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When it comes to Scotch whisky, blended whisky reigns supreme worldwide. Casual whisky drinkers and collectors alike are drawn to names like Johnnie Walker and Ballantine’s in numbers that boggle the mind. But there’s more to blended scotch than the “best-selling” brand names. There’s a whole world of blended whisky (a blend of malt and grain whiskies) and blended malt (a blend of malt whiskies) out there worth diving into.

Blended Scotch whisky might be the biggest game in the business but that doesn’t mean it’s resting on its laurels. Blended whiskies are expanding and evolving just like every other sector of the whisk(e)y industry. That means there are plenty of new and exciting blended whiskies dropping all the time — many of which we like.

Below, we’ve listed eight well-priced blended whiskies that are flavorful enough to be used as a value sipper, ranked. Let’s dive in!

8) Monkey Shoulder

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $35

The Whisky:

One of the most well-known blended Scotch whiskies, Monkey Shoulder is comprised of a blend of whiskies from well-known distilleries under the William Grant name. A popular choice among bartenders and drinkers alike, it’s known for being both a great base for a cocktail as well as a value sipper.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is a combination of candied orange peels, toasted vanilla beans, and a smattering of wintry spices. The palate is surprisingly malt-forward with notes of brown sugar, caramel, dried fruits, and honey. It’s fairly sweet and fruity and that might turn off some drinkers.

Bottom Line:

Monkey Shoulder isn’t the most exciting blended Scotch ever made. It’s a decent base, low-priced base for a cocktail, and a fruitier-than-normal, sweet sipper. It gets more praise from name recognition than it likely deserves. Still… pretty solid.

7) The Famous Grouse

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $21

The Whisky:

It’s safe to say, you can trust Scottish people when they decide they like a whisky. It comes from their country, after all. The Famous Grouse is the best-selling Scotch whisky in Scotland for a reason. This always bargain-priced blend even includes the likes of Highland Park and The Macallan.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a lot of malt on the nose and it quickly reminds you that you’re about to drink a blended whisky. There’s also a slight butterscotch and vanilla aroma, but not much else. Sipping it reveals hints of orange marmalade, more vanilla, clover honey, and just a hint of smoke at the very end.

Bottom Line:

This is an easy-to-drink, very malt-driven blend. It’s not remarkably complex and won’t break the bank. It serves its purpose if that purpose is to drink something for around $20.

6) Sheep Dip Blended Malt Whisky

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $38

The Whisky:

The name references a term that farmers used to call whisky. This whisky is a blend of more than twelve single malt Scotch whiskies. Each has aged a minimum of five years in a combination of sherry, ex-bourbon, and refill oak barrels. It’s known for its complex flavor profile.

Tasting Notes:

Sticky toffee, clover honey, and a ton of malt. That’s the nose on this blended whisky. The palate continues this trend with a ton of sweet malt flavor paired with butterscotch, vanilla, cinnamon, and some other cooking spices. All in all, it’s a bit watery and muted but solid overall.

Bottom Line:

For the fact that it’s a blend of more than a dozen whiskies and some are matured in ex-sherry and former bourbon barrels, you’d expect a little more from this blend. It’s not a bad whisky, just a little underwhelming.

5) Chivas Regal 12 Year

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $29

The Whisky:

Chivas is a big name in the blended Scotch whisky world. Its Chivas Regal 12 is a blend of single malt and grain whiskies. This includes Strathisla single malt and Strathclyde single grain whiskies among others. It’s known for its nuanced, well-rounded, mellow flavor profile.

Tasting Notes:

This blended Scotch whisky carries expected aromas of butterscotch, candied orange peels, vanilla, and slight, oaky wood. The palate is heavy on malted barley flavor with some vanilla, almond cookies, and slight, peppery spice at the very end. Overall, it’s a little muted in the flavor department for my palate.

Bottom Line:

For a blend of 12-year-old whiskies, you’d expect a little more excitement in the flavor profile. For the price, it’s an okay sipping dram, but nothing to write home about.

