This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Charles Curtis.
MASTERS WEEK IS HERE LET’S GOOOO!
And yes, the cameras and crowds and everything else will be focused on Tiger Woods this week — and yeah, of course that’ll be the case and we’ll wonder if he can dial it back AGAIN after his unreal 2019 win at Augusta.
But!
Tiger’s won plenty. I don’t think we can ever get 2019 ever again. That was magic. This year? I’m rooting for Rory McIlroy.
Rory has pretty much done it all in his amazing career EXCEPT win at Augusta. He won the U.S. Open in 2011, the PGA the following year and then the British Open in 2014 before winning a second PGA Championship that year.
All that’s missing from the career grand slam is a green jacket. Last year, he gave us a No. 2 finish that included an incredible final round with a shot of a lifetime on 18 from the bunker. A preview of things to come? I hope.
There’s another element to all this: Rory has become the face of the future of the PGA Tour. He’s taken on the fight against LIV Golf, vocally battling back against the Saudi-backed tour and working to figure out how to respond (just watch Full Swing on Netflix and you know just how passionate he is).
For that, a green jacket wouldn’t just be a career achievement. It would be a statement about the state of professional golf, with many of LIVs faces looking on (assuming they make the cut, which is no guarantee!). Given that this is a tournament that will mix LIVers with PGA Tour members, even if everyone’s cordial, you know there’s fire burning beneath the surface as if it was the Ryder Cup.
So: Let’s go Rory. Go get it.
Quick Hits: UConn wins! … NFL power rankings … Jim Nantz finishes his last March Madness … and more.
— UConn wins the national title! Here’s One Shining Moment to cap it all off.
— NFL power rankings now that free agency is pretty much over.
— Jim Nantz had the perfect signoff as he called his final March Madness game.
— Angel Reese couldn’t believe Jill Biden’s suggestion that Iowa join LSU at the White House.