THE WARMUP

Welcome to Volume I, Edition VI of The Sunday Back Page.

This is your Sunday morning sports section — built for the inbox and made for independent creators. Every week, the best sports writing, podcasting, and storytelling from people who own what they build. No institutions. No legacy outlets. No algorithms deciding what you see. Just great work. Every Sunday morning.

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THE LEAD

At 8:15 a.m. ET today, Augusta National Golf Club will make an announcement I've been waiting all week (OK, all year) for: The pin placements for Sunday's final round of The Masters.

But I only care about one of them: The 16th hole, also known as Redbud.

No. 16's pin placement on Sunday traditionally is located on the back left side of the green of this 170-yard hole, with a long water hazard leading up to a kidney-shaped green that begins on the right side and narrows as it shapes the back left.

That pin placement makes it the most dramatic hole in golf (Fight me).

Every player on Sunday will step up to the tee and target the right side of the green. They'll hope to catch the slope at just the right elevation, so that the ball can take the obligatory left turn toward the hole. When the ball begins rolling, it looks like it's going to go into the hole every time. And the crowd never fails to ride the emotion of that ball's trajectory.

Growing up, I would watch The Masters' final round with my father. All we cared about was what Jack was doing and what happened on No. 16. Years later, it turned to Tiger and No. 16.

You were at the whim of CBS' telecast to see live shots other than the leaders at 16. If someone not in contention made a hole-in-one, you saw it on replay.

Now, instead of stealing more than a few moments on Redbud, we can watch Hole Nos. 15 and 16 on one feed on Masters.com.

Last year, to honor the 50th anniversary of Jack Nicklaus' 1975 Masters win, they placed the pin toward the back and to the right. In a duel with Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller, Nicklaus drained a long birdie putt that started way below the hole on 16, and he famously ran around the green celebrating with his hands (and putter) above his head.

In 2005, Tiger Woods' fist pump capped a chip-in for birdie on his way to winning.

The tee shot and the rolling ball are as integral as the magnolias, the Butler Cabin and the theme music.

Augusta National is tight-lipped as usual on this year's placement. Will it return to its traditional spot and allow for the drama we all crave?

I'm setting my alert for 8:10. What about you?

— Ian Powers

THE QUESTION

Who hit the shot heard round the world at the 1935 Masters?

See answer below 👇

THE READS

Each week, we curate 4-6 of our favorite reads from this week. The selections came from our own curation and from dozens of submissions by our readers. Thank you so much, and keep them coming.

Our take: Gasaway helped build the vocabulary of basketball statistics and teaches the subject at Columbia. So when he takes the numbers out of it entirely and makes the case — via mock Q&A with Lucas Oil Stadium — that shooting in football venues is fine, actually, it lands differently than if anyone else wrote it.

Our take: Former player agent Nick Green caddied for his client Per-Ulrik Johansson in the Par 3 Tournament in 1998. He had me at the moment three strangers asked if the table next to them was free, sat down, and said good morning. The three strangers were Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.

Our take: A piece in The Athletic recently argued that the hatred for Duke men's basketball is fading. This is the counter-argument — and it goes further, connecting that hatred to something larger about class and culture. I don't buy all of it. It also ignores how early the Duke-UNC-NC State triangle shaped the sport, well before the 1980s the author leans on. Read it anyway.

Our take: Jack grew up watching Kobe-Nash in the Western Conference Finals, Ubaldo Jimenez dominating in the summer, Patriots games as a Sunday ritual. Now he knows too much — about the athletes, the machinery, the business — and something has gone quiet. Part of me wants to tell him it comes back. Part of me wants to say welcome to the job.

Our take: The gold medal game between Team USA and Canada at the Milan Olympics averaged 5.3 million viewers and peaked at 7.7 million. Olin's argument is simple: the PWHL has those fans' attention now, and YouTube is not where you keep it. She uses the NWSL's jump from streaming to a $240 million TV deal — and a 61% viewership spike on ESPN alone — as the model. The voice is younger than what usually runs in this space. That's the point.

