It's time for the first M7 of the year. That wonderful time of the year when hope springs eternal and you think you have a chance at the money! For Rob 'Nosey' Parker, our only newbie, you will love this game for the first few hours (if you're lucky) and then you will hate it!
Full picks are in the email I sent and can be seen by going to https://m7golf.wixsite.com/m7golf/leaderboard.
Please check your own entry is correct. Any objections please raise before The Masters tees off. N.B. "My picks are sh*t" is not a valid objection - that is your own fault
Prizes (TBC)
1st - S$5000
2nd - S$2800
3rd - S$1600
Best of Rest (<5 make cut) - S$600
There are 100 of us going for the big prizes (+ our good friends Control and Wisdom).
Well done to everyone for nominating on time
Lets get this out the way. The following have no chance whatsoever:
Darren 'Wedge' Heal as he won the 2023 Masters and no-one ever successfully defends an M7 title
....now here is where I would usually say that we count out another entrant Todd 'Ronald' McDonald - as no one ever wins two M7's in a row. HOWEVER last year saw Todd take home the US Open and The Open back to back. He is now going for the three-peat....surely not....
What does it take to win M7?
The average winning score at the Masters M7 over the last 17 years is 43 points. 36 points has been the winning total for last 2 years and the winner has only had over 50 points twice.
It's a smaller field and the winner tends to have a lower avg point score (PGA Champ - 51 points, The Open - 53 points, US Open - 52 points).
Last years most consistent player across the 4 M7s was Rob 'Glands' Hands with finishes of 13th, 17th, 19th, and 26th (avg 18.75 position) and yet walked away with nothing. Amazingly Todd 'Ronald McDonald' finished 78th and 90th in the 2 M7s he didn't win last year. I think that tells us all you need to know about the role of luck in this game.
Tommy 'The Viking' Rathleff had the lowest average score across all 4 M7s last year with 75.25
Who picked who?
65 different players picked which means 73% of the field are involved in M7 in some way! In fact it is actually 62 valid players (70%) as MacIntyre, Horschel and Ryder were each all in one of your M7 teams and are not making their way to Augusta this year. Which means 3 of you are playing M6 . The most popular pick is Brooks (74) followed by Niemann (66), Scheffler (64 of you will hope his wife doesn't go into labour - link), Cam Smith (60) and Matsuyama (51)
The following all have over 20 picks each also
Johnson (36)
Zalatoris (31)
Finau (22)
Reed (22)
SW Kim (21)
as usual in the Masters, the picks are incredibly bunched but even more so than last year
39 of you have the most popular 3 all in your team (Koepka, Niemann, Scheffler)
25 of you have the most popular 4 all in your team (Koepka, Niemann, Scheffler, Smith)
17 of you have the most popular 5 all in your team (Koepka, Niemann, Scheffler, Smith, Matsuyama)
Norman's team is Scheffler, Matsuyama, Zalatoris, Koepka, SW Kim, Cam Smith and Niemann.....does that 7 sound familiar Kieran 'KPop' Davies? It's also only one player out from Stuart 'Apple' McIntosh selections.
Given the tiny field we have an impressive 15 valid unique picks in all - 2 of those in 1-10 category (Cantlay, Harman). Adam 'Pirate' Shapiro and Nicole 'Grey Goose' Vodrazka both have 2 (valid) uniques in their teams. Bubba is the highest ranked OWGR player picked (2012) - Tiso 'Know something I don't?' Faletoese has him, and his nickname has never been more apt
Looking at those who made podium at M7 masters in last 3 years, the category that made the least difference e.g. the one that had the highest average finishing position was the 11-20 category (heavily influenced by Spieth, Brooks and Oosthuizen missing cut in 2022)
Last year at the masters:
72% of M7'ers got 5 or more through to weekend - 33% with 5, 28% with 6 and 11% with 7
What about the LIV splitters?
There are 13LIV players due to tee-off on Thursday and with most of them featuring on the wrong end of the OWGR it presents a conundrum for M7 players. Is this a bit of value? or will everyone be picking the same players?
Of the 13 LIV players, 12 of them are in at least one M7 team. They account for 41% of all picks in M7
4 of you have swerved LIV altogether and don't have a single player in your teams. At least you can hold your head high when you are in the BOTR competition come Saturday
On the other end of the spectrum is Stephen 'Button Head' Harcombe who has gone completely off-piste and put 5 LIV golfers in his team.
Speed and Uncertainty
Fastest finger - Well done Brian 'Gordon' Bennett
Most entries - Daniel 'Snake' Martin and Richard 'Schlungs' Sexton with 5
Leaving it to last minute - Richard 'Schlungs' Sexton (5th entry) with a comfortable 90 mins to spare
Best of luck!!
Live m7 scoring will be up and running tomorrow after tee off on https://m7golf.wixsite.com/m7golf.
23 is the M7 record score to beat - set at the US Open in 2023 by Todd 'Ronald' McDonald but of course lets not forget the best record of the lot - John 'Cliff' Talbot Snr’s even more incredible record of 500 pts (no chance that gets equalled in a Masters)
Reminder - "You can't win M7 on the first day but you sure as hell can lose it" - Alastair 'Baloney' Loney
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