Masters Wednesday

So, who do you like?  I mean in the Par-3 of course...

Tuesday in Augusta is devoted to the "P's", that being pairings and pressers....

As for the former, Joel Beall dissects the seven most interesting pairings for Thursday-Friday, beginning with this first group of dewsweepers:

Honorary Starters

There are two types of people in this world: People that get emotional watching the opening ceremony, and those without a soul. 

The distinguished event has a touch of melancholy this year, as Arnold Palmer will be unable to tee it up. Still, the King will be on the first tee alongside Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, maintaining this Masters tradition as one of the tentpoles of the week.

OK, I don't see anyone in that group contending, but I would have said the same in '86...Joel's item basically covers the major contenders, and are notable mostly for the lack of imagination.

In an "Only at Augusta" moment is the fact that Rory is in the final group off at 2:01 p.m., and you won't see that at a weekly Tour stop.  And Jim Herman, last week's winner, got himself an early tee time in a 2-ball with Steven Bowditch.  That will be fine on Thursday, but when they flip the field on Friday will they play behind the 3-ball pack?  Or will we see our old friend Jeff Knox fill out the group and inevitably win the Nassau?

We're blessed with an abundance of young talent, and fortunately these young 'uns are also engaging personalities...  this unbylined piece captures the best of the pressroom, including this:

Phil Mickelson, he of the aforementioned "shot dispersion," acknowledged both he and playing partner Bryson DeChambeu were prone to excessive analysis, which was amusing to Dustin Johnson. 

"Bryson and I were talking about some of the science of an uphill putt and a downhill putt and the break and why it's most from this point and that point and so forth. He was using some pretty scientific terms and Dustin kind of shook his head and he said, 'If I hang around you guys much longer, I'll never break 100.'"

Would you be surprised to know that Bryson DeChambeau kept the cynical, ink-stained wretches rapt?  Get this:

Besides the 10 rounds he played at Augusta prior to this week’s event, and staying in the

Crow’s Nest on Monday night, the reigning U.S. Amateur and NCAA champion has given his irons -- made famous for all being the same length and weight -- Augusta-themed nicknames. 

For instance, his 60-degree wedge he calls King, a reference to the Masters champ from 1960, Arnold Palmer. 

And his 55-degree wedge is known to him and his caddie as Mr. Ward, low amateur at the 1955 Masters and a former U.S. Amateur champ. 

But that’s just he start. His 50-degree wedge is Jimmy, after 1950 Masters winner Jimmy Demaret and his 46-degree pitching wedge is Herman, after 1946 winner Herman Kaiser.

How many 22-year-olds know of Harvie Ward?  But really, Bryson, you can call the club Harvie... and by the way, Dear reader, if YOU don't know who Harvie Ward was, how is it you've not read The Match?

 And did you know of this precedent for Bryson's idiosyncratic iron set?

DeChambeau reverence for Jones only increased the first time that he played Augusta National last December. It was then that he learned that he wasn’t the only former U.S. Amateur champion to believe in the benefit of playing with all the same length clubs. 

“I went into the trophy room my first time here, had some breakfast and I looked over,” DeChambeau recalled. “As I went in, I looked to the left and I saw this set of golf clubs and I knew that they were Mr. Jones because they all looked relatively the same length, and it was a pretty special moment. Because we’d always heard that story, never verified it. But when I actually got to go up to that case and I looked in, I went, Oh my goodness, they all look really close to the same length. It inspired me even more. It was gratifying to our journey.”

Of course those were hickory shafts, as Jones retired from competitive golf before the introduction of steel shafts.

Of minimal import but great amusement is this Guy Yocum account of the Ken Green-Seve pairing in the final round of the 1989 Masters:

But not Seve, at this moment. Knowing that Green may very well be the man he had to beat that day, Seve pegged his ball up against the right-hand tee marker, inches from Green’s bright-green golf shoes that were his trademark. Pressing up against that marker made no sense, because Seve obviously planned to hit a big draw around the corner. Why would he tee up against the right-hand marker and not the left? 

The answer, which immediately became clear in the ensuing interaction between Ballesteros and Green, was that Seve wanted Green to move. Upon teeing his ball, Seve looked at Green expectantly, with just the hint of a glare. He clearly was beseeching—demanding, without saying anything—that Green reposition himself. He wanted Green to move, to voluntarily relocate himself. It would be an act of deference on Green’s part. Seve’s haughty, I’m-the-boss body language seemed to imply an intention to establish psychological dominance over Green, a move which happened more frequently in that rough-hewn era than now. One top player admitted to me once that after an opponent walked to the tee to hit, he sometimes would station himself on the line between the tee and his opponent’s bag, so the opponent had to walk around the player to get back to his bag after he hit. 