On the media hierarchy in WBB coverage | Terrika Foster-Brasby | @SheKnowsSports

Our take: Foster-Brasby is the Connecticut Sun sideline reporter, and this thread is a straight-to-camera breakdown of how sports media actually works — specifically in the women's basketball space. Four points, no hedging: not all reporters break news, social following has replaced relationships as the currency agencies care about, off-the-record means off the record, and if you want independent WBB journalists to survive, you have to actually support them financially. The last point lands hardest. She's not venting. She's explaining a structural problem that applies well beyond women's basketball.

THE LISTEN

Each week, we curate 1-2 of our favorite podcasts. The selections came from our own curation and from submissions by our readers. Thank you so much, and keep them coming.

Our take: This is the Fried Egg’s recap of a Saturday that nobody expected — Rory McIlroy entered the third round with a six-shot lead, doubled the 11th, bogeyed 12, and by the time Cameron Young posted a 65 and walked off the course, the lead was gone. They tied at 11 under heading into Sunday. The Fried Egg crew breaks down how it happened and what Augusta does to a lead.

THE WATCH

Each week, we curate 1-2 of our favorite videos. The selections came from our own curation and from submissions by our readers. Thank you so much, and keep them coming.

Our take: Ben Taylor's Thinking Basketball channel looks at whether the NBA's 65-game minimum for awards eligibility is actually working — and concludes the league treated load management as the disease when it's a symptom. The real culprits, he argues, are the things the NBA doesn't want to touch: the length of the schedule and back-to-backs on the road. I don't agree with everything Taylor does on this channel — there are moments where the metrics bend to make today's players look like a different species compared to previous generations, and I'll take facing the Bad Boys or the physical Knicks 10 times a season over a stop-and-start pivot metric any day. But this is the kind of intelligent, counterintuitive framing that makes the channel worth your time.

THE PRESSROOM

The Pressroom doesn't usually spotlight athletes. Thibault Courtois earns the exception — and he's not alone. Professional athletes are arriving on Substack with increasing regularity, using it to build business identities separate from their playing careers. Most don't last. Courtois launched his to share the thinking behind his investment portfolio — not the highlights, not the press conferences, but how elite athletes think about money, ownership, and long-term positioning. He co-founded NXTPLAY Capital, has stakes in an E1 electric powerboat racing team and a French football club. What makes this worth watching is what he's not doing: 17.8 million Instagram followers, untouched for nearly two years. This is a deliberate rebuild from scratch — a goalkeeper rebranding himself for whatever comes after football.

THE ROSTER

We want to celebrate as many independent creators on The Sunday Back Page as possible. Here are all the people who either submitted their work for consideration or were considered independently this week. Many of these creators deserved a place in this newsletter, and we hope they continue to submit their work. Please keep them on your radar.

Kitcylopedia | Jeshal | Sam on Sport | Kat Cornetta | Ryan Plooster | Carron J. Phillips | Clare McEwen | Extra Innings | Matt Lombardo | The Devy Planet | Baseball Scoops | Off Ball Logic | Kwame Twumasi-Ankrah | Jeremy Miller | NB’s Football | Nikita Gentile | Views from the 6th Borough | PJ Brown | Gabriel Zabela

Here are some golf follows:

Basement Golf | Geoff Shackelford | Daily Drive | No Laying Up | David Skilling | Break80golf | Better Golf | Gary Galyean | Matt Ziegler | Greens Green

Want to see your independent publication featured here? Let us know. There are hundreds more baseball Substacks out there. Give me a shout!

THE ANSWER

B) Gene Sarazen. In the final round of the 1935 Masters, Sarazen holed a 235-yard 4-wood double eagle on the par-5 15th hole to tie Craig Wood. He won the playoff the following day by five strokes.