🏌 Rory's Masterplan To Dominate Masters

Good morning. Wishing all our golf enthusiasts a thoughtful Presidents' Day. May the leadership and courage that have shaped our nation inspire excellence in every round!

Talking about excellence, the Genesis Invitational witnessed an inspirational comeback victory and an epic choke - we've got all the scoop in our top story.

And we struck gold on our bet on Xander Schauffele making it in the Top 20!

We also dive deeper into Rory's plans for both himself and global golf, and delve into Scottie Scheffler's putting woes.

That, and a tip to improve your golf swing balance, in today's edition of Golf Reporter.

Trivia: Nick Dunlap shot a 60 at the 2024 American Express, which is the joint-lowest ever round on the PGA Tour shot by an amateur. With which player does he share the record? Answer at the end of the mail.

Cantlay Moves Up A Position In OWGR Rankings

⛳ This day in history: On this date in 1967, Arnold Palmer won the Tucson Open. He led by four with a round to go and barely hung on, winning by one over Chuck Courtney. Top prize was $12,000.

ALBATROSS
Matsuyama Wins The Genesis, Cantlay Chokes On Final Day

The 2024 Genesis Invitational had a thrilling final day at Riviera - here's how things panned out.

🏌️ Matsuyama Creates History: Japan's Hideki Matsuyama made a strong comeback from six shots behind to card 9-under 62, the lowest closing round by a winner at Riviera. He now has nine PGA Tour victories, making him the tour's most successful Asian-born player.

💰 List’s career-highest paycheck: Luke List finished T-2 and bagged $1.8 million - the biggest paycheck of his career till date. His previous highest paycheck came after his 2022 Farmers Insurance win where he took home $1.52 million.

😷 Cantlay Plays With Illness: Patrick Cantlay bottled a significant lead on the final day and finished T4. It was later revealed that he played the whole of Day 4 while battling a flu.

🫡 Zalatoris' Personal Tribute: Will Zalatoris finished T2 amidst standing ovation at Riviera. He lost a close family member during the tournament and dedicated his performance to the departed soul.

🤦‍♂ Tom Kim’s Tee Time Miss: Tom Kim was nearly late for his final-round tee time but avoided the two-shot penalty after running all the way to his mark.

⛳️ Stars Fail To Impress: Top-ranked players like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg among others failed to impress at Riviera. Cantlay (T-4) and Schauffele (T-4) were the only exceptions.

The Genesis Invitational Final Leaderboard

Watch Final Round Highlights

TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
Rory's Masterplan To Dominate Masters

Rory McIlroy didn't have a great outing (T-24 finish) at the Genesis Invitational but his statements continue to make headlines.

Rory’s Masterplan To Conquer Augusta: Rory McIlroy now has four more tournaments planned before launching his latest bid to finally win The Masters at Augusta in April. He has stated on record that he wants to do everything he can to win the historic event.

McIlroy plans to play three tournaments in Florida - the Cognizant Classic (Feb 29-March 3), Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 7-10) and The Players’ Championship (March 14-17) before heading to San Antonio for the Texas Open (April 4-7).

He had earlier revealed that he plans to play 9-10 events before the Masters instead of the usual 6-7 and his plans seem to be falling in place.

Rory Proposes Golf World Tour Like Soccer's Champions League: McIlroy envisions a tour for the best players that would play in the neighborhood of 24 events around the globe - the four majors plus 20 limited-field tournaments.

McIlroy's 'dream scenario' might seem far-fetched but one can definitely not rule it out given the possibility of the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour merging in the future.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

WITB: Check out the equipment Hideki Matsuyama used to win the 2024 Genesis Invitational.

The Open Championship: LIV Golf's David Puig has earned himself a ticket to the 2024 Open Championship courtesy of his Malaysian Open win on the Asian Tour. The Malaysian Open was the first Open Qualifying Series event of 2024.

Ladies European Tour: Patty Tavatanakit won the Aramco Saudi Ladies International by seven shots and bagged $750,000 from the largest LET prize purse on offer in 2024.

PGA Tour: The PGA Tour has added another unofficial event - the Myrtle Beach Classic to its 2024 calendar. 16 players, including eight YouTube golf content creators, will compete in a short 18-hole event named "The Q at Myrtle Beach" and the winner will qualify for the main competition.

NBC Analyst: Jim 'Bones' Mackay will serve as the NBC lead analyst for the Mexico Open at Vidanta. This is the first time that an active caddie has taken up this role.

PGA Tour Champions: Stephen Ames won the rain-shortened Champions Chubb Classic - his seventh PGA Tour Champions title. Ernie Els was part of a four-way tie for third.

BIRDIE
Scheffler's Putting Woes Continue

World No 1 Scottie Scheffler has hit the ball better than anyone on this planet, chipped the ball remarkably well, yet has been among the worst putters on the PGA Tour.

The trend continued this week at the Genesis Invitational, where Scheffler ranked second in strokes gained/tee to green, first in SG/around the green and dead last in SG/putting (among the 51 players to play the weekend).

He ultimately finished T-10 at Riviera, nine shots behind winner Hideki Matsuyama.

Rory McIlroy's Advice For Scheffler: McIlroy was in a similar position to Scheffler back in the mid-2010s, hitting the ball beautifully but ranking outside the top 100 on tour in putting.

Mallet putters typically have a higher Moment of Inertia (MOI).

If a golfer has a hard time finding the center of the putter, then using a mallet will allow distance control to be more consistent.

DRIVING RANGE
Knee Bucket Exercise To Improve Balance

In this video, we bring to you a simple golf drill to improve the balance of your golf swing by using a ball bucket between your legs.

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