It might be something of an exaggeration to say Rory McIlroy is suddenly feasting on the rewards, records and remuneration (a mere US$4.5 million) that come from winning The Masters. However, 15 consecutive years of failure to win at Augusta hasn’t all been in vain. It was obvious last year and again this year that McIlroy has acquired a vast reservoir of what to do and what not to do around this devilishly testing course. No-one in the field of his generation has as much inn

The golf calendar’s most awaited week has arrived. The Masters. As Ryan Fox, no longer a Masters rookie, observed a few days ago, “It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve played Augusta, every time you enter through the gates and take the drive up Magnolia Lane to the clubhouse, it’s a goose bump experience”. Ryan, unfortunately, could hardly have been more ill-prepared, after being laid low a month ago with kidney stones. Since then he’s only played two rounds of competitive

Shooting a score of 60 in any tournament, be it as an amateur or a top professional, is a moment of unalloyed joy which very few golfers experience at any time in their career. Yet both New Zealand’s top two golfers, Ryan Fox and Lydia Ko, have joined this elite club this year. Ryan Fox, playing in a charity event prior to starting his 2026 overseas playing schedule, wheeled out a 10-under par 60 on the Akarana Golf course in Auckland, setting a new course record that will no