4) Johnnie Walker Black

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $28

The Whisky:

You’d have a difficult time finding a blended Scotch whisky more well-known than Johnnie Walker. Its black label whisky is a blend of forty or so whiskies that are aged a minimum of twelve years. This results in a slightly smoky, sippable blend.

Tasting Notes:

For a blend, this nose is surprisingly spicy and smoky. There are also notes of dried fruits, sweet malts, and candied orange peels. There’s an oaky, woody quality that intermingles with notes of butterscotch, vanilla beans, barley, and gentle smoke. The finish is warming and sweet.

Bottom Line:

You can do much worse than Johnnie Walker Black. For the price, it’s a good sipping whisky. That being said, the slight smoke and spices might turn off some drinkers.

3) Dewar’s 12 Year

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $29

The Whisky:

Like Johnnie Walker Black, Dewar’s 12 is a blend of whiskies aged for a minimum of twelve years. It’s comprised of around forty different single malt and grain whiskies blended before finishing for an additional six months to solidify the flavor.

Tasting Notes:

Complex aromas of dried fruits, butterscotch, toasted marshmallows, toasted barley, almond cookies, and a gentle floral background greet your nose. The palate is loaded with flavors like clover honey, sweet grains, caramel malts, dried fruits, candied orange peel, and almond butter. It all ends with a malty, sweet, slightly smoky finish.

Bottom Line:

If you’re a fan of Johnnie Walker Black, we suggest trying Dewar’s 12 instead. Even though they are around the same price and have a similar recipe (with different whiskies included), we believe Dewar’s 12 is actually the more refined and flavorful of the two.

2) Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $28

The Whisky:

Even if you don’t know much about blended whisky, you’ve probably heard the name Cutty Sark. While its original blend is around $20 and will get the job done, we think you should step it up to the slightly more expensive Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition. This blend of single malt and grain whiskies is 100 proof and known for its bold flavor profile.

Tasting Notes:

Spicy hints of cinnamon, cloves, orange zest, butterscotch, and vanilla cream meet your nostrils when you nose this complex whisky. Sipping it brings forth notes of cocoa powder, sweet malts, sticky toffee pudding, candied orange peels, and a gentle, nutty sweetness. The finish is sweet, warming, and memorable.

Bottom Line:

If you’re the type of drinker who prefers to sip on higher-proof whiskies, this is a blend for you. Even at 50% ABV, it’s a great mix of spicy, sweet, and nutty that will leave you craving more.

1) Compass Box Artist Blend

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $33

The Whisky:

Compass Box has become the go-to for approachable, high-quality blends in the last few decades. Its Artist Blend is named to pay tribute to the street performers and artists in Edinburgh. It’s a blend of single malt and grain whiskies and is known for its nuanced, mellow flavor.

Tasting Notes:

Right away, you know this is a special blended whisky. The nose has aromas of lemon curd, dried fruits, vanilla beans, and honey. On the palate, you’ll find cinnamon, cloves, caramel apples, candied orange peels, vanilla beans, and sweet treacle. The finish is long, warming, and pleasantly sweet and spicy.

Bottom Line:

For the price, there is no better-blended whisky than Compass Box Artists Blend. It’s smooth, sweet, spicy, and tastes like it should be way more expensive.

On this week’s episode of People’s Party with Talib Kweli, Kweli and Jasmin Leigh talk with West Coast G-Funk legend Warren G. The Regulator drops by to discuss his storied career — including how giving friendly legal advice to Snoop Dogg got him booted from Death Row Records, just before the iconic label took off.

According to Warren G, he and Snoop were both given contracts by Death Row Records. He was reluctant to sign his. Trying to be an intelligent friend and business advisor to a young Snoop Dogg, he suggested Snoop not sign the contract without having an attorney review it first.

“I was like, don’t sign that,” Warren tells Kweli. “Because you don’t know what you are signing.”

