Rory’s daughter asks a tough question, and I’m a Green Jacket fan

Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this the Weekend 9. Think of it as a spot to warm you up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ll have thoughts. We’ll have tips. We’ll have tweets. But just nine in all, though sometimes maybe more and sometimes maybe less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell some of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com

I got my picture taken with a Green Jacket. The Green Jacket, actually. It even put its arm (wing?) around me. 

And I walked all over the park. And I had cheap food. And a cheap beer. 

And I cheered for offense. And defense. And smiled at the kiddos hollering for autographs, sometimes in the middle of play. I also bought a souvenir. 

Of course, we also stretched in the seventh inning, there was a T-shirt toss and the power blinked at one point, knocking out the scoreboards and causing a delay, so not everything at SRP Park in North Augusta, S.C., brought to mind the area’s more ballyhooed ballpark, but there were at least hints of Augusta National. I even spotted a fair amount of Masters hats and polos, perhaps purchased just days earlier.  

The tournament was how I’d come to town, and I bunked an extra night when I saw that at home on Tuesday morning were the Augusta Green Jackets, the Single-A team of the Atlanta Braves (think lower-level pro golf tours, if you’re unfamiliar with baseball). It was an “education day,” too, meaning 10,000 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders would offer good company by neglecting golf claps. On game day, I tried to take it all in. I sat along the first-base line. The third-base line. In left field. In right field. In the right-field deck. Behind home plate. As noted above, I also stood, with a Georgia beer in hand, next to the team’s mascot, a giant green wasp. Incorporating Augusta National’s Green Jackets through a yellow-jacket insect is world-class marketing. It goes without saying that if you’re in town for the ball-on-a-tee sport, you should check out the ball-bat-and-glove sport. 

And you should do so especially if you’ve enjoyed the Rory McIlroy story. I was thinking of that while watching.

So you’re warned up front, a (pimento) cheesy take is incoming 

The odds say that maybe none of the players I saw will make the big leagues. Notably, a few who have are memorialized with posters around the stadium. But SRP Park is strictly reserved for the grinders. For the dreamers. 

Like this year’s Masters winner. Why has McIlroy’s win struck such a chord? Because there was a healthy dose of sticktoitiveness. There was the thought that if you hustle, be it to either first base or the first tee, you’ll be rewarded, no matter what had previously been in your path, be it a 100-mph fastball up and in, or failures at previous majors. 

In short, then, I had fun at the game.     

Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the Weekend 9. 

One takeaway from the week 

2. Let’s stick with the Masters. I’ve been thinking this week about a short exchange I had with Justin Rose in his post-round press conference on Sunday. 

On Sunday, I’d followed McIlroy for all 19 holes and talked with folks about why a McIlroy win would lead to the highest of highs among his faithful — and a loss would precipitate very much the opposite. Afterward, I was curious what Rose thought, asking: “I consider you a student of the game, a fan of the game. Why do you think a Rory win like this has created such a fervor among his fans? Why has this created such a high among them?”

In hindsight, I shouldn’t have asked. Rose was just minutes from his defeat in a playoff. He himself was gut-punched. Why should he care about McIlroy at this point, let alone his fans? It maybe would be a question for sometime in the future. 

Rose still answered. 

“I was curious how the day was going to be for Bryson [DeChambeau] and Rory given the U.S. Open and given the dynamics — obviously Bryson has a big following, I think bigger now than it’s ever been,” he started. “I obviously wasn’t privy to that in the group. I don’t know how that played out today.

“There’s a lot of support for me, too, out there. We saw part of history today. Someone won the career Grand Slam. It’s a momentous day in the game of golf. Quite rightly, fans are going to be excited about that. He’s captivating to watch. He’s a great player. He plays with so much sort of style and charisma and flair, I suppose, and you never quite know, as well, because he’s made a few mistakes under pressure. People, they want to kind of keep watching, keep guessing.

