See you at the bottom.

I love the Masters, but I cannot turn a blind eye to what occurred outside of the ropes this year. For the first time, we must separate the tournament from the media charade and background images of the patrons.

As I watched the tournament, I noticed a distinct rift between the on-course product and the extracurricular background of the tournament.

In the past, the tournament, production, and patrons felt like a single living entity. It was assembled from the same cloth! The patrons blended seamlessly into the background, the coverage was unified and traditional, and the tournament felt like a warm handshake after a long winter.

I didn’t get that feeling this year. It felt disjointed, diluted, and a touch contrived.

Let’s start with the on-course tournament and product. For my money, the Masters delivers one of the best TV products of the year, regardless of sport. The general population is finally starting to figure this out!

While ANGC has changed the golf course over time, they’ve done so in a way which creates predictable drama that no other golf course can match. As much as the first nine has some compelling golf shots and opportunistic pin locations, the second nine on Sunday is where the tournament is won or lost.

Has there ever been a better nickname for a part of a golf course than “Amen Corner”? It’s claimed many souls over the years, including Justin Rose’s this year. I was pulling for him. He deserves a Green Jacket.

The scenery and backdrops at ANGC are perhaps the best of any inland course in the world. Even when the Azaleas don’t bloom in the right window, the TV pictures still take your breath away.

The combination of the bucolic scenery with the assurance of heartbreak for all but one creates a potent cocktail of emotion that only the Masters can produce. It’s the greatest tournament in the world.

It seems as though the world has woken up to just how cool golf can be, and it is now crystal clear as the dilution of the game is on full display at an event that is typically the most buttoned up.

Unfortunately, the Masters is showing early-onset symptoms of US Open (tennis) syndrome. Chic pop ups, parties packed with “influencers”, and more nonsense pervaded the days and nights before the opening tee shot was even struck.

With the addition of Jason Kelce and Kevin Hart to Wednesday’s Par 3, I think it’s fair to say that the coverage waded into uncharted waters. Some experimentation is good and beneficial, but given the acerbic vitriol directed at the coverage online, it’s fair to say ANGC swung and missed.

Outside of the coverage being scattered across platforms like ESPN+, Prime, and Paramount, I enjoyed the production of the actual tournament. Jim Nantz & company always seem to live up to the moment. No golf tournament coverage will ever be perfect, but CBS does as good a job as anyone.

Augusta has managed to increase the SKU count of big letter hats exponentially over the past few years. I can’t figure out why. People will buy whatever they sell, as the gift shop there is a true monopoly.

I find it odd that a place steeped in tradition is willing to make hats and shirts that you probably wouldn’t want to wear if you were invited to play there.

The irony of selling stuff in the below tweet, while requiring the broadcast to call fans “patrons” and refer to the back nine as the “second” nine is glaring. It’s a bit comical at this point, actually. Either adhere to tradition or lean into the new wave of golf. You can’t have it both ways!

The merch itself isn’t great, but I take issue with the rampant social media “flexing” and posting your “haul” on the internet. The hyper-commercialization of the Masters is upon us and it seems to be accelerating.

The magnetism of the tournament is derived mostly from its host, Augusta National Golf Club. Shrouded in secrecy and tradition, it has always pulled people in, but always the people it naturally attracted.

Now, Augusta has actually leaned into the influencer economy, promoting the dilution of our game. A surprising turn of events for a club in position to do exactly the opposite.

Next years event will be fascinating to watch. Will they continue with the new-age media push? Or will they take a step back and lean upon the traditions which have made this tournament the best in the world?

The club started as a cricket spinoff. A handful of Belmont Cricket Club members got interested in golf in 1896, laid out nine holes at 52nd and Chester in Southwest Philadelphia, and held a championship that first year. The winner was an 18-year-old named Hugh Wilson, of Merion fame.

The club moved three times as Philadelphia expanded before landing in Newtown Square in 1926. Donald Ross was hired to build the course. According to club historian Fred Byrod, Ross had recently been rejected by a rival Philadelphia club after submitting a design, and vowed to give Aronimink something that couldn't be duplicated anywhere in the region. In 1948, near the end of his life, he walked the property one final time and said, "I intended to make this my masterpiece, but not until today did I realize that I built better than I knew."

This quote is now memorialized behind the first tee.

Dick Wilson, George Fazio, Robert Trent Jones, and A.W. Tillinghast all took runs at the course over the decades, softening what Ross built. Ron Prichard spent the early 2000s restoring it from Ross's original drawings. Then Gil Hanse came in 2016 and finished the job, returning the bunkering to what aerial photographs from 1929 showed Ross had actually imagined.

John McDermott, the first American-born U.S. Open champion, learned the game as an Aronimink caddie. The PGA Championship comes back here next month for the first time since Gary Player won it in 1962.

He had a pretty good swing, too.

Some upcoming topics include:

If you have any other suggestions or comments, I’m all ears. Shoot me a note at [email protected], or reply to this email with topic suggestions. I read and respond to every one.

See you next week,

BTG