🏌️ Most Viral Moments at Masters

Good Morning. TV viewership numbers of the Masters peaked at 3.4 million on Thursday and Friday - the highest since 2018.

On Sunday, there was a 23% decline from last year and the call for unification of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to allow the best players share the same field gets louder.

Here’s how the 13 LIV Golfers fared at the Masters:

🔸 Wins: 0
🔸 Top 5s: 0
🔸 Top 10s: 3 (DeChambeau, Smith, Hatton)
🔸 Top 20s: 4 (Reed)
🔸 Made Cuts: 8 (Niemann, Mickelson, Rahm, Koepka)

Today's Trivia: Who's the reigning champion at the Chevron Championship? Answer at the end of the email.

⛳ This day in history: On this date in 1994, the PGA Seniors' Championship ended at PGA National with Lee Trevino beating Jim Colbert by one stroke.

ODDS AND PICKS
Our Top Picks For RBC Heritage

🚩 The RBC Heritage tournament tees off tomorrow, with multiple top golfers across the globe set to battle it out at the iconic Harbour Town Golf Links.

💰 Purse: $20 million, winner takes home $3.6 million.

Here are our top picks we’re betting on:

🚀 Most Likely to Win: Tommy Fleetwood (+1800) is coming off back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Valero Texas Open and Masters and returns to a golf course where he’s found a tremendous amount of success. In four appearances at the Heritage, Fleetwood has recorded three top-25 finishes, including a 10th in 2022. As one of the most accurate drivers and strong middle iron players in this field, the narrow corridors and small greens are right up Fleetwood’s alley.

Those who are thinking why not Scheffler - that's because he might leave anytime if his wife goes into labor.

🚀 Key Player in the Top 5: Shane Lowry (+600) didn’t have a great week at Augusta National. However, in his three previous starts before the Masters, the Irishman finished T-19 (Players), 3rd (Arnold Palmer Invitational) and T-4 (Cognizant Classic). Lowry boasts a solid course history with three top-10 finishes since 2019 (four starts, two T-3s). Around Harbour Town, driving the ball well is crucial. Lowry ranks first in fairways in regulation and fifth in good-drive percentage.

🚀 Key Player in the Top 10: Brian Harman (+350) finished seventh at the RBC Heritage last year, and when we add in his success at TPC River Highlands, PGA West and TPC Sawgrass, the major winner ranks second in this field on Pete Dye courses over the past five years. Harman remains one of the most accurate drivers of the ball in this field, and his discipline and craft around the greens deem him a consistent threat on this style of architecture.

🚀 Key Player in the Top 20: Denny McCarthy (+125) had a disappointing finish to his week at the Valero Texas Open, losing in a playoff to Akshay Bhatia. Harbour Town feels like a great rebound spot for the 31-year-old who is still looking for his first win on Tour. He’s made the cut in three straight appearances at the RBC Heritage, highlighted by a T-13 performance in 2021 and a T-25 outing last year. We're backing him to finish in the Top 20.

🚀 Underdog Likely to Emerge: Taylor Moore (+6600) has been incredibly consistent in 2024. In 10 starts, he’s made the weekend 10 times, finished inside the top 25 four times and the top 10 once. In his last three starts, Moore has finished T-12 (Valspar Championship), T-2 (Texas Children’s Houston Open) and T-20 (Masters). In his lone appearance in the RBC Heritage (2023, signature event), Moore tied for 11th. He has the ability to go all the way and cause a major upset.

* All odds via BetMGM, at the time of publishing.

ALBATROSS
Fleetwood’s Secret Weapon To Conquer RBC Heritage

The RBC Heritage tees off tomorrow at Harbour Town Golf Links and there's a lot to look forward to.

⚠️ Scheffler Uncertain: Scottie Scheffler is set to tee off tomorrow, but he is open to leaving in the middle of the tournament if his wife goes into labor. The World No 1 maintained a similar stance during the Masters and it's going to be no different this week as his wife's due delivery date approaches soon.

📌 Secret Weapon: Tommy Fleetwood is carrying a regular driver and a 'mini-driver' instead of a traditional 3-wood. The mini driver allows players to get driver-like distance along with shot-shaping workability.

Fleetwood gains the control and workability of a fairway wood shaft/loft combined with the forgiveness/length of a small driver sized head and Hilton Head is the perfect venue to use one.

⛳️ Strong Field: Multiple top-ranked golfers are a part of the field at RBC Heritage. Scheffler headlines the field while Matt Fitzpatrick is back to defend his title.

Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark and Max Homa are some of the other notable names in the field.

💰 Prize Money: The RBC Heritage is offering an identical overall purse as last week's Masters - $20 million.

The winner will take home $3.6 million and 700 FedEx Cup points.

