Weekend winners
Patrick Reed. Yeah, he won the weekend. Did you see the stat that with his win Sunday in the Augusta Invitational, Reed now ash won almost $24 million in prize money? That’s more than Fred Couples, who has almost $23 million in career earnings. It’s also more than Watson ($11.08 million), Jack ($5.73 million), Palmer ($3.6 million) and Gary Player ($1.83 million) combined.
Alan C., our unofficial winner of the Masterfully Mastering the Masters Masterpiece. We’ll cover more on the Masters below. But we have to tip the visor to Alan C., who was one of three among the 64 entries to have Patrick Reed among his five. The other two – Jason G. and David C. – were each undone by a combo of Tiger and a player who missed the cut to finish back in the back. Alan C.’s winning entry had Reed, Rickie, Spieth, Justin Rose and Tiger. His score – Reed (1), Fowler (2), Speith (3) and Rose (12) – was a very strong 18. If someone has a beef with that and thinks they have a lower number, speak now or forever hold your piece. Normally we only pay out first, and that’s how it works, but we are going to send a small Masters token to James B., who finished second with a strong entry of Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Jordan Speith, Jon Rahm, which totaled 21 points. It was the second consecutive contest in which James B. has been the first loser, as Ricky Bobby’s dad would say.
UMBC and their Twitter captain. Yes, we all know that UMBC became the first No. 16 to topple a 1 when the Retrievers beat top-overall seed Virginia in the NCAA tournament. UMBC was at it again over the weekend as the school’s lacrosse team beat No. 1-ranked Albany. As part of the celebration, the UMBC sports social media account Tweeted to Alabama football “Hello” as if the upset drum would continue beating against the perennially top-ranked Tide. Alas, UMBC does not have a football team.
Shohei Ohtani. Back-to-back Monday appearances for the Japanese Juggernaut. Dude was sensational on the mound Sunday, going seven innings with 12 Ks, one walk and one hit. His pitching totals: 13 innings, four hits, three earned runs, two walks, two wins and an eye-popping 18 strikeouts. That’s a 0.46 WHiP and a 2.08 ERA. Also, in four games as the Angels DH he is 7-for-18 (.389) with three homers and seven RBIs. Man, those are the number for the best 10-year-old in your neighborhood kid-pitch league, not the AL. Oh my. How amazing is this? Well, at this pace, Mr. Ohtani could actually win the AL Rookies of the Year, the AL MVP and the AL Cy Young. Think about that.
The Atlanta Braves. Who knew this bunch was going to hit like this, and do it with their best hitter, Ronald Acuna, in Gwinnett for another five days? Wowser, this bunch is swinging the sticks. And that has led to three series wins in three tries so far.
Bonus pick: The Philadelphia 76ers, who got to 50 wins for the first time since some dude named Iverson was crossing over everyone in sight.
Weekend losers
The ump that tossed Anthony Rendon from the game. The Nationals hitter dropped his bat after a borderline strike three call this weekend. Man, which collection of officials are more self-absorbed and believe they are part of the entertainment, theatrical college basketball officials or rabbit-eared MLB umps?
Conor McGregor. Wow that was an expensive temper tantrum and the hijinks certainly did not help the UFC card this weekend.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Is that harsh, considering they each made the cut at the Masters? Maybe. But, they have seven jackets between them and we all expected way more this weekend, right? Heck, Tiger expected way more, and Phil swung and missed at a ball this weekend. Those guys are going to crush it at the Alexian Open in a year or two. (Too much?)
The Humboldt community and all of those affected by the bus crash tragedy with the junior league hockey team that claimed more than a dozen lives over the weekend. May they find peace.
Giancarlo Stanton. Dude fanned five times in a game for the second time in a week. And the Yankees fans let him hear about it too.
Bonus pick: The 5-at-10. Yes we had Rickie Fowler in the Augusta office pool, so yes, we hit Patrick Reed with a couple of voodoo hexes and some “Get in the water” shouts. Also know that, while our entry in the Masterfully Mastering the Masters Masterpiece – we finished with 30 with Jordan, Bubba, Rory and Justin Thomas – the Mrs. 5-at-10’s entry of Rickie, Jordan, Rory, Justin Rose was slightly better. And any time the Mrs. wins one of these, well, let’s just say it becomes a topic of conversation.
Masters
Well, that was
What was that exactly?
What’s the word to use to describe Patrick Reed’s first major championship when he won the Masters on Sunday?
Expected. That fits, since his play Saturday was sublime. And let’s face it when he chipped in at 15 for his second eagle of the back nine in the third round, the numbers looked hard to overcome.
Disappointing. That fits, too. Considering that the first player to greet Reed off the 18th green was Bubba Watson, who may be the only Master champ less popular among his peers, and then runner-up Rickie Fowler and that was it. But that’s not all, considering that Fowler or Jordan Spieth, who worked his way back into the conversation with a near-historic Sunday would have had a mob of players waiting greenside to celebrate.
