Popular pastime played with putters / MON 4-13-24 / Topic of a wistful breakup song / Bearded garden figurine / Washable diaper material / Cut of meat that lent its name to a facial hairstyle

Constructor: Jeremy Newton

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (*for a Monday* *solved Downs-only*)

THEME: HOLE-IN-ONE SHOT (??) (33A: With 34- and 35- Across, something made by following the path of O's in this puzzle's grid) — it's supposed to depict a HOLE-IN-ONE (SHOT) in MINIGOLF (18A: Popular pastime played with putters), which was apparently invented in SCOTLAND (46A: Country with the first 18-Across venue (for ladies only, 1867))

Word of the Day: Margaret CHO (53D: Stand-up comic Margaret) —

Margaret Moran Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She is known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially regarding race and sexuality. She rose to prominence after starring in the ABC sitcom All-American Girl (1994–95), and became an established stand-up comic in the subsequent years.

As an actress, she has acted in such roles as Charlene Lee in It's My Party and John Travolta's FBI colleague in the action film Face/Off. Cho was part of the cast of the TV series Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime Television, in which she appeared as Teri Lee, a paralegal assistant. For her portrayal of Kim Jong-il on 30 Rock, she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2012. In 2022, Cho co-starred in the film Fire Island, a portrayal of the LGBT Asian American experience in the eponymous gay village off the South Shore of Long Island.

If I'd gone with LOAF instead of LOLL at 5D: Sit around doing nothing, things might've been much easier, but LOLL really felt right (and was, technically, half right), and so LOLL stayed in place and (consequently) both of the longer Across answers up top became much much harder to parse (when you solve Downs-only, parsing's all you have). At one point I wanted MINIGOLF to be MINIMALL and LOADS OF FUN to be HOLDS OFF ON (!?). Aside from that problem, the rest of the grid was much easier, though a few of the longer answers eluded me for a while, including the one that went right through the shaded square—26D: Site for skeletons (CLOSET). Really (really) could've used a "metaphorically speaking" there. It is Monday, after all. But it's OK. I got there. GROW ON and "I HOPE NOT" were also toughish to get without help from Acrosses. In the case of "I HOPE NOT," the equivalency is not ... not what I'd call airtight, and as for GROW ON, I think of that meaning not just that something is becoming more tolerable, but that you're actually growing to like it. Then I had problem parsing some of the unlikelier Acrosses, like "YO DOG" (woof) and NO HOW and especially "IT'S DOPE" (42A: "Highly recommend!," in slang). Oh, and DIET gave me a mini-fit as well (49D: Try to lighten up?). I wanted ... I dunno, something to do with hair dye, I think. Never saw the theme while solving. Finished with what seemed like a lot of awkward fill and a couple of mysterious "O" squares (shaded and circled, respectively). Didn't even notice the string of "O"s traversing the grid at ODD angles. I can't say I think much of this theme. The revealer feels bad. Who says "HOLE-IN-ONE SHOT?" That is, who says the SHOT part? It's a hole-in-one. That's the shot. Everyone knows a "hole-in-one" is a (golf) shot. A "million-to-one shot," that's a thing. A HOLE-IN-ONE SHOT feels ... well, as I say, bad. Like some forced garbage you make up to get symmetry to work out.