Before the promised "Flood-the-Zone" Masters coverage, a quick note about our golfing press. This is the header at Golfweek:
Seems about right... Lede with yesterday's conclusion of the Dinah Shore, and use the remainder of the real estate to tease The Masters and related stories.
Golf Digest takes a different track, with Tiger drawing the eyeballs and other Masters bits up top. Oddly, the first reference to the dessert doings is an item on the clubs used by Pernilla Lindberg to win, before they've bothered to inform us that she prