Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m excited to be going to Madison Square Garden tonight for the first time since the start of the pandemic as the Rangers gear up for the playoffs.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏌️♂️ Jon Rahm’s statement win
⛹️♀️ Why Aliyah Boston is the perfect No. 1 pick
😬 Two ugly NBA altercations
If you're reading this on SI.com, you can sign up to get this free newsletter in your inbox each weekday at SI.com/newsletters.
Rahm ran away with it
Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
Yesterday’s final round of the Masters would have been more dramatic if Jon Rahm hadn’t been so much better than everyone else in the field.
Brooks Koepka began the final round with a two-shot lead over Rahm but made three bogies on the front nine to watch his lead slip away. (The irony of LIV Golf’s top player fading after 54 holes was not lost on anyone.) That opened the door for several other players. Phil Mickelson shot a final-round 65 to finish in a tie for second with Koepka at 8-under. Jordan Spieth rebounded from a third-round 76 to shoot 66 in the last round and finish in a tie for fourth. Sahith Theegala had the third-lowest round of the afternoon, a 5-under 67 that was good enough for a ninth-place finish and included this dramatic chip-in from behind the 16th green.
But none of them were as consistently good this week as Rahm, who went 65-69-73-69 to win the tournament at 12 under par. It’s Rahm’s second major championship after the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. He’s played in nine tournaments in ’23 and won four of them, with two other top-10 finishes.
The win was just another notch on Rahm’s impressive résumé. He now has 10 career top-10 finishes at majors and has finished in the top 10 on the PGA Tour money list four times, including first in 2021. But his performance Sunday afternoon at Augusta was as impressive as any of those accomplishments. Playing alongside a struggling Koepka, Rahm kept his composure and played well enough to make sure the challenges from the other low scorers were in vain. It was a round that “showed again what has been clear for a while: He might just be the finest player of his generation,” Michael Rosenberg writes.
Koepka had a very good week. But Rahm clearly outplayed him and everybody else. The players who made a run Sunday began their rounds without pressure. Let’s not pretend Patrick Reed’s 68 or Sahith Theegala’s 67 were as impressive as Rahm’s 69.
As Rahm came off the 9th green, he saw that Spieth and Mickelson were coming for him. He played the final nine with the kind of consistency that comes from extreme levels of talent, poise and preparation.
At 28, Rahm is entering what should be the prime of his career. He’ll be a threat—and maybe even the favorite—to win this season’s other three majors, and perhaps many more after this year.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Emma Baccellieri argues it’s time for the NCAA to negotiate its women’s basketball media rights separately.
- Ahead of tonight’s WNBA draft, Clare Brennan explains why Aliyah Boston is the perfect fit for the Fever with the No. 1 pick.
- Chelsea hiring Frank Lampard as its interim manager was a strange choice that looked foolish in the club’s underwhelming loss to Wolves this weekend, Jonathan Wilson writes.
- LIV Golf had three players finish in the top five at the Masters.
- According to Jason Day, the reason Tiger Woods withdrew from the 2022 PGA Championship was that he had a screw in his surgically repaired leg pierce the skin.
- Rudy Gobert punched teammate Kyle Anderson during an argument on the sideline. Another Timberwolves player, Jaden McDaniels, broke his hand punching a wall in frustration.
- Two Clippers players also had an altercation on the sideline during their regular-season finale.
- Odell Beckham Jr. is joining the Ravens in his return to the NFL after sitting out last season while recovering from a torn ACL.
The top five...
… things I saw yesterday:
5. Udonis Haslem’s interview after his last NBA regular-season game.
4. David Pastrnak’s goal to complete his hat trick in the Bruins’ record-setting win.
3. Shohei Ohtani’s long home run on a pitch way inside.
2. Jon Rahm’s story about the text he got from Zach Ertz before his first round at the Masters.
1. Draymond Green’s response to Rudy Gobert’s punching a teammate.
SIQ
On this day in 1945, due to a player shortage amid World War II, the NFL’s Brooklyn Tigers merged with the team from Boston that went by what name?
- Braves
- Bulldogs
- Reds
- Yanks
Friday’s SIQ: Who are the only pair of brothers to throw a no-hitter in MLB history? (Friday was the anniversary of when the feat was accomplished.)
- Jay (“Dizzy”) and Paul (“Daffy”) Dean
- Bob and Ken Forsch
- Greg and Mike Maddux
- Jeff and Big Jeff Pfeffer
Answer: Bob and Ken Forsch. On April 16, 1978, Bob threw a no-hitter for the Cardinals against the Phillies. Almost exactly a year later, on April 7, 1979, Ken threw a no-hitter for the Astros against the Braves in Houston’s second game of the season. (April 7 was the earliest date for a no-hitter until Hideo Nomo threw one April 4, 2001.)
Bob was glad his older brother had equaled his feat.
“That’s just great, isn’t it?” Bob told a UPI reporter. “I think it’s fantastic. The only bad part is that it’s [Ken’s] first game of the season so it’s all downhill from here. I’m so happy that he pitched one—I know exactly how he feels. Now that we’re the first brother act, it’s unbelievable … just fantastic.”
Brothers Pascual (Expos) and Mélido Pérez (White Sox) also threw unofficial no-hitters that did not count because they were shortened by rain. Incredibly, Dizzy and Paul Dean also came close to throwing no-hitters—on the very same day. In the first game of a doubleheader Sept. 21, 1934, Dizzy threw a three-hit shutout against Paul’s Dodgers. In the second game, Paul went out and threw a no-hitter, leading Dizzy to famously quip, “If I had known you were gonna pitch a no‐hitter, I’d have pitched one, too.”
