🧪 The Mad Scientist

It’s Friday! After a little weather delay in Augusta, Round 1 got underway and turned into a beautiful afternoon for some Major golf, minus the wind. We recap day 1 at The Masters and get you ready for the weekend. Shocking facts have been released from the Shohei Ohtani gambling case. Four games in the NHL last night had huge playoff implications on the Eastern Conference race. College hawkey gave hockey fans even more incredible puck action with the Frozen Four. NBA teams continue to battle for seeding. Let’s start this weekend off right!

WTF Stat: Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, placed a total of 19,000 bets in three years with total loses at $182.9M ($40.7M in net losses) - someone send him the link to Blitz Prime so he can find some winners!

⚾ Ippei Mizuhara has been charged with bank fraud stealing $16M from Shohei Ohtani to pay off gambling debts to an illegal sportsbook and could face a penalty of a $1M fine and/or 30 years in prison - no bets were made on MLB games, and this text shows the bookie almost approached Shohei in person in order to find a dodging Ippei

🏀 Baylor HC Scott Drew has turned down interest from Kentucky for their head coaching vacancy with John Calipari’s departure and is expected to remain at Baylor - Kentucky is now targeting BYU’s Mark Pope, who won a title at UK in 1996 as a player

🏈 OJ Simpson has died of cancer at age 76

The Masters - Round 1

• Day 1 leaderboard:

  • 1. Bryson DeChambeau (-7)

  • 2. Scottie Scheffler (-6) - shocker to see him here!

  • 3. Nicolai Højgaard (-5)

  • T4. Danny Willet (-4)

  • T4. Max Homa (-4) - only finished 13 holes

• Other notable scores:

  • T17. Rory McIlroy (-1)

  • T17. Tiger Woods (-1) - only finished 13 holes

  • T32. Justin Thomas (E)

  • T32. Brooks Koepka (E) - only finished 11 holes

  • T42. John Rahm (+1)

  • T42. Dustin Johnson (+1) - only finished 10 holes

• Top storylines

  • Stormy weather including rain early Thursday morning forced action to start 2.5 hours late resulting in not all the golfers finishing their first round

    • Players that did not complete Round 1 will start play at 7:45am ET exactly where they left off (putting green, tee shot, approach or wherever they finished when the horn went off)

    • At the conclusion of their Round 1, they will continue to play a full 18 holes today for their Round 2

  • DeChambeau’s 65 is two shots off the best ever round on an opening Thursday - he hit it TIGHT on the 16th hole

  • Scheffler had a bogey-free round (ninth this season) in swirling Augusta winds proving why he is the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world hitting darts like this all day - all 32 rounds of competitive golf this season he has shot par or better…

  • Tiger is pacing well to make a record 24th straight Masters cut, but will need to play 23 holes today which could put a lot of stress on his body - check out this beauty of a chip

See the full leaderboard here.

College Hockey - Frozen Four

• #3 Denver 2, #2 Boston U 1 (OT): BU struck first in a game with phenomenal goaltending, but Denver forced overtime and then Pioneers’ Tristan Broz was able to find the back of the net in OT to send Denver to Saturday’s championship game for the second time in three years - Denver won it all in 2022

• #1 Boston College 4, Michigan 0: It was a third straight Frozen Four appearance for Michigan, and a third straight loss as Will Smith opened up the scoring for the nation’s top team scoring in the first two minutes of the game and the Eagles will head to their first NCAA title game since 2012. Cutter Gauthier, the likely winner of the Hobey Baker Award which is handed out later today, scored his 38th goal of the season (six more than anyone in the country)

The NCAA Championship is Saturday, 6:00pm ET on ESPN.

NHL - Top Games

• Pittsburgh Penguins 6, Detroit Red Wings 5 (OT): In a massive game for the Eastern conference playoff race, the Red Wings fought back late scoring two goals to force OT, but Erik Karlsson netted the game-winner giving Pittsburgh the much needed two points now jumping Washington for the final wild card spot following the Caps loss - Detroit’s 85 points is now tied with Washington and Philly (all three out of playoffs at the moment), and sit one behind Pittsburgh

• Buffalo Sabres 4, Washington Capitals 2: Despite the win, the Sabres are eliminated from the playoffs running out of games to pass the Penguins’ 86 total, and the loss for the Caps was huge knocking them a point behind Pittsburgh with three games left on their schedule

• Philadelphia Flyers 4, New York Rangers 1: Philly ends an eight-game losing streak as the road win keeps their playoff hopes alive sitting one point behind Pittsburgh

• New Jersey Devils 6, Toronto Maple Leafs 5: A gutsy win scoring the game-winner with under two minutes means nothing for Jersey as they are eliminated from playoff contention due to the Penguins win. Auston Matthews scored two goals, which gives him 68 on the season and is the first player to score 50+ even-strength goals since 1993. Matthews has three games left to score two goals to reach that 70-goal milestone, also which no one has done since 1993

See the full NHL scoreboard here and the current standings here.

