Well, it happened with the TV ratings. CBS said on Tuesday that the final round of McIlroy's second straight victory at Augusta National was its most-watched Sunday in 11 years by averaging 13.99 million viewers (Nielsen Big Data + Panel), up 8 percent from 2025 (no Big Data). Coverage peaked at more than 20 million—the largest since 2013 when Adam Scott won in a playoff. Big Data, by the way, is Nielsen's newest way to collect viewership from more than 70 million Smart TVs that combine with set-top devices and the old-fashioned individual household panels.  Far more accurate and makes us wonder how much bigger numbers could have been in the past. 

Michelle Wie West did that on Tuesday, disclosing at the Mizunho Americas Open media day: “I’d like to announce that our first sponsor exemption goes to me." The LPGA tournament is in early May at Mountain Ridge Country Club in New Jersey, and her intent is clear: It will be a warm-up for the mostly retired 36-year-old's entry in the U.S. Women’s Open, June 4-7, at Riviera Country Club in her adopted hometown of L.A. The five-time LPGA winner is playing on the eligibility she earned by capturing the major in 2014 at Pinehurst No. 2. (The normal champions' exemption is 10 years, but she gets one extra year for each of her two pregnancy leaves.)

It’s been three years since a golf obsessive took a divot/souvenir from Augusta National. They then posted it on Reddit, watched a little post go way too viral and then promptly deleted their account. Of course, the Internet lives forever, so the post will exist in perpetuity. But it was probably smart to go into anonymity with how the green jackets see everything. Not worth it for a little online fame. Very few things are.

Interestingly, that’s one shy of the all-time U.S. Open record set last year at Oakmont. Golfers from all 50 stats and 49 foreign countries have entered. The youngest is 13-year-old Niko Ameredes, a two-time Drive, Chip and Putt national finalist. The oldest is 71-year-old Mike Caporale, a PGA pro in Manhasset, N.Y.

Fifty-one players are currently fully exempt, include 10 past U.S. Open champions. Five other former winners are entered but must advance through Final Qualifying, including Jordan Spieth, whose 10-year exemption for his 2015 win at Chambers Bay just ran out.

Local Qualifying starts next week and will be held at 109 sites. We’ve got the complete schedule here and will update the results regularly.

Thanks to Rory McIlroy’s predictably bleak Whoop recovery Monday morning, we know he got after it Sunday night, and we know that his biggest heart rate spike wasn’t even over a golf shot, but in celebration—from 135 beats per minute on the 18th tee, to 150 bpm after sinking the winning putt. Which, it turns out, isn’t that unusual. In 2021, we wrote about Nelly Korda’s Whoop data after winning the women’s golf tournament in the Tokyo Olympics. As with McIlroy, Korda’s heart rate jumped to 154 bpm on the final green. The craziest part? It climbed all the way to 172 bpm while standing on the podium receiving her medal.