Indo Sport
Brandel Chamblee's Masters preview | The Tiger cloud, Rory's form & his Augusta tips
03 Apr 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an Irish independent podcast.
Hello, everyone. This is a very good Good Friday offering, if I do say so. Last year, you might remember, it wasn't Good Friday the week before the Masters, but last Friday before the Masters, we spoke to Brandal Chambly. Brandal is a former PGA Tour professional. I think it's fair to say the most incisive, original...
in golf punditry he's redefined the landscape in many ways over the past decade of golf punditry set a higher standard than most people than anyone really in many respects and so we're thrilled to bring him to you and so last year yeah on the Friday we had him on and he told us why it was Rory McIlroy's to lose was the way he put it so happy to say Brandl is with us again very shortly if it ain't broke don't fix it and all that
just to say as well next week golf fans we are spoiling you Alan Shipnuck is going to be on the podcast as well talking to us about his new Rory McIlroy book I recorded that chat this week really enjoyable hour with Alan Shipnuck so that will be coming your way very very soon we think Tuesday but don't hold us to it but very soon one way or another
As ever, our golf coverage and indoor sport is sponsored by Sky Sports, where you can watch each of the majors exclusively live, including all four days of the Masters coming your way next Thursday, April 9th. Get Sky Sports and Sky or stream it with now. So without further ado, this was recorded on Wednesday, was when it suited Brandl. He's making his way over to Augusta as we speak.
Here is the great Brandl Chambly.
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Chapter 2: What recent events have impacted Tiger Woods' career?
Now, Brandl Chambly, you're very welcome. Great to have you on again.
Nice to be on with you, Joe. I always enjoy talking golf with you.
Would you believe, I was just telling the listeners, reminding them that the week before the Masters, last year we spoke to you, actually, and you felt Rory McIlroy had a chance. And I thought, well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So you're welcome again.
There you go. I like that. We're on a run.
One for one. Well, listen, I suspect it's the only thing people are talking about over there and same over here in golfing circles. There was a cloud over the game in the guise of Tiger Woods since last Friday. Brannell, what was your, once you knew that Woods was okay and that everybody was okay, what was your initial reaction when you heard the news Tiger Woods, another car crash?
It was speculative. I mean, you could look at the four incidents that have happened with him in cars going back 15, 16 years and think that it demonstrates a pattern of behavior. And then you begin to connect the dots based upon all the things you've seen, I've seen. You know, when you see him in public, often he's swollen. On days that are not particularly warm, he's sweating.
And sometimes he's lethargic and glassy-eyed. And so from that, you would be speculating. But my first thought was...
lucky that he's alive lucky that he hasn't killed or injured somebody else and this is a disaster waiting to happen and he needs help it was interesting in his statement the first line reads i know and understand the seriousness of the situation i find myself in today and in somewhat kind of typical um tiger fashion that could be uh interpreted in various ways he could be talking just legally
or he could be talking about his relationship with medication. There's always a distance when it comes to Tiger, but it's quite a profound, I mean, if you do think he is talking about his relationship with medication, it's a very profound line, isn't it? I know and understand the seriousness of the situation I find myself in today.
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Chapter 3: How is Rory McIlroy's game assessed ahead of the Masters?
He was asked one question about that in a press conference and said, look, it's all in the police report. And People kind of comment, as you did earlier, on his appearance being lethargic at times. But generally, it's kind of just this kind of awkward elephant in the room. The media will even be, he keeps it that way.
Are we at large, is the media at large, open to severe criticism on this front? Or do you, I suppose, appreciate it's quite a difficult subject matter to raise either with him or from afar without detailed concrete knowledge?
I think what you just said at the end there is, is, is sums it up, you know, without detailed concrete knowledge, you know, I think, but he wasn't charged with anything in that crash in California. They said there was no evidence of impairment other than the fact that he was going 90 and hadn't hit the brake before he hit the curb.
Um, you know, they may well have done him a favor to have drawn his blood and charged him with the DUI. Um,
may well have done you know people who could have been injured in his subsequent accidents of favor uh to your point about the media are they so they deserve criticism for not maybe a little but you know he's not a politician dealing with journalistic sharks who are you know biased to their opinion and go after him every week.
He's dealing with fellow golfers in the audience who risk being banished from any cooperation with Tiger Woods if they ask prying questions. Tiger notoriously hates the prying questions. He's been strategic his entire career in the media center. I would even say to his...
I would even say brilliant, strategically brilliant in the media center, not giving the media anything that he would have to answer to later. You know, he just gives you the bare bones and, uh, you know, who would be better at dealing with the media than Tiger Woods? He's been dealing with them since he was three years of age. But yeah, I mean, after California, I think you're right.
