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Scoop
6 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
David Seymour's Speech To 2025 ACT Party Rally: Positive Sum Thinking
Thank you Cam, for that kind introduction. Thank you James for visiting and sharing your thinking. Western democracies have lost their mojo, and your book explains why. Most of us want to see universities as sources of enlightened thinking, but too often they leave us disappointed. They seem to resent the society that funds them, and their ideas corrode instead of enlighten its values. The corrosive idea is that there are many realities. Your reality, it seems, depends on your identity. They always say, speaking as an x, y, z person. They say where you come from matters more than where you're going. Hidden in your book is hope. If you can define a problem, you can solve it. The problem is the lack of shared reality. The real world unites us. When we all muck in and work on the same problems, we realise how much we have in common. Today I'd like to show how we can only solve voters' number one problem, and others, with less finger pointing and more problem solving. Acknowledgements Speaking of tall poppies, I'd like to thank some here today. You all put ACT MPs in Government, and they're delivering a wall of real change to address our country's problems. Brooke, Nicole, Andrew, Karen and Simon are hardworking heroes in our Government. ACT's caucus is not just our Ministers though, there's five other MPs. Our feistiest and savviest new MP couldn't be here today. Laura McClure's deepfake porn bill addresses an urgent need. Her campaign for it has been reported worldwide. She has a huge future as an effective politician. Parmjeet Parmar is our brainiest and hardest working Parliamentarian. Every weekend she practices hand-to-hand retail politics. She also has three science degrees and owns one business, more the entire Green Party caucus combined. Cam Luxton is Parliament's only Licensed Building Practitioner, and its most practical MP. His advocacy for sensible liquor laws looks likely to succeed this term, and he is on track to give hunters a say in conservation for the first time. ACT's own pocket battleship, our whip, Todd Stephenson. Todd's executive experience looking after our Caucus and Parliamentary operations is invaluable. He is also picking up the End of Life Choice baton to give more people control over how they go and when if they're suffering badly. Finally. His kidneys may only be giving five per cent, but the rest of him is giving 200. Give it up for Mark Cameron! The authentic voice of Rural New Zealand, has pulled off an extraordinary feat. Very few Government back benchers remain nationally visible, but Mark remains at the forefront of every rural debate. These MPs, and the Ministers you've heard from, are supported by an excellent staff in Wellington, our electorates, and in the Party office. They in turn are supported by you. I'd like to thank our volunteers, our donors, our ACTivate committees, and every person who gets out and pushes our vision of a free and equal society. Thank you. All these people have something in common. They know that tall poppy syndrome doesn't build homes, grow businesses or create jobs. Tall poppy keeps everyone smaller. If hard work, courage, and results make you a tall poppy, I'm proud that ACT has a whole field of them. Finally can I acknowledge nearly fifty New Zealanders who are standing for ACT in their local Council this October. Councils don't just put up rates. Council bureaucracy puts up every price in every community. Building a competing supermarket costs too much, so do groceries. So do new houses and kids swimming lessons, council dysfunction pushes up the price of everything. So, who do you vote for to get some common sense in your council? You get the little booklet, you haven't heard the names, you tick someone, then they disappoint you. A few years later you ask yourself, are they even the one you ticked? Ticking an ACT local candidate guarantees what you're getting. Someone who wants to cut out waste, save your rates, let you drive (and park) your car, without dividing your community by when their ancestors got here. If those values sound like you, I hope you'll support an ACT Local candidate in your area. Half-Time Break Back in central Government, it's half time, and time for a report card. Our Ministers are making real change like we campaigned on, but we can point to our influence beyond the portfolios we're directly responsible for, too. The Government is spending a smaller share of the economy every year, and ACT's been at the forefront of saving the taxpayer money. Brooke's gutsy return of common sense to pay equity, making it about actual gender discrimination, is the most obvious example of that. By the Government taking a smaller share, there is more for your farm, your firm, and your family. We are reversing Labour's mistake of being kind to criminals, and waiting to see if they'll be kind back. Instead we are upholding innocent peoples' rights by giving criminals more consequences, with ACT's three strikes applying minimum sentences for repeat offenders. Violent crime is coming down, and the values of our community are improving. We have removed the divisive Māori Health Authority, co-Governed Three Waters, and are putting Māori wards to the vote. We are delivering social services on need not race, and we are rebalancing the curriculum including Section 127 of the Education Act. The