Hum-drum. Sadly, that first as well. Sure there was some drama; there always will be some on Sundays at Augusta. But Reed closed the door with back-to-back two-putt pars on the final two holes to shoot 71. The Masters, in our view, is the best major for a number of reasons. High on that list is, at its best, the Masters is meant to be won on Sunday afternoon/evening. Players throwing eagles and birdies from 13-through-18. The roars. The energy. The scoreboard watching. Reed shot 35 on the back nine Sunday. That got it done and etched his name in the stone of the game’s history.
Telling. This one certainly fits, in all directions. Reed’s intestinal grit was on display, and popular among players and fans or not, there’s a reason Reed is a killer in Ryder Cup play. That will serve him well – that and his amazing putting stroke through all four rounds – at every major for the foreseeable future, be it in Augusta, Ireland or upstate New York. It also shows a plan and a purpose for Reed, who clearly worked on a power cut shot, especially off the tee to help on several of the Masters holes that require right handers to shape shots left to right. (And that Arnold Palmer-meets-Fred McGriff follow-through is awesome.)
It was also telling for the future of some of the other names that made noise – good noise and bad – Sunday.
Jordan Spieth is the favorite at the Masters for the foreseeable future. Period. End of discussion. Dude was a couple of bad tee shots on 18 during the weekend from winning this thing, and if he had made birdie on 18 Sunday rather than yanking his drive off a pine branch, it would have led to the best single final round in major championship history, Miller’s miracle at Oakmont and Jack being Jack in ’86 included.
John Rahm is going to win a major soon. In fact, if he had not mis-clubbed on 15 and found the water, he might have won this one the way he was charging. He finished 11 under and the bogey rather than a for sure birdie at 15 completely derailed all his moo.
Rickie Fowler has the look of a major champ, but man, it’s going to be tough to envision him making more 20-plus-footer than he did this weekend. Cool stat we saw, unless you are in the Fowler camp: Rickie has completed the career runner-up Grand Slam. Ouch.
Rory McIlroy may never win a Masters. Seriously. We fully expected him to grab the challenge, the moment and Reed by the neck and go. Especially after he made a miracle par on 1 after a potentially disastrous tee shot. But it never materialized, and to be honest, of the two dudes in the final group, Reed looked like the multiple-time major champion more than McIlroy.
Thoughts?
This and that
– The winnings of Reed and the current money on Tour is assuredly part of the Tiger effect. Want to know what else is? The recent TV numbers are through the roof for golf. And while we do not have Sunday’s overnights at this juncture, the first two rounds were up almost 50 percent, and that was with Tiger struggling. Now know this: The Golf Channel just completed its most-viewed month ever in March and got the most viewers in any quarter of the year ever.
– Not sure if it was a winner or a loser, because we can make an argument for each side, but Rowdy Ronda Rousey – decked out in old-school Rowdy Roddy Piper’s colors – made her WWE debut at Wrestlemania over the weekend. Winner: A lot of folks who normally do not talk wrestling (like the 5-at-10) took note of the event. Loser: The action was booed by fans and has been heavily criticized by those who pay attention to such matters.
– Speaking of the win-some, lose-some events of the weekend, that brings us to “Paterno.” We watched the HBO movie about the scandal at Penn State, and it was pretty good. The movie, as you could imagine from the title, deals with Joe Paterno’s final days as the coach at Penn Sate before he was fired after the Sandusky stuff became known. It was well-shot (most Barry Levinson movies are) and it was a very good performance from Al Pacino – a more nuanced and emotional-without-speaking effort than say most of his recent imitations of his character from “Scent of a Woman” two decades ago. But it also left us wanting more. More about the victims and the folks left in Sandusky’s wake. More details about the cover-up – and maybe those details are not completely known – and certainly more than Paterno’s pensive stares.
– Hello Ol’ Ball Coach. Yep, Steve Spurrier has committed to coach the Orlando franchise in the fledgling American Alliance of Football. Good move for the league, because few names out there – maybe he could talk Tebow in being his QB – will draw more interest in that state from start.
– Chas had reason to fist-pump this weekend. UK got another five-star recruit because, well, that’s what UK and Duke do right?
Today’s question
Weekend winners and losers. Go.
We can go Masters and non-Masters divisions if you’d like.
On this day, April 9, in 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered ay Appomattox.
Fifteen years ago on this day, Baghdad fell to the U.S. forces.
Seve Ballesteros would have been 61, Hugh Hefner would have been 92.
Hey want to feel old? Rudy Huxtable is 39 today. Oh my.
Dennis Quaid is 64 today. Dude is right there among the best sports-movie go-to stars in the business. His resume of sports movies is pretty stout considering he has cycling (Breaking Away), coaching (The Express), baseball (The Rookie), and football (Any Given Sundayand Everybody’s All American).
If we had a Rushmore of Dennis, who makes it? (Other than Dennis the Menace of course.)
Go.