There was one question and nobody really pried and, uh, Everybody depends on Tiger Woods. If he pops up at an event and everybody's hoping for a one-on-one with him or some sort of feedback with him. And so, yeah, there's a quid pro quo that's not spoken, but is inherent nonetheless. The fact that he wasn't, the police didn't have access to him at the very first incident till days later.
The second one, he pleaded down to reckless driving. The third one, he wasn't even charged. And so now we're here where he's gonna have a jury trial, but again, he avoided definitive testing to the extent that they're gonna have to make a leap on circumstantial evidence that he was impaired. And I would argue as painful as it be if he's charged with a DUI, it probably is to his benefit.
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Chapter 4: Why is this considered a potential breakthrough year for Collin Morikawa?
because Rory had a hook glide to a left pin, and he could have wedged in there, and he'd never had that shot before. So second shot of 2025. You could have let us know. You know, there's bookies down the street. We could have sorted something out. I did.
I did let you know. You did. I jumped out of my chair when he hit that shot and said, it's over, as I was watching it live. And then, you know, he ended up shooting 72 that day. And then that night, you know, they were... You know, understandably, if you look at the history of the game, and I believe he was in something like 27th place after that 72.
And it's so rare that anybody comes from, you know, further back than seventh or eighth after the first round there. And they were almost reading this post-motor. And I was like, no, no, no. If you go back and look at the iron shots he hit and how well he's playing. uh, it is not over, not at all. And, you know, rounds of 66, 66 coming back. Uh, it was there.
It was obvious, you know, he was trending and Scotty Scheffler was just enough off his game going into last year's masters that I, you know, he wasn't the favorite in my book and Rory was, and, you know, it, it, it, I couldn't have predicted. Nobody could have predicted, uh, that tug of war on Sunday, uh, The craziest tournament I've ever seen. Swings of momentum.
But yeah, you got to have that shot at Augusta. You got to be able to work the ball both directions at Augusta more than any other golf course. And I'll give you an example. Like if you watch Colin Morikawa, Colin Morikawa will probably be in my three favorites. I may well pick him to win this year. I may.
But he has a real big problem on certain holes, like the 11th, because he doesn't comfortably draw the golf ball. So he gets to 11. He drives it down there. He's got that hook lie. And you need to be able to aim at the right edge of that green and either hit it straight there or draw it in. Or maybe if you are really feeling frisky at the middle of the bunker, back behind the green.
But no more left than that. And because he doesn't comfortably draw the golf ball, he's got to aim more left. And time and time again, he finds the water. He's 14 over par on that hole for his career. Now it's a tough hole. It's a tough hole for everybody, but it's devastating to him.
So if you told me that Colin Morikawa was going to play 11, even par for the week, I may well pick him to win the golf tournament. But that's how important it is to be able to work the ball both directions.
And Rory far too often had those pull hooks, which would put you above the pin 40 feet away, and you're going to three-putt those, and you're going to run off the back of the green and not get him up and down. And his iron play last year was sharp enough where I thought, okay, he's got a chance. And when he hit the shot on one, I thought, that's it. That's it. He's got it.
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Chapter 5: What strategies do players need to succeed at Augusta National?
I know he's not played a lot of golf, but he played a handful of tournaments and a couple of times in the middle East and And in one of those events over there, he led in greens and regulations. So his iron play is much improved over the last year. At the end of the year last year, he was ranked as bad in his iron game as he had been in his entire career.
So, again, you go down the list and there's nobody that doesn't have some caveat that comes with picking them. As opposed to, you know, two years ago, Scotty Scheffler was, you know, He was in a position to be the strongest favorite that I'd ever seen, other than maybe Tiger Woods in 2001. And we didn't have data of him coming in there.
But empirically, you knew Tiger Woods was in a better place by miles than anybody else. And the same was true with Scotty Scheffler in 2024. It wasn't the case in 2025. Everybody had some caveats. Rory had less of them. And there's no tournament that is easier to predict who's going to win in the world of golf than Augusta National.
Not that you can do it consistently, but it's ridiculous to try to actually pick a winner in any other event. I mean, you can get in the Hall of Fame, Jack Nicklaus. You can get in the Hall of Fame winning 3% of your tournaments. in golf. Jack Nicklaus is the greatest major championship player of all time. He won 11% of them, 12% of them.
So it's almost impossible to pick a winner, but it's way easier at Augusta National. First of all, it's a really small field. Second of all, it's weak at the back end of that field. And third, once the golf course defines out who has these shots, the draws off the tee and the high cuts off hook lies. And there's very few people that can do that.
Um, and then on top of that, you have to have a razor sharp short game. I mean, you go back 10 years and the winners of the masters have successfully gotten up and down about 70% of the time. So those two qualities, strokes, gain approach and around the green brilliance. There are very few people that have both those.
Hmm.
