Hideki Matsuyama is soon to become a household name in the states, he became the first Japanese male to win a major tournament in the USA when he captured the Masters this past Sunday. That’s the headline, but there were so many storylines in this, the first major tournament of 2021.

Rookie Will Zalatoris, the 24-year old from Wake Forest, showed incredible poise to shoot a 2 under par 70, to finish solo 2nd and only 1 shot behind Matsuyama. Then there was the story of Xander Schauffele who was a birdie machine on Augusta’s back 9, were it not for the 16th hole, he might very well be wearing the green jacket. I had the feeling that he was going to splash one in the water on the 170 yard par 3 with the traditional Sunday pin placement on the left edge of the green just daring someone to shoot straight at it, with the h2o closely guarding that side of the putting surface. In fact I told my dad I had a bad feeling about that hole, and that Xander was going to be too bold. Sure enough he didn’t clear the pond with his 8 iron, and from the drop area he hit the ball over the green and had to settle for a triple bogey 6. As it turned out, 3 shots was the margin of victory over Xander.

Another storyline was Jordan Spieth’s trouble with the putter. Despite missing several short putts he managed a 2 under 70 to finish tied for 3rd.

And finally what happened to Si-woo Kim was both funny and embarrassing. After missing a series of putts Si-woo boiled over on the 15th hole of round 2 and broke his putter. The rule states that a player that suffers damage to any of his clubs through a fit of anger may not replace the club or clubs in question. In other words, Kim could not use a spare putter, or buy a new putter to complete the round. He decided to finish the round by putting with a 3 wood. He did respectable by 2 putting the last 3 holes. Kim was able to have his putter re-shafted at the club before Saturday’s round, and Odyssey overnighted him an identical Toulon Madison, with a 20-gram weight plate overnight. I can’t even get a club shipped to me in 3 weeks. Kim decided to use the model that had been shipped from the company to complete play on the weekend. He shot 2 over Saturday and even on Sunday to finish at -2. Good enough for a tie for 12th.

So it was a Masters to remember, and as always exciting and fun to watch, defending champion Dustin Johnson, who won the 2020 delayed Masters in November, did not make the cut, but presented the green jacket to Hideki Matsuyama.

Hit ’em straight!