This warning to Snoop got back to the infamous CEO of Death Row Records, Suge Knight. In classic Suge fashion, it turned into an altercation. And a pretty dramatic one, at that when Knight ran up on Warren and shoved him against the wall just as he was leaving. There, Suge shouted, “Blood, you told him not to sign that contract?!”

“I said n**** if you don’t let go of me I’m calling my brother [Dr. Dre], I’m callin’ call my homeboys!” Warren G tells Kweli. “He let me go.”

After the incident Warren G found himself pushed out of touring opportunities with Dr. Dre, Snoop, and others as Death Row Records overtook the rap game at an unprecedented pace. He was left to fend for himself. Even Dr. Dre was reluctant to help.

“I had to go back to the hood- sleeping on the floor,” he recalls.” All I had was my crate of records that I was helping out with for The Chronic, I had my MPC 60 drum machine and I had my Numark mixer. That’s all I had. But that led to me doing Regulate and doing records for Tupac.”

Later he and Talib Kweli discussed statements Snoop Dogg made about writing Warren G’s album (which Snoop later corrected himself on). Overall, the conversation is both insightful and inspiring. Despite the periodic setbacks at times, the West Coast icon remains incredibly stoic about everything that transpired “I’m never gonna let this music shit get between me and my homeboy. This is my dog [referring to Snoop]. It got ironed out.”

Watch the clip above to hear more about Warren G’s journey or watch the entire episode of People’s Party with Talib Kweli below.

If there was ever a cause to rally Pink Floyd back together as a band, this is it. The band has always questioned establishment politics and stood against war and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has seen David Gilmour (whose daughter-in-law is Ukrainian) and the band previously pulling their music from Russian streaming services. Now, Pink Floyd has come together again for their first original song since 1994 in the brand new “Hey, Hey Rise Up,” featuring Andriy Khlyvnyuk, the singer of the Ukrainian band BoomBox.

As Pitchfork reports, the Pink Floyd lineup for the song features David Gilmour and Nick Mason with bassist Guy Pratt and keyboardist Nitin Sawhney. The song features Gilmour’s signature prog-y guitar, as the band plays to Khlyvnyuk singing the traditional Ukrainian song, “The Red Viburnum In The Meadow.” The video for the track sees the band playing with a clip of Khlyvnyuk singing in the background, while images from the war are also cut into the footage. As the clip opens, Pink Floyd relay the following message:

“On 24 February, 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine.

BoomBox singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk ended his US tour and returned home to Kiyv to defend his country.

Three days later, he posted a video on Instagram , singing the Ukrainian song “The Red Viburnum In The Meadow.”

Now Pink Floyd has joined with Andriy to support his message of resistance.”

All of the proceeds from the track will benefit the Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund. This is a momentous release, as the last time Pink Floyd release original music was 1994’s The Division Bell.

Watch the video for “Hey, Hey Rise Up” above.

Many are likening TikTok’s new “water cup challenge” to a game of liquid Jenga, only trading in the wooden blocks for rounds of pours. But that’s not entirely accurate.

For one thing, it’s even more intense.

As a Jenga aficionado (I have my own giant set at home and have yet to lose), this was hard to believe. But it’s true.

With Jenga, each round gets more and more difficult. As the tower—and the anxiety—gets higher, even breathing ceases to be an option. But the game at least has the built-in mercy of the really big wobble that signals “mayday, we’re going down!”

Such is not the case with the water cup challenge. There is no warning. Just … splash. Game over.

But that’s the really great thing about it too. You see, the water cup challenge might appear to be a game of chance, but there’s way more to it than that.

To really understand, one must know the principles of surface tension.

Surface tension happens when water molecules on the surface don’t have other water molecules on all sides of them. There are simply fewer of them swimming around up there. As a result, they will connect even more strongly to the other water molecules directly next to them.

