The 2023 Masters is in the books as Jon Rahm shoots a final round 69 to win his first Green Jacket by 4 shots. In a week full of stops and starts, changing of weather, it was the man that started his tournament with a four-putt double bogey that was the last man standing. The 87th edition of The Masters was a long four days that included stoppage of play on both Friday and Saturday. Rahm got the worst of the draw having to play early Saturday to finish off his second round in miserable conditions. That is what makes his win so impressive yet not surprising given the level of play that Rahm has shown throughout the 2023 season. Having to play 29 holes on Sunday, Rahm played Augusta National in clinical fashion and by the time the second nine of the final rounds came along there was little in doubt. With so many things happening this week, here are my 6 biggest takeaways from The Masters:

1. Jon Rahm is unequivocally the best player on the planet.

Somehow Rahm seemed to fly under the radar this week, at least coming into it I felt that way. It seemed that a lot of the talk was around defending champion Scottie Scheffler as well as Rory Mcilroy who once again was looking to complete the career grand slam. Jon Rahm was on a heater early in this 2023 season, winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the American Express, and The Genesis Invitational. After that his play did take a bit of a dip, but I think the lack of buzz coming in was more of an aspect of how prisoner of the moment the sports world has become. It is all about what have you done lately.

And despite getting the worse of the draws by two shots, a four putt to start the tournament, it was Rahm who was still able to win this tournament in dominant fashion. That right there shows just how dominant Rahm is and how when he gets going it feels like he is a run-away freight train to the competition. As coined by the No Laying Up Podcast, Rahm is “The Buoy” and this week perfectly showed why they have given him that nickname. Despite the obstacles you cannot sink the Spaniard. Rahm proved this week that he is without a doubt the best player in the game today.

2. Major Championship Brooks Koepka Returns

It might get lost because of his disappointing final round 75, but Brooks Koepka proved this week that he still has the game to win major championships. Before play was resumed Sunday, it was Koepka who was in control at the Masters, and it looked like the 2018-2019 Brooks Koepka who was dominant in Major Championships. The player we became accustomed to always being in the mix at majors seemed to disappear over the last few years. However, that player has been missing and has not truly competed since the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.

Koepka alluded to the fact that he was back to being healthy again and expects to be back to his old form going forward. Despite his win on the LIV Tour last week, it was still in question how he would perform at Augusta. And he did perform extremely well this past week and would expect him to play well in the majors this season. Koepka remains to be a controversial figure with his personality and comments that he makes. However, him being in the mix does make it more fun during majors.

3. Phil Mickelson is Back

It has been a strange past 15 months for Phil and even through the beginning of this week everything still seemed to be strange. Phil won the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah which now feels like ages ago, but ever since the jump to the LIV Tour things have seemed bleak for the 6-time major champion.

Leading into the week, Phil did not speak to media on Tuesday as all the past champions and notable players spoke to the media. Then the report came out that Phil “did not say a word” at the Champion’s Dinner with all the drama going on between the PGA Tour and LIV Tour. That was quite the shock as Phil normally likes to be the funniest guy in the room.

All that went out the window once the tournament started. Phil was back to being Phil doing absurd things on the course. It was the full Phil Mickelson experience as he shot a final-round 65 and ended up finishing in a tied for second. With each good shot Phil hit it looked as if he was enjoying himself that much more. After he finished birdie-birdie on 17 and 18 he could not help smiling walking down to the clubhouse. For someone who has seemed to be in a dark place over the past year, it was nice to see that smile and the thumbs up back out there.

4. LIV Golfers Perform Well

Perhaps the biggest story before this week started was how would the LIV players fare at The Masters. And the answer is that the LIV players performed very well at the year’s first major. Mickelson and Koepka both finished in a tie for 2nd. Patrick Reed had a great tournament as well and finished in a tie for 4th and Joaquin Nieman finished in a tie for 16th. It was a successful week when looking at the legitimacy of the LIV Tour in terms of the quality of player that tour has.

Another something to note was that the PGA Tour vs. LIV drama seemed to be more media driven than actual issues between the players. Rory Mcilroy and Brooks Koepka played practice rounds together before the tournament started which shocked a lot of people. With the LIV tour being such a big story the past year in the sports world, I believe that many were wishing for what we got. In the end it was a two-horse race between Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka. This also served as the PGA Tour vs the LIV Tour battle that many people wanted to see. In the end it was Rahm who won the battle, but I think overall this was a good week for the LIV Tour. That being said, selfishly as a fan I wish all these great players were playing against each other more often.

5. Tiger is not done but will likely need perfect conditions to contend again

It was a strange week for Tiger at The Masters. He was asked, “Can you win this tournament,” and it was the first time in his career that there was not an emphatic “Yes” as his response. Tiger ended up withdrawing before play resumed Sunday after playing in the cold and rain all day on Saturday. He grinded to make his 23rd straight cut at Augusta but started to struggle at the onset of the third round with the miserable conditions.

Tiger mentioned at the beginning of the week that his game was good, but the leg was still a problem. Woods’ caddie Joe LaCava said, “If it wasn’t Agusta he probably wouldn’t be playing…. He still has the power, the swing speed, the shots and the length to contend. The injury is devastating, but if he could take a cart he could contend tomorrow.” This seems to be the same sentiment that came from the Woods camp a year ago. Now two years removed from that horrific leg injury it is a question if it will ever truly get better.

The whole week there seemed to be a genuine appreciation just for the opportunity to be there for Tiger, which is interesting as for most of his career Woods seemed to have blinders that focused solely on winning. But things change as athletes age and maybe there is a realization that just being there is a win at this point. With all that being said, all the reporters inferring that Tiger should retire after this week are insane. Tiger lives to compete, he has talked about how much golf means to him at length over the past few years. And judging his future prospects in the game based off of a crazy bad weather week given his ailments seems a little crazy to me.

Tiger has made it clear that he is going to almost exclusively play the majors and “a few others.” The battle going forward will first be his body, which will dictate how much he can prep before these big events. The other issue that coincides is the lack of competitive reps he is going to have as well. Tiger still has the shots to contend on the right course and with warm conditions, and I would not be so quick to make big declarations saying that he is done just yet.

6. Rory misses cut

There really is not much to say after Rory missed the cut for the second time in 3 years at The Masters. It is another year in which he has failed to get the career Grand Slam, an achievement only five players in the history of the game have. This is a place where Rory does have a lot of scar tissue at now, everyone remembers the collapse in the final round of 2011. Ever since then, there has not been much sustained success for Rory at Augusta National.

Maybe he puts too much pressure on himself to perform this week every year. But if this was not the year the question needs to be asked, when will that time come? With his recent play coming in it seemed like the stars were aligning for a big week for McIlroy. However, it was not mean to be and that marks the two biggest events of the season as missed cuts for Rory. That is just not good from a player of his caliber. It just seems like there is a discomfort level at Augusta for McIlroy as if he is waiting for something bad to happen there. The Northern Irishman will have to wait yet another year for another shot at claiming his first Green Jacket.