Your One-Stop Masters Linkfest

A great Thursday has left us with as little separation as I can remember on a leader board, with 52 of 97 players at +2 or better.  A couple of quick thoughts from your humble blogger, then we'll see what others are talking about:

Of course the Most Interesting Man in Golf was there.

Conditions - Despite the heavy rains on Monday, the course was in its usual pristine condition.  It seemed from watching on television that it was only reasonably firm, with approach shots holding predictably well.  Those with a mean streak, myself included, are hoping that it firms up each day, making it increasingly critical to be playing one's approach from the fairway.

Set-up - It seemed a pretty tough set of pins for a Thursday to this viewer, an opinion seconded by the chattering classes.  On the broadcast Peter Kostis called the pins a 9.2 on a toughness scale of 1-10, and Graeme McDowell tweeted after seeing the pin sheet "They're not breaking us in gently," specifically citing the pins on Nos. 5, 10 and 16.

As for No. 16, the strategic brilliance of the green has long eluded me.  By far my least favorite pin position is back right, and I'm glad we got it behind us on Thursday.  It's a terribly small shelf, and the players have to be realistic in attacking it, as long is almost a guaranteed bogey.  Anyone in doubt can just take a look at Ernie's bunker shot yesterday.  Any shorter and it stays in the bunker, yet it ran out a good 15-18 feet past the cup.  With that pin all you see is the best players in the world hitting the same 45-foot uphill putt... in what way is that interesting?

The question it begs for me is whether the use of a tough set of Thursday pins reflects their belief that the

Rory plays from the bunker on No. 2.

greens will be too firm and fast for these pins on the weekend.  If only...

Leader Board - What more could you want?  No matter who you're rooting for or betting on, he's still in the hunt.  Except, of course, if you're rooting for The Duf or Brandon Grace...  

Best Shots of the Day - From what I saw, you'd have to choose between Sang-Moon Bae's delicate pitch-in from behind No. 15 and Phil's bomb on No. 10.  

Worst Shots of the Day - Phil's chip on No. 7, from some 35 feet from the cup he caught all of it and it never had a chance to hold the green.  Unfortunately for Phil, his bogey and double-bogey putts on the same hole also get honorable mention.  

King Louis tee shot on No. 12 takes the silver, as it wasn't within 20 yards of dry land (or 30 yards of his target).  He later admitted that he chunked it, and it's always refreshing to hear these guys candidly admit that.

A Lifetime Achievement Award in this category to Mark W.'s pretournament pick Sergio Garcia for not threatening the cup on an uphill 2 ½-foot birdie putt on No. 15 (and his putt on No. 17 wasn't much better).  We keep hearing about Sergio's improved putting, but he doesn't look all the confident, does he?  

And how about the lovable Duf?  Puts his second shot on the Par-5 13th over the green, and somehow makes a nine.  Bob Harig has the blow-by-blow, if you have the stomach for it...

Righting the Ship - Walking off the 13th green at +2, Jimmy Walker played his last five holes at -4 to post a 70.

Wasting a Good Start - Webb Simpson birdied his first three holes, lost the plot, and doubles at Nos. 5 and 15 left him at +2 for the day.

Getting the Least Out of a Good Round - Defending champion (and the bride's pick) Adam Scott was quite happy with posting a 69, but it's not hard to see how it could have been much better.  He made a double on No. 12 after rinsing his tee shot, and has three-putt pars on both of the back nine Par-5's.  

You've no doubt heard enough from me by now, so what are others saying?

Haas with new Luggage Toter.

Starting with the leader, Gene Wojciechowski informs us of a personnel change:

This is how you maybe win a Masters: 

You go liquid nitrogen cold. You make a business decision that Frank and Claire Underwood could admire. You decide the

The Real Deal - Accept No Imitations.

possibility of a green jacket is 

thicker than blood.  

You fire your brother.  

That's what your first-round Masters leader did not long ago. Bill Haas pink-slipped Jay Haas 

Jr. as his caddie. Bill was so upset by the change that he shot a 4-under-par 68 on a sun-smooched Thursday at Augusta National.

Fair enough, but I'm a traditionalist and that really should have been a Francis Urquhart reference.   