Government is restoring the spirit of a country built on equal rights regardless of birth. Our partners abandoned us defining the Treaty Principles, so we lost the vote. That's a shame, but there's something more important than winning the vote. We won the argument. Nobody can explain why New Zealand is better off divided by race, or why honouring the Treaty requires racial division. If they could, why didn't they do it in the Parliamentary debate? It is now a matter of time before the Treaty Principles Bill or something like it passes. If it's not, where are the examples of countries which flourish on the basis of division. Everyone here who's stood for equal rights in the face of insanity and inanity can stand proud. You have made it possible for New Zealand to find a better path. A free society can only exist if someone puts the idea up in lights, and that's what you have done. On healthcare we are putting productivity above bureaucracy. Since 2018 the health budget has gone from $18 billion to $33 billion. Where did the 83 per cent increase go? It was wasted on endless restructures and ideology that didn't answer the simple question: How do you get more patients seen to faster, or avoid them needing attention in the first place? Now we are increasing productivity at the patient level, instead of management restructures, to get the full value of that 83 per cent increase. Get vaccination rates up, and wait times down, train more doctors, build more hospitals, fund new cancer medicines, reform Pharmac, improve access to innovative medicines that are available overseas. In each case, the cost of living, crime, co-Governance, and health, it is too early to declare victory. It's certainly too early for a victory lap, but we can point to action taken and improving results. Has the Government gone as far as ACT would on the issues? No it has not. Has it gone further than it would without ACT? Time and again you can be assured your voice and your vote have made the future of this country freer and more equal than any other party could have. That's why ACT next year will be campaigning to keep the Government and keep making it better. Is it Enough? I describe the last six years as the long trouble. In hindsight, March 15 started a period of endless upheaval. Before then we had happier and simpler times. Issues were things like 'can John Key make us vote for a tea towel as a flag?' Since that terror attack, we've faced one upheaval after another. Ten months later we heard about a place called Wuhan. For many of us it was the first time then, but we'll never forget it now. In many ways we are still paying for COVID through the cascade of inflation, interest rates, and recession. The cost of everything remains the key problem people face. Prices have stopped rising, but they haven't gone back down. The twenty per cent increases of the past four years are now baked in. Baked in to the power bill, the weekly shop, and the price of everything is that 20 per cent. The question is how we're going to deal with it, and that's where I come back to James Lindsay's work. Finger Pointing The six years of long trouble has left us more open to blaming someone than usual. The scourge of identity politics has left us even more primed than usual to point the finger. The post-modern disease has set New Zealanders against each other. The idea that our differences are greater than our similarities is toxic. It's harder to solve real, practical problems when you're busy finding reasons to resent your fellow New Zealander. It's tangata whenua against tangata tiriti. It's boomer versus zoomer. It's wealthy against poor. It's urban against farmer. It's employer against employee. It's tenant against landlord. The close cousin of identity politics is zero sum thinking. Zero sum thinking is one of the most dangerous frames of thinking that has affected western society in these past two decades, and it fits like a glove with identity politics. It's the idea that, for you to do better, someone else has to do worse. Now this has happened because it is a deeply human response to divide the world into heroes and villains, people who do good and people who do bad. It's true that happens sometimes, but the reality is that many people are trying to make things work. What's more the success of one group very often benefits the other. Peter Beck's genius has made him very rich, but it's also ignited a New Zealand space industry. When we lose the insight of positive-sum thinking, believing in zero-sum makes people more divided, poorer, worse off politically, worse off culturally, worse off economically. The reality is that there's only five million of us. We all have far more in common than what separates us. Our success is interdependent. The problems we face are shared. The solutions will only be visible if we see that first. The Rental Policy Mistake Take the example of high rents. This country had, and still has, a problem with housing. The best land in the world is practically empty, but there's not enough habitat for humans. Being short of housing causes so many other problems. Students struggle at school when they're moved from auntie to uncle and one address to another. Young people can't see their own way to a property owning democracy, and despair. The Government spends $5 billion per year on rental subsidies. Over the period of the last Government, the average rent rose from $400 to $590. What followed was a failure of leadership. Instead of pointing out that we face a common