NBA - Top Games

• New York Knicks 118, Boston Celtics 109: The Knicks get a win looking to hang onto the No. 3 seed in the East, and eyeing the No. 2 seed from the Bucks, behind a big night from Jalen Brunson (39 PTS, 4 AST) - Celtics already clinched the best record in the NBA and will have home-court through the Finals

• Chicago Bulls 127, Detroit Pistons 105: DeMar DeRozan (39 PTS, 7 AST) handed the Pistons a franchise single-season record 67th loss - despite a sub .500 record, the Bulls find themselves with the No. 9 seed and will play in the East Play-In game

See the full NBA scoreboard here and the current standings here.

MLB - Top Games

• Baltimore Orioles 9, Boston Red Sox 4: The O’s swept the Red Sox at Fenway winning their third straight in the style of a comeback after a Sox error opened the door for the O’s. A Connor Wong HR tied the game back up, but Baltimore smashed two HRs in the 10th inning and scored six runs for the W

• Kansas City Royals 13, Houston Astros 3: Houston’s starter Hunter Brown lasted 2 outs giving up a total of 11 hits and nine earned runs in the first inning (negative 30 fantasy points) and that’s all the Royals needed - is it funny I bet on a NRFI for this game? No, it’s not…

• New York Mets 16, Atlanta Braves 4: The Mets bats were hot in Hot ‘Lanta pouring in 16 runs that was capped off by a pinch-hit grand slam from Tyrone Tayloe in the 9th inning

• Oakland A’s 1, Texas Rangers 0: 2023’s worst team in baseball beat the defending World Series champs only needing a 2nd inning HR from Seth Brown

See the full MLB scoreboard here and the current standings here.

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On April 12, 2015, a 21-year-old Jordan Spieth won his first major title winning The Masters by four strokes over Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose. Jordan was the second youngest golfer to ever win a Green Jacket just 4 months older than Tiger Woods when he won his first Masters in 1997. Jordan went on to win the U.S. Open later that season and claimed The Open Championship in 2017. He’s missing a PGA Championship to complete the grand slam - he had a poor Masters day 1 yesterday currently 2-over par after just 11 holes.

Friday

• Masters - Round 1 & 2: 7:45am-3:00pm ET on ESPN+ & 3-7:00pm ET on ESPN

• NBA: Milwaukee Bucks @ Oklahoma City 8:00pm ET, NBA TV

• NBA: Phoenix Suns @ Sacramento Kings 10:30pm ET, NBA TV

• NHL: Carolina Hurricanes @ St. Louis Blues 8:00pm ET, NHL NET

Saturday

• Masters - Round 3: 10:00am-3:00pm ET on ESPN+ & 3-7:00pm ET on CBS

• NHL: New York Islanders @ New York Rangers 12:30pm ET, ABC

• NHL: Seattle Kraken @ Dallas Stars 3:00pm ET, ABC

• NHL: Boston Bruins @ Pittsburgh Penguins 8:00pm ET, ABC

• MLB: Texas Rangers @ Houston Astros 4:05pm ET, FS1

• College Hockey National Championship: #3 Denver vs. #1 Boston College 6:00pm ET, ESPN

• UFC 300 10:00pm ET, ESPN+ - Full main card here

Sunday

• Masters - Round 4: 10:00am-2:00pm ET on ESPN+ & 2-7:00pm ET on CBS

• NBA: Chicago Bulls @ New York Knicks 1:00pm ET, ESPN

• NBA: Los Angeles Lakers @ New Orleans Pelicans 3:30pm ET, ESPN

• NHL: Seattle Kraken @ St. Louis Blues 1:00pm ET, TNT

• NHL: Colorado Avalanche @ Vegas Golden Knights 3:00pm ET, TNT

• MLB: San Deigo Padres @ Los Angeles Dodgers 7:00pm ET, ESPN

Trivia Time Answer

D. Arnold Palmer. The links legend had four wins at Augusta sitting third on the all-time list behind Jack and Tiger. He won every other Masters tournament starting in 1958 and ending in 1964. Five players sit tied for 4th with three Green Jackets including Jimmy Demaret, Gary Player, Sam Snead, Nick Faldo and Phil Mickelson.

Prime Lock of the Day

Subscribe to Blitz Prime to unlock this betting slip. For those already signed up, enjoy the winner!

Go have a beautiful weekend. For all you people who answered ”yes” on yesterday’s poll, it could be a good time to get that round in. Enjoy Masters Sunday and we will have a full recap for you on Monday morning with the results!