The Whiskey Masters

We’ve all laid awake at night pondering the universal question: If you were a whiskey what would you be?

As you watch an early morning version of The Masters today, here are some thoughts on which whiskey each of the guys on the leader board might be.

Francisco Molinari – Old Forester

Molinari is like Old Forester. He has added many things to his skill set. He completely revamped his putting stroke and changed his swing to give him more power off the tee. He was already very good, but these changes have made him one of the greats in the game today.

Old Forester has done the same. They added the 1920 and 1910 to the Whiskey Row Series, brought back President’s Choice and introduced a new rye. All things that take the brand to the next level.

Tiger Woods – Four Roses

Tiger was done. He was shamed. He was hurt. His game was an embarrassment. He had fallen to 1,199th in the world. Many thought he’d never play again. Forget about winning a tournament and a major seemed an impossibility. Yet, here we are. The red-shirted one may be wearing a green jacket before the day is over.

Four Roses was done. It was horrible. It had given up on quality. It was an embarrassment. The distillery was on the verge of shutting down for good. Yet, here we are. Jim Rutledge brought the brand back from the scrap heap to height of glory most thought was impossible. Within a few days, Four Roses (with Brent Elliott now at the helm) will be introducing a highly-anticipated new small batch bourbon to the whiskey public.

Tony Finau – New Riff

Tony Finau is somewhat of a new kid on the block. If you are a casual golf fan you may not know who he is. If you do follow the game you know what he is capable of and you wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him win today. Even if he doesn’t, you’re confident he’ll be winning a major very soon and everybody will know who he is then.

Finau is like New Riff. New Riff is new brand on the bourbon shelf. If you are a casual bourbon fan you may not know New Riff. If you are a student of the bourbon game, you know about New Riff and you know how good it is. Before long it will be winning lots of awards and everybody will know about New Riff then.

Brooks Koepka – Henry McKenna 10 Year

True golf fans have been enjoying Brooks Koepka’s game for years. He was golf’s best kept secret. Then a year or two ago he started winning all the big events (3 majors in less than 2 years). Now Brooks Koepka is one of the hottest golfers in the game.

This is a similar story to Henry McKenna 10 Year. The bourbon fan knew about this best-kept secret of the whiskey world. Then it started winning awards and now, as the hottest brand in bourbon, it can’t stay on the shelves.

Webb Simpson – Wild Turkey 101

Webb is steady. Predictable. Consistent. He may not be the first golfer that comes to mind and he may not win all the tournaments, but you can’t help but admire his longevity and reliability.

Wild Turkey 101 is that steady, predictable and consistent player in the bourbon world. You can’t really remember when WT101 wasn’t around and you can always count on a solid performance…just like Webb Simpson.

Ian Poulter – Whistle Pig Rye

Poulter is brash and flashy with a lot of spice. Sometimes that brash makes us forget that he’s a pretty darn good golfer, too (especially during The Ryder Cup, but I don’t want to talk about that).

Poulter is the Whistle Pig Rye of the golf world. Whistle Pig’s brand is also brash and flashy. And a 100% rye is going to bring a lot of spice to your glass. One taste of that rye will help you remember that it’s a pretty darn good whiskey, too.

I hope you enjoy The Masters today and have a little fun with it as I’ve tried to do with this blog. Please share it with your friends who enjoy golf or whiskey or both! And if you know what kind of whiskey you’d be, feel free to leave that in the comments.

Kevin Rose