tommy does golf
A golf podcast covering everything and anything in the world of golf. 3 PGA golf professionals (with over 100 years worth of worldwide experience in the industry) share their opinions on topical golf content from around the globe. It's random, light-hearted banter and we hope it's informative and easy listening.
tommy does golf
Tommy & The Crew – Masters 2026 Wrap. Out now.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
It's over! Rory Mac goes back-to-back. Unreal.
But you don't need a 3-hour highlight reel. You need the real debrief. The one with bad takes, bruised egos, and one very loud gloater.
Tommy and the crew just sat down for a quick 19-minute huddle—no fluff, no ad reads, just fire. We're talking pre-tournament bets that aged like milk. We're talking that Sergio moment of madness (honestly, what was he thinking?). And Bob MacIntyre? Absolute scenes. A moment of madness followed by the gesture that's already a meme. You'll know it when you hear it.
Who had Rory? Who bottled it? Who's already making excuses?
One of the boys is unbearable right now. You'll know which one.
This isn't a documentary. It's a few mates ripping into a wild week at Augusta. The good, the bad, and the "did that really happen?"
Twelve months until Augusta does it again. But right now? You've got 19 minutes. Press play. Hear what the boys really thought.
To learn more about us or to get in touch head to: tommydoesgolf.com
Welcome to Tommy Does Golf, the podcast where three old timers give you our opinions on everything golf. I'm Tommy Long, joined by fellow PGA professionals James Morgan and Paul Charman. With over a hundred years and counting in the golf industry between us, we are well into our back lines. We'll do our best to stay on topic, but just like our teashots these days, this podcast could go anywhere. We're hoping you enjoy the banter, and maybe, just maybe, we'll share a few pearls of wisdom along the way. Let's get into it.
SPEAKER_04Welcome to our US Masters rap episode. Along with the crew, I'm going to try and unpack what unfolded at Augusta National this week. We've managed to drag our tips to Neil Hickman back into the studio. Neil, thanks for joining us. It's great to see you, mate. See ya. Okay, that's enough waffle. Let's get stuck in. So, Rory McElroy becomes the fourth player in history to win back-to-back Green Jackets. He follows in the footsteps of Jack Niklaus, Sir Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods. Illustrious company. It seems crazy that Rory waited so long for his first master's win, achieving that only last year, when he also became the sixth player in history to complete the career slant. And only a year later he's won his second. It's a little bit like London buses, really. You wait for ages, then two turn up in quick succession. Rory finished on a score of 276, 12 under par. Given his first two rounds of 67 and 65, which gave him the largest 36 hole lead in history, a six-shot lead at the halfway stage. It's kind of amazing that was the number he actually finished the tournament on. After 36 holes, I thought he was going to kick on and get close to Dustin Johnson's record of 268, 20 under par, which Dustin Johnson set in 2020. But it just proves that winning a major is hard, extremely hard. And creating history, which is what he was going for, winning back-to-back green jackets, is even harder. So I've got to tell our listeners that we do have someone looking very smug sitting in the studio. The reason being is that in our 2026 predictions podcast that we put out back in January, James picked Rory to win the Masters, predicting that he would go back to back. I had my doubts, not because of his ability, but simply because it had only been done three times before. So James through gritted teeth. Well done. The pressure is now on Paul and myself for one of our preseason major picks to win one of the three remaining majors this year. My preseason pick for the Masters was Justin Rose. I'm absolutely gutted for him. It's his fifth top five finish at Augusta, and he's going to be absolutely devastated that he didn't get the job done. It was the infamous Eamon corner where the wheels fell off for him, I think. He bogeyed 11. Then on the 12th hole, he's hit it long and left, and he hit a really poor chip shot. I think he possibly took too long over that shot, maybe overthought it and duffed it. His third shot, apart from off the green, wasn't the best either, and he actually did well to hold a return putt for a four. Then on 13, he hit a great iron shot into 20 feet above the flag, giving himself a look at Eagle and three-putted it for par. He must have walked off that green knowing that he'd given three shots back to the field. It's funny because where Justin lost it today, I think Rory did the opposite. On 11, he made a fantastic two-put on the hole that he doubled the day before in round three. Then he made a fantastic birdie on 12, and on 13 he was through the back of the green, putted from off the green to about 10 feet, and knocked it in for another birdie. So on that stretch, he picked up two shots, whereas Rose dropped two shots. Final leaderboard, let's have a look. Well, Raw finished on 12 under. World number one, Scotty Sheffler was second outright on his own, 11 under par. Tied for third on 10 under. We obviously had Cameron Young, one of Neil's picks for the Masters, Russell Henley, Justin Rose, and then Tyrrell Hatton, another one of James's outside bets. And Tyrrell shot 66 in the final