The Masters | Local NY Hoops | Local NY Puck | champagne problems | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
We’ll start off with a Day 1 Recap of the 88th edition of The Masters Golf Tournament down at Augusta National. Next up is Local New York Hoops & Puck. Last, but certainly not least for all the fellow Swifties, today’s tune is champagne problems by Taylor Swift.
The Masters
This is the 88th edition of The Masters and the 2nd one to be covered by Week to Week Notes. Some quick bits of info for those who may not be all that into golf - the tournament is held at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Golf has tournaments every weekend, but 4 Majors are held in the highest of regards. Winning a Major in golf is essentially like winning a championship in a team sport. Jack Nicklaus has won the most Green Jackets at the Masters. He won 6 in his career, the first being in 1963 and his last in 1986. Nicklaus’ 18 Major championship wins are also the most of all time. Course architect, Alister McKenzie, never saw his famous course completed. He died just 2 months before the Inaugural Masters Tournament in 1934. Augusta National looks almost nothing like it originally did when it was first opened. It took a whopping 15 architects to make changes to the course since 1935. The original routing is the only thing that has stayed the same. (Source: Lost Golf Balls)
One last bit of history about The Masters…The Green Jacket was inspired by a red jacket. In 1930, golf legend and co-founder of The Masters, Bobby Jones, was playing in the British Open Championship when he was invited to a player’s reception. While feasting, he noticed that all of the club captains wore matching red jackets and was impressed by the unique look. Bobby Jones would go on to win the British Open in 1930 and received a red jacket later in the week. Being an American, he decided to take a bit of the tradition across the pond, except he must have been color-blind. Initially, only Augusta members owned the Green Jackets, but starting in 1949, they started the tradition of presenting them to the winners of The Masters. Today, the Green Jacket is considered a symbol of pinnacle achievement in golf. (Source: Galvin Green)
Bryson DeChambeau
Bryson DeChambeau, a player of LIV Golf, has played in 5 of their 12 events this season. His top finish thus far in ‘24 was his 4th place finish in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. LIV Golf only plays 3 Rounds of 54 total holes during their season, so many are wondering if DeChambeau can maintain the spot at the top of the leaderboard throughout the weekend. His opening round consisted of 8 birds with 1 bogey, his best round of golf at Augusta so far in his career. In the past 2 Masters, DeChambeau failed to make the cut. With his Thursday performance, he will safely make it to Saturday but will tail off.
Scottie Scheffler
Scottie still doesn’t know how to shoot over par. Scheffler after his Thursday at Augusta has now gone 33 rounds of even or under play this year. The ‘22 Masters Champion already owns a green jacket and is looking to become just the 18th golfer of all time to win 2 of them. The last golfer to do so was Bubba Watson in ‘12 & ‘14. The #1 golfer in the world had a clean scorecard of 6 birds including his tap at the 16th hole of Augusta National called Redbud. The water at this hole was originally a stream that turned into a pond in 1947.
Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy started his day with 2 bogeys sandwiched with a bird through 4 holes. This is McIlroy’s 16th appearance at The Masters and the one he’s said to have wanted most. His best finish was in ‘22 when placed in 2nd behind Scottie Scheffler. In preparation for The Masters this week, McIlroy told reporters that he listened to the audiobook “Outwitting the Devil” by Napoleon Hill. When asked how one does one outwit the devil, McIlroy stated with, “Positivity.”
Tiger Woods
It is always great to see Tiger Woods back on a golf course. Woods has won The Masters 5 times with the latest Major coming in ‘19. Tiger is looking to make history this year by becoming the first golfer to make the cut at The Masters for the 24th time. He knows the course like the back of his hand, as he routinely got into and out of trouble with some smooth bunker shots along with chips for the wood chips. This is just the 2nd golf tournament that Tiger has played this year so some rust was expected. Due to the inclement weather on Thursday morning, Woods was only able to get 13 holes in, but at -1, he is right on track to playing the full weekend.