Seve knew these tricks. For him, these bits of gamesmanship—coughing on backswings, moving his feet as another player hit, etc. were normal. It was just the way he played, and everyone, then and now, knew it. 

Green, instantly gleaning what Seve was up to, didn’t budge. In fact, he didn’t even acknowledge the look Seve was giving him. Green looked down, saw Seve’s ball pegged 10 inches away from his shoes, stared at it for five seconds, then swiveled his head and returned his gaze to the fairway.

Seve was a bastard, but a talented and entertaining one...  but that might be the high point of Ken Green's career.

Slim Pickings - As if...it's one of those great wide-open years and I've gone with Bubba.  Now I went with Bubba before I knew about his illness and the wind, but so be it.

The Tour Confidential panel went strongly for Jason Day, though this guy mirrored my logic:

Jeff Ritter: It's an even-numbered year, so give me a parlay of the Giants to win the World Series and Bubba Watson to take another green jacket. Bubba has a win and has otherwise looked great this year, and Augusta has become his playground.

Plus, I'm not completely sure, but I think this course might suit Bubba's fickle eye...

Tom Watson seems quite sure that Rory is "The Guy" this week..... Has he watched much golf recently?

Alex Myers did hear about the wind in the forecast, and his pick reflects that....ya got go with the short guys if it's a blowin'....

And this guy is picking the am, but check his title before you over-interpret it.

Masters Dreams - I love the fact that there's a guy named Schmitz in the field (h/t Maggot):

Schmitz earned his invitation to the Masters by winning the U.S. Mid-Amateur on one of 

Par-3 Caddie bibs for his young daughters.

the most improbable shots in USGA history. (We'll get to that in a bit.) He is a regional sales director for a health care company, and his wife Natalie is a nurse; they were facing considerable medical bills after their two young daughters were hospitalized with RSV, the respiratory virus that impacts many children before they turn 2. The donating strangers chipped in $25,000 in two and a half days before the Schmitzes stopped the fundraising effort for fear of ending up with far more money than they needed.

If you don't remember the shot, just click through.... But this is my favorite Masters Dream of the week:

Four-time PGA TOUR Champions winner Esteban Toledo has never played in the Masters. 

In fact, he has never been to the Masters. 

That will change next month. 

Toledo, who won the Allianz Championship last month fighting off such players as Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie and Billy Andrade, has spent the past two years offering to caddie for two Masters-eligible players who compete on PGA TOUR Champions. 

One finally bit.

Goof for Sandy Lyle, but this quote sums it up:

“It’s unbelievable. It’s incredible. Before I die, I just wanted to experience Augusta National,” Toledo said Monday as he stood behind the Clubhouse in his caddie jumpsuit with Lyle’s bag still on his shoulders.

I'll be on the bag if Kent ever makes it....  I know, anyone have Sandy Lyle's cell number?

If you're still counting down the hours until balls are in the air tomorrow, I can help you with this David Owen piece about Clifford Roberts and the range balls (and no, I haven't opened his history of the Masters, perhaps next year) and this Shack slideshow from the merchandise tent.  Though this item is strangely not available there:

And this slide show of the nine things Augusta's mujaheddin forbid discussion of seems to avoid the elephant n the room:

How difficult the course is

Augusta National is one of the few courses to have never been given an official course rating by the USGA. Its members actually use their own system developed by co-founder Cliff Roberts. However, Golf Digest had Dean Knuth, former USGA senior director and inventor of the rating system, evaluate the course on his own in 2009. He came up with a course rating of 78.1 and a slope of 137.

That slope, which is lower than Willow Ridge's, seems awfully low.... but while there are some bogey golfers in the field, it's OK if they don't post.

But there's little doubt the the one subject that has always been off-limits is the death of the aforementioned Clifford Roberts.  Go here for the story, of which this is the lede:

At Augusta, even the suicides have to be perfect. Clifford Roberts was the image-maker, the co-founder of the club, who liked everything so neat and tidy that it contrasted with reality. He walked out on to the course, pulled a revolver and killed himself, but not before visiting the clubhouse barber for a haircut.

The location was perfect. Roberts, 84, his short back and sides as prim as the greens, knew where he could turn the gun on himself with the minimum of fuss. By firing on the par-three course beside a pond, he ensured that he ended it all in the easiest place for his staff to clean up afterwards.

Enjoy the best week in golf.  The extent of my blogging will be weather-dependent.... New York weather, that is.