2016 Masters Week - Wrapping It Up With 6 TakeAways

Six take-aways from 2016 Masters Week – a week packed with excitement and golf drama –

The 2016 Masters Tournament did not disappoint. To the contrary, it has just about every ingredient a golf fan might want in a memorable 72-hole competition among the sport’s greats and not-so-greats.

For golf fans, there was a little bit of everything packed into the week we all look forward to each year. I’ll take away six aspects of 2016 Masters Week and savor them many times over.

Tom Watson

First, there’s Tom Watson – a grand man, to be sure, a controversial enigma to some, but the quintessential competitor, finishing up his 47th and final Master’s Tournament, perhaps 36 holes earlier than many of us had hoped. Never mind that Watson has made only 2 cuts in his last 15 starts at Augusta National. He’s a man with two green jackets to his credit and it was an honor and a privilege to witness his final turn around the course.

Not Tiger

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Then there was the vacuum created by Tiger Woods’ absence. After months of “will he or won’t he?” speculation, rumors blasting through the Twitterverse, subtle assurances by his college roommate, Notah Begay, and Tiger Fans poised to cheer the Big Cat on, Woods decided he wasn’t tournament-ready.

I don’t think Woods would have been in contention even if he’d teed it up last week. But the sheer force of Tiger’s presence in the field would have altered media coverage and public perceptions. In his absence, we were all able to focus our attention on the game being played rather than on the way Tiger does or doesn’t play golf these days. Nature and the media alike abhor a vacuum and there was an abundance of championship-level golf at the 2016 Masters to fill the empty space created by Tiger’s absence from the field.

Which takes me to several players who grabbed me last week:

Bryson DeChambeau

Bryson DeChambeau, playing his final tournament as an amateur, delivered a simply extraordinary performance and a clear promise of what’s to come from this very talented athlete. Yes, DeChambeau brings just a touch of arrogance to his game, but not without good reason. And he’s not the first athlete to strut and preen, nor will he be the last.

Playing a game that’s at least 50% mental, Bryson DeChambeau is well-equipped to dominate simply because he believes in himself and in each shot that he delivers. Saturday sent DeChambeau to his knees. Saturday did that to just about everybody in the field. It was a day with no sub-par rounds on the board. But DeChambeau’s 77 took him off the front page and ultimately out of the top 20 when it was all said and done.

Still, Bryson DeChambeau is a guy who’s just getting started – this week at the RBC Heritage, to put a point on the pencil – and I’m going to thoroughly enjoy watching him get in the mix with the TOUR’s emerging generation of young guns.

Rory McIlroy

I ached for Rory McIlroy. It’s been five years since McIlroy fell apart on Sunday afternoon coming down the back nine – is this a Masters theme? – and I’ve watched him do everything possible to subdue Augusta National. That golf course stands between Rory McIlroy and a Grand Slam. He knows it and the fans know and I think all of us who love the game want McIlroy to complete the challenge. He failed, again.

The Millennials

What does Matt Fitzpatrick’s presence among the top 10 finishers mean? Of course it means the guy can play golf, but it also signals an emerging strong and diverse generation of young golfers who are going to lead and dominate in the coming decades.

Fitzpatrick is 21, a year younger than Jordan Spieth. Hideki Matsuyama, who’s 24, finished alongside Fitzpatrick and 23-year old Daniel Berger finished just a shot behind Fitzpatrick and Matsuyama but still on the front page of the board. They’re the spearhead of the Millennials who are filling the vacuum created by Tiger’s step-back, and whether or not Tiger Woods ever returns to competition, the pro golf stage has been forever changed by their individual performances at the 2016 Masters Tournament.

The Game for a Lifetime

Do not for a minute assume that I’m suggesting golf is a young man’s game and the kids are taking over. With Lee Westwood finishing runner-up alongside Jordan Spieth and Bernhard Langer playing alongside Spieth in the final group on Sunday, the argument for a youth take-over is, at best, flimsy and fallacious. Westwood and Langer made very clear last week that golf is, truly, the game for a lifetime.

Each generation, beginning with the 6 and 7-year old Drive, Chip, and Putt Champions who enjoyed their own special moments of triumph to kick off 2016 Masters Week, and ending with Westwood and Langer in the mix on Sunday, is all the evidence we need to validate that claim.

Humility and Hubris

There is no game quite like golf. Just when you think you have it, you lose it. And the back nine on Sunday at Augusta National seems to be a place where hubris can replace humility in an eye-blink. Jordan Spieth is not the only golfer to discover this lesson, only the most recent. In golf, as in life, decisions are best made after thoughtful reflection and when we rush we misstep.

2016 Masters Week – Wrapping It Up With 6 TakeAways

By Elizabeth Bethel | Apr 12, 2016