Masters Wednesday

It's taking forever to get through the prelims, but let's dive in, shall we?

Pressers - Tuesday is given over to press conferences, and the lads were both personable and informative.  Coleman McDowell aggregates some of the more interesting tidbits from the parade:

First up is Bubba responding to that ESPN poll we discussed yesterday:

Q. What do you think about when you read about that stuff? On a scale of 1 to 10,

how much does it irritate you, that kind of publicity?

BUBBA WATSON: Here is the way I take it. I take it as I need to improve as a man. I take it with pride. I need to get better. And I think over my career, since my rookie season to now, I've gotten better. But obviously there's more room for me to improve as a man. And so hopefully next year or the year after, it improves. It's a challenge. It's great. I'm glad that it came out and it's going to help me improve.

So if it's a bad thing and people don't like me, then I've got to improve and prove them wrong.

Bubba came off as increasingly mature and comfortable with his position in the game, and no doubt made himself some new friends.  But while the poll was anonymous, Bubba revealed his answer to this very question...he voted for himself, as he wasn't going to call out any of his peers.  So he'll survive this just fine, thank you...

Before we return to the pressers, Gene Wojciechowski had this about Bubba at ESPN:

Can he be a bit of a hick, a goof? Do you sometimes wonder if his visor is impeding blood flow to his brain? Yes ... and yes. 

But I've seen him talk about the joys of being a father and watched as his tears of pride unashamedly flowed. I've seen him at North Berwick Golf Course in Scotland, where he had a smile as wide as the fairways as he played a goof-around 18 holes with his buddies. I've heard him gush with excitement as he explained why the third round of the 2008 U.S. Open was the most fun he has ever had watching a tournament on TV (he had bet his wife that Tiger Woods would eagle the par-5 13th hole at Torrey Pines, birdie the par-4 17th and eagle the par-5 18th to move into first place -- and Woods did exactly that).

To paraphrase Harvey Penick, if you love North Berwick you're a friend of mine.

As for World No. 1, there was this:

Five years in a row, Rory McIlroy has finished Masters week with a round of 77 or worse. That's not a winning formula at Augusta. McIlroy believes he's found the cause of his inflated scores: trying to force birdies when a par will suffice.

"I think I'm more experienced now," McIlroy said. "I had a run last year where I would throw in a bad nine holes and it was usually on a Friday. I think I'm better equipped now to handle if things don't go quite the right way. Mentally, I feel like I'm in a far better place on the golf course and being able to handle adversity whenever it might come my way out there."

Rory was all over his bad holes, at east the forensic accounting thereof, citing the number of sixes and the like...  He made two of those with nine-irons in his hands last year on Par-5's, so at the very least he knows where he left the shots out there.   

The youngster also seems to have reasonably good control of his emotions, as he made clear that he's of course dreamed about winning a Masters, even this specific Masters, but doesn't look past his next major.  No goals with which to torment himslef, he says we'll just add it up when he's done.

Phil wasn't as riveting as last year, but you can't hold folks to those standards.  he did give us a substantive feel for how the course might be playing:

"We've talked about it in the past, but the greens are very soft and receptive, and so the longer hitters are going to be able to reach the par 5s and get the ball stopped on the greens," Mickelson said. "I think guys like Dustin and J.B. Holmes and Bubba Watson and Rory McIlroy, the usual suspects who really hit the ball long and far, have a distinct advantage coming into these greens."

It does seem like a year to pick the bombers, doesn't it?

We have to call on Adam Schupak to catch up on Tiger's presser, in which he was accused of being friendlier and other reprehensible things:

Woods hasn't won a green jacket since 2005. There was a time when it seemed that the

four-time Masters champion was destined to achieve Jack Nicklaus’ prediction that he would win 10 coats (as many as Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer combined). Now, many wonder whether Woods can even make the cut. Not Woods. He talked only about winning. To his way of thinking, all that has changed since his last victory here is that the competition is younger and the course has been stretched longer to accommodate modern equipment. 

“The only difference is that, yeah, I won the Masters when Jordan (Spieth) was still in diapers,” Woods said. “That’s the difference is that guys are now younger. A whole other generation of kids are coming out.”

But he'll be playing the Par-3 for the first time since 2004, and that's plenty different and hopefully good for him (he'll play it with Freddie and Stricker, so how could in not be a hoot?).

He also made it amusingly clear that he will NOT be winning the Par-3...nope, wouldn't be prudent to tempt the golf gods.  he noted that he had once come to No. 9 at six under, but the wind suddenly came up and he rinsed a couple of golf balls...

Pairings - Tuesday is also when we see the groupings and tee times, which will be scrutinized like the Zapruder film between now and Thursday morning.  I'll briefly riff off of Shack's commentary, and he gets out of the gate quickly:

8:18 am Weir, Crane, Conners(a). They'll be a hole behind but at least the two Canadians will get to spend time together.