problem that we should all join hands and solve together, Labour gave their supporters a scapegoat. They decided that landlords were to blame, and I suspect there's a few reasons for that. Number one, politics. There are three million voters and only 120,000 are landlords so there's 23 other voters per landlord. They say the most important skill in politics is the ability to count. Two, they have an asset. Many are very cash poor, but they look like someone who can pay. Three, they're the people collecting the rent. They're collecting it to meet a bunch of other costs, but it's easiest to connect them with the price rises. So, Labour taxed landlords more. I'm proud to say ACT restored mortgage interest deductibility, but from the time Labour removed it, to the time we restored it, the average weekly rent rose over $100. Since our changes, it's actually fallen. But Labour weren't finished. They decided to change the Residential Tenancies Act, to the point that landlords and tenants were almost co-owners in property. A fixed-term tenancy would automatically roll over. To evict, the onus was on the landlord to prove three incidents in three months. None of these policies worked. They failed to recognise that landlords and tenants faced the same basic problem: the high cost of housing in New Zealand. Both parties really needed ways to reduce their costs, but zero-sum politics distracted everyone from that. Now we've taken the tax off, and laid out a program to get more housing built. We analysed the problem and realised landlords and tenants alike both needed more homes built. High interest rates, too much tax, and not enough supply drives up costs. Landlords are funded by tenants, so the costs get passed on. Realising that we have more in common than separates us allows us to solve problems. If everyone wanted more supply, then the test for good policy was 'will this increase supply?' Better resource consenting means it's easier to get projects consented. Better infrastructure funding, such the replacement to Labour's Three Waters reforms, means it's easier to get new buildings connected. Faster building consents means less time waiting to build things. Easier access to new building materials will mean more competition and lower prices. These are concrete changes to policy, designed to make it easier to build more houses. More supply makes for a renters' market, with weekly rents actually falling. The rental market experience tells us something about how to solve our problems, and the pattern applies everywhere. Scapegoating licenced firearms owners didn't make us safer, in fact the opposite. The truth is that licenced firearm owners and the rest of us all want the same thing: the safe use of firearms, and a legal framework that allows it. Scapegoating farmers hasn't made them better environmentalists. The truth is that farmers and the rest of us both want the same thing: to look after the land so it keeps its value and productive capacity. Scapegoating employers didn't increase real wages. The truth is that employers and employees both want the same thing, to produce more wealth so they can take more home. Banning oil and gas exploration didn't achieve anything but smash the confidence to invest in New Zealand. Blaming someone might feel good. We think that building something feels better. Whether you rent or own, farm or teach, build or tend, your future depends on solving the same problems, not blaming different people. The Cost of Living Today the biggest challenge we face is the cost of living. People find their dollar doesn't stretch too far anymore, but there's something else besides prices. People are tired after six long years of trouble. Tempers are short, everyone feels it. You can understand people wanting to go after the banks or the supermarkets or the power companies. They're a bit like landlords. A very small percentage of voters work in these industries. They appear to have money. They are the ones collecting the money, so right in the firing line. It would be the easiest thing in the world for me to give a speech saying they're crooked and need to be punished somehow. They should be taxed somehow, have their businesses broken up, or be watched over by even toothier watchdogs. It's the curse of zero sum thinking. I know that is a political risk to say anything else. People will pile on and say I'm defending big business, or whatever, but political risks are part of leadership. We need a more collaborative approach. We need to ask ourselves how we address the shared challenge of getting time-sensitive products to a spread out population living along a 1500 kilometre-long mountain range. The right amount of stock, to the right place, at the right time, at the right price. It's not easy, but at least everyone wants the same thing. If only we can all realise it. The Government has made a good start, with its Request for Information, soliciting more competition in supermarkets. This is something ACT has been saying for at least three years. I was asked at the end of last year how ACT would do it and I said. "…if it was my job, the first thing I'd do is ask some global supermarket chains, hey, why haven't you invested in New Zealand yet? Get the list of reasons and start ticking them off." That's now happening, and there are more ideas to enhance competition waiting in the wings. We want to avoid the mistakes of envy and vengeance that didn't work getting rents down. We want to see competition and innovation get prices down. Number One: Give confidence Tell the world it's safe to invest in New Zealand. The only way we get better services is with more investment. If we want more of the right stuff to show up in the right quantity in the right place at the right time, then we need more stores, state-of-the-art supply chains, and new distribution centres to be built. That requires investment, from people inside New Zealand and outside. We should state to the world that New Zealand is a safe place to invest. Your property rights will be respected, because the Government makes laws carefully. We will not be forcibly separating your business or forcing you to sell to your competitors. If you doubt that matters, just ask the oil and gas industry. When Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First pulled the rug out from the industry, we learned a hard lesson. As Chris Liddell said in a recent speech, New Zealand needs foreign investment, but foreign investment doesn't need New Zealand. Now we have to use taxpayer money to show the oil and gas industry we're sorry and want them back. Number two: Level the playing field with multi-nationals Make the Grocery Supply Code go both ways. Labour made supermarkets negotiate with their suppliers in good faith, but not the other way around. The idea was to protect the orchardist in Central Otago or the strawberry grower in Pukekohe from the much larger supermarket. They forgot that most things in the supermarket on supermarket shelves come from much larger suppliers. If you think Woolworths New Zealand is a big company, try Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, or Unilever. They also charge more to Woolworths New Zealand than Woolworths Australia. The New Zealand Government should not stop our supermarkets from negotiating aggressively with multinational corporations. The Grocery Supply code should be made two-way. Number Three: Pass a fast-track omnibus bill Parliament should pass a one-stop-shop law for any applicant who wants to build a chain of ten or more supermarkets. The law should get their land zoned, resource consents issued, and any Overseas Investment Consents issued in one go. They should also get a liquor licence automatically, because alcohol policy is a nightmare for anyone trying to open a new store, but very little alcohol harm comes from supermarkets. Nothing would send a clearer signal that New Zealand is serious than a bespoke legislative welcome mat than giving permission for, say, Walmart to set up a whole chain in one go. I hope this will bring a serious extra chain to retail in New Zealand. Even if it doesn't, just the possibility of a new competitor can help keep competitive pressure on the incumbents. If it doesn't work, we'll know that either our market is more competitive than we thought, or we have some other problem. Number Four: Dump Labour's reforms The Labour Party bet the farm on grocery industry reform. They passed the Grocery Industry Bill. They set up the Grocery Commissioner. They required endless monitoring and put millions of dollars a year in costs that are now paid by, you guessed it, the long-suffering consumer and taxpayer. Now, here's the interesting thing. Labour are constantly going on about the cost of living and how terrible food prices are under the coalition Government. But if their reforms worked, wouldn't they be taking credit? If policies add cost, instead of saving us money, and not even their architects will defend them, they should go. Conclusion Those are four practical steps the ACT Party advocates to save New Zealanders money, and they could all be done by the end of the year. If you're looking for finger pointing, don't look here. We are interested in problem solving. If you want to find a scapegoat, you can, but it still won't work. We tried it with landlords, we tried it with oil and gas, we tried it with farmers, employers, and licenced firearm owners. Every time Government goes after a group in society, the problem gets worse. With the cost of living the solution is not regulation but competition. Business should fear competition, not their own Government. In that is a wider lesson about how we escape the long trouble of the past six years. We New Zealanders have one thing, and one thing only in common. Every one of us is marked out by the fact that we or our ancestors travelled further for a better tomorrow than anyone else on earth. That pioneering spirit is the New Zealand spirit, and it brings a unity more powerful than any superficial divisions people like to find. The scourge of identity politics has pulled us apart, but it is time for us to come together again, and start problem solving. I said in my Maiden Statement that 'You can tell everything you need to know about a person's politics by acquiring their sincere answer to a simple question: 'Is wealth a zero-sum game or not?' Eleven years later, the question is no less important. We face many challenges after six years of trouble, and there's only five million of us. We can either face it divided by identity politics, and the poison of the zero-sum mindset, or united in the belief that we face similar challenges and one person's success can lead to another's. Being free and equal is not just something nice to have. It's the foundation for the problem solving we need to do as a country. If we're going to succeed, first we must be free and equal. That's what ACT will be campaigning to do from now to the next election, and I thank you for your support in this crucial mission. Thank you very much.