You see, water molecules like to stick together, thanks to a natural property called cohesion—Mother Nature’s version of clinginess, if you will. Cohesion is what makes a water droplet stay a droplet, or what helps objects to float despite being heavy or dense.

It’s also what keeps the water cup challenge so riveting.

@gracemagerz Yikesss 😬 @holar_dipo #watercup #challenge #african #nigerian #kenyan #gracemagerz ♬ Dior Her – Seabee Ferarri

The game, like Jenga, is simple: Take turns pouring small amounts of water into a clear cup that’s already mostly filled. Whoever causes the inevitable spill is the loser. The end.

But man, you can pour an insane amount of water onto the top. And as that bubble gets bigger and bigger, the suspense increases. Though one trick is to pour slowly, that’s easier said than done once the hands start shaking. Either way, it’s incredibly fun to play and fun to watch.

Compared to Jenga, losing is a bit less painful, as there are no bricks to pick up. Although some people like to raise the stakes by soaking the loser with ice cold water.

William Hof must be so proud.

And in a way, the water cup challenge is even more kid-friendly than its brick counterpart.

There’s not just the cool surface tension lesson. It can be great hands-on practice for developing motor skills. Montessori schools will often introduce children as young as two-and-a-half years old to the practical life lesson of pouring as it can “help build a child’s concentration, control of body movement, and fine motor control.”

This actually blew my mind 🤯@TeamJuJu (via thefbhouse/TT) pic.twitter.com/jFE0wvywaZ

— Overtime (@overtime) March 31, 2022

But clearly this is not just a game for children. Just ask NFL player JuJu Smith-Schuster (above), who really helped the trend make a splash.

All in all, the water cup challenge is a safe, engaging and all around wholesome form of H2O entertainment, no matter what age.

Good luck. And remember, pour slowly!

Having a pet is a lot of responsibility, but the benefits are many. Pets can help reduce stress levels and provide emotional support even if you don’t realize they’re doing it. It makes sense that many homeless people have pets that keep them company. Though pets can provide all sorts of psychological benefits, caring for them can be costly, even for the most financially stable pet owner.

Vet bills can range into the thousands, but routine care that many take for granted can catch these costly health issues before they reach the point of breaking the bank. When homeless people are seen hanging out with their pets, folks rarely stop to wonder if these pets are getting appropriate veterinary care. But Dr. Kwane Stewart took note. Stewart has been a veterinarian for 25 years, and currently works at Netflix as an animal consultant as well as sharing his skills with people experiencing homelessness to help with the health check-up their animals need.

In 2019, Stewart was the star of a reality show, Street Vet, where he took to the streets of California to provide vet care to animals of people without homes. He started a pop-up clinic where he would travel to different locations, after meeting a man and his dog on the street. This particular dog was suffering from a skin condition due to a flea infestation that caused a patch of the dog’s hair to fall out and a rash. Stewart offered to treat the man’s dog, and after a $3 pill, the dog was free of fleas and looking much healthier and happier when Stewart returned to check on it a few weeks later. The dog’s owner tearfully thanked the doctor, and that was when Stewart decided to provide vet care his way with pop-up clinics.

Vaccinations for our pets prevent illnesses, diseases, and keep them healthy. When we met Jessica and u201cMinnie,u201d they were both scared of shots, but @DrKwane was able to help educate them on their importance. Minnie was a champ and we are grateful to have been able to assist! pic.twitter.com/gq4mKuUplB

— Project Street Vet (@Project Street Vet)
1642867246

Stewart has been doing pop-up clinics and going in search of animals whose owners don’t have the capacity to come to him for more than a decade. He has had his fair share of challenging jobs, one of which was euthanizing a large number of animals during his first years out of vet school, which spurred his search for something more meaningful. He was the director of the No Animals Were Harmed program. And then Netflix came calling with an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Find your passion and go n#thestreetvet #nojudgementjusthelppic.twitter.com/xJqoBhoIyD

— Dr. Kwane Stewart (@Dr. Kwane Stewart)
1644709814

His passion for helping the animals of homeless people was what led him to launch his nonprofit, Project Street Vet. He runs the nonprofit while also owning his own practice Papaya Pet Care, which opened in March 2022, and continuing to consult with Netflix. Project Street Vet allows Stewart to continue his work on the streets for people experiencing homelessness for free.

