Dan Rapaport On The Masters

…Eli Manning had the group on The Eli Manning Show and it turns out they’re the reason the Giants notched one of their Super Bowl wins. By the way, where are they now that the Giants really need them?

If you played a D1 sport between 2016 and 2024, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Former athletes are cashing in on back payments of NIL money and Jarred Vanderbilt is leading the charge among NBA players to make sure they file the right paperwork. Everyone else, find a good accountant or whatever.  

ICYMI Grand Slam Track, a new professional track league founded by legendary sprinter Michael Johnson, had its first meeting in Jamaica this past weekend. Gabby Thomas won the 400 and celebrated with a quick Dougie (kinda) and Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith was proper chuffed to have won his event. We just wanted to say proper chuffed. 

Chris Paul told Andscape he’s not going anywhere (he hopes). The 40-year-old doesn’t plan on retiring yet. If we could retire at 40 we probably would, but we are just built different (worse) and paid a little less too. 

If you’re a collector, good luck fetching this one-of-one Shohei Ohtani card that features his dog, Decoy. Who’s a good world’s-best-baseball-player’s dog??

Paige Bueckers’ little brother left her a heartfelt voicemail ahead of the championship game (perhaps it was the key to her success). 

It’s Masters Week, and golf’s disruptive creators are the reason the sport’s coverage is no longer just whispers. We chatted with Dan Rapaport, host of the live golf show, Dan on Golf, and Editor At Large of Pro Shop, the minds behind The Creator Classic and Netflix’s smash hit, Full Swing. Our range session spanned everything from the new generation of golf storytellers, Masters traditions that might be more open to disruption than you think (Masters TikTok!), and his first acts if appointed the Czar of Golf. 

OB: Golf is everywhere right now. Everyone’s watching, everyone’s playing. How has the new generation of creators and storytellers filled a void for golf-loving audiences?

DR: When I started at Sports Illustrated, we were looking for spicy headlines and clicks. That was the business that we're in. So, I think what I've been able to do well is cultivate genuine relationships with the best players in the world and get them to open up in a way that makes them super relatable and just super real. 

Athletes now have access to a huge platform with their own social media channels, and it just doesn't really make sense for them to be super honest. And when there's a press conference or whatever, that's not a normal way that humans interact. So, I've just tried to remove the veil. I feel like I have the best job in the world, getting to walk inside the ropes with the best players on the planet. And I just wanted to take people on that journey. And I felt like the best way to do that was just have someone with me with a camera going.

OB: How is the Masters evolving and changing the way they tell stories to keep up?

DR: I think the Masters is underrated with their media strategy. They've had the best app for a number of years and the best user experience. They've got all the final rounds on YouTube from the last 50 years or however long. There’s so many different ways that you can consume the tournament.  

I think now they're shipping out pimento cheese and Azalea cocktails out to people around the world. And they're huge on TikTok… so there's a lot of very smart, very savvy younger people in the room helping them with their content strategy. It’s sort of left the other tournaments in the dust when it comes to cultural cache.  

OB: Speaking of cache and evolution, what are some Masters traditions you hope never change?

DR: No phones on the golf course. As annoying as it is, for someone like me who, a big part of my job is tweeting and making videos, it actually results in most everybody watching the golf course from inside the media center because in addition to not having your phone, the scoreboards are manually operated. So you go out there and just really to catch a vibe. I think people are extremely present.

I also like how cheap the food is. I think you could buy everything on the menu for $43 whereas if you go to a baseball game or a football game a hot dog might be $14. There’s a purity in the experience. 

OB: If you were elected czar of golf tomorrow, what's the first big change you’re making?

DR: I would have tournaments permanently in New York and Chicago. I think it's crazy that two of the biggest cities just don't have a PGA tour event. They've gone to Chicago recently and the crowds are always insane, same thing with New York. 

Follow Dan’s Masters coverage all week on YouTube.

If you’re a sports fan with a pulse, you’ve seen that Houston upset Duke in the Final Four this weekend. But have you seen all the memes? They’re arguably the most important part, after all. Duke fans, we still love you, but you might want to look away. 

Some Duke fans are upset about a particular call they feel decided the game. While others insist the result wasn’t decided by that call. 

Regardless of what you believe, you’ve probably never seen this many somber Duke fans.

And when the clock hit 0, we all saw this image from White Lotus in our heads, and on our timelines. 

And since the White Lotus season finale was last night (we won’t give any spoilers because we care about you), some based their predictions on the outcome of the game.

Houston (and maybe the rest of America) couldn’t believe it. 

It did help some fans find humor in the current American economy, though. 

Congrats to Houston and sorry to Duke, but it did kinda feel like we all needed to laugh.

Basketball’s most out of pocket duo Syd and TP went to the Final Four in Tampa and it went exactly as you might expect. 

@yahoosports

This iconic duo was pure entertainment 🤣 #cbb #basketball #marchmadness #finalfour