Hey Everyone,

We’re creeping up on The Masters, which is very exciting. I have a few posts lined up for next week that I’ve been working on along with a Masters preview pod with Paul Burke that’ll be out on Tuesday.

Some Masters content will be for paid subscribers only. That’s one perk of supporting Bay State Golf. Annual paid subscribers also get my digital book for free ($30 value). It has 168 reviews with pictures. If you purchase the book, it’ll lock you into free annual updates, including new reviews.

This winter, I officially registered Bay State Golf as a media company, so this is now a very real part of my life, and I appreciate any support you can give!

Okay, let’s get into it. A long piece today about Tiger Woods, Gary Woodland, and Anthony Kim.

Texas Open: Michael Thorbjornsen shot 70 (-2) and is T46. Davis Chatfield battled back after a slow start. He was 2-over par after 11 holes but shot even par and is T79. Live Scoring

LECOM Suncoast Championship: The first round of the KFT Tour was suspended on Thursday night. Rob Oppenheim was two-over par after 14 holes, but he woke up this morning feeling dangerous and made two birdies to finish even par and sits T98. Live Scoring

Aramco at Shadow Creek: Megan Khang shot a 77 (+5) in the first round at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas and shot T95. Results

Minor League Golf Tour: Chris Francoeur shot one-under par in the Fountains West April Classic and finished T8. Results

Maridoe Collegiate: Boston College finished 13th out in Texas. The field included four teams in the top 16 in the country. Oklahoma State beat Arizona State by 18 shots for the win. Results

Rum Pointe: The leaderboard had three teams from New England in the top 6. While Iona won the event, Fairfield finished second, Dartmouth took third, and Sacred Heart was sixth. Rasmus Ditzinger of Fairfield shot 68-67 (-9) to win the individual title by eight shots. Results

Cutter Creek: Harvard finished fourth, and Providence finished 14th. Will Spring (Concord, Mass.) finished 72nd, and Evan Buddenhagen (Gloucester, Mass.) was 77th for Providence. Temple’s Aidan Emmerich (Swampscott, Mass.) notched a 14th-place finish. Results

Columbia Spring Invitational: Drexel edged out Penn for the win. Bryant finished 7th, and Merrimack finished 11th. Chad Correia (Norton, Mass.) finished 15th for the Bryant Bulldogs. Brendan Zinck (Melrose, Mass.) finished 47th for Merrimack. Ryan Keyes (Wellesley, MA) finished T15 while competing for Columbia. Results

Seattle Redhawk Invitational: New Haven was out west in Washington. They finished 14th as a team. Abilene Christian won the tournament. Results

Women’s Intercollegiate at Prospect Bay: Dartmouth finished in second place, three shots behind the winner, Penn. Also in the field from New England - Sacred Heart (3rd), Fairfield (4th), and Bryant (7th). Results

Georgia State Invitational: Georgia State won the tournament. Quinnipiac finished in fifth place, and Boston University finished 13th. Results

Coach Mo Invite: Molly Smith (Westford, Mass.) bounced back from an opening round 77 and shot 67-70 to finish in 6th place, two shots behind the winner. Victoria Veator (Bridgewater, Mass.) finished 54th competing for D2 Flagler. Results

Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic: Penn State sophomore Lillian Guleserian (Westwood, MA) finished T54. Results

Coming up this week:

Augusta National Women’s Amateur: If you’re jonesing for some Augusta National a little early, the final round of the ANWA will be televised from noon to 3 p.m. on NBC and on the ANWA website. Asterisk Talley, the best girls junior golfer in the world, has a one-shot lead. They do not play a competitive round on Friday; instead, the entire field gets a practice round at Augusta National. Scoring

I made a very specific video…

It’s been an interesting first three months of 2026 in the world of golf. Gary Woodland and Anthony Kim have notched historic wins that would stand alone as comebacks of the year if they didn’t happen a month apart from one another.

Kim and Woodland are different beasts in how they returned to the winners’ circle. Kim, once a dynamo who seemed poised to win with bravado on the PGA Tour for years, disappeared in 2012. Golf’s sasquatch, beleaguered by addiction, remained in the zeitgeist of golfers who remembered the big belt buckle and bigger personality. His return was always a tantalizing possibility.

In 2024, Kim emerged from hiding and joined LIV Golf. It was the path of least resistance. He didn’t have to battle for exemptions on the PGA Tour; there was no ladder to climb. He was dropped into LIV events and played horribly. The rust was think, but he had the space to play and fail and still make money.

Then, after a year full of bad performances on LIV, Kim was relegated from the league and had to earn his spot through qualifying. He did that and then played more bad golf. Then the magic returned in Australia; he outdueled Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm at The Grange in Adelaide to win.

Since his return to golf, Kim has slowly opened up about his past and his addiction. He speaks about his willingness to change and seek help. The biggest change was becoming a father, and he spoke about his daughter in Hong Kong a few days after his win.

“When she ran out on to that green, that was -- selfishly, that was one of the most special moments of my life,” Kim said. “But that was my goal. I'm a recovering addict, but now I think I'm addicted to making that happen again. There's nothing that's going to stop me from working to get to that point.”

Then there’s Gary Woodland, the beloved 2019 U.S. Open champion who has recovered from brain surgery and PTSD over the last 2.5 years. He won in dominant fashion at the Houston Open this past week.

One would think that brain surgery would sideline someone for a while, but Woodland played 48 events in 2024 and 2025 combined; that’s a normal schedule. Some might call it a heavy schedule. He even finished runner-up in the Houston Open last year.