Scoop
19-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Bill For Transparent Principled Lawmaking To Be Read In The House
Minister for Regulation Regulation Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Regulatory Standards Bill will be read in the House. 'New Zealand's low wages can be blamed on low productivity, and low productivity can be blamed on poor regulation. To raise productivity, we must allow people to spend more time on productive activities and less time on compliance,' says Mr Seymour. 'To lift productivity and wages, the ACT-National Coalition Agreement includes a commitment to pass a Regulatory Standards Act. Today is another significant step towards that as Cabinet has given approval to introduce the Bill to the house, with the target being enactment by the start of next year. The Regulatory Standards Bill: • provides a benchmark for good legislation through a set of principles of responsible regulation • enables transparent assessment of the consistency of proposed and existing legislation with the principles • establishes a Regulatory Standards Board to independently consider the consistency of proposed and existing legislation, and • strengthens regulatory quality by supporting the Ministry for Regulation in its regulatory oversight role. 'In a nutshell: If red tape is holding us back, because politicians find regulating politically rewarding, then we need to make regulating less rewarding for politicians with more sunlight on their activities. That is how the Regulatory Standards Bill will help New Zealand get its mojo back. It will finally ensure regulatory decisions are based on principles of good law-making and economic efficiency,' Mr Seymour says. 'Ultimately, this Bill will help the Government achieve its goal of improving New Zealand's productivity by ensuring that regulated parties are regulated by a system which is transparent, has a mechanism for recourse, and holds regulators accountable to the people. 'The law doesn't stop politicians or their officials making bad laws, but it makes it transparent that they're doing it. It makes it easier for voters to identify those responsible for making bad rules. Over time, it will improve the quality of rules we all have to live under by changing how politicians behave. 'In a high-cost economy, regulation isn't neutral - it's a tax on growth. This Government is committed to clearing the path of needless regulations by improving how laws are made.' Particular acknowledgements go to Dr Bryce Wilkinson, whose book "Constraining Government Regulation" laid important groundwork for this Bill. Special thanks also go to Dr Graham Scott, Jack Hodder KC, and other members of the Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce, who refined the Bill in 2009.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Emma Raducanu battles past Maya Joint to reach Italian Open second round
Emma Raducanu overcame a brief wobble to book her spot in the second round of the Italian Open with a three-set win over Maya Joint. Raducanu will now meet world number 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova after seeing off the 19-year-old Australian 7-5 6-7 (1) 6-3 in Rome. The former US Open winner came within two points of finishing things off in straight sets but was steamrollered 7-1 in the second-set tie-break to set up a decider. .@EmmaRaducanu wins a Rome ROLLERCOASTER!! 👊 Emma defeats Maya Joint 7-5, 6-7, 6-3 in a CRAZY battle to reach the Second Round 🎢#BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 | @InteBNLdItalia — LTA (@the_LTA) May 7, 2025 It looked like being a nervy finish at the SuperTennis Arena but the Briton found her mojo again, going 5-0 ahead in the third before wrapping things up in two hours, 44 minutes. Watched on by mentor Jane O'Donoghue, with recently installed coach Mark Petchey unavailable due to broadcast commitments, Raducanu was a worthy winner overall but will need to recreate her best moments more often to get past Alexandrova. Raducanu looked to impose herself from the outset, seeking out powerful winners and taking her first service game without conceding. She somehow failed to convert four break points at the next attempt and, after a couple of self-imposed errors on her own serve, found her opponent in less forgiving mood. A break down at 4-2, Raducanu showed resolve to break back immediately and sealed a second break with a backhand winner before holding for the set. The Briton made it four games in a row as she started the second set in control, breaking at first ask then holding to love. A starlit victory ⭐️ After 2 hours and 44 minutes, @EmmaRaducanu secures her spot in the second round defeating Joint 7-5, 6-7, 6-3.