Tuesday Tastings

No one quite knows how the Masters golf tournament became a "major." The little world of golf looked up one morning and there it was on the doorstep marked, "Important. Refrigerate After Opening. Store With the British Open, the American Open, and PGA. Keep out of reach of children.

JIM MURRAY

I think you meant Open Championship, but many folks are surprised to learn that The Masters is the youngest of the four majors, by some bit.

The Masters, A Slow Build -  We're going to take it ever so slowly, we'll just tentatively dip our toe into the water.   First, the unlikeliest of participants, as profiled by Alan Shipnuck:

The place of business for the new United States Mid-Amateur champ is not a white-shoe law firm, or an investment bank, or any other perch that denotes comfort and privilege.

No, Matt Parziale's office is a sagging firehouse in a scrappy part of Brockton, Mass., a suburb of Boston that has seen better days. On a recent afternoon, Parziale stopped by the imposing colonial on Pleasant Street. 

The gray wood floors look like they haven't seen varnish in decades. Paint is peeling in a few spots. Parziale showed off the small, pungent room where he has slept countless nights over the last five years, a bare mattress crammed into each of its four corners. Just down the hall, the station's on-duty firefighters were enjoying a hearty lunch while a mindless action flick played in the background. The room lit up as soon as Parziale, a boyish 30-year-old, peeked in. 

"Hey, Hollywood!" someone yelled in greeting. Parziale could only smile, having known in advance that such good-natured abuse was inevitable.

Let me just add this short bit as well:

Somewhere Bobby Jones must be smiling about the culture clash of a horde of Beantown back-drafters tromping along his gilded fairways. But it was Jones's abiding love for amateur golf that created a spot in the Masters for a guy like Parziale and his cinematic journey to Augusta.

It's a great story, the more so given his hometown, from which sprung the most important American amateur golfer ever....  with apologies to Mr. Jones.

Let me just insert a minor dissent here.  The world has turned a few times since the days of Mr. Jones, whose amateur status made him the last man standing.  It was a principled stand for him, and it's great that the club continues to honor the legacy of its founder.  My frustration, and we've been over this ground previously, is that the field remains so small that these playing slots are far too precious to waste on those that can't possibly compete.

My preferred solution is to expand the field to 120 or so, and then by all means invite the ams and former champs... Heck, give Stormy Daniels an invite if you're so inclined, but as of now the competitive field is really thin and not worthy of a major.

Remember that we recently learned that the last fifty Masters' final round broadcasts are available on YouTube?  So, how far back does that go?  Well. 2,018 minus fifty is....one minus five, carry the six....that should be 1968.  Yeah, that was a bummer, man, but Sean Zak sits through it so we don't have to:

Roberto De Vicenzo could not have been more casual. 

In the moments after he finished with a final round "65" at the 1968 Masters, De Vicenzo 

sat there at the scoring table waiting for the tournament to finish. He had posted a score of "11 under." Bob Goalby approached the 18th green with the same score. De Vicenzo sat there, one leg up on the arm of his lawn chair, as casual as can be in this most nerve-wracking moment. Goalby would make his par.

As a visual, Casual De Vicenzo becomes quite ironic. The 45-year-old Argentinian — who was celebrating his birthday that day, no less — had just signed his scorecard with one too many fours on it. After De Vicenzo made an impressive birdie on the par-4 17th, the man playing with him — Tommy Aaron — wrote down "4" instead of "3." That meant his 65 became a 66 when the figures were totaled, and De Vicenzo signed off on it. The green-coated purveyors of the Masters were forced to follow the Rules of Golf by the book, take his signed score and rule Goalby the Masters Champion.

Life is too short to ever watch that again.  The Butler Cabin interviews have become the sine qua non of awkwardness in a normal year, you can only imagine that year's....

And don't miss this Guy Yocum My Shot with Bob Goalby.  I'll give you tease related to '68, but you'll want to read it all, as he dishes on Snead, Moe Norman, Billy Casper and so much more:

WE'RE AT THE 50-YEAR mark of that Masters, and history is being kinder to me. Young people especially don't know about the controversy because it was so long ago. To

them, I'm just a Masters champion. They'll say, "That's so cool. What year did you win? Can you tell me about it?" And I tell them about how I shot 66 on Sunday, the overflowing parking lot and the letter Bobby Jones wrote me about my shot to the 15th. Time is allowing me to be at peace and to feel even more proud and satisfied.

The hate mail he received was unbelievable.... Goalby, you might recall, is Jay Haas' Uncle, and therefore Bill's something-or-other....

A couple of thoughts on the incident.  First, Goalby himself recounts some concurrent liberties taken with the rules, and the simple fact of the matter is that Augusta National pretty much could have done what they wanted in the moment.