round to get him into that tie for third. But Rory, he kept us in suspense. On 15, he hits it right into the trees, chips out, then hits a pitch shot that I'm sure he'll admit he caught it slightly heavy. It only just pitched onto the green. Unfortunately, he didn't have any backspin on it. Otherwise, it would have zipped back into the water and it could have been a different story. He made par there, and then on 16, he was obviously pumped with adrenaline. He sent it straight over the flagstick through the back of the green into a fairly similar spot to where Tiger hit it when he famously chipped in on his way to winning a few years back. Rory hit a fantastic putt from off the green to finish only a matter of inches away, and he made his three. Then on 17, he misses the green to the right and made what turned out to be a crucial up and down. Because on 18, he hits it way right off the T again into the trees, and he ends up making a pretty staunch five to get the job done. It wasn't the final round I was expecting. For me, the third round was probably more exciting than the final round. But Rory hung in there. He was one of the only players in the field that actually went backwards on moving day. He shot a 73, really battled and allowed the rest of the field to catch up. I think going into the final round, there were probably 10 players within four or five shots of the lead. I always feel a bit deflated when the Masters has finished because it's such an amazing tournament. I think it's because we know it's going to be another 12 months before we can all put our feet up again and watch the drama unfold. But fair play to Rory. He's made history, back to back, fourth person to do so. He also moves on to six major victories now, which moves him alongside Lee Trevino, Cernic, Faldo, and Phil Mickelson. I can't see his career finishing on six. I think he'll kick on and win a few more. But boys, I've waffled far too long. I'm going to come over to you for your thoughts. We're going to start with the smug-looking James, who has picked a winner. First tournament up. James, what do you think?
SPEAKER_00So really happy that he won. It's felt for Justin Rose. I think Justin Rose hit the front too early. He starts making all those birdies, he gets a two-shad, and then you see him standing over that second shot on 11, and he couldn't make up his mind, and then you know he shoves it, and then we know he's demise from then onwards. But I think if JR had been just tied for the lead, he might have played a little bit more aggressively. But that chip on 12. Everyone listening to this, we've all had that chip. I think we made four after he did that. It looked like he had it too far back in his stance. He didn't want to go over the back of the green, and everything about that was just like but I mean, Rory, I've put here in my notes, Grand Slam question mark.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Now no one's ever done a career grand slam. Calendar year, no. Calendar year. Sorry, yeah.
SPEAKER_04We have to win the first one to be able to do it. So there's only one player can do it to you.
SPEAKER_00And that's the whole thing. Could he? I mean, that would just build the excitement if he wins the next one. But he played some fantastic golf. But when you look at his driving stats, one of the stats I had after 36 holes, the 91st player in Fairway's hit was 91st. And the person that was 90th was Rory with a six-shot lead.
SPEAKER_02Neil Given for all four rounds, his accuracy was 55.36%, which gave him 53rd out of 54. That made the cut.
SPEAKER_00Wow. But again, that goes to show you a golf course like Augusta, where there isn't any rough, and you've just got trees and lightning fast screens, he knows his way around this, he knows where to lay it up and then can save himself with his wedges, etc. But then a lot of the other players were doing that. So what's it gonna be like when you get on a US Open course and you have to drive it straight? So the Grand Slam is probably a little bit of a putt in the sky thing. But then I think there he's got the win from last year. He drew off that. So when he got himself into a situation where he started making bogey, he's like, right, I'm going for it. And when he started making bogeys, he didn't panic. And he didn't. He just goes, I'm just gonna stick to my process and keep going and keep going. And yeah, you've got to take it out of turn. Having said that, whilst I would like to gloat over that, I'm not gonna gloat too much because I backed Bryson to Shhambeau. Patrick Reed for top 10, he finished 12th. I've got a Stracker, Morikawa, and someone else to finish top 20 and Strekkers outside. So the TAB have done very nicely at me, and my return from that is zero. The fact is, though, that had you actually put money on Rory, he would have lost. He would have missed the cut. The Shambo would have a green jacket on. Exactly. I am the cut. Mark Kalkovecchia, open champion, past open champion, got kicked out for having his phone on him. Don't you love it?
SPEAKER_02Well, but they didn't kick out Donald Trump's granddaughter. No. Maybe she got away, but they didn't see it.
SPEAKER_04Do you know what though? A reporter phoned Kalkovecchia up to try and get some sort of a reaction out of him. And Kalkovekia actually said fair play. It was a fair cop. You know, he said, I've got nothing negative to say about that. So I thought that was pretty cool as well. Paulie, before we go to Neil for some stats on the tournament, give us your take.