🌦️ Weather: The weather forecast is not ideal for the weekend but it doesn't pose a major threat either. While Thursday and Friday are unlikely to have any interruptions, there is a 50% chance of rainfall and thunderstorms on Saturday and Sunday.

🏌‍♀Tee Times of Key Players (ET):
10:30 am: Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth
10:50 am: Max Homa, Tommy Fleetwood
01:40 pm: Ludvig Aberg, Rory McIlroy

TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
Korda vs Rest of the World @ LPGA's 1st Major

LPGA Tour's best players be chasing history at The Club at Carlton Woods, where they'll compete for $5.2 million in prize money, the Dinah Shore Trophy and a chance to continue the beloved tradition of making the celebratory leap into the pond beside the 18th green.

🚀 Korda Supremacy: Nelly Korda is in the hunt for her fifth consecutive victory on the LPGA Tour, and should she hoist the trophy on Sunday, Korda would secure her second major title and match the records of Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam.

She is the outright favorite it would be a huge upset if the world no 1 fails to win the title.

💸 Increased Purse: Chevron has extended its sponsorship with the LPGA through 2029 and increased the purse for the Chevron Championship to $7.9 million. 

The winner will bag $1.2 million.

📍Course Renovation: The Club at Carlton Woods has undergone a major renovation following last year's championship. All 18 holes have been modernized in some capacity, a new irrigation system installed, fairways sand capped and every green rebuilt to USGA specifications and standards.

Expect the putting surfaces to play much differently than they did last year.

🏳️ Ryu Retirement: After 13 seasons competing on the LPGA Tour, So Yeon Ryu is retiring from competitive golf. The Chevron Championship would be her first and only start of the season and the final event of her stellar LPGA Tour career.

⏳ Stanford's Streak: Angela Stanford is playing in her 98th consecutive major this week, having been extended a sponsor exemption by the title partner.

This stretch of consecutive majors played is the longest active major streak in professional golf at the moment and is on pace to become the second-longest ever, behind only Jack Nicklaus (146).

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

TV Ratings: Sunday's final round of the Masters averaged 9.589 million viewers on CBS, down by 23 per cent from last year.

No Switch: Rory McIlroy has committed to play the PGA Tour for the rest of his career, putting an end to all rumors linking him to LIV Golf.

Baby #2: Rickie Fowler and his wife Allison are expecting their second child this summer.

Merchandise: The RBC Heritage is selling its own version of the popular golf gnome ($55) - check out the complete list of merchandise on sale.

PGA C'ship: 2024 PGA Championship tickets are on sale now - click here to buy.

Ryder Cup: Luke Donald announces Thomas Bjorn will be vice captain of Team Europe at 2025 Ryder Cup.

Chevron Coverage: ESPN+ will stream featured group coverage of The Chevron Championship.

New Sponsor: LIV Golf announces partnership with New Era Cap as the official Cap Sponsor.

Asian Tour: David Puig is one of five LIV Golf players in the field for this week’s Saudi Open on the Asian Tour.

BIRDIE
These 6 Masters Moments Took The Internet By Storm

The Masters is never short of drama, action and talking points - here are six incidents that went viral at the Augusta National Major.

📸 Greg Norman Spotted: LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, appeared on Wednesday during the Par 3 Contest, and was seen mingling with patrons and players including PGA Tour pro Min Woo Lee.

He wasn't even invited though and acquired a ticket on the secondary market.

🚫 Jason Day's Malbon Outfits: First, it was Day’s Malbon pants that gave social media a field day. During his second round, Day was seen wearing a striking Malbon “Championship” vest.

That was all too much for the Augusta National traditionalists they asked the golfer to take them off.

🔔 DeChambeau Carries A Direction Sign Away: DeChambeau was going along nicely during his second round until he found the trees off his tee shot on the 13th. He found a route but a direction sign stood in his path.

No problem - DeChambeau simply lifted it out of the ground and carried it away.

🌳 Tiger Shakes Hands With A 'Tree': The most touching moment in the final round was when Tiger Woods spotted the retiring CBS Sports legend Verne Lundquist to the right of the 16th green and strode over to shake his hand.

An angle of the exchange found its way onto social media showing just Lunquist’s arm emerging from behind a tree to greet Woods.

🔁 Morikawa's Tee Flip: Collin Morikawa carried out a tee flip to determine who should go first on the 13th between him and Scottie Scheffler.

It didn’t work in Morikawa’s favor though.

👀 What Did Shipley See At Butler Cabin? Neal Shipley witnessed a piece of history in the making at Butler Cabin afterwards, where outgoing champion Jon Rahm handed Scheffler the Green Jacket.

But something seemed to be spooking him at Butler Cabin as he made a series of totally unexpected sideways glances off-camera.

DRIVING RANGE
Transition From Mats To The Grass

In this video, we share key tips and drills to help you transition from practicing on mats to hitting shots on grass at the range.

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