#IBI25 — wta (@WTA) May 7, 2025 Joint briefly got back on level terms but was finding Raducanu's return too hot to handle, buckling as the second of three break points came good. Two double faults in the eighth game gave Joint another chance to scrub the deficit but four successive points got Raducanu out of trouble. That ruthless streak deserted her as she allowed Joint to escape another break from 0-30 then came within two points of serving for the match only to slip back to stalemate. Joint was electric in the tie-break, winning the first five points to flip the momentum. Raducanu took a break and emerged with a new lease of life, taking five consecutive games to move herself back to the brink of victory. She was made to wait by a spirited fightback but finished with a punchy service game, smiling widely as her opponent cleared the baseline with the final shot of the match. Earlier, Cameron Norrie made the most of his second chance after beating Christopher O'Connell. Norrie was beaten in the final round of qualifying by Dusan Lajovic on Tuesday but made it into the main draw after being picked as the lucky loser. And he took advantage of his reprieve as he beat Australian O'Connell 6-3 6-2 to set up a second-round tie with former world number one Daniil Medvedev. 'I lost a match yesterday where I really didn't play well… after the match I was completely devastated,' Norrie told Sky Sports. Katie Boulter loses out 6-3, 6-3 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Rome#BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 — LTA (@the_LTA) May 7, 2025 'It was nice to have another chance. It's not often you get the chance to get some revenge the next day.' Katie Boulter's status as British number one is under threat after a first-round defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Clay is Boulter's least favourite surface and it showed as she went down 6-3 6-3 to the 33-year-old Russian. The 28-year-old could be displaced by Raducanu or Sonay Kartal as the highest ranked Briton if either go deep in the Italian capital.
Scoop
06-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Regulatory Standards Bill Promotes Transparent Principled Lawmaking
Minister for Regulation Regulation Minister David Seymour has today announced the next steps in the Government's plan to improve the quality of regulation, as the detailed proposal to pass a Regulatory Standards Bill has progressed through Cabinet. 'New Zealand's low wages can be blamed on low productivity, and low productivity can be blamed on poor regulation. To raise productivity, we must allow people to spend more time on productive activities and less time on compliance,' says Mr Seymour. 'To lift productivity and wages, the ACT-National Coalition Agreement includes a commitment to pass a Regulatory Standards Act. I will be taking the proposed Bill to Cabinet on the 19th of May for approval to introduce it. 'In a nutshell: If red tape is holding us back, because politicians find regulating politically rewarding, then we need to make regulating less rewarding for politicians with more sunlight on their activities. That is how the Regulatory Standards Bill will help New Zealand get its mojo back. It will finally ensure regulatory decisions are based on principles of good law-making and economic efficiency. 'The Bill will codify principles of good regulatory practice for existing and future regulations. It seeks to bring the same level of discipline to regulation that the Public Finance Act brings to public spending, with the Ministry for Regulation playing a role akin to that of the Treasury. 'It requires politicians and officials to ask and answer certain questions before they place restrictions on citizens' freedoms. What problem are we trying to solve? What are the costs and benefits? Who pays the costs and gets the benefits? What restrictions are being placed on the use and exchange of private property? 'Where inconsistencies are found, the responsible Minister must respond to justify deviation from principles. 'People affected by bad laws will be able to appeal to a Regulatory Standards Board, made up of people who understand regulatory economics. That board will be able to make non-binding recommendations on whether the law was made well, turning up the heat on bad lawmaking. The findings, reasons for any inconsistency, and relevant documents will be made publicly available to ensure transparency. 'If we raise the political cost of making bad laws by allowing New Zealanders to hold regulators accountable, the outcome will be better law-making, higher productivity, and higher wages. 'Under the proposed Bill, government agencies will also have duties to review their regulatory systems. 'Ultimately, this Bill will help the Government achieve its goal of improving New Zealand's productivity by ensuring that regulated parties are regulated by a system which is transparent, has a mechanism for recourse, and holds regulators accountable to the people. 'The law doesn't stop politicians or their officials making bad laws, but it makes it transparent that they're doing it. It makes it easier for voters to identify those responsible for making bad rules. Over time, it will improve the quality of rules we all have to live under by changing how politicians behave. 'In a high-cost economy, regulation isn't neutral - it's a tax on growth. This Government is committed to clearing the path of needless regulations by improving how laws are made.' Notes: Particular acknowledgements go to Dr Bryce Wilkinson, whose book "Constraining Government Regulation" laid important groundwork for this Bill. Special thanks also go to Dr Graham Scott, Jack Hodder KC, and other members of the Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce, who refined the Bill in 2009.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Masters leaderboard: McIlroy vs. DeChambeau in a heavyweight fight for the green jacket is golf perfection
