Bones breaks from Thomas' bag before Masters
LIV's masters preach a new world order; Asterisk in Augusta
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Anyway, let’s get on with the breakup news between Justin Thomas and Jim Mackay …
Curious time for a breakup
It’s no secret that Justin Thomas is struggling. Anyone who watched him putt during the third round of the recent Valspar Championship — he took 38 putts on his way to a 79 — is keenly aware.
Everything is relative, of course. Thomas, 30, is ranked No. 28 in the world. He was a captain’s pick for the U.S. Ryder Cup team last year. And he’s still an elite player going through some difficult times.
So while it might not come as a shock that on Wednesday he announced his split from veteran caddie Jim “Bones’’ Mackay, the timing of the move sure seems odd.
The Masters is next week.
Bones has a pretty good bit of experience around Augusta National, having caddied for Phil Mickelson for 25 years, including all three of Phil’s Masters wins.
Jim “Bones” Mackay and Justin Thomas at the 2023 Masters. (Logan Whitten/Augusta National)
While these splits are sometimes for no other reason than needing a fresh start, to break up on the eve of the year’s first major championship at Augusta National is highly questionable.
“While incredibly difficult for me to say, Bones and I have parted ways,’’ Thomas wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I’m going to be forever thankful for him joining me on the bag in 2021. The things we’ve been able to accomplish together — the PGA Championship in 2022, the Presidents Cup, the Ryder Cups, were all unforgettable experiences. His wisdom on and off the course has been a blessing during a tough stretch of my career and he was there every step of the way.’’
Thomas’ recent play has been beneath his standards. He has 15 PGA Tour wins, but just four since 2020 and none since his 2022 PGA Championship victory at Southern Hills — where he credited Bones with a Saturday evening pep talk that helped him come back from seven strokes down during the final round and ultimately win in a playoff.
He began this year with three consecutive top-12 finishes but missed the cut at the Players Championship — where he won in 2021 — and tied for 68th in his last start at the Valspar Championship. He was also in contention at the Arnold Palmer Invitational before a double bogey on the 17th hole in the third round at Bay Hill set him back. He tied for 12th.
Mackay came out of “retirement’’ in 2021 to work for Thomas after splitting with Mickelson in 2017 and going to work in television for NBC/Golf Channel. He said at the time that caddying was “in my blood’’ and that he relished the opportunity to work for Thomas.
The Golf Channel reported Wednesday that Matt Minister, former caddie for Patrick Cantlay, will work for Thomas at the Masters. Although he hasn’t announced any future plans, it seems likely that Mackay will get plenty of TV work if he wants it. NBC’s lead golf producer Tommy Roy has spoken glowingly of Bones, who was already scheduled to work again during Saturday’s final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
A Game Still Divided
A cynic would be quick to point out that golf is divided at the moment in many ways because players such as Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson decided to take untold riches to sign with a rival league.
And yet, those same players who left for LIV Golf will tell you that some of the things they championed are now taking place on the PGA Tour.
And so the debate continues.
Rahm, DeChambeau and Mickelson were among a group of players who did news conferences on Wednesday in advance of this week’s LIV Golf Miami event at Doral, which begins on Friday.
All three happen to be in next week’s Masters, so it’s no coincidence they were trotted out for interviews. LIV Golf did news conferences with Bubba Watson, Brooks Koepka and Joaquin Niemann as well. They are also playing at Augusta National next week.
Rory McIlroy, who for a time was highly critical of LIV, has softened his stance and on several occasions has put forth an idea that would see a Champions League-type of of set-up in which there would be some elite events around the world featuring top players from all tours.
On Tuesday, McIlroy — who is playing this week’s PGA Tour event in San Antonio — was quoted by Golf magazine saying that the current rift “is not sustainable.’’
“I agree with that,’’ Rahm said. “Every time I get asked a question like this, I say the same thing. I think there’s room for both. It’s as simple as that. I think we have the opportunity to end up with an even better product for the spectators and the fans of the game, a little bit more variety doesn’t really hurt anybody. So I think, properly done, we can end up with a much better product that can take golf to the next level worldwide, and I’m hoping that’s what ends up happening.’’
When that might occur seems no closer than when PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan — the chief of the Public Investment Fund that bankrolls LIV — announced the “framework agreement’’ last June, with a Dec. 31 deadline that was extended indefinitely with no end in sight.
“I think in the end, we are in a transitional state where we now have competition and that’s leading to a lot of disruption and change but it’s also in the end product going to make golf more global where the best players travel more,’’ Mickelson said Wednesday.