The care that he provides to the pets he encounters on the street is invaluable. He interacts with the owners with dignity and respect, while providing them with a judgment-free zone as he cares for their pets. Over the 10 years he’s been doing street vet clinics he has helped countless pets, and no doubt he’ll continue to help countless more.

Many of us hope to make it to our 85th birthday in good enough health to be active. Betty Reid Soskin did far more than that when she became a park ranger for the National Park Service the year she turned 85. And for the past 15 years, she has served as a ranger at Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, sharing forgotten histories of the homefront war effort.

On March 31, the National Park Service announced that Soskin was retiring—at age 100.

Go ahead and say it with me: Wow.

However, Soskin indicated years ago that such longevity shouldn’t surprise us. Her mother lived until 101, her great-grandmother lived until 102 and her great-aunt lived to 107—and they all stayed busy until their passing.

In 2020, at age 98, Soskin told KTVU “I can’t believe I’ve reached this age. Inside is 19-year-old Betty.” At that point, she had cut back from giving interpretive talks from five days to one day a week after suffering a stroke five months before, but still she kept going in her service as a park ranger. She said there was something she was still meant to do.

“I haven’t any idea what it is,” she said. “I have no idea, except that it’s there. It’s something that I am to accomplish and I haven’t done it yet.”

Soskin has taken her work as a ranger seriously, and countless people have enjoyed hearing her unique perspective. She became a park ranger at Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park because she was driven to broaden people’s understanding of the context of the war effort, including the backdrop of racism and segregation in the U.S., according to NPR.

Soskin herself was a young woman during World War II and worked as a shipyard clerk for an all-Black auxiliary lodge of the Boilermakers union. (As a Black American, she was not allowed to join as a regular member.) Her great-grandmother had been born into slavery and was still alive at that time.

“Being a primary source in the sharing of that history – my history – and giving shape to a new national park has been exciting and fulfilling,” said Soskin. “It has proven to bring meaning to my final years.”

Soskin has been honored multiple times over the years, earning the title of Woman of the Year in 1995 from the California Legislature and being given the honor of introducing President Obama at a tree-lighting ceremony. She has a California middle school named after her, and she is well aware of the importance of her role in sharing stories that history has too often overlooked.

“What gets remembered is a function of who’s in the room doing the remembering,” Soskin has said, according to NPR.

Soskin—or “Ranger Betty,” as she’s been known for the past decade and a half—spent her final day as a ranger providing an interpretive program to the public and visiting with friends. The National Park Service shared a message announcing her retirement and wishing her well.

“The National Park Service is grateful to Ranger Betty for sharing her thoughts and first-person accounts in ways that span across generations,” said Naomi Torres, acting superintendent of Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park. “She has used stories of her life on the Home Front, drawing meaning from those experiences in ways that make that history truly impactful for those of us living today.”

If you want to enjoy one of Soskin’s talks, here you go. She is, in a word, riveting. May we all live as long and as well as Ranger Betty.

A 16-year-old developmentally disabled teen went on a hike with his mother and sister in the mountains near Los Angeles on the morning of Sunday, April 3 when he ran off into the trees and disappeared. The family called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department for help, but after six hours they still couldn’t find him.

The situation was stressful because the teen is nonverbal and couldn’t call out for help or reveal his location. His family had no idea whether he was injured or how far he had gone into the forest.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department brought together the Montrose Search and Rescue Team, Glendale and Burbank police, the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team and the Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team to help in the search. They didn’t have much to go on but the boy’s mother told Montrose Search and Rescue Deputy Steve Goldsworthy that he had an affection for rocks. “He will go out of his way to kick a rock, pick up a rock, throw a rock,” Goldsworthy said.