During his recovery, Woodland was struggling with PTSD. It wasn’t something anyone knew about until three weeks ago when he did an interview with Rex Hoggard and opened up about the struggles.

It was an impactful interview to watch. I couldn’t understand how Woodland was even playing competitive golf as he shared his reality with Hoggard on Golf Channel.

"I'm extremely hypervigilant. We were playing in Napa...a walking scorer startled me, got close to me from behind...my eyesight started to get blurry...Butch, I can't handle it. I start bawling in the fairway...I went in every bathroom to cry the rest of the day."

It seemed like golf should be the last thing on Woodland’s to-do list, but he insisted on playing. On chasing his dream.

The interview was like an exorcism.

It didn’t cure Woodland, but the knowledge that others knew his struggle, no matter how embarrassing it might have been to share, opened a new chapter for him. He didn’t have to pretend anymore.

“Obviously coming out with what I'm battling a couple weeks ago definitely freed me up a little bit. It took a lot off my plate,” he said after his win in Houston. “It allowed me to focus my energy where I need to and that's on me and taking care of myself so I can chase my dreams,” Woodland said.

In stark contrast, we have Tiger Woods. The greatest player of his generation was involved in another car crash on Friday afternoon in a sleepy neighborhood. He was arrested and charged with a DUI, which he pleaded not guilty to, claiming he was looking at his phone and changing the radio when the truck in front of him slowed down.

Imagine being in a position where you blame your phone for the accident because the alternative is worse?

On the Internet, there were knee-jerk reactions to get engagement. Followed by the more thoughtful responses. Followed by the think pieces. And of course, there are always the jokes.

Some scolded the media for not holding Woods accountable over the years and allowing him to act this recklessly, as they used him as their gravy train.

He could have killed someone.

Why doesn’t he have a driver?

Some defended Woods, or at least took the angle of “This is bad, but…”

And then Riggs from Foreplay planted his flag in Crazy Land and openly admitted to protecting Woods.

I refuse to link to his video, but here’s the transcript of the 17-second clip.

Completely normal stuff from Riggs.

It’s incredible to think that someone born the year Tiger won his first major in 1997 might actually remember his four car incidents more clearly than all but two of his majors. This has been Tiger’s life for about 16 years now.

In his public apology/press conference in February of 2010, he said, "I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have to go far to find them."

He had been in treatment for sex addiction for 45 days up to that point and said he was returning for more treatment.

The 2010 apology was typically Tiger. A public display with the press and an audience of friends, including his mother, but not his wife.

The New York Times wrote, “The rest of a news media contingent, which was 300 strong and included journalists from Japan, Australia and Norway, jammed into two ballrooms at the Marriott Sawgrass resort to watch the tightly controlled event.”

David Finchem gave a pretty eye-opening interview after the press conference, as well.

It was more focused on Tiger's return and what kind of distraction he would be when he returns to the PGA Tour, rather than on his well-being.

“I think in this case the good news from today is that, one, he plans to return; two, he could return as early as this year; and three, he clearly has taken the first very visible step in the road to that return,” he said. “So all of that pleases us a great deal.”

Obviously, 2010 is very different from 2026. LeBron’s Decision was on the horizon in June 2010 when he took his talents to South Beach.

This is how major stars used the media. Social media was so new; it wasn’t a way for athletes to connect or make statements, yet.

This time around, Tiger released a public statement on Tuesday (wisely dodging an April Fools drop on Wednesday…) saying he would be stepping away and seeking treatment. On Wednesday, a Florida judge gave him permission to leave the country to seek that treatment.

The online reaction to the statement created the same cycle of engagement farming that Tiger always seems to drive. Tiger is the needle, so while his press release would have made the rounds without much help, people just literally reshared the post without any commentary, not in hopes that people would see it, but that they would see their post of the press release.

This trio of golfers has all had demons to deal with. Addiction and illness can destroy lives and careers.

Kim fell so deep down the hole that it took 12 years to dig out and then two more in the public eye to win. However, over the last few years, once he returned, he did his best to talk about his addiction, and he’s made it a point to try to support others, including his idol, Tiger.

Woodland’s tumor changed how his brain took in information. Danger was suddenly lurking around every corner, even on a golf course, one of the few places that he likely hoped would act as a distraction from his tumor.

And then there’s Tiger, who has been riding a rollercoaster his entire life. One that has felt out of control on many occasions in the last two decades. But he hasn’t done much to let anyone in on the struggle.

Maybe he felt burned as a 21-year-old when he told Charles P. Pierce some off-color jokes in a sprawling feature for GQ Magazine titled “Tiger Woods, the Man. Amen.” Woods thought he was off the record; he wasn’t. That episode caused Tiger to close ranks for basically the rest of his life.

Tiger is 50 years old. His competitive days are behind him. His body is broken. His win in 2019 ushered in what many thought would be the next era of Tiger. He was a dad, lifting Charlie into the air and pulling his shy daughter into his chest. The pinnacle of his career, in some ways. The end of it in many others.

For Tiger to truly open a new chapter, maybe he has to open up. It won’t lead to success on the golf course like Woodland and Kim. But the hope should be that Tiger is in a place to live a long, healthy life, and his latest mug shot isn’t splashed across social media and printed on t-shirts anymore.

In the words of Anthony Kim, “To my own fault, I made a lot of bad decisions. But the only way I can overcome that is by just dealing with it and hitting it head-on.”

It’s up to Tiger; he can learn from Woodland and Kim, and meet this challenge head-on, if he wants to.

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