SPEAKER_01Blown away by Rory's achievements, how extraordinary it is for him to go back to back. But I also thought that it had a strange vibe to it, that tournament. It did have a strange vibe. Um, you know, even though obviously there was there's drama, there's always drama, you know. When Rory's involved, there's always drama. I had a feeling he was gonna hit that shot off the last, the driver. And I was thinking, all you've got to do is just hit it as hard as you can, as straight as you can, over those bunkers, you'll be fine. Yeah, you'll have a shot into the green. And I think he was lucky on the last, but he could have ended up behind a tree, could have had a chip out sideways. Who knows? It could have ended up, but he's managed to get into the greenside bunker and fair play to him. You know, it's a great tournament because you know they say the cream comes to the top, and I do think that in a tournament like this, where these players have played this golf course many, many times, you do see the cream coming to the top. And with five holes to go, I had a horrible feeling for Rory that Scotty was actually gonna be. He was on the charge, wasn't he? Yeah, a fair play to him. He didn't make it, but it was close.
SPEAKER_04Well, based on what you've said, I just had a little quote that I just wanted to get in there at some stage, and it's probably quite a good time to mention it. I don't know if you boys saw this, but there was a player caddy conversation that went on in the second round that I thought was really interesting. I love it when they can get close and personal and we can listen in to what they're saying. On the ninth fairway, Rosie is looking at playing his second shot. He was adamant it was a nine-iron, and Mark Fulcher is caddy, said to him, I'm sure it's an eight, hit an eight-iron. Don't get fooled by the optical illusion here, play the numbers. And with that, Rosie got the eight-iron, fully committed to it, even though in his mind, before Fuchsia said that he thought it was a nine, he sits it pin eye to ten feet and knocked in for Birdie. So it's the caddies as well, is what I'm saying is like the more they caddy for their player around there, the more experienced they become, and they know when to rein them in and go, no, I actually disagree with you on this. Like this is what we did last year, or wherever it might be.
SPEAKER_01Going back to what I said earlier on, and I'll finish on this. These are just a couple of quotes that I've taken from a couple of people. We'll start with great Jack Nicholas. Jack Nicholas said the Masters isn't just another tournament, it's something really, really special. I get as much excitement driving down Magnolia Lane now as I did 40 years ago. All right, Gary Player. If they have a course like this in heaven, I want to be the head pro. Brilliant, okay? Um, this is a great one. Fuzzy Zella. I've never been to heaven, and thinking back on my life, I probably won't get there either. I guess winning the Masters is the closest I'm gonna come. And Ben Hogan, if the Masters offered me no money at all, I would still be there every time trying just as hard. And I think when you see and hear some of these, you know, legends of the game talking about a golf course like this, you then start to realise how much these players respect that golf course.
SPEAKER_04Neil, you've been very patient. Give us some interesting stats.
SPEAKER_02So, yeah, the eighth came out the easiest hole this year, averaged 4.624. So that was ranked the easiest hole. Very closely followed by the second. But Sergio Garcia didn't enjoy his t-shirt off the second today, but we'll leave it at that. We won't actually we'll come back to that if I want to. And then the 13th and the 15th. So again, the four easiest holes was your par fives. As they are in most tournaments. The fifth stayed the toughest hole, 4.297, followed by the 11th, the 17th, and the 4th. Total birdies for the competition this year, Paul. What do you think? More than 120, I'd say, yeah, at least 121. Go on 956. Yeah, yeah. 29 Eagles, 109 birdies on the eighth with eight Eagles, and 110 birdies on the 13th with seven Eagles. Scoring average was 72.859, so 12 under was very good against the field.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And a hole in one by Shane on the sixth in the third round, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So Ian Polter was going through this cabinet that he's got for the Masters. You get a piece of crystal for an Eagle, you get a crystal, a bowl for a hole and one, and you get another piece of crystal for lowest score of the day. And he's had it in this cabinet, and it would have been about six foot high by about three foot wide. He did have a little bit of crystal in there, and his comment was, I wonder how big Tiger Woods' cabinet would be with all his crystal and how many eagles he would have made.
SPEAKER_04We will come back to the surgery O10 potential in a minute. Before we do that, though, James, what was the story with Bob McIntyre?
SPEAKER_00So he wasn't having a very good day, as we can all relate to. So he dumps it in the water twice, and then he gives the hole the finger, and then he had some audible obscenities in his microphone, and then he continued on foul mouth quite a long way around the golf course. He gets pulled up afterwards by officials, and he had an official reprimand, and it's in their code of conduct that he had to go through. And if he has another outburst, there is the opportunity for them to ban him from playing. Really? Okay. Because it's an invitational tournament. I think the wedding was along the lines of his invitation will be receded. So it's interesting there. They have a code of conduct for everything. Jason Day was told beforehand what he was not allowed to wear. One of his outfits, he was told that's not coming. Yeah, no.