“Several hours into the search, a Montrose team member heard what sounded like the clinking of rocks together,” the Montrose Search and Rescue Team wrote on Facebook. “Remembering that the missing person had an interest in playing with rocks, he investigated further. He also directed the Burbank PD airship to look down the canyon.”

“I could hear the rocks hit, and a slight echo. I could hear that three different times,” Goldsworthy said.

The search and rescue team found the boy 400 feet over the side of a fire road.

“Our team member went down the mountainside and made contact with the missing person,” the search and rescue team said. The wonderful thing was that the team knew he had developmental issues and approached him with care.

“Recognizing the sensitivity of the situation, he worked to build a rapport with the teenager. After gaining the trust of the missing person, he led him up the mountain to safety. Once at the top, he was treated by paramedics and released to his family,” the search and rescue team wrote.

When they first encountered the boy he was sitting beneath an oak tree.

After the rescuers gained the boy’s trust, they were able to walk him up the hill, have him looked over by paramedics and reunite him with his family. “Our Department was thrilled this incident had a happy ending,” the Sheriff’s department wrote.

Sometimes people with Alzheimeru2019s, dementia or autism go missing. Three years ago, LA County launched LA Found & Project Lifesaver to provide those at risk of wandering with free voluntary trackable bracelets. For more info call (833) 569-7651 or visit http://lafound.lacounty.govu00a0pic.twitter.com/vulcNxWnm9

— Options for Learning (@Options for Learning)
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The Montrose Search and Rescue Team used the situation to promote a program that provides peace of mind for people with developmental disabilities and those who care for them. “If you have a loved one who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia, Autism, or other cognitive disorders, consider applying for Project Lifesaver,” the team wrote on Facebook.

People enrolled in Project Lifesaver wear a small transmitter on their wrist or ankle that emits an individualized frequency signal. If they go missing, the caregiver notifies their local Project Lifesaver agency, and a trained emergency team responds to the wanderer’s area.

The program is a nonprofit that combines tracking technology that, in partnership with local police, fire and rescue teams, can quickly locate people who have wandered from their homes and families.

Learn more about Project Lifesaver here.

Donald Trump’s Twitter rip-off, Truth Social, is disintegrating in real-time as top company execs quit, users complain about censorship, and sign-up rates plummet but CEO Devin Nunes is doing his best to dissassociate from reality by making some bold claims about how hugely successful the platform actually is.

The problem? It’s all lies, and Nunes hasn’t even done a good job of covering up the smell.

In a recent interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo (via The Daily Beast), Nunes was asked to comment on Elon Musk’s new stake in Twitter. The controversial billionaire has a controlling amount of shares in the company and was recently named to its board. Bartiromo gave Nunes’ social media site a bit too much credit when asking what he thought of the change in leadership at the rival tech firm. Yet Nunes threw everyone for a loop by claiming that though Musk will likely try to make changes, Truth Social is already outperforming Twitter.

No really. Here’s his exact quote:

“It’s clear that Twitter is kind of a ghost town,” Nunes said. “There’s not very much activity over at Twitter right now, especially when you compare it to sites like ours. Our interactions are already beating Twitter.”

Both Bartiromo and a panel of experts proceeded to grill Nunes on his company’s many failings — a long waitlist and a glitchy app rollout on Apple’s iTunes store among them — but the ex-congressman stuck to his script, reiterating his belief that, once all of the “bots” were taken out of the equation, Twitter would simply be a “house of cards.”

Over 200 million users would likely disagree, but sure Jan, go off.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Bridgerton still managed to maintain momentum with a Duke-less season, and overall, the story (bolstered by an on-point soundtrack) still managed to put a dagger to the Regency Era while batting around some of its conventions that arguably persist today. Even with a lesser amount of steam, the series still broke viewing records for Netflix, even though, sure, a contingent of fans could have done with more sex scenes.

