Justin Thomas today announced that he has parted ways with his caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay.

In a statement posted on social media. Thomas wrote:

The 30-year-old hired Bones back in 2021 and won his second major championship with the veteran on the bag at the 2022 PGA Championship.

It remains to be seen who Thomas will have on the bag next week at the opening major of the year.

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A few weeks ahead of the Masters, Rory McIlroy is working with legendary swing coach, Butch Harmon.

McIlroy has been struggling with a “left miss” with his iron shots, which he spoke about a few weeks ago with the Irish Golfer.

“Another great week off the tee. I feel like I found a good feeling with the putting as well. I putted well the last three days. Just the iron play’s let me down,” he said.

“It’s sort of been the same story the last few weeks, sort of struggling with a left miss with the irons and it’s hard because the longer clubs, the woods, feel so good and then the irons don’t really feel that good, so I feel like I’m having to put like two different swings on the woods and the irons at the minute, which is a struggle. But everything else feels pretty good, so if I can get the irons tightened up, I feel like I’ll be in a good spot.”

The following week, the four-time major champion got off to a fast start at TPC Sawgrass for The PLAYERS Championship, grabbing the first-round lead, but struggled to keep momentum and finished T19.

That’s when he went to see Butch.

It isn’t the first time McIlroy and Harmon have linked up. Rory has consulted with Tiger Woods’ former coach a few times in the past (and probably much more often than many people realize), most recently in 2020.

McIlroy is set to tee it up at the Valero Texas Open this week, where we will begin to look for signs of the Harmon/McIlroy pairing paying off.

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On Tuesday, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee took to X to share his thoughts on some of the best players in the lead up to the 2024 Masters Tournament.

A big topic early in the week of The Masters on the LIVE FROM set will be how poorly many of the best players in the world are playing this year and why.

These are the players most off in form (SG Total) who were in the top 20 last year on the eve of the Masters.

1) Patrick…

— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) April 2, 2024

“A big topic early in the week of The Masters on the LIVE FROM set will be how poorly many of the best players in the world are playing this year and why.

These are the players most off in form (SG Total) who were in the top 20 last year on the eve of the Masters.

1) Patrick Cantlay -1.767
2) Matt Fitzpatrick -1.608
3) Max Homa -1.558
4) Viktor Hovland -1.401
5) Tom Kim -1.388
6) Collin Morikawa -1.331
7) Tony Finau -1.265
8) Rory Mcilroy -1.023
9) Justin Thomas -.618

In addition to these players, Tommy Fleetwood who was 27th in the world last year at this time is -2.049 worse in Strokes Gained Total year over year…and Keegan Bradley who was 22nd in the world last year at this time is -.842 worse in Strokes Gained Total.

In addition to this, there is some statistical analysis (mind you the stats on LIV aren’t great) that will show how the games of many of the stars on LIV have fallen off as well.

This will do one of two things in my opinion. It will either make this year’s Masters (which is bar far the most predictable major) wide open or an absolute cake walk for Scottie Scheffler given how few stars are playing well in the world.”

The post doesn’t take into consideration the fact that Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood both won in Dubai early this year, which Chamblee addresses in a subsequent tweet.

Rory won the Hero Dubai which was about half the strength of The American Express field and Fleetwood won the Dubai Invitational which was about 1/3 the field strength of The Sony Open… they have each played 5 times on The PGA Tour, and in the strongest fields, so trying to…

— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) April 2, 2024

“Rory won the Hero Dubai which was about half the strength of The American Express field and Fleetwood won the Dubai Invitational which was about 1/3 the field strength of The Sony Open… they have each played 5 times on The PGA Tour, and in the strongest fields, so trying to compare who they will compete against at The Masters as best I can. I don’t ignore those wins, but statistically I’m trying to compare apples to apples.”

Later, when asked for his “top 4 picks” Chamblee speculated on what the top players, with the exception of Scottie Scheffler, struggling could mean for The Masters.

1) Scottie Scheffler if he plays good wins by 8
2) Scottie Scheffler if he putts average wins by 5
3) Scottie Scheffler if he putts poorly wins by 1
4) Scottie Scheffler if he putts average and reinjures his neck wins in a playoff https://t.co/mnBCs5GlLU

— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) April 3, 2024

Scheffler does look hard to beat heading into Augusta, but in golf, the best player winning is far from a sure thing.

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