True that, though since they're first out everyone else will be a hole behind as well.  Unless, say, they let groups play through...

10:08 am Crenshaw, Haas, Dufner - Gentle Ben gets two cool, understated cats for his final Masters.

The over/under for club tosses is -2.

10:41 am Mickelson, McIlroy, Moore - Nice contrast in styles and personalities.

And alliterative...that should count for something...

1:15 pm Spieth, Stenson, Horschel - No shortage of fire.

That's the all-intensity group, no doubt.  Well, unless its the 9:02 a.m. Reed, Bradley & Poulter group.

1:48 pm Woods, Donaldson, Walker - As if watching Tiger's return wasn't interesting enough, he gets one of the favorites to chase.

My inclination is that this doesn't help Walker, though Augusta press passes don't allow you inside the ropes and the players are mostly separated from the mobs patrons.  Probably not terribly significant, unless the Tiger of January/February shows up.

And Shack took a pass on the last group of the day:

1:59 p.m. Day, Garcia and Fowler

The all-underachiever group, though that's somewhat unfair to Jason Day.  But we're not big on fair in our game, so the decision of the judges is final.

 Starts - Brad Klein files a piece on the difficult first hole, which has derailed many a round before the dew evaporates:

So much for a gentle handshake. The opening hole at Augusta National Golf Club is anything but a friendly way to ease into a competitive round. 

Welcome to the hardest opening hole last year on the PGA Tour, including those from the major championships. This seemingly benign 445-yard par 4 played to an average score of 4.304 during the 2014 Masters, making it the third-hardest hole on the course. There were four times as many bogeys (84) as birdies (21) all week on the hole, plus 12 doubles and one “other.”

It's just a brute, and Brad helps us to understand why:

It’s a simple matter of physics. A drive carrying 250 yards hits the upslope and dies, leaving a second shot of 195 yards uphill to the center of the green. A drive carrying 276 yards – which also is the distance to the front of that fairway bunker – hits a slightly softer upslope and gets a little forward pitch. If you carry it 310 yards to clear the bunker and hit the downslope of that kickpoint, that effectively springs the ball forward and leaves about a pitching-wedge approach shot. 

That fairway bunker is steep – 7 feet, 9 inches at its deepest point – and is strategically divided into two bowels, with an arm of turf leaning across the middle that makes escape from the tee-side half of the bunker, 155 yards from the green, little more than a wedge out. From the green-side half of the bunker – say, 135 yards to the middle of the putting surface – players have perhaps a 50/50 chance of hitting the green. In short, this bunker plays as a real hazard that players know to avoid. Which is why, in their eagerness to stay out of the sand, players often bail out far left off the tee and end up in the woods or possibly in the ninth fairway.

One guy that's butchered this hole fairly regularly is Tiger Woods, so if you want an early indicator of his standing see what he posts there.  Of course he'll walk off the green an hour before ESPN comes on the air, so either use the streaming services or there will no doubt be tape early in the broadcast. 

History - Don't know much about...OK, I know a little, but two guys that know a lot are Shackelford and David Owen, the latter of whom literally wrote the book.

Shack links to a gallery of spectacular photos of the golf course from 1935 posted at the Masters website.  Hover your cursor at the bottom of the screen to see the captions, as many are quite difficult to identify.  I liked this one of the devilish third green:

David posts about how CBS refused to cover the 12th hole for sixteen years:

The Masters first appeared on TV in 1956, on CBS. (NBC, which covered the

tournament on radio, had turned it down.) CBS initially wanted to show little more than the eighteenth hole, but the club said it would forego $5,000, half its fee, if more of the course could be included. CBS added a second transmission station, but the coverage was still minimal: two and a half hours over three days, showing just parts of the last four holes.

Augusta National argued for more. The club’s television committee, in its report on the second broadcast, in 1957, wrote, “A most picturesque part of our golf course lies about the twelfth hole and thirteenth green. An attempt should be made through employment of portable cameras to bring this area into live broadcast. If this is impractical, a few films of the area could be shown.”

You'll want to click through and read it all, and there's also video of David talking about other history of the event, interestingly touching on Bobby Jones' battles with the USGA.

I'm happy to have this contribution because my memories are of the subsequent role reversal, wherein CBS wanted to expand coverage and the club was resistant.  In fact they're still pretty resistant to change, though I'm sure we'll have blimp coverage by mid-century.

I have to say that I was also quite amused by the discussion of the career slam that Rory is chasing.... for instance, they made the point that The Squire, Gene Sarazan, secured his career slam when he won the Wasters in 1935.  Except, there was no Masters in 1935, there was however an Augusta National Invitational held then that Sarazen won with his 4-wood for the ages, but it didn't become "Major" until ex post facto...