“But today, again, I mean, he kind of gave me an opportunity on 18, I think, from the fairway. That was nice of him. But again, kind of closed the door beautifully on 18 — two great swings when it mattered most for him. I think that’s what he’s really learned to do this year is play much more controlled golf, and obviously it’s paying off for him. He’s having an unbelievable season.”

Later, I saw a few X sites had picked up his response. It was well-viewed. It was likely well-received. Here’s saying it should be even more so considering the circumstances. 

A heartwarming moment for your weekend

3. One of the touching moments from the Masters came when McIlroy spoke to his daughter, Poppy, during the green jacket ceremony, saying: “The one thing I would say to my daughter, Poppy, over there, ‘Never give up on your dreams. Never, ever give up on your dreams. Keep coming back, keep working hard, and if you put your mind to it, you can do anything. Love you.’” On Sky Sports, McIlroy went further, though, after reporter Anna Jackson asked him: “If she ever turns around to you and says, ‘Daddy, why was it such a big deal when you won the Masters?’, what do you think you would say?”

In response, McIlroy said this:

“I think it’s a story of perseverance. And I think that’s what I would tell her, that there was a lot of years that I came here and I wasn’t able to achieve what I wanted to achieve but I never let that discourage me or get me down. I kept coming back and I kept giving it another go. So I think that’s the story that I would tell her and why it meant so much to so many people.

“But she did come back — they have the daycare here and she came back with a T-shirt on Friday and on the back of that T-shirt was all the past champions of the Masters tournament and she asked me, ‘Daddy, why is your name not on the back of this T-shirt?’ So I said to her after I played today, I said, ‘Poppy, next year my name’s going to be on the T-shirt.’”

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A golf story that may interest only me 

4. A month ago, former NFL star JJ Watt said he’d been invited to play Augusta National the day after the Masters, but he was concerned: While he shoots in the 95-to-105 range, he hadn’t played in a year. It made for an interesting scenario.

Here’s how he did:   

Another golf story that may interest only me 

5. We have a winner in my golf-basketball bracket. 

If you missed it, I created a tournament of 64 men’s pros based on Data Golf’s March 21 rankings — and the pros would advance based on how their corresponding team in the men’s college basketball tournament played. At the least, I was curious. Here’s how the final three games/matches played out:

The Final Four saw Jon Rahm (Florida) beat Scottie Scheffler (Auburn), and Collin Morikawa (Houston) beat Rory McIlroy (Duke) — and Rahm won it all. 

One shining moment, indeed. 

One takeaway for the weekend 

6. The R&A is cracking down on sandbagging. In a story written by Rob McGarr of National Club Golfer, the governing body sent emails to club managers and players reminding them of their responsibilities under the world handicap system. 

“I wouldn’t want to suggest that we’re saying we think there are lots of people out there deliberately doing the wrong thing, but we recognize that even if a small number are doing this, then it can impact on the enjoyment of competition golf, and it negatively impacts on the opinion of WHS,” R&A Executive Director – Governance Grant Moir told McGarr.

“Sometimes people are unaware of what the responsibilities are, and we want to point those out. Once we’ve pointed them out, if you’re deliberately doing something that isn’t in accordance with the rules of handicapping, then it’s the same as doing something that is deliberately not in accordance with the rules of golf. We call that out as cheating in the rules of golf, and we’re prepared to call that out as cheating under the rules of handicapping as well.”

To read McGarr’s story, please click here. 

An instruction tip for your weekend   

7. On X, Phil Mickelson called this “simple but brilliant advice to help your putting.” At the least, it’s worth trying. 

A golf / non-golf thought 

11. There’ll be no Weekend 9 next week, but my excuse is good: 

I’ll be watching Wisconsin high school golf. 

My nephew, Mason, is a junior this year. He hits it a mile. He has a nice touch around the greens. His mood can go south occasionally, but I know where that comes from. 

Speaking of, if he were to beat me when we play … 

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