Masters Friday

Anyone watch any golf yesterday?  I thought so...

The Jordan Rules - I didn't see that one coming, but who did?  Actually one guy in Yale Stogel's Masters pool had both Jordan and Ernie, talk about your Yin and Yang... But I digress...From Steve DiMeglio's game story:

The clean-cut kid from Big D, who has gone 1-2-2 in his last three starts on the PGA

Tour, torched the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club on Thursday to grab the first-round lead in the Masters. 

On a day ripe for scoring, Spieth made nine birdies — the most he's ever made in a round in a major championship — to far offset a lone bogey to shoot an 8-under-par 64 in the first major of the year. The last player to make nine birdies in a round in the Masters was Tiger Woods in the second round in 2011.

The golf course played as easy as it ever will, but nine birdies!  That's scary good, but it's still early days.   Like technicolor scorecards?  This is right up your alley if you like yellow:

You don't see many 64's there under any conditions, especially with that six on No. 15.

And yet our young hero is frustrated....at least a tad:

"I was frustrated because I felt like we played it too safe. Felt like we were protecting something," Spieth said. "Michael thought that with the side wind, that it was a hybrid . . . He did exactly what I want him to do. It was also my responsibility to bet on myself to hit shot solid. . . . I needed to bet on myself to hit a good, solid shot there, and I didn't."

Odd fact:  It's Spieth's first round in the 60's at Augusta.  Yes he finished T2 last year, but never cracked 70.  That hybrid he discussed is int he water on No. 16 in any other year, so he's quite correct that he got a couple of breaks out there.  

Lots of praise for the youngster, perhaps this the most notable from Peter Kostis:

“Twenty-one years old, that’s what his body is, but, I’ll tell you, what his golf brain is a lot older than that. He plays like a veteran. You look at him and you wonder why is he so good. I think it’s because he has no weaknesses. He’s strong between the ears, strong in the stomach, strong in the heart.”

There more 64's and Bubba will be draping him in green...yeah, still early in the week.

Perhaps the best bit of perspective comes from Ernie Els via Alan Shipnuck:

Destiny is a funny word around the Masters. Els once seemed destined to win a green jacket. So did Lee Trevino, Greg Norman, Johnny Miller, Tom Weiskopf and Davis Love III, but none of them got it done. (Not yet, anyway.) No course in golf dishes out heartbreak quite like Augusta National. Spieth got a taste of that last year, but his greatest advantage going forward may be how little failure he’s experienced here. Says Els, “I still feel intimidated by the course. The less you've played it, the less damage is in the back of your head.”

Ah yes, maybe his biggest advantage is the minimal scar tissue he';s built up.  My reluctance to pick Jordan this week was that he's played a ton of high-pressure golf these last few weeks, and it can wear down a soul, even such a young soul.  leading from the get-go might exacerbate that...or not.

The Tiger Beat - A weird but reasonably productive day for World No. 111, as he himself recounts:

"I felt good," Woods said. "I felt like I hit the ball well enough to shoot 3-under par. Our

entire group [Jimmy Walker and Jamie Donaldson] was really struggling at the greens. We were talking about how slow they were today. We had a hard time hitting the putts hard enough. You've got to give respect to the downhill putts, but they weren't rolling out." 

That said, Woods had just a single three-putt -- at No. 1 for the first of his four bogeys. He hit 10 of 14 fairways but missed badly at the ninth, leading to a bogey. He hit 11 of 18 greens, but none of the four bogeys were due to poor chipping.

Like most of you, I was shocked by those numbers, as it's hard to get those bad swings on Nos. 9 and 12 out of our minds.  But it's the chipping and pitching that we all wanted to see, and Alan Shipnuck had this:

The curiosity factor of how Woods would handle his first chip reached a fever pitch at the third hole when he drove within 10 feet of the green. He faced an easy chip from the short grass. This time he didn't use a putter or 4-iron as he had in Phoenix. He made clean contact with his wedge but it lacked bite and scooted 18 feet past the hole. It was a missed opportunity. But as Woods likes to say, baby steps. He had another chance to chip at the eighth after crushing a fairway wood over the green at the par 5. After a free drop, his pitch ground to a halt 5 feet from the hole and he canned the putt for birdie. He was back to level par. 

“He hit it nice and spinny,” Jimmy Walker, his playing competitor, said.

I'm leaning towards being a believer that he's solved it, because he hit driver on that short hole specifically to put himself in a position to hit that chip.  To put it another way, I'm willing to believe because he showed me that he believes..

As for the new-found Tiger attitude, this suggests he can hold onto it:

When he approached caddy Joe LaCava in the 1st fairway, he yelled out loud enough for all to hear: “It’s a fairway hit, Joey.” LaCava did not laugh but the crowd did. Woods salvaged an impressive bogey at the 9th to move to one-over-par on his opening nine.

His second shot might have been worse than his drive, but it was an all-world bogey at the end...But this seems like the old Tiger:

"I'm still in it. I'm only nine back," Woods said. "We've got a long way to go."

In theory....but only forty guys to catch.

Other Notes - Tom Watson continues to amaze, now the oldest man to break par at ANGC at age 65.

I'm thinking that Ben Crenshaw might be wishing he had bid us adieu last year.  We love seeing the old champions and there's no issue when they shoot 74 or 78, but how are we supposed to react when they do this?

That was a nice tight 48 on the inbound nine, so maybe it's better that Carl Jackson couldn't go.

In our recurring This Week in Golf Intellectual Property comes this word:

Augusta National Golf Club in September filed for two trademarks of the phrase, “A tradition unlike any other,” ESPN’s Darren Rovell and Bob Harig have reported. 

One trademark “asserts that Augusta National's first use of it came in 1989,” the story said. The second trademark is for the purpose of using the phrase on a variety of apparel, including shirts and hats.

I never realized that Jim was the first to use that phrase, but Augusta owns their broadcasts...But Shack had the item in his merchandise tent dispatch earlier in the week:

In recent years the club has been very aggressive in acquiring the properties around the club, which has allowed for the dramatic upgrading of the practice facilities and other required infrastructure.  Now comes news of a major project to commence shortly:

Masters Tournament patrons are navigating Berckmans Road for the final time before a

new route with special features to accommodate pedestrians debuts in 2016.

A $16.7 million construction project to move the northern section of the road away from the border of Augusta National Golf Club begins May 1. The project is divided into two construction phases, with an interlude for next year’s tournament. 

When the first phase is completed in mid-March, New Berckmans Road will connect with Alex­ander Drive less than a half-mile west of its current output on Washington Road at National Hills shopping center. Two pedestrian tunnels and a vehicle tunnel will cross beneath the road.

It's a bit of inside baseball for those unfamiliar with the logistics, but you have to love this comment from Chairman Billy Paine:

The long‑range plan, of course, since our boundary will then be extended, we will upgrade from a beautification point of view, the parking lot. And while it will continually be maintained every year as a parking lot, it will look appropriately as though it belongs inside the fences of Augusta National. So a significant beautification project.

Yep, they care very deeply how the carpark looks...easy to mock, but it's that attitude that gave us this venue and event.   Shack tells us that this allows for some lengthening, most notably to push back the fifth tee.

Lastly, we can't let Masters Thursday pass without enjoying this:

We never know how many more times we'll see these gents together...