Bones Mackay is back in Augusta National this week, a course where he has been caden Phil Mickelson with three green jackets.
The 59 -year -old Caddy did not take the trip last year, while he and Justin Thomas separated just one week before the tournament after about two and a half years of work together.
But now, as an analyst of NBC again, he is on the call to tradition like no other.
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Jim “Bones” Mackay heads for Green Put Green during a round for masters at the Augusta National Golf Club. (Kyle Terada-USA TODAY NETWORK)
And, like many of us, it has a specific rooted interest.
“I think Scottie Scheffler is the favorite, but there is no doubt that Rory McILroy is the sentimental favorite,” said Mackay in a recent interview with PK Press Club Digital. “You would hate seeing a guy like Rory playing his whole career and not winning masters and enjoying the advantages of the champions dinner and having this green jacket. He is too good guy and has done too much for the game to happen. As much as Scottie is the favorite of the bets, I will be secretly rooted for Rory to have a good week.”
This year, McILroy is able to use IBM Hole Insights to try to get this long -term jacket. IBM Hole Insights 2.0 operates Watsonx Technologies, including LLM granite, to offer ideas based on data around each shot taken on each national Augusta hole.
Golfers, and even fans, can see more than 180,000 shots and ball positions to give a context for each hole as well as the ideas of the Caddies of the former masters tournament.
Golf Channel during a reporter Bones Mackay course during the first round of the Sony Open golf tournament at the Waialae Country Club.
Bones said technology is now fully used for golfers and caddies.
“This is an incredibly useful feature for players and caddies, because they can see what is going on on the golf course before their turn, consult and see how certain holes play,” said Mackay. “It is starting to take over now. You will have players who come out and have this information from IBM and say:” I absolutely cannot hit him in the left bunker on the fourth hole in Augusta national today according to the place where the flag is. It gives you a real idea of what you should and should not do, it improves the experiences of the fans and gives you just a golf course and give you a golf course and give you a golf course that Augusta National is because there is no other journey like this. “
McILroy is still absent from a green jacket, and his major drought reached more than a decade after winning four before the age of 26. He almost brought back the US Open last year, but he missed two putts worth 6.5 feet in two of the last three holes, all while Bryson Dechambeau had a legendary at the top of 18 years in Pinehurst.
McILroy has already argued, but even his last 81 round in 2012 is still looming.
“At Augusta National, he can certainly enter your head a little. It is so much easier to win the tournament a second and third time than the first time,” said Mackay. “Scottie will always have this green jacket. He will always come back to the Tuesday evening dinner, and Rory desperately wants to be part of it. He has a game perfectly suited to this golf course, but it’s more a mental battle than physical.”
Rory McILroy launched during a masters training round at the Augusta National Golf Club. (Images Kyle Terada-Imagn)
McILroy will semet with Ludvig Aberg and Akshay Bhatia at 1:12 p.m. Thursday.
