American writer Shane Bacon was recently on an episode of The Fried Egg podcast. While discussing his experience covering the 2024 Masters, he spoke about the course getting difficult after it underwent slight changes in the last two years. He also talked about Scottie Scheffler’s dominant, run and the players who could become his potential competitors in the future.
In the latter half of the podcast, Bacon also criticized the PGA Tour’s signature events [such as the RBC Heritage], which were created to compete with LIV Golf’s hefty payouts, and their inability to draw enough attention like the four golf majors.
Shane dived deep into these aspects of golf that have been changing the face of the sport for both good and for worse. With Scheffler on a hot run this season, with four wins and a green jacket, he is definitely the best golfer today, and competing with him means bringing something more to the table. Let’s take a closer look at some of the talking points Bacon had in The Fried Egg podcast:
The Tricky Nature Of The Augusta National Golf Course
At the beginning of the podcast, Shane Bacon and host Andy talked about the Masters tournament course being very tricky compared to the other golf courses across the globe. By taking the example of the 13th hole and its constantly changing nature, the American writer said,
“I can’t think of another golf course where you know right away if the person has a shot or doesn’t. I was thinking 13. You’d see the second shots on 13, especially Friday and Saturday. You’d see those second shots creep over the back of 13 in that little swale.”
He claimed that without proper knowledge of playing at Augusta National, anyone could judge the complexity of the course just by watching it.
“And you know, again, without even playing the golf course and having no real course knowledge, you know how hard that golf shot is. And there’s no other course on the planet like that where people truly know the goods and the bads of where players can hit shots.”
Bacon truly highlighted how important it was to play on the course to actually experience it firsthand and understand the complexities that came with it. One golfer who ended up mastering the 13th hole on the course this year was the world no. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Shane Bacon Praises Scottie Scheffler’s Efforts On the 13th And 15th Hole At The 2024 Masters
The American writer acknowledged that the Augusta National course had undergone changes on its 13th and 15th holes in the past couple of years. He described the two holes being unyielding after the club decided to push back the tee to around 10 to 15 yards.
However, Shane pointed out that Scheffler was the only player to clear these two holes effectively during the entire week.
“I mean, you know, it’s not like it wasn’t, he didn’t need to do it, but he did it because it takes the serious trouble and the big numbers out of play,” Bacon on Scheffler’s brilliance.
Shane added,
“The dude that wins the golf tournament, the best golfer on the planet, the guy that’s been on this crazy run over the last 25 months took on those par fives and pulled the golf shots off. And so that’s more to me, the dudes chasing the guys that want to win the Masters that haven’t won it yet.”
He, thus, highlighted the two-time major winner’s dominant run in the past 25 months, and his persistence in chasing other players.
Who is Scottie Scheffler’s Competition?
The American writer raised concerns about the lack of competition for the current World No. 1. Although he did acknowledge Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, and Dustin Johnson as great players, he felt that the gap between Scheffler and the next golf superstar had become huge.
“The gap from Scottie to the next best person currently in professional golf feels like a bigger gap than Tiger to anybody of his era when he was in his prime,” later on, Bacon predicted, “He’s probably got to win five times that another major this year is probably the feeling I’d sit in.”
Bacon wondered if Ludvig Aberg could be “the guy” standing up against Scheffler in the next five years, and praised the Swedish prodigy’s talent and maturity at 24.
“I wonder if Ludwig’s the guy that Scotty’s going to battle with over the next five years. Because it sure seems like talent, length, maturity, I mean his ability to just act like he’s 40 when he’s 24 is incredible and how he doesn’t get up and down.”
Bacon Criticizes PGA Tour Signature Events
The national sports broadcaster compared Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson’s era with the competition levels at the current PGA Tour signature events. He felt that the signature events were falling off “a bit flat.”
“Like, we don’t get the matchups in professional golf and this is what the signature events were supposed to be. And unfortunately, I think the signature events have fallen a bit flat after year one, right? They’re just not necessarily working. So we need majors.”
He focussed on the RBC Heritage and talking about its present status, Bacon joked off by saying,
“It’s no knock to Harbor Town. It’s no knock to anything. It’s just simply put you can’t have an NFC championship game and expect people to care the week after the Super Bowl.”
By the end of the podcast, Shane Bacon expressed his wish to see a potential face-off between Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, and Ludvig Aberg in the next three majors, to fill up the huge gap between the World No. 1 and his competitors.
The second major of the 2024 season, the PGA Championship, starts on May 16. Will Scheffler be able to win another major? With the kind of dominant run that he has been on lately, it seems probable but still far-fetched.