Phil Mickelson
Phil Mickelson has played in 5 LIV Golf Events in ‘24 and his best finish was 9th place in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. After starting his day 1 under par through 15 holes, Phil put one into the Redbud pond as he bogeyed the hole. He would then bogey on hole #17 as well called Nandina. This is Mickelson’s 31 appearance at Augusta. He has won himself 3 Green Jackets and just last year he finished tied for 2nd by shooting at 65 to close out his Sunday. Only the top 50 golfers advance past the cut, so Mickelson at 1 over par will need a solid score on Friday to play the full 4 rounds. Love him or hate him, he always seems to make things a bit more interesting on the golf course. More written coverage on The Masters to come.
The NY Knicks have now jumped to #3 in the East after going down to #5 last week. They have now won 3 in a row. If they can stay at #3 they will take on either the Indiana Pacers or Orlando Magic in the 1st Round of the NBA Playoffs, which starts next weekend.
Manhattan
This weekend, the Knicks will look to solidify their spot as the #3 Seed in the Eastern Conference. They just won Thursday night up in Boston as the Celtics lost for just the 4th time at home this season. Per usual, NY was led by their star PG Jalen Brunson who dropped 39 points. Brunson is finishing this year on fire, now scoring at least 35+ points in his last 5 games. The lefty PG continues to climb the ladder in Knick’s history as his 2 40+ point games this week now total 14 40+ point games with New York. That now ties him with Richie Guerin for 4th all-time in Knicks history. Richie Guerin played for the Knicks from 1956 to 1964. Born in the Bronx, Guerin would play his college hoops at Iona before averaging 20.1 points per game with NY and representing the Knickerbockers in 6 All-Star Games.
Brooklyn
The Nets are closing out their season against the Knicks tonight, followed by the Sixers on Sunday. In their last 8 games, Brooklyn has been led in the scoring column by Cam Thomas and has gone 5-3. Thomas, the 27th pick of the ‘21 NBA Draft, has replaced Mikal Bridges as the team’s top scorer and has averaged 27.6 points per game during this stretch. After his 2nd season in the NBA of scoring 10.6 ppg, the LSU product has jumped nearly 12 points in his 3rd to 22.2 ppg. His development has been one of the brightest spots on the team. This summer he may want to work a bit more on the elements of his game such as rebounding, passing, and defense. He’ll only be 23 years old by the start of next year.
The Rangers have lost 2 in a row, but still lead the NHL in points. The Islanders are really hot and have jumped to the #3 spot in the Metro. The Devils have 2 to go before they can vacation.
Manhattan
Sitting at 110 points on the season, the New York Rangers have 2 games left to etch their name in team history. Only the 1994 Stanley Cup-winning team (112 points) and the ‘15 Boys in Blue (113 points) had more points in a season. They currently lead all of the land and Canada in points, which would give them the Presidents’ Trophy, something they haven’t done since ‘15. They may have failed to add to the win column last night, but Artemi Panrin didn’t fail in adding another goal to his name. Breadman now has 47 goals in ‘23-’24, by far the most the 9-year veteran has scored in a season throughout his career. He not only leads the team in goals, but his 70 assists are also 16 more than Adam Fox’s 54 on the year. His name will be in discussion for the Hart Memorial Trophy (NHL MVP).
Out East
On Thursday night, the Boys Out East won their 6th in a row on an OT goal by Kyle Palmieri. The 33-year-old Center’s 28 goals this season are the most he’s had in an Islander jersey and just 2 of his career high of 30 that he had in Jersey in ‘16. Last time I mentioned how the Islanders were hot they went on a 6 games losing streak so I’m not touching the money just yet. All I’ll say is, if the season ended today, the Islanders would be the only team of the 16 playoff squads to have a negative goal difference on the season. After toeing the line of Wild Card for much of the season, they’ve put themselves at a very good shot at claiming the #3 spot in the Metro standings.
