The amateurs are non-professionals, although in this era of NIL, are there truly any amateurs? Winners of the Latin America Amateur, the Asia Pacific Amateur, the British Amateur, the US Amateur, the US Mid-Amateur, the NCAA Division I indiviaul, and the runner-up to the US Amateur, traditionally receive a dance card for Augusta’s spring invitational. If an amateur makes the cut, he earns at least a silver medal, and possibly a gold one for finishing as low amateur. If no non-professional survives to play the weekend, no medals are awarded. This year, golfers with fun names like Fang, Pulcini, Laopakdee, and Herrington (along with Howell and Holtz) gave their all, but came up short. Ethan Fang and Jackson Herrington posted +8 tallies over two days, four shots higher than needed to survive the cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, the Olds<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When you win the Masters, you receive a lifetime invitation to the tournament. No more need to sweat the qualifying criteria. The invitation comes with a caveat. When a champion feels that he is no longer capable of playing to a standard, he should retire himself. This comes no later than the age of 65. Zach Johnson, Fred Couples, Jose Maria Olazabal, Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, and Angel Cabrera stood for the senior set. Two-time winner Olazabal gave us a thrill on Thursday, when he sat minus-two for much of the day, before finishing on +2. On Friday, Olazabal was no longer the Olly of old; he was simply old Olly. He tallied 79 shots to miss by five. Zach Johnson, the 2007 champion, missed the cut by two shots. Hey, at least he proved that the best old guy was better than the best young amateur, at least this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, the favorites<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Each year, three handfuls of golfers arrive at 2604 Washington Road, annointed as the chosen one by at least one journalist, fellow professional, or barroom scrapper. Each year, one of those handfuls departs 48 hours earlier than anticipated and hoped. For whatever reason, be it a 3-D printer malfunction or an overdose of hubris, this year just isn’t their year. Among the departed, Bryson DeChambeau stands out. He was a top-five pick to win this year, alongside Rory and Scottie. He even brought a 3-D printed five iron, that he himself wittled at a high-tech work bench. Bryson will figure it out one of these years, won’t he? He has two US Opens, for goodness’ sake. Aksnay Bhatia, recently married and recently featured on Good Good, <\/em>also checked out early from his Virbo. He and Bryson finished on +6, a meager two strokes too many. A bunch of LIV guys also packed up their team gear for Saturday and Sunday. Among them are Cameron Smith (remember him?), Tom McKibbin (heard of him?). and Carlos Ortiz (\u00bf<\/strong>Qui\u00e9n?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n All right, that’s enough for today. Enjoy the fellows who did make the cut and cheer for the winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The golf world is excited by a lad from Northern Ireland, who somehow stole a dozen eggs shots from the Augusta National, and has a six-shot advantage over two other lads. Wooooppeeeee. The fellows that deserve our attention today, are the lads who packed their bags last night, and headed out of town, dismayed. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mo-golf"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buffalogolfer.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Cut2-Medium-1.png?resize=768%2C953&ssl=1\")
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