AUGUSTA, Ga. — How does Augusta National do it? How do the green jackets work their mojo to give us perfect Masters moments, perfect matchups, perfect stage-setting, year after year? Whatever the reason — behind-the-scenes machinations, benevolence from the golf gods, or plain old-fashioned good luck — this year's Masters has given us exactly the matchup we wanted for an April Sunday: Rory McIlroy (-12) vs. Bryson DeChambeau (-10) for the greatest prize in golf. Frame it however you want: the two most popular players in the game going head to head; the paragons of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf battling for the honor of their respective houses; the sequel to one of the great U.S. Opens in golf history. This is the rare showdown that needs no buildup, yet deserves every bit of the hype, drama and historic weight we can whip up for it. The two took sharply different paths to Sunday's final pairing. McIlroy started strong Thursday, then careened off the track with two back-nine double bogeys. He then righted the ship Friday, putting himself right back in contention with a six-under round that wiped away all the stain of Friday. DeChambeau, on the other hand, started strong and stayed there, finishing Thursday three strokes off Justin Rose's lead and closing that gap to one on Friday. Saturday very quickly ensured this weekend will either be the greatest or the worst of McIlroy's career. McIlroy carded six straight 3s to start his round, leaping from six-under to 11-under within five holes. He passed the rest of the field like he was behind the wheel of a Lamborghini and they were pedaling uphill, and he wouldn't surrender even a share of the lead the rest of the afternoon. 'From finishing yesterday afternoon to teeing off today, it's quite a long time,' McIlroy said after his round. 'There's a lot of anticipation and sort of anxious energy that builds up. You just want to get out there and play. So, you know, with all of that, to go out and start the way I did was amazing.' With McIlroy streaking out to a sudden lead and passing him by the third hole, DeChambeau had no time to rest or relax. He followed two quick birdies with a bogey, and then settled back to even par on the day with another bogey at the 7th. But he closed hot, with three birdies in the final four holes, and made certain Sunday would be a grinding battle. Two moments stand out from Saturday, two moments that might well define how Sunday unfolds. First, McIlroy's approach at 15, the hole that undid him Thursday, was sheer perfection that set up an eagle — and he knew it from the moment it left his club. His strut as he walked downhill toward the pin was as confident as he's looked at Augusta in more than a decade. Eagle on No. 15 launches Rory McIlroy into a four-shot lead. #themasters — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 12, 2025 One hole later, on the 16th, DeChambeau rolled in a birdie putt to close the gap on McIlroy, and DeChambeau followed that with a staredown of the entire massive gallery around the hole. Back-to-back birdies and Bryson is in solo second. 🐦🐦 — Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) April 12, 2025 'Rory was kind of moving forward. He was at 12-under, and I was kind of chasing a bit,' DeChambeau said. 'When I made that, I looked up and I said, kind of as a statement, like, 'You know what? I'm still here. I'm going to keep going. I'm not going to back down.'' DeChambeau closed with a spectacular 47-foot putt on 18 that closed the gap to two. But as soon as he exulted in the joy of the chip, he had to remind himself of a very important fact: 'Now, it's Saturday, right,' he said. 'So I have to tell myself, 'OK, calm down. This is not the end.' So one more day to go.' The two planned to take sharply different — and utterly in-character — approaches to the night before the most crucial round of their respective lives. McIlroy intended to watch "Bridgerton" and stay away from his phone until Sunday evening; DeChambeau planned to watch a Pierce Brosnan-era James Bond film and work his phone late into the night. Come 2:30 p.m. Sunday, they'll both arrive at the same point — the first tee in front of the Augusta National clubhouse. And four or so hours later, give or take a celebration or two, one of them might just be reveling in a career-changing victory. 'Tomorrow in that final group,' McIlroy said, 'it's going to be a little rowdy and a little loud. I'm just going to have to settle in and really try to keep myself in my own little bubble and keep my head down.' 'It will be the grandest stage that we've had in a long time,' DeChambeau said, 'and I'm excited for it.'
