Hello friends.
A very personal episode of NLU Special Projects is out tonight, with our squad talking about which Masters is our favorite. We each managed to pick a different one, and I love some of the stories explaining why. This is one of my favorite things we’ve done because it tells even more the backstory of people I’ve been friends with for a decade, but still feels like stories I’ve never heard. Thanks for listening!
(And yes, that is a Dawes reference in the header; I love that song)
Dammit @KVV I’m 5:30 into this thing and already welling up a little …
Also it made me figure out that I am now the same age my dad was when the Braves went to the 1991 World Series and I was a little kid freaking out the whole time. That is a wild realization.
When I think of you, you still got on that hat that says, “Block
Party!”
I hope that thing is never thrown away
These projects are the best.
Really enjoyed the personal feel of this.
Thank you 
Dude you can’t make me tear up like this on the way to work… Great job as always!
I was talking with my oldest who is in 2nd grade and I said “I know you don’t care or have a favorite masters now, but I bet one day you will.”
And he asked me “when you were my age did you like watching golf?”
And I answered honestly that no I didn’t. But I have vivid memories of my childhood where my family would be watching a major, whether it be the Masters or the US Open that can still recall.
I try so hard not to push my love for golf onto him, but I am so incredibly hopeful that he finds his way there.
I fought it like hell, and look at me now…posting on a golf message board.
And I am now tearing up. These father son relationships… hah
Happy to report the audio is crisp and the velvety baritone pipes of @KVV are back
Oh boy that @BamaBearcat segment on the '86 Masters hits different when you were also a 14 year old kid watching it on TV in '86 with your dad and you are now a 53 yr old who is taking lessons, getting to the range 2 times a week and going to the gym in hopes that you can get the handicap moving in the right direction again.
Loved the pod and can’t wait for next week!
At the 5:30 mark my day officially became lost to nostalgia and existentialism. Thank you, KVV.
I’ll start with my runner up Masters memory - 1995 and Ben Crenshaw. CBS milked the hell out of the Harvey Penick’s recent death headline, how Ben and Tom Kite went to Austin earlier in the week to attend the funeral vs doing any practice rounds. And when Ben broke down crying right after holing the winning put, his caddy coming over to console him, that got to me.
But I think my most memorable Masters was 1998. I was a junior in high school at the time and I was probably in my peak golf interest period. I just remember the broadcast well, how the story was framed as Fred Couples vs David Duval. Those two hoovered up about 50% of the coverage. Sure, Tiger was the defending champ of one of the most dominating major performances ever, but he had’t reached the mystique level every shot must be shown guy. O’Meara was barely shown that day. And Couples and Duval had a great battle, each having ups and downs. And then, all of a sudden, O’Meara makes a 10 ft putt for birdie on 17 and he’s tied for the lead. 18, Duval had bogeyed up ahead to fall one behind, Couples hits his approach into the right greenside bunker. O’Meara hits to 20 feet, and after Freddie splashed out to 3 ft, you could see the gallery start running politely racewalking to the 10th tee in anticipation of a playoff. And then, a CBS cameraman gets a perfect shot of O’Meara from behind as he hits his winning birdie putt, as it trumbled in on the low side, arms raised in victory, just an incredible TV moment.
Honorary 3rd to 2011 - what a horse race. With the last group on 14, there was still like 10 people who could have legitimately won that tournament. And Charl, as unheraldly as the rest of his career has been, birdieing the last 4 holes to grab the ball from the scrum was impressive as hell.
Damnit @KVV i didn’t expect to be crying on my way to work this morning. Im 6 minutes in. What a beautiful memory of your dad. I lost my father when I was 16 years old. He was a golf nut and i thought it was lame. All I wanted to do was skateboard and smoke weed. What I would give to be able to go back in time. Appreciate everything you’re doing online, KVV.
Edit: I responded to this before reading the other posts. Seems I’m not alone.
A truly phenomenal listen. Fantastic job
Love @MerchCzar picking 2009. I vividly remember watching that Masters on Easter Sunday at my grandparents’ house. They immigrated from Argentina in the 1950s, and my grandpa was the first person who ever took me to a golf course as a kid. After Cabrera’s winning putt dropped, we all sat down for dinner with a full spread of empanadas, choripan, and skirt steaks.
Looking forward to tonight’s NLU Argentina video!
I remember watching 04 most vividly. Especially KJ Choi holing out from like 200 yards on 11 and Phil’s uppercut after holing his birdie putt on 13. 01 is also sick - Duval missing short birdie putts on 17 AND 18 gets forgotten.
I wasn’t alive in 1986 but as a little boy I spent many many hours in our basement running around and listening to Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever, watching the 1989 Why Not? Baltimore Orioles highlight tape, and watching the 1986 Masters highlight tape. My dad raised a good sports fan and those are core memories. It opens with a video montage and Gary Player voiceover, “When I think of Augusta, I think of great beauty.” Ben Wright, Verne, and a young Jim Nantz were all throwing 99. It’s a truly epic highlight package. Combined with the stories of people literally* missing flights to watch the Sunday round on TV, it sits at the top for me.
*allegedly
Tough scene for the Czar talking about Cabrera as if he’d never heard of him before, when the dude had won the U.S. Open a couple years earlier.
Incredible work, though @KVV. This stuff just delivers so well. I really appreciated @Cody 's story. A forgettable Masters for most, but what a story from him.