It is saying something that Anthony Bridgerton managed to court one woman and marry another and still ended up being more randy in the first season. And if one looks at his eventual marriage to Kate, the season ended at a point where we didn’t see much of Kate and Anthony’s newlywed life. This deprives viewers of what John Oliver described as the “jizzing in blankets” phenomenon, which is super sad. But I mean, maybe you can visualize that happening by looking at Season 2 moments and squinting really hard?

Well, maybe not. Yet according to the show’s intimacy coordinator, Lizzy Talbot, it sure sounds like more sex scenes were filmed and ended up on the cutting room floor. Here’s what Talbot told Glamour:

We always do more than we need to so there are many options in the edit. I think that that’s a really important thing. I know people have been frustrated that there haven’t been more [sex scenes], but part of it is that we want to give our absolute best. There are loads of scenes that don’t make the final edit–that’s just the world of film. What we are really confident in is that the sex scenes that are in, we’re really proud of.

For more insight on all of this, the full Glamour piece is worth reading, including Talbot’s weigh-in on eye contact during a pivotal sex scene. Yet the bottom line from Talbot is that Bridgerton producers are looking for these scenes to help propel the narrative, and those scenes that don’t do so (no matter the context) simply don’t make the cut. However, I am sure that Bridgerton fans would not mind watching any of these cut scenes in a standalone fashion, should Netflix choose to push out some sort of blooper-esque reel.

God save the blankets!

(Via Glamour)

Tiger Woods wasn’t supposed to be at the 2022 Masters, given it was taking place less than 14 months after a horrific car crash left him hospitalized and needing significant surgery on his right leg. However, on Thursday, the 5-time green jacket winner strolled to the first tee at Augusta National and proceeded to look an awful lot like the man who has the second most major championships of all time.

Woods would start his day with five consecutive pars, showing off a quality swing and some strong nerves on the greens to get up and down and keep a clean card through a difficult opening stretch.

It was the par-3 sixth that produced the shot of the day from Woods, as he took dead aim at the pin with a 6-iron, flighting down a little cut that found the back tier and skipped to a stop inside three feet from the cup, yielding his first birdie of the day.

He would give that birdie back at the par-5 eighth thanks to some poor short game, as there was some apparent rust with his wedges around the green that still needs to be knocked off, but kept grinding from there to make a number of solid pars. From a full swing perspective, his miss all day was left off the tee, as he was clearly having some issues clearing out his right side and ended up pivoting around himself, tugging a few tee shots into the left trees. That happened on the ninth, when we got a vintage Tiger moment when his ball zipped off the front of the green and we got a hot mic f-bomb from the Big Cat.

Throughout the day, his escape artistry was on full display, with the most notable effort being on 14 where he unleashed a vintage Tiger lash from the pine straw, hoisting a ball up and over the trees and just over the back of the green.

Woods would make bogey there after being unable to get up and down, but would get it back shortly. A pair of left swings again on 15 forced him into just a par on the par-5, as he went even par across the four 5s at Augusta, a rarity for a player who typically punishes those holes. However, after that Woods arrived at a hole where he has created some of his most indelible masterpieces, the par-3 16th, where he found the proper tier for the back left hole location and poured in a birdie putt to send the Augusta patrons into a frenzy.

A stress-free par on 17 brought him to the 18th where the snappy left miss popped up once again off the tee, as he missed miles left and was actually on the 10th hole more than 300 yards from the green — but had an angle to get a long layup. Woods advanced it to just inside 80 yards and skipped a wedge to inside 10 feet, paying it off with yet another grindy par putt to post a 1-under 71.

It was as impressive a round of golf as you’ll see, as there were some dodgy swings and occasional winces, but for the most part he looked like one of the world’s best golfers again. Considering where he was a year ago, that’s an unbelievable turnaround and, sitting just three shots back, Woods proved that he wasn’t lying when he said he felt like his game was in a place where he could win a sixth green jacket.