When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
The two primary apps you need for coverage and live streaming are updated and live. Just poking around the Masters app a bit, the design is beautiful as always and appears to be very user friendly (screen shots below).
The official Masters app in the iTunes store.
And in the Google Play store.
We'll put him down for reducing the driver head size. Since the scientists can only make a ball longer and not shorter, this may be an option.
From a very enjoyable Q&A with Brian Wacker at PGATour.com:
BW: If you were equipment czar of the game for a day, running the USGA and R&A, what would you change?
AS: I think it's possible that you could make an argument for having different equipment rules for us than the amateurs. I think that's almost logical to do that. I’d re-implement anchored putting because until I'm given facts that it actually is a game-improver, performance-enhancer, then I'm going to have to say I'd put it back in. Maybe driver head size is something I'd look at. That’s a massive difference now. When I was a kid, pulling the driver out of the bag was a concern, like you're going to have to make a great swing to hit a good drive. Now it's the go-to club. It's the most forgiving club we have. That's a huge difference in how you get off the tee to start a hole of golf.
And in the one-course-you-could-play-for-the-rest-of-your-life division, Adam picks...
AS: I guess I'm torn. I could play Kingston Heath every day for the rest of my life in Australia, and the upside of that is in it's Australia and it's an amazing golf course. But I love Cypress Point. It's my favorite course in the world. I just love playing socially on those golf courses that are so much shorter and just less demanding length-wise for me, and then the people I play with can enjoy it. It's very hard to enjoy a round of golf when I play 90 yards from them. It's like we're on different courses. So those two, if I’m allowed to say two.
As much as we can appreciate the joy the Drive, Chip and Putt has brought to young lives, the Masters' other grow-the-game initiative took a bit of a hit with Rory McIlroy foreshadowing his plan to skip this year' Par-3 contest.
Speaking to The Guardian's Ewan Murray, the man who has famously had Caroline Wozniacki and Niall Horan as caddies and is as likely to enjoy the light pre-tournament mood as the next young star, says it's become a "hassle."
“It’s a bit of a distraction and the year I had my best chance at Augusta, 2011, I didn’t play the par-three contest,” McIlroy said. “So maybe the decision not to play it this year can work in my favour.”
To put the Par-3 in a different light: if any of the other major championships unveiled a similar pre-first round event, replete with kids running around the greens and celebrity pals chunking shots while dressed in a caddie suit, there would be calls to strip them of major championship status.
CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz sat down for a Golf Digest My Shot with Guy Yocom and covered many Masters-related elements, including amateur Bryson Dechambeau's upcoming start. DeChambeau stopped by Nantz's house to talk Augusta, great Masters amateurs and to borrow DVD's of recent Masters.
Nantz feels Dechambeau "has the capacity to utterly change golf" and that a win by the amateur "would be a fulfillment of Bobby Jones' dream of glory going to the amateur."
Casey Reamer, the head pro at Cypress Point and a mentor to Bryson, asked if I would speak to him about the history of the Masters. It was an amazing two hours. He asked every question imaginable about every significant player in Masters history, with an emphasis on tales of amateurs such as Billy Joe Patton, Frank Stranahan, Ken Venturi and Charlie Coe. I have DVDs of all the recent Masters, and Bryson asked to borrow them, not for entertainment so much as to study hole locations, how putts break, where players were laying up on the par 5s. This young man is obsessed with winning the Masters as an amateur. His mind works in a unique, scientific way. It all reminded me of Bert Yancey and how he constructed clay models of the greens at Augusta and studied them. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see this young man contend.
The "easiest" major to predict arrives in a few weeks, but a look at the various prices from GolfOdds.com or Bovada reveals very little incentive to plunk down money. A gambler can get better value on a Non-winners of Two Lifetime Starts $5000 Claimer at Turf Paradise. 
Still, we know only about a dozen can win at Augusta if the course is playing long and slow as it has in recent years. As Gary Van Sickle at Golf.com found out interviewing an "anonymous gambler", the Masters is the best major to bet. But he still advises you stay on the sidelines. For reasons like this:
Anonymous Gambler: The thing that makes the Masters the best major to bet is the data. It's the only major played at the same course every year, so we've got numbers we can crunch. The Kid, as I call him, has played two Masters -- second once, ties the all-time scoring record in the other. He is the game's best putter, and there aren't three other players as good with a wedge. It's that simple. Plus, the Kid has found a system with his caddie to out-prepare the other guys, the way Jack Nicklaus used to. I love, love, love that. Except the Kid messed up this winter. He jetted all over the planet; he's pooped. He needs three weeks off, no golf, but that's not going to happen in March. O.K., he's 22; he's resilient. I'm just afraid he strained his back hauling all those dirhams, yuans and Aussie-Singapore dollars to the bank. I'm laying off him… for now.
