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2020 Masters: Winning at Augusta National is such a big deal that these five would lament losing the most – CBS Sports

Published

4 years ago

November 2, 2020

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Ninety-five golfers who are in the field at the 2020 Masters are not going to win the tournament. The one who does will get a disproportionate amount of attention and adulation, and that will be warranted. But for those other 95 golfers, they will drive back down Magnolia Lane empty-handed and bummed out heading toward the end of the golf year. That is the reality of major championships.

For some, this will mean more than others. Amateur Abel Gallegos, for example, likely won’t spend his Thanksgiving lamenting the one that got away. For a teenager to get a couple of competitive rounds at Augusta National is a win in and of itself. For guys like Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm, however, there will be a sense of missed opportunity (unless one of them wins, of course).

There are several reasons for this. The first is that because of the money and power in the game today, players’ careers are likely to be at least a little bit shorter than they used to be. This means fewer runs at the majors. The second is that there is a wheelhouse for Masters champs that shows that most first-time winners win before they reach double-digit Masters played (more on that below). The third reason is that golf — with all the money being fed into it — is only going to get more competitive over the next 10-15 years, thus making the Masters even harder to win.

As for that stat about winning Augusta early, of the 51 golfers who have won the Masters, the average attempt in which they win the first time is their sixth Masters played. Only eight golfers have won their first past their 10th attempt. Only Sergio Garcia has won in anything past his 15th attempt (this is Rory McIlroy’s 12th attempt, in case you were wondering).

When I think about the mounting pressure of being a superstar who has never won the Masters, there are a few guys who come to mind who will feel it most if they don’t get the job done this November. That’s not to say winning and not winning is some sort of binary joy and disappointment. Not at all. But you only get so many rips at a major championship, much less a Masters.

These five players — unless they win — will look back on this one and feel at least a twinge of regret because of some combination of how well they’re playing right now, how well they normally play at Augusta and rarely those things coincide with Masters starts.

1. Jon Rahm: There are myriad reasons for this, but the foremost is that he’s (by far) the best player in the world without a major championship (and he might be the best player of all time without a major). He’s also playing terrific golf and has a strong history here. Rahm won’t lament this one because of his age like somebody like Dustin Johnson, but the convergence of this kind of elite level of play (probably the best in the world over the last three months) with the most important major might not happen as much as he thinks over the next 15 years.

2. Justin Thomas: Rahm gets the nod ahead of J.T. because the latter already has a major (2017 PGA Championship), but the same things that are true of Rahm are true of Thomas. He’s playing some of the best golf of his career, and this will be his fifth turn at Augusta National, one off the average of first-time winners.

3. Rory McIlroy: This is an age and experience thing more than anything else. Rory is not playing as well as he was coming into last year’s Masters, but if he gets through this one and next April’s (his 12th and 13th attempts), then only three golfers have won their first beyond their first 13 attempts (Billy Casper, Mark O’Meara and Garcia).

4. Xander Schauffele: Of the top favorites, he’s playing the most beyond his regular skill set. In other words, he’s on an absolute heater even though he hasn’t won since the beginning of 2019. Also, the temperature on him not having won a major will start to get turned up in the next year or two.

5. Dustin Johnson: He gets a bit of a pass because of his positive COVID-19 test, but this is his 10th Masters, and he’s moving into his late 30s. There’s no sense of desperation quite yet, but he probably only has about 5-6 runs at it at the very, very top of his game.

Obviously, you could also include older players like Justin Rose and Lee Westwood on this list. But I’m not listing them because one (Rose) is not playing well and the other (Westwood) seems to have moved into this post-caring about the Masters mindset that Ernie Els exemplified late in his career. At some point, you get past being mega-upset about not winning, and you’re just enjoying the ride. I think that’s probably where Westwood has landed in his mid-40s, even though he would undoubtedly be thrilled to win the golf tournament.

This is also devoid of context. If McIlroy shoots 64 on Sunday and loses in a playoff to Louis Oosthuizen, there will likely be less disappointment there than if he misses the cut altogether (or maybe not).

Regardless, as we sit just over a week out from Round 1, those are the five guys you would probably pick out and — if they emerge on the other side without a jacket — say, I bet they feel like they let one they were playing well enough to win slip away. I bet they would like to have that one over again.

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Canada’s Marina Stakusic falls in Guadalajara Open quarterfinals

Published

11 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.

The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.

Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.

In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.

The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Kirk’s walk-off single in 11th inning lifts Blue Jays past Cardinals 4-3

Published

11 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.

Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.

Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.

Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.

He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.

The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.

Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.

He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.

George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.

Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.

In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.

St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.

ON DECK

Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.

The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Stampeders return to Maier at QB eyeing chance to get on track against Alouettes

Published

11 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.

It won’t be an easy assignment.

Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.

“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”

Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”

Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.

After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.

“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”

Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.

“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.

A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.

“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”

But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.

“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”

Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”

“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.

Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.

“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”

While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.

“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”

The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.

“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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