For me it is 2013. That’s the year I won the lottery and went to the Masters (practice round Tuesday) but that’s not the whole story or the thing that makes it so significant in my head. As I said, I won the practice round lottery which included 4 tickets. My dad was a natural choice, he taught me the game, and there was a golf buddy who made sense. Golf and the Masters doesn’t mean much to my wife and we had a 2 year old at that time. I asked her about it but she really wasn’t interested. My mom took the last ticket. She’s not a golfer but she was more into watching sports with me and my dad than my wife is - she wasn’t a football fan but still cared when the Broncos were in the Super Bowl because we cared, she wasn’t a golfer but watched the Masters with us because we cared about it.
Anyway, as I said I had a 2 year old son, but that hadn’t been easy. My wife and I had tried for quite some time, had failed pregnancies, and ultimately had our son via IVF.
So our group of four were set to leave for Atlanta from Phoenix early Sunday morning. I left the house early enough that I was trying to quietly slip out without waking my wife, and my son was even still asleep (which always felt like a miracle because in his first year of life he barely slept at all). Just shortly before I boarded the plane, she called me and asked if I could go somewhere and talk privately. Not really, I was in an airport, but at least I could get away from my parents.
She couldn’t go back to sleep after I left. Something was nagging at her. She’d gotten up, found what she was looking for in the bathroom. Tried once, then again. She showed me on the video call. A positive pregnancy test. We weren’t even “trying.” Not that we weren’t trying but after the trials of the first time we both assumed that if we were going to have more kids we would have to go back to IVF.
My head was reeling on the flight. Honestly, all week while I was in Georgia. To be totally honest, I was maybe 20% excited and 80% terrified that my wife would miscarry while I was on the other side of the country. Praise everything, that didn’t happen.
I quietly snuck a Masters onesie in with all my other shop purchases. I came home. A lot of that Masters was kinda weird. We had perfect weather while we were there but once the tournament days started, it really just rained a lot. Adam Scott won, which I like. He’s a nice guy to think about when I see stuff I bought that says 2013 Masters, not that it really matters.
In December, our daughter was born. She’s never even been to Georgia, has really nothing to do with April or the Masters at all, but in a weird way I always associate her with the Masters.
'86 is mine as well, @BamaBearcat.
My parents had gotten divorced a couple of years prior. I hadn’t seen my dad in nearly 2 years. Nobody in my family played golf. I didn’t even live within an hour of a golf course. To say I grew up in a remote part of the country would be an understatement.
I was 11 years old. Struggling in an existence where my only companionship was my baby brother who was 5 years old at the time. I vividly remember watching Jack’s charge, racing back and forth between our den and front yard, where I was hitting a baseball with a wooden bat like a golf shot.
A few days later, my mom gave me a full bag of golf clubs she had bought at Goodwill for $30. I’ve been playing regularly ever since.
Funny aside; my tiny little middle school held a “graduation” ceremony for all 13 of us as we headed off to high school, which was 33 miles away. We were able to list our favorite quote in the program. Mine was “Is it enough, is it enough, YES!” Steve Melnyk was the only person I had ever heard doing sports on TV that sounded like me. I’ve been a fan of his ever since.
Damn… @KVV just keeps elevating these narrative pods to another level (sorry that sounds very Bill Simmons-ey)
Hearing the personal connections and feelings these memories invoked was really really cool and not something that many sporting events can bring out in this many people. The Masters is truly in a class of it’s own in that regard.
For me, I think there’s a group of 4 years that will lift and separate for me as I get older.
2005 (10 years old) is the earliest memory I have of a Tiger final round, my mom’s job had moved us to Chattanooga from Maine and being closer to Augusta’s golf gravitational pull could be felt, classmates had actually been. My dad had taken me to the Tour Championship in 2002 as my first golf tournament, Tiger and Phil paired together, real core memory stuff so I was more interested when golf was on TV. The chip in on 16 didn’t feel real and I remember not really understanding how the playoff worked but just wanted the guy in red to bring it home.
2015 as a junior in college watching on my laptop from class, this was peak Tiger tracker (RIP), bright Nike colors, oh and that new kid Jordan Spieth on the block.
2019, needs no further comment.
And last year, 2024. I won the lottery for the Monday practice round and got to bring 3 of my best friends with me for an unforgettable trip. A surreal day with the solar eclipse. Ran into KVV under the big oak tree and then watched guys hit shots into 12 during golden hour. Max being in contention made it even cooler for me.
I thought a little about this in the edit and I actually think it speaks very much to the theme Neil talks about, being a casual golf fan at the time who is really invested in Phil and Tiger and not much else because you’re sorting through your real life.
Have told this story in other places on here, but will re-do it here…
Grew up 75 miles from Augusta. Actually lived in a house that was in a neighborhood with a golf course, but never had much interest in the sport.
April of 1997 was my senior year of high school. I watched that Masters and as basic as it sounds, I saw a guy playing golf that looked a little like me (non-white, tall, skinny) absolutely dominating and it was unlike anything I had ever seen in golf before. I started playing golf because Tiger won the 1997 Masters, and it’s been part of my life ever since then.
I’ve had great luck and have been to multiple Masters tournaments since that time, so all of those in-person experiences were special as well. But 2019 was also pretty special because I was a father by then, and just like KVV said, the hug between Tiger and Charlie meant a heck of a lot more because I was a father.
Top 5
Tiger, 2019 - appreciated him a lot more than I did in his prime and being a Dad gave me new #perspective too. Watching him with Charlie hit me hard.
Spieth - Cocaine train 4 lyfe
O’Meara - Come for Jack making an improbable run as the coverage begins and stay for a fun round down the stretch
Adam Scott - On my sofa. Hungover after my bachelor party. Nothing else to do but be totally locked in for the entire round.
Tie between '93 (first I can remember watching) and '95 (I loved the Crenshaw story).