So if this is a Masters with lots of caveats, then Rory, it's hard to know. Scheffler, as you said two years ago, was, you know, borderline unbeatable and is somewhat out of sorts this season. People might have seen you on TV doing a great analysis of him on the driving range.
All sorts of things going on with the swing and he's across the line and the swing is shorter and, you know, he's either more open or more close to the top. I can't quite remember. But where is he? Is this all quick fix stuff or is Scheffler an ongoing concern?
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Chapter 6: How do recent performances of top players influence Masters predictions?
Now, Bryson averaged on his career on the PGA Tour about 67% of the greenings. And the person who leads the PGA Tour hit 72% or 73%. The Greatest Year Ever Tiger hit 75%. Nobody was hitting 76% and nobody was hitting 82% of the greenings. It's laughable to think that anybody could play a golf course at a high level and hit that many greens or that Bryson could do that.
It's still the weakest part of his game is iron play. And it's been the weakest part of his game in particular at Augusta National for his entire career. Yes, he's played well there the last two times because he does drive the ball well. And he had a historic week for him around the greens at Augusta last year. He led stroke scan around the greens. But it's just not a great fit for him.
Again, he's the most linear golfer there is, and that's an abstract place. It drives him nuts. He gets in tough spots, like in the 16th hole, day two, day three, the pen will be up or lower. He'll miss it on the other side in three putt. He averages about 43 and change greens a week there. So about nine, 10 less greens than the person who ultimately wins. So
You know, I've seen enough of Bryson to think that, yeah, maybe he'll contend because he does a lot of things well. But his iron play will prove to be a problem for him there. And look, I would put John Rahm amongst the three or four favorites. John, on the other hand, has pretty much everything. Now, his iron play is not his strength, and it hasn't been his strength at Augusta, save one year.
In the years that you could find strokes gain data at Augusta National, and it's only been a handful, so not a huge subset, but he's 20th or 30th on average in strokes gain around the green. In that field, 20th or 30th. So that's a lot of people who hit their irons better than you. So, again, everybody's got their caveats. Everybody's got their question marks.
Jon Rahm has got a short, quick golf swing. You know, that proves problematic in stressful major championship situations. He's won a couple majors. He's a monstrosity of a talent. It's really, really sad that he went to live because I'd like to see how good he was going to be and how good he could be.
save one player going to live has been hugely detrimental to the games of those who went there when they try to jump back and play at the elite level. So I look at their success on live tour kind of askance. Uh, I dive into all the numbers. I look at what they're doing over there and I'm just not sure that it translates to the same level of golf and the elite level.
Um,
But I would look for, you know, it wouldn't surprise anybody if they both contended. But I think Bryson will struggle with his iron play again. And Rahm may get just a little bit too quick and double cross himself. In the years, the last couple of years, he's had problems with the double cross. You know, trying to hit a burning fade and he pull hooks it. We saw it at the PGA Championship.
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Chapter 7: What are the unique challenges players face at Augusta compared to other courses?
I almost would say nobody's the clear favorite, and there's Scotty Scheffler, John Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Colin Morikawa. and maybe even Cameron Young are like in a dead heat right now as five best favorites. And that's why I threw in those other names just to give you some off the radar.
I almost, like Wednesday night when we make our picks, it's almost not even been fair to pick Scotty Sheff for the last couple of years. And I always enjoy, well, who is nobody thinking about? And yeah, I mean, yeah, some people are looking at Siwoo Kim. but not really. But it wouldn't surprise me if Siwoo Kim were on the first page of the leaderboard.
It wouldn't surprise me if Minwoo Lee was on the first page of the leaderboard. It wouldn't surprise me if Jake Knapp were on the first page of the leaderboard. So it's always more interesting to pick players that nobody else is looking at to see who's got a chance. Will Zalatouris was that way a couple of years ago. Everybody was... looking at Scottie or Rory.
But that's the fun part about Augusta National is it gives you a chance to actually pick a winner. It's one of the few majors where you can do that.
Well, listen, who's my pick? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. It is. I mean, predicting golf winners is the ultimate fool's errand. I know you're saying it's easy around Augusta, but I don't think it's ever easy. I mean, I didn't have a pick for you with five holes to go last year. How am I meant to pick now? You know what I mean?
It wasn't that crazy. I can't even imagine what it was like in Ireland watching that event.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. I saw Johnson Wagner saying, like, never rule out Jordan Spieth. And I sort of had, you know, become quite comfortable, sadly, ruling out Jordan Spieth around Augusta. That would be fun. Sandra Shoffley seems to be coming good. Matt Fitzpatrick has obviously gone well in recent times. Yeah. It's just so hard.
And then, like, I mean, if at the end of the first round, Justin Rose looks very good again...
You know, but here's breath last year, you know. Well, he's the last time there was a playoff. It was with Justin Rose. Exactly. You know, Sergio Garcia as well.
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