Jersey
Last weekend on my trip to Newark for some pints of Guinness, some cool facts were discovered. The Devils had a massive hockey player statue. After spending some of his childhood in Union City, Akon lived in Newark for a bit before attending high school in Jersey City. Did you know that Akon has the Guinness World Record for master ringtones in the world? We don’t have individual ringtones anymore so his record of 11 million sold by December of ‘07 will probably be safe. As for the Devils, their season will wrap up on Monday night against the Islanders in a game that may decide the Isles’ playoff fate as they will look to play spoiler on the boys from Out East.
Okay, I can’t even front on this one, Taylor Swift’s champagne problems humbles me to my core. It’s a sad song, but I still have it ranked #18 on the Week to Week Notes Taylor Swift Top 25 Power Rankings for a reason. I try my best to always keep things lighthearted. I mean, Week to Week Notes is supposed to be a sports blog first&foremost; plus who wants to read some sad sack? For anybody wondering why, once a month I pick a Taylor Swift tune based on the calendar my mother gifted me for Christmas.
She starts off setting the scene of a guy catching a late-night train.
That’s a tough one. The bustling crowds of strangers sorta give you a bit of a distraction, but either way, you’re alone with your thoughts.
This song came out on December 11, ‘20. It was a Saturday, 2 days after I just got home and I had absolutely nothing to do. I didn’t have a job. My hometown was a ghost town. All the bars were closed too so you couldn’t even perform a Guinness Challenge at a pub if you wanted to. Plus, I didn’t really feel like seeing people anyway. I remember I took my dog for a walk around the neighborhood with a mask on and decided to give Taylor Swift’s surprise breakup album a listen.
Sidenote: It was very rude of Taylor to drop a breakup album like that, I forgive her though… Sorry, just trying to provide a bit of levity.
I always thought she was using a bit of Irish slang here and assumed she was singing “Your mom’s ring-ing your pocket” like giving you a phone call. The ring here makes a bit more sense as the song’s about a proposal.
Here she is implying that she said no to the proposal. I’ve never bought a ring or asked a girl to marry me but she does a great job encapsulating what a failed proposal might feel like.
In truth, I didn’t really care what hometown skeptics thought. Most of my friends just said to take this time to focus on yourself. Somebody at a Christmas party 2 weeks after this song came out unprovoked questioned why I hadn’t downloaded Hinge already. I had to bite my tongue and say I don’t think I’m ready for that but thanks. She meant well, but that was brutal.
I don’t really have much of a speech with this one, just a bit of reflection.
These lines were always a bit tragic because in any relationship you share inside jokes. The dorm here provides a bit of context that they must have been in college.
More lines that hit the soul. It’s almost like a double-entendre. Breakups impact the “our” group of friends part. With the concept of the song being set in college, once you graduate new people or your underclassmen friends deck the halls you lived in. Either way, it symbolizes that friend groups always change over time, it’s an inevitability that comes with life.
I didn’t have a girlfriend in college, but in my senior year, I got my buddy Decker. He and I went on a ton of walks during the time of this tune. Whenever I’m home now, 15 minutes after I enter the door, he always asks me to go for one. It’s one of my favorite things to do whenever I get the chance.
At the time, I don’t know if listening to this song necessarily made me feel any better but weirdly it provided a different perspective. It kinda got me out of my own head because, well jeez, if Taylor Swift can overthink like this then we all are capable.
After a while, I quit trying to find the real thing and figured it’d be best to focus on Week to Week Notes. I’ve had a ton of laughs and fun, plus I learn every day, but like anything in life, it does come with some sacrifice, scratch that, more like champagne problems.
I’m sure we’ll get more folk-esque tunes like champagne problems on Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department.” I promise they probably won’t hit me the same and I’ll do them justice as a card-carrying member to have them annotated more objectively.
This tune reminds me of a low point that I’ve been blessed to come a long way from, but it’s weird, I gotta admit I still prefer taking the night train. It’s humbling.