SPEAKER_02Sergio today, he got reprimanded on the fourth T to cool it down. And I think the first thing was if he carried on, it was going to be a another warning was a two-shenalty. And then the warning after that was disqualification.
SPEAKER_04The second old today, yeah. I was the second Halloween. The thing about that, right, and the thing that we've all had moments we're not proud of on the golf course, right? So I'm not going to judge him for that. However, surely there must be something going on in the background for him to react like that. I mean, he was nowhere near winning the tournament. He's next champion. That place, as we know, is just amazing. And hopefully he'll realise he's let himself down massively because he is a role model, they're all role models, and I just think it's disappointing that he's done that. But there must be something going on in the background, and I hope it's not really bad for Sergio what's happening in the background there. But to react like that, it can't have just been the way he was playing in a bad t-shirt, I think. There was another player who's won it before, and I'm not going to name names, but the cameras on him on the 15th green, and he came off having made birdie, and he just let out this heap of spit onto the ground. And I just thought, why are you doing that onto this golf course? I just the spitting thing, comes down to the show.
SPEAKER_02Just do it into a handkerchief.
SPEAKER_04Nobody needs to see it. I'm not going to name who it was, but you boys probably saw it as well. Same thing.
SPEAKER_01I do think that the fact that a tournament like the Masters does have these stringent regulations, stringent rules and regulations, and that we talked about the phone situation earlier. You know, what's great is that they stick to the rules and they apply them. Absolutely. If you're out of line for whatever it is that you've done, you will get reprimanded. You will they will follow the letter of the law.
SPEAKER_04It was a funny masters. Like I said, it was almost like the third round was the exciting round. I mean, Rory got it done, and you know, in the history books, we'll look back, and Rory's got his sixth major and he's become the fourth player to win it back to back. But yeah, it was just, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I think the fact that he got so far ahead, six shots ahead, and then started losing shots, we're all like, oh no, please don't. Yeah. Please don't do this. But then when you see other people charging at him, yeah, of all of them, Scotty Sheffler, I mean you've got to tap your hat as much as he's not my favourite player, but he's an amazing talent. He's the one that stepped up and said, I'm coming for you. It's not the Rory show.
SPEAKER_01And I think as well that at the time when everybody was holding their hands on their heads, going, Rory, what are you doing? You know, Rosie, I think, had just taken the lead after nine holes. I think he had actually just gone into the I think he birdied nine, didn't he? So there's a part of you that's like, oh Rory, and then there's another part of you that was just like, Rosie, come on, boy. Yes, you can do this. Come on. You can do this.
SPEAKER_00My sister, not a golfer, doesn't play golf at all. She will switch a golf club once every five years. She was watching the Masters. She was texting me from the UK, come on, Rosie. That's all it was. Come on, Ryan. Non-golfers were going, come on, Rosie. And then when he fell over, she went to bed. Two holes from the end. She went, Oh well. Rosie's not winning now. I'm off the bed.
SPEAKER_04Do you know what though? I think the thing that has always impressed me about Rose, and I'm sure it'll be the same with you boys, is that he's such a champion in defeat. You know, in the sense that he is so gracious. Immediately afterwards, when he's going to be absolutely devastated. And I saw a post that he put out, it was minutes after. Congratulations, Rory, on going back to back. I've just got to keep knocking on that door, you know, and I just think he's a champion of a bloke, isn't he? I just think it's amazing.
SPEAKER_02Well, Neil's got one more thing. Can't we? I was just going to say, I'm just going to put my order in for an egg salad hat. That's awesome. Anyone else want an egg salad hat?
SPEAKER_04It was brilliant. It was yellow today, wasn't it? What's the next major? So, next up, it's the USPGA Championship at Aaron Aminka Golf Club. On the 14th of May, I believe that starts. We are going to have a pre-tournament pod the week before. So listen out for that. We'll drag Neil back in for that one, if not beforehand. All that's left to say is that's our wrap, everybody. Thanks, fellas. See you next time. Thanks, Tommy. Cheers, Tom. If you've made it this far, we hope it's because you've enjoyed listening to Tommy Does Golf. To make sure you never miss our podcast, please hit follow. For more of our content or to get in touch, head to TommyDuzgolf.com. So until next time, no matter how you are playing, smile, laugh, and most important of all, enjoy the walk.