⛵ Setting Sail

📢 Fore, Please…

We are on such an unbelievable run. The guy who can’t win the Masters just did it twice in a row. How can you not be romantic about golf?

Programming note: I am back on PGA TOUR Live this week for the BetCast (tune in on ESPN+) so I’m traveling to Florida. This week’s LIVE CHAT will be Wednesday at 2:30PM ET.

Have a great week!
Rick

🏆 Last Week’s Optimal Lineup

Rory McIlroy ($11,600): 121.0 pts
Russell Henley ($7,900): 98.5
Tyrrell Hatton ($8,100): 98.0
Jake Knapp ($7,400): 89.0
Sam Burns ($7,400): 88.0
Max Homa ($7,300): 86.0
Total: $49,700: 580.5 pts

🎓 Class of His Own

Rory McIlroy has once again elevated himself into a tier of professional golfer that has very few counterparts.

• 6 Majors

  • Career Grand Slam

  • Back-to-Back Masters

After going 38 Majors without a win, Rory has now picked off two of the last five increasing his Major Championship Win Rate to 8.82% — the sixth best rate since WWII.

The 38-major winless “drought” is so remarkable. It’s one of the longest droughts by a prolific major winner in history. In fact, it’s the second longest snapped streak*.

42: Phil Mickelson wins 2004 Masters
38: Rory McIlroy wins 2025 Masters
37: Ernie Els wins 2012 Open Championship
34: Lee Trevino wins 1984 PGA Championship
28: Tiger Woods wins 2019 Masters
28: Phil Mickelson wins 2021 PGA Championship
20: Jack Nicklaus wins 1986 Masters
20: Nick Faldo wins 1987 Open Championship
20: Ernie Els wins 2002 Open Championship

The fact that Phil and Ernie are both on here twice is a lowkey Tiger stat.

*Winless droughts being counted by those who actually snapped them. If the golfer never won another major, it’s not included. Also, this only shows golfers with 4+ career majors.

🙏 Start Praying

The greatest three-hole stretch in golf, Amen Corner, never disappoints. We routinely see Masters Champions made, and destroyed, on this corner of the property.

The 11th plays as one of the most difficult holes historically and requires such precision to escape with a par — something that every player would gladly accept all four days.

The 12th is just a 155 yard par-3 that has sunk the hopes and dreams of countless players. It’s a perfect design that can punish you in a variety of ways.

The 13th is gettable — kind of. Since lengthening this hole, it has truly become a risk/reward par-5. It’s the only reprieve in Amen Corner but you cannot let your guard down.

Here were the best players in Amen Corner this year:

🚬 Light One Up

The Signature Event model started in 2024 and we can argue the benefits and detriments of them until we are blue in the face. But from a statistical standpoint, they are pretty compelling.

They offer a similar, high-end field that usually guarantees four rounds. The consistency in field size and strength as well as tournament structure makes the data rather sticky. These are the players in the field this week that have earned at least +0.50 strokes per round in their Siggy Careers.

Patrick Cantlay being the third best player in Signature Events and having zero wins is just vintage Cantlay.

Jacob Bridgeman doesn’t have the same sample size as others, but his first eight Siggys have been fantastic — and they include a win at Rivieria.

Russell Henley hasn’t missed a Signature Event in his career and has finished inside the top-10 in 42% of those starts.

🧲 Forced To Move It

The modern professional player loves to move their ball left-to-right and they do so at a 55% clip compared to 41% from right-to-left — with the remaining 4% considered “straight balls”.

However, things change when we get to Harbour Town. The combination of players who use less than driver and the shape of the holes makes the right-to-left shot much more prevalent.

It’s easier for most players to hit draws (for a righty) with shorter clubs, which is why you’ll often see guys take 3W when they need to work it right-to-left.

Harbour Town has a 48% right-to-left shot shape, which is the highest mark on the PGA TOUR schedule. There are a variety of lenses that we could view this through but it seems like Harbour Town forces the players hands more than most other courses.

Quick side note here — Sudarshan Yellamaraju swings it faster (123.8 MPH) and produces a higher ball speed (183 MPH) than Cameron Young. But Young carries it farther because he has a Smash Factor of 1.50 to Sudarshan’s 1.48.

There could be a lot of things happening with spin and equipment but it feels like Sudarshan is leaving a lot on the table. If he could dial in his driver settings and/or find the center of the face more frequently, he has the raw skills to be one of the better drivers on the TOUR.

 🔦 Rising Star Spotlight

Let’s shine a spotlight on Ryo Hisatsune who missed his first cut of the year at the Sony Open and has rattled off nine made cuts in a row. Not only is he making the cut but he has (5) Top-15 finishes.

His Strokes Gained numbers are fantastic — gaining +1.21 strokes per round in total with the vast majority of that coming from tee-to-green. The man plays out of the fairway at a ridiculous rate and could legit win this tournament if he gains just three strokes putting.

I think there's an argument to be made that NOT playing the Masters last week is going to be a benefit. Not having to deal with the draining week while just being home and continuing your preparation. The stark contrast between Augusta National and Harbour Town is going to hit some guys really hard next week — but not Ryo!

🐋 Getting A Raise!

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