While Spieth certainly isn't much of a value at 6/1, Rickie Fowler remains a barely interesting 12/1, while the most attractive option is Justin Rose at 25/1. He finished second last year and has been working very hard with his team to peak in the second week of April. But until President Trump legalizes sports betting in America, I'll just have to dream of my potential winnings. Or bet that claimer at Turf Paradise.
The finish to the second Latin American Amateur Championship was tense but decidedly captured by Costa Rica's Paul Chaplet.
The 16-year-old fired a final round 70 and after a few hiccups, closed out in style and becomes the first Costa Rican to appear in the Masters.
Kevin Maquire with the details and this interview with Chaplet:
"I wasn't expecting to win," Chaplet said. "I was expecting to shoot under par, which is my main goal, so that was accomplished. And with that came the win, so I can't really ask for much more."
And if you watched, I don't have to tell you that Pete Dye's Casa De Campo design looked pretty spectacular. The highlights:
With a Masters berth on the line, not even a large lead is safe. But just two shots separate the top four heading into Sunday's finale of the Latin America Amateur Championship at Pete Dye's spectacular Casa De Campo, Teeth of the Dog course.
The final threesome offers an intriguing setup, with last year's runner up and Florida golfer Alejandro Tosti paired with teaamate Jorge Garcia (Venezuela). They are chasing Campbell University golfer Gaston Bertinotti of Argentina. The U.S. collegiate aspect might be disappointing for some but also speaks to the role of NCAA golf these days in shaping players from all over.
As noted in this week's Forward Press by ESPN's Sean McDonough, Tosti's story is particularly compelling, though having a Venezuelan qualify would certainly open eyes in a country where the game has been mocked by its president, except when Johnny Vegas won a tour event.
The final round starts on ESPN2 at 11:30 am ET, with a highlights show at 5:30 pm ET.
Third round highlights:
Other than a 1994 Shell's Wonderful World of Golf featuring Fred Couples vs. Ray Floyd, Pete Dye's Casa de Campo design hasn't been seen much on TV. Until this week.
In this week's Forward Press, I chatted with ESPN's Sean McDonough about the difficulty of working a golf broadcast featuring an almost entirely unknown field. That's the case at this week's Latin America Amateur Championship, brought to you by the Masters, USGA and R&A where a Master berth is up for grabs.
Also included are some embeds of fun "Teeth of the Dog" preview videos, including Dye reading writings about what he has said (at times) of his beloved design.
Other viewing tips include the Sony Open and a Caddyshack airing scrubbed cleaner than a Golden Globes telecast. Enjoy.
There's something increasingly absurd about the year-end World Top 50 Club. Not that it's the fault of the Official World Golf Ranking. Or even the precious algorithm guiding year-end standings that carry entirely too much meaning by qualifying people into majors and other events.
It's always seemed strange to be handing out passes for major championship field spots for the previous year's top 50. They also secure $300,000-or-so in guaranteed appearance money for the coming year, all because the calendar switched to a new year January 1st.
Yes, people need to plan schedules and make travel plans at some point, but I don't get why this New Year's Eve mythical milestone of world top 50 status is still used by events such as the Masters. The idea of rewarding folks in such a substantial way while restricting others, all for finishing the year one one side of the top 50 line, just seems like an outdated notion.
Nick Menta reports on those who slipped in and those no longer with access to the club. And then there's Tiger down at 416th.
Jeff Babineau of Golfweek, who covered Sammy Schmitz's U.S. Mid-Amateur win, considers the fundraising effort by the presumed Masters invitee. 
Babineau tried to contact Schmitz but did not get a return call, only a written statement. But it's the cold, crisp statement from the USGA that is more telling:
A spokesperson for the USGA released the following: “Raising funds for reasonable competition expenses is permissible under the Rules of Amateur Status as long as a state and/or regional golf association is involved in the administration of the fund and any donations remain anonymous. The USGA has and will continue to work with all parties involved.”
In this case, any unused money would be passed on to the Minnesota Golf Association. The USGA will pass along names and contact information from the fund’s list of “anonymous” donors to Schmitz, who plans to thank those who have supported him so generously.
That chill has me putting on a sweater as we mutually share this moment in genuine warmth.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
