From Masters’ Easter eggs to Cameron Smith’s wedding to busy travel schedules, get caught up.
The Masters, LIV Golf, Claire Rogers
Hello friends, and welcome to the first Rogers Report of 2024! I’m very excited to have you here. I spent the holidays in Rhode Island doing a whole lot of nothing with my family and it was spectacular. I’m looking forward to a lot of travel, viral moments and Scoops this year, but let’s take a look at the biggest and best golf memes from 2023 first.
From his hand gesture at the Masters to being dialed in at a Panthers game to his Zoom background during the Ryder Cup captain’s picks meeting, Brooks Koepka led the field in Stroke Gained: Memes in 2023. Tiger also ended the year on a very high note with his “big dog” moment at the PNC Championship. That’s an accomplishment that surely has to be up there with his Masters victories.
How the pros spent the holidays
OK, so TaylorMade’s Christmas card may have been taken before the holidays, but this is my Rogers Report and I’m deciding to include it here because it’s just that good.
TaylorMade brought back Tiger’s 2016 Mac Daddy Santa costume, gave it an upgrade, added some elves and put together an incredible video.
We’ll get to more on Tiger later, but for now I’d like you to focus your attention on Collin Morikawa‘s wrapping skills (or lack thereof).
Morikawa’s wrapping is on the right in the image below.
As a gal with two brothers, I am not at all surprised by Morikawa’s performance here. But it got me thinking about how much I’d like to see professional golfers compete in a tournament that includes mundane tasks. Who loads the dishwasher the best? Who takes on the grocery store the most efficiently? Who puts the utensils in the right spot while setting the table? Who doesn’t forget which gas pump they’re at when they go inside to pay with cash? Who merges on to the highway the most smoothly? We need to have a Mundane Task Olympics for the pros and I’m willing to organize it. My guess is the guys with big families would medal.
This brings us to the Big Family portion of this holiday segment, where we’ll check out what the Finau and Day families have been up to.
There’s nothing I love more than a good Christmas card, so shout out to the Days for sharing what looks like a photo from theirs on Instagram. I personally won’t be sharing the card my dad sent out this year with you all, because he chose to ignore the fact that I look extremely awkward in it and therefore it will not be shared any further than it already has been.
Next up we have the Finaus, who headed to Hawaii shortly after Christmas to ring in the New Year with family before The Sentry.
In terms of working remotely, the Hawaii swing can be kind of a pain (late nights on the East Coast), but it’s definitely fun to watch. And for players and their families, it seems like a fun place to be to be on New Year’s Eve.
After seeing a lot of others do this online, I made a list of things that are “in” and things that are “out” in 2024 for golf.
The following photo captures exactly why Luke Donald and his family are “in” in 2024.
Look at those Ryder Cup pajamas. Donald will be the European Ryder Cup captain again in 2025, and I hope the matching Ryder Cup attire never ends for the Donalds. They had matching Jordans in Rome, matching t-shirts at their victory party and now this. I am more in on the Donald family than I’ve ever been.
Next up we have Nelly Korda, who spent Christmas with her family and then New Year’s with her friend in Vail.
I am happy to report to you all that Korda did not go skiing. We cannot risk the coolest gal in golf getting injured this year. It looks like she spent her time in Vail the same way I’d want to: going on walks, taking lots of photos and staying warm.
Finally, we have Jena Sims and Brooks Koepka, who celebrated their first Christmas as parents.
I’d include their New Year’s Eve posts, but the Rogers Report is a family-friendly establishment, meaning I am committed to keeping things PG here.
The newlyweds
Cameron Smith and Shanel Naoum got hitched in at the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Brisbane on Saturday, and most of the guys in attendance had mullets. What a way to celebrate!
Daily Mail
I’m not really recognizing anyone in the photo besides Smith and Marc Leishman, so I leave it to you all to provide more. So here’s what I dug up on Smith’s better half (thanks, LinkedIn!): Shanel Naoum is a Chiropractic Physician in Florida, attended the University of North Florida, is a mentor at the Girl Scouts of America and speaks both English and Arabic. She was in the Kappa Delta sorority. Naoum specializes in auto injuries as well as extremity and spinal disorders. I specialize in Tweeting and eating ice cream, so the two of us probably don’t have much in common. Anyway, congrats to the happy couple!
Augusta National’s Yule Log
The Masters shared an extremely relaxing video of their fireplace in Butler Cabin just before Christmas. What’s cool about Augusta National is the fact that they can get people to tune into a video like this for a full hour and know that they’ll freak out over it.
Anyway, as a gal who is always looking for hidden meanings in things (it come from being too obsessed with all-things Taylor Swift), I’d like to share a list of “Easter eggs” that can be found in the Masters Yule Log video. There are a handful of artifacts as well as lots of merchandise, which already has me very excited to see what new things the Masters merchandise shop has in April.
- Clifford Robert’s green leather chair
- Eisenhower’s golf sweater
- Tiger’s wedge from that chip-in on the 16th hole
- Gene Sarazen’s 4-wood
- Sam Snead’s iconic straw hat
- Vintage Masters needlepoint pillow (I’m looking into taking up a new hobby or two in 2024. Should I look into needlepoint?)
- Masters caddie nutcracker (my personal favorite)
- Augusta National needlepoint ornaments
- Augusta Pine scented candle
- Augusta National gift boxes (fun fact: giving anyone a single gift in a Masters giftbox automatically makes it count as two gifts.)
- Masters trumpeter nutcracker
- Holiday edition Masters gnome
- Masters Invitational envelope (another personal favorite, although I will never acquire this)
- Santa’s milk and cookies, served in a Masters holiday plaid mug and plate
- Signature Augusta National match books (an understated yet powerful flex to own these)
This list is making me miss the holidays already, but also telling me that I need to pick up some holiday merchandise at the 2024 Masters. I never think far enough ahead and end up buying things I’ll wear immediately (i.e. hats and sweatshirts). Someone please remind me to get an ornament in April.
Tiger turns 48
Tiger celebrated his 48th birthday on December 30th, which allowed Justin Thomas to post the ultimate flex: a happy birthday post for his good pal.
What I really wanted here was an excuse to share Justin Ray‘s incredible list of Tiger statistics which will impress you if you haven’t seen them, and remind you just how good the 82-time PGA Tour champion is if you have.
And to conclude this segment of the Rogers Report, I’ve included a photo from the 2007 Deutsche Bank Championship, where I thought I looked so cool at the time.
You’re welcome for cropping out my Old Navy khaki Bermuda shorts.
The pros’ insane travel schedules
The lives of PGA Tour and LPGA Tour pros often sounds glamorous: visiting beautiful courses, large purses and oh yeah, playing golf for a living. That all may be true, but the travel schedule on these tours is brutal. The travel itself seems like a full-time job. I’m exhausted for days after I cover professional golf events, so I can’t even imagine how the pros play their best golf after taking these flights.
I know, I know. None of the pros play in every single event. But they often do a handful at a time, and those miles definitely add up!
So, good luck to all the pros in 2024. May the traveling odds be in your favor.
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