That said, their decision to enforce the rules was viewed by many as resulting from Clifford Roberts' dislike of brown people, and that's an unjustified position.  Roberts took it upon himself to create opportunities for both DeVincenzo and Goalby after the fact, understanding that the ruling wasn't good for either, and maintained a warm relationship with DeVincenzo for the remainder of his life.

The odds remain quite wacky:

The 2018 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club is getting closer by the day, and the

return of Tiger Woods has made a splash when it comes to finding a betting favorite. 

Woods is still the favorite at 9/1, and behind him are Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas all at 10/1, according to Golfodds.com. 

Jordan Spieth is 12/1, Phil Mickelson is 16/1 and defending champion Sergio Garcia is 25/1.

In the middle of his first round at Bay Hill, he got as low as 8-1.... But for anyone out there thinking Tiger is more likely to win than DJ, JT or Rory, I've got some swampland that might interest you.

Jim Gorant is new to me, but see if you don't agree that we'd get on with this rather cruel feature:

In 1997, Ben Crenshaw was only two years removed from his second green-jacket win but not playing particularly well at Augusta National. He opened the final round at 6-

over and treaded water until a birdie and par at holes 13 and 14 brought him to the par-5 15th with a chance to finish with a flourish. Never a big hitter, Gentle Ben knocked his first two strokes to wedge distance and took dead aim at the front-right pin placement. But the shot played directly into the wind, which subtracted a tad of carry and added a touch of spin. The ball hit the green and sucked back into the pond like a surfer caught in the undertow. 

Crenshaw dropped another ball, eyed the pin and swung a little harder. Same result. Then another ball, another swing, another glug. By now, even the pine needles were cringing. Lying 8, Crenshaw swung again. This time the ball stuck, and two putts later he was in for an 11, the highest score recorded on hole 15 in Masters tournament play.

The feat made Crenshaw a member of a club that no one is in a particular rush to join: the group of players who've posted the highest scores on each hole at Augusta National. It's an exclusive but democratic crew of dubious achievers, a mix of anonymous Masters participants and the game's greatest players. All it takes is a few bad swings and…

Here's his role of dishonor:

There's no shortage of great players and champions who show up, from The King to Freddie....But my favorite has to be the companion piece to The Sands of Nakagima..... And do read his account of the hole, which has an artistic flare to it all.

Lastly, for now, a few oddball Masters records:

2. Of the 28 holes-in-one recorded in Masters history, one was at the 350-yard par-4 3rd. Jeff Sluman pulled off the feat in 1992.

He'd be on my list of least likely... Did it hit a sprinkler head or something?

And we're not going to hold this against the man, since he didn't take a spot that would have gone to a more worthy player:

15. The highest score ever shot in a single round was Billy Casper's 106 in 2005, though it never went down in the official ledger. Casper, who teed it up that day to give his family members one last chance to see him play Augusta, withdrew without turning in his card.

Anyone understand this sign?  That guy on top seems to have made a zero and a ten in the same round.

 And this one is just plain curious:

16. In the history of the event, each of the par-fives has been double-eagled exactly once.

King Louie's on No. 2 completed the set.

Shocking, I Tell Ya -  See if you have the same reax as I did:

Tiger Woods commits to play The National this summer

Big deal, it's right next door to Shinnecock where he's be for the U.S. Open in June....  What?  Oh, that's very different....

There will be no 11th-hour commitment by Tiger Woods to his foundation’s summer PGA Tour tournament, The National. Woods committed Monday to play in the June 28-July 1 event at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms in Potomac, Md. The tournament benefits Woods’ charitable foundation. 

“I am really looking forward to being back in the D.C. area this summer playing in The National,” Woods said in a release. “As a two-time champion of this event benefiting my foundation, The National has always been a special event for me.”

Just having a bit of fun with y'all...  The real news here is that the event has no title sponsor and is a likely contraction candidate...  The only progress is that they now have avenue. though one without the cachet of Congressional.

Contain Your Joy - With the move of the PGA to May, one had to ask oneself how the PGA of America might wean itself of its northern venues.  The answer is upon us:

Hazeltine -- site of the U.S. Ryder Cup Team’s 17-11 victory in 2016 -- will become the first American venue to host a second Ryder Cup. Four English courses have hosted multiple Ryder Cups: The Belfry (1985, ’89, ‘93, 2002); Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club (1961, ‘77); Royal Birkdale Golf Club (1965, ’69) and Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club (1933, ’37).

Must you?  The only worse than the dreadful venues the PGA picks is returning to them.  The only good news is that I'm guessing that they'll never return to Medinah....

You know those great gold telecast videos in which they superimpose the Spanish soccer announcers?  The PGA tries it's own version thereof, with Dan Hicks and Johnny's commentary over video of the only sport routinely considered more boring than golf.

Holy Sorrento! - No spoilers, just go watch the video here for some great announcing...Best part, there's an actual car called The Stinger.  Insert your own Tiger joke here....