The folks in Georgia took the higher road and presented the world a show that only the worlds best golfers can give when competing together and against each other.

This was simply about the Masters and a very worthy champion emerged in Jon Rahm, a Spaniard who won the green jacket on the day that marked the 66th birthday of his fellow countryman the late golfing great Seve Ballesteros. The same date also marked the 40th anniversary of Seve’s first triumph at this event.

The golf was electrifying, we saw multiple players making a charge, former champions Phil Mickelson, Jordan Speith and Patrick Reed set the course alight. Incredible was that Mickelson finished tied 2nd at age 52. Brooks Koepka, himself a 4 time major winner found form and eventually finished tied 2nd after leading at the end of each of the 3 previous rounds.

A college going amateur Sam Bennett, the current US Amateur Champion finished ahead of dozens of golf professionals. The golfing world was glued watching the magic.

Incredibly 63 year 1992 champion, Fred Couples made the cut and finished 50th, as did Tiger Woods too coming back after his horrific car accident and surgery. Sadly the Big Cat had to withdraw after day 3, but how good are these wholesome stories?

Did it matter which tour any of the professional golfers had chosen to align with? This wasn’t about the ‘war of the tours’ or the personal views of high profile athletes or the commercial propaganda being spewed around. This was a level playing field and what ‘Majors’ need to be about. Practice hard, compete anywhere you like, and then show up at the four ‘independently’ owned and run Majors and do your thing.

The shame is on the ‘Official World Golf Ranking’ system that has taken sides and may play a crucial role in deciding the fate of who gets in to the four majors. They absolutely have to revamp and make their current system unbiased and inclusive, else they are the ones that will single handedly hurt this game, or, and thats a big OR, the BIG 4 align and create their own ranking system which will not discriminate leave alone do so blatantly.

Thank You #AugustaNational for unifying Golf!!!

By Shivas Nath #TheGolfWhispererIndia