Masters Loose Ends

Many loose threads from an intense weekend of televised golf to throw together into a meandering, plotless post, i.e., just another day at the office for your humble blogger.

Rory-World - Who woulda thunk it, from a nail-biter on the 18th Friday to make the cut on the number, Rory finishes T8, his best Masters finish ever.  All that really tells you is how bad that Sunday was in 2011.

Rory shot 34-35-69, yesterday but the back-nine 35 is one you don't see too often.  Bogies on Nos. 13 and 15, the short Par-5's that Rory should be able to birdie in his sleep.  Fortunately birdies at Nos. 11, 14 and 16 got him into the red for the nine.

But of greatest import, confidential sources tell me that Caroline is again a blonde.

Worlds colliding: Caroline's membership application meets the Admission Committee.

The scariest part is that it was apparently by request:

The 15th-ranked singles player in the world, Wozniacki spent the earlier part of the week with her hair dyed bright pink. Her colorful locks were all the talk during the Par 3 tournament Wednesday, when McIlroy said he wanted her hair to "match the azaleas." 

Oddly enough, McIlroy spent some time in the azaleas looking for his ball during the first three rounds.

Planet Tiger -  For those that read my post on Tiger's surgery this comes as no surprise, but Tiger confidant Notah Begay confirms that we will not see Tiger at Pinehurst:

“I’ve been in contact with him this week. He missed being at Augusta and certainly was watching the tournament, (but) I think he needs to give (his back) a minimum of 90 days to make sure that scar tissue heals up appropriately and he doesn’t run the risk of re-injuring it. So that would push him past the U.S. Open.”

Unfortunate, but never realistic that he'd be ready by June.  And given that the next Major after that is in potentially cold and wet Liverpool, my nickel is on Tiger making it back for the PGA at Valhalla.  And Valhalla, irony alert, raises the question of whether Captain Watson wants the Striped One on his squad, or would prefer to replicate the underdog team led by Paul Azinger.  Discuss amongst yourselves...

I Saw It On TV - Shackelford posts on the Masters ratings and introduces me the the alluringly alliterative website awfulannouncing.com, who compiles the tweets of overnight ratings.  CBS's Sunday telecast received a 7.8, meaning 7.8% of American households were tuned in), down from 10.4 last year and the lowest since 2004 (and from 8.1 in 2012 when Bubba won his first green jacket).

Obviously everyone was expecting ratings to be down with Tiger MIA and Phil missing the weekend. But the poor ratings in 2004, the year of that electric back-nine duel between Phil (finally shedding the dreaded BPNTWAM* label) and Ernie, can't be solely the result of it being Easter Sunday, can it?

Ed Sherman introduces us to Brian Murphy at Yahoo Sports, who offers up some Major-quality snark about the absence of back-nine fireworks:

Even Bubba himself shot a mostly ho-hum even-par 36 on the back nine. When he said in Butler Cabin on CBS, “I was telling my caddie, ‘I don’t even remember the last few holes,’ ” the rest of us were saying: Neither do we.

And, before I respond, those of you familiar with my reverence for Sir Nick, will understand that I can't help but excerpt this comment about Tiger:

...he’s become as much a part of the Augusta National landscape as the azaleas, as much a part of the landscape as Rae’s Creek, as much a part of the landscape as CBS’ Nick Faldo referencing his three Masters wins every five minutes, as if on an egg timer.

Nick won three Masters?  Who knew?  We do love our snark, though mostly when directed at the appropriate targets, and I would clarify the comment to the extent that the smarmy Jim Nancy-boy seems to bring it up as much as the Nickster.

But it's not that we didn't get our fireworks, it's just that for some reason they came on the front nine this year.  Admittedly something of a Bizarro World Masters, but you can't blame Bubba for protecting a lead (and the drive on No. 13 and second shot on No. 15 can't be fairly described as overly-conservative).

Another new website courtesy of Shack is Classic Sports (www.classicsports.com), which tracked the number of shots shown by CBS:

Jordan Spieth led the way with 70, followed by Bubba at 68, Kuchar at 58 and finished off by Lee Westwood at zero.

When Mark W. told me over lunch Monday that Lee Westwood finished 7th, I was justifiably surprised.  

Course Set-Up - Shackelford gave his thoughts on the course set-up in his Monday Morning Drive Appearance which can be seen here.  He makes the case first that the greens were "on the edge," but also that the course was there for the taking on Sunday.  Does that mean the greens were slower or less firm on Sunday?  

He then states that after forcing the guys to play defensively in the early rounds, that they then can't turn it around on Sunday.  Really, Geoff?  Seems to me the difference this year was that when the pursuers tried to get aggressive, they didn't pull it off.  

I'm with him on the subject of the trees on Nos. 11 and 15, which he accurately notes is the antithesis of the design philosophy of Dr. MacKenzie and Bobby Jones, and ends on a positive note that it might afford the club an opportunity to undo the excesses of the Hootie Johnson/Tom Fazio changes.  

The Good Doctor - Earlier in the week we were treated to MacKenzie's original plan for a Par-3 course incorporating nine large double greens.  Now the Masters website shares this with us:

Augusta National Golf Club has a set of iconic par-3 holes. The quartet is topped by Golden Bell, the 155-yard 12th hole at the heart of Amen Corner, capable of creating champions or crushing dreams. 

Unbeknownst to many, there was almost a fifth par 3 at Augusta National. In his original drawing of the course, architect Alister MacKenzie included a 90-yard one-shotter.

In keeping with the Augusta National model, the hole even had a name chosen for it, but in a departure from the others, like Yellow Jasmine and Golden Bell, this one did not reflect the natural beauty of the trees and shrubs which were to adorn the hole. 

MacKenzie's extra hole was to be known as Double or Quits, the British variation of "double or nothing." That fit perfectly with the purpose of the hole, to offer a last chance for players to make a wager to recoup losses incurred during their 18-hole round. In the drawing, the hole was placed in such a manner as to take the final resolution easily accessible. The tee box was just steps behind the original 18th green (now the ninth green after nines were reversed in 1935), on the way to the Clubhouse.

There's some doubt about whether such a hole was ever built.  While there's no record of it, there is a reference to it in an old newspaper account.  

Last Word - For now goes to Rickie Fowler, a good friend of Bubba's for this response to a question about him:

"How much has Bubba grown up in the last couple of years?" Fowler was asked.
His response: "He's gone from like 12 and a half to 14."