Shackelford posts about the difficulty of the Par-3 twelfth at The Loop:

Even the Defender Sometimes Has to Assume the Position.

Adam Scott had a decent excuse for his 12th-hole double bogey. The defending champion received “the most incredible ovation” as he came to the tee, then lost his focus, donating a 9-iron shot into Rae’s Creek for the first time in his career. 

Scott’s unsightly 5 added to the hole’s 3.423 scoring average, making the 12th the second toughest hole Thursday with just six birdies recorded. (The par-4 11th ranked first, averaging 4.474 strokes with only two birdies. Amen Corner indeed.)

Not to be harsh, but is that really such a decent excuse?  In any event, that pin on the right has been driving the boys crazy for as long as I've been watching the Masters, just somewhat surprising given the modest breezes.  

Bill Fields has an interesting piece on watching play at the short Par-4 third.  This is a temptress of a hole,

built long before driveable Par-4's became cool.  As in his piece, the lads tend to play it conservatively in the early rounds, but it's been the scene of many meltdowns from aggressive play on Sunday, none more famous than Jeff Maggert bouncing a ball into himself from the fairway bunker in 2003.  What Jeff Maggert was doing in the last group on Sunday we'll leave for another day.

Coleman McDowell and Rex Hoggard have slightly different takes on Phil's opening 76, with this being the former's lede:

Normally when Phil Mickelson says he hit it well after carding a 76, it’s a dubious claim.

In his opening round at Augusta National, it was absolute fact. 

The three-time Masters champ hit 12 greens and nine fairways en route to a four-over round, good enough for 67th place after opening day at Augusta. Those weren’t mind-blowing stats, but they weren't stats fit for a 76, either. The few misses with his often-erratic driver were mere steps off the fairway instead of giant leaps into the pine straw.

Doesn't that qualify as the soft bigotry of low expectations?  I didn't notice Phil giving himself too many makeable birdie putts, and his chipping (see Nos. 7, 11 and 14) was dreadful.  And let's not mention the wedge into No. 15.... And if he was hitting it so great, why the iron off No. 8?  Has anyone heard him explain his thinking there?

Jeff Babineau and Michael Rosenberg cover the young guns, about whom we heard so much coming into the event.  The former covers the glam pairing of McIlroy, Spieth and Reed:

If morning on opening day at the 78th Masters belonged to legends who own multiple green jackets, then the afternoon session was about those rising stars of today who are chasing after them. It’s not often that Rory McIlroy, all of 24 years old, is the resident graybeard in his threesome, but that was the case on Thursday when he paired with Masters rookies Patrick Reed (23) and Jordan Spieth, who in July finally will be old enough to legally enjoy a beer.

This I thought was the gist of it:

He (Spieth) noted instances in the round where McIlroy knew to hit to certain spots that he and Reed did not, such as at the par-4 17th, where McIlroy had wedge in his hand but played safely left of the far-right hole location. Reed made bogey when his approach bounded over the green.

That's exactly how I saw it, as Rory played safely 15 feet left of a sucker pin on the front right section of the green.  Rosenberg has a similar reaction as I did to Reed's brashness and play:

You could see Patrick Reed coming for a few years, even if you didn't know his name. Reed is 

Patrick loses his grip.

damn good. He knows it and doesn't mind saying it. It is not fair to say he acts like he invented golf. But he does act like golf was invented recently – like someone hit the restart button on golf five years ago, and everything that happened before is irrelevant. 

Reed finished the first Masters round of his life by going bogey-bogey-bogey for a one-over 73, and there is a lesson there. The question is whether he wants to learn it.

I thought Reed's play on Nos. 16-18 would make a perfect instructional video for Masters rookies.  He didn't hit anything all that badly, just a hair too aggressive which cost him on each hole.  I agree that it's a very talented group of Masters rookies, but if the course firms up as expected over the next few days, that should logically make experience even more important.  Spieth on the one hand seems to get it... Reed not so much.

One last note... I'm a David Feherty fan, but he really stepped into it in trying to describe Tiger's illegal drop last year on No. 15.  Listening to him try to escape from the verbal box canyon he needlessly strolled into was my laugh for the day.  It just so happens that I'm working on a longer post on that subject, so David give me a call and I'll explain it to you.