“I don’t know how it’s going to end up, exactly, or what it’s going to look like. I’m putting my trust in Yasir and where the game is headed more globally. But at some point when it gets ironed out, I think it’s going to be in a much better place where we bring the best players from the world, and it’s going to open up more opportunities for manufacturing, course design, for players in different parts of the world to be inspired and enter the game. I think it’s going to be in a much better place.
“But right now, we are in the disruption phase, so we are in the middle of the process. And when it’s all said and done, it’s going to be a lot brighter. But while we go through it, it’s challenging. But we’ll get there.’’
Mickelson had more to say on the subject in this Sports Illustrated story.
“It needs to happen fast,’’ DeChambeau said. “It’s not a two-year thing. Like it needs to happen quicker rather than later just for the good of the sport. Too many people are losing interest.’’
DeChambeau added: “We can give input. We can have little moments where we say, ‘Hey, we think this would be a good idea or that would be a good idea,’ but ultimately it’s up to the guys up top to figure it out and figure it out quickly because we can’t keep going this direction.
“It’s not sustainable for sure, and we all respect that and recognize that and want the best for the game of golf. We all love this game and we want to keep playing it and we want to keep competing.
“The only answer is for us to somehow come together in some sort of terms where it makes sense and for us to be playing all again in somewhat of the same boat. It’s great to have the majors where we come together, but we want to be competing, at least I want to be competing, every week with all of the best players in the world.’’
An Asterisk in Augusta
Talor Gooch was right. A winner in Augusta will have an asterisk to their name.
Well, actually Asterisk is her name.
Asterisk Talley, a 15-year-old from Chowchilla, California, won the girls event wire-to-wire two weeks ago at the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, just a few miles the road from Augusta in Graniteville, South Carolina. Talley is this week trying to step up against even broader elite competition in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Asterisk Talley at the 2022 DC&P (Charles Laberge/Augusta National) and the 2024 ANWA (Chloe Knott/ANWA)
For the record, Asterisk did not get her name as some notation for being unworthy, as Gooch implied Rory McIlroy’s completing his career slam next week at the Masters would be without players like Gooch in the field. Asterisk means “little star” in Greek, which is in the blood of her mother, Brandii. A friend had mistakenly tried to say the name Astrid, and Asterisk’s parents thought the verbal slip and the Greek definition of it were cool to pin on their daughter.
So Asterisk she is, and that star designation most definitely applies to her. She’s living that lifestyle at the moment, missing her second week of high school bookending her spring break to compete in big events in the Augusta metro area. Her schoolmates will go nearly a month without seeing her in class.
“They’re like, ‘when are you going to come back?’” she said. “I’m like, ‘I’m doing something serious, so you guys can’t talk.’”
This week’s ANWA marks Asterisk’s second time competing at Augusta, having reached the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta National two years ago — even shaking hands with ANGC member and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“It’s so fun because you’re so young, and the first time at Augusta you don’t really know what you’re doing,” Talley said. “You know you’re there to play golf but you don’t know this is where the Masters is played and how historic the course is. It’s just a fun time and you hope to do good.”
That DC&P experience, however, helped shape the crucial elements of Talley’s game that have grown sharper since in winning the Seri Pak Desert Junior and Rolex Girls Junior Championship last year and representing the United States in the Junior Solheim Cup in Spain.
But she really elevated herself at Sage Valley two weeks ago, cruising to a six-shot victory at 9-under par. She now hopes to emulate Anna Davis, who won the Junior Invitational the year after winning the 2022 ANWA at age 16.
“Competing against the best players here gives me a lot of confidence, knowing that I can compete and go into ANWA with more of the best players in the world,” Asterisk said at Sage Valley. “No matter what I do, I’m just going to have a great time just being in such a historic course where all the greatest players of all time have played before.”
The first two rounds of the ANWA are played at Champions Retreat, which is no easy task with the pressure to finish top 30 or tied in order to qualify for the final round on Saturday at Augusta National. Talley nervously started with a bogey on the first hole Wednesday but got it back with a birdie on the par-5 third. She stayed steady and finished the first round even par — tied for 29th and right on that dividing line heading into Thursday.
“I had a lot of confidence going into today; I just feel like I left a lot out there,” Talley said. “I feel like I’m still confident going into (Thursday). I just feel like the putts that left out there today I can make tomorrow. I can play a lot better.”
Asterisk will try not to get ahead of herself and think about what’s at stake Thursday. Her father, James, is caddying for him, keeping her steady.
“I just need to stay in my game, because you can make the cut, you can not, but it’s just like you need to stay on the course you’re on for now and focus,” she said. “When that comes, it comes.”