From Brooks Koepka's altercation with a Mercedes to Sam Bennett's Masters tweet from 2016 coming full circle, get caught up.
Darren Riehl/GOLF
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Hello, everyone, and happy Friday night from Augusta National! Despite a very hot and then very rainy day on the grounds here, I’ve had a splendid day with my pals. We arrived at around 8 a.m. and headed to The Bartlett Lounge, the restaurant inside the media center. I got the sausage, egg and cheese on a biscuit (once again!) with a side of bacon, and because I wasn’t getting behind the wheel, I even got an order of the vanilla pancakes, which came with confectionary sugar and strawberries on top. After that, I got an iced vanilla latte and got to work.
I spent a lot of my day in the media center due to the weather and the fact that I needed to follow the broadcast, but I snuck in an hour or two outside as well. I walked a few holes with some friends, including my co-worker Dylan Dethier, and then had a superb people-watching session under The Big Oak Tree. I spotted Caroline Wozniacki on the course, but unfortunately could not find Niall Horan, who was on the grounds today. Also, I’d like to invite each and every one of you to check out the new kicks I sported today.
My Masters Friday sneakers.Darren Riehl
But enough about me. Let’s get into all the action from Friday at Augusta.
Brooks Koepka’s punch
Who among us has not broken something while angry? It’s one thing to slam a club and another thing to snap one over your knee. On Friday, we learned that Brooks Koepka took his anger to a new level after missing the cut at the 2022 Masters.
In case you haven't seen this aggregated 10,000 other places yet, Brooks Koepka said he tried twice at last year's Masters to punch out the back window of his Mercedes in frustration after he missed the cut. Couldn't do it. "I guess Mercedes makes a pretty good window," he said.
— Kevin Van Valkenburg (@KVanValkenburg) April 7, 2023
He tried to punch out the back window of his Mercedes! I know Koepka works out a lot and all, but I’m more worried about his hand and wrist than the car after hearing about this. Also, it’s interesting to see how people in different tax brackets choose to take out their anger. I could probably get away with trying to break a cheap pair of sunglasses but that’s about it. I broke my cell phone out of anger in September 2017 and quickly realized what an expensive error I made. I lived off an alarm clock, walkie talkies, an iPod shuffle and a disposable camera, or what my college roommates and I fondly called my “deconstructed iPhone” until December when I could collect enough babysitting money to purchase a new one.
Either way, I’m glad Koepka shed some light on this moment of severe anger, because I think it’s an opportunity for the Mercedes marketing team to really sell their product. I went ahead and mocked up what I believe should be their next advertisement.
Twenty-three-year-old Sam Bennett fired back-to-back 68s at Augusta National and sits in third place heading into the weekend at the Masters. That’s not normal for anyone, especially not a fifth-year senior. I took it upon myself to do a deep dive on his Twitter, and I’m sure glad I did because I came across a post that showed just how far Bennett has come in the last six years.
Bennett got tickets to attend the Masters as a patron in 2016 but couldn’t attend due to districts, and now he’s in contention heading into the weekend. Talk about a rags to riches story (not really, I don’t think attending the event as a patron would qualify as “starting from the bottom”). I’m bummed Bennett never got to attend then, but I’m willing to bet he’s okay with how things have turned out.
The transcript of 23-year-old Sam Bennett's presser. As an amateur, he can't win any money at the Masters. He's in 2nd among those who have finished 36 holes.
Q. The person who finished 2nd last year made $1.6 million. Is there any part of you that—
He and Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion Rose Zhang are forces to be reckoned with.
What the Masters leader is eating this week
We know Koepka has ice in his veins (and some Gen-Z’ers would argue that he has that dog in him), but I’ve been curious as to what else the guy has in his system this week as he sets up camp atop the Masters leaderboard.
NoGee said she’s giving Koepka lots of protein. They’ve had blueberry protein muffins for breakfast, as well as tuna poke bowls, sea bass and grilled chicken with couscous, feta, roasted vegetables and mediterranean salad for dinners. This looks like it was made with a lot more love than the Chipotle I had for dinner last night. I also can’t help but wonder if any of these foods could possibly be included in a certain Tuesday night dinner at Augusta National next year.
Danger at Augusta
Augusta National is pretty close to heaven on earth. It has stunning fairways, crisp greens and inexpensive food. So it definitely caught people by surprise when a tree fell on No. 17 mid-round on Friday afternoon.
A tree has fallen on No. 17 at Augusta National, but @espn has reported no injuries.
At any other golf event, pictures and videos from fans on site would be swarming the internet, but with no phones at Augusta National, it took a little longer to get footage of it.
If a tree falls at Augusta National and no iPhone camera is around to capture it, did it even really fall
I also can’t help but wonder if the fact that no one was on their phone kept patrons from getting injured. A lot can happen when you are paying more attention to a screen than your surroundings. Hopefully the rest of the trees here at Augusta are firmly secured into the ground because we’ve got a rainy and windy weekend ahead of us.
Amen Corner cupcakes
I want to give a shout-out to Carolyn Zacharias, who is making an exact (cupcake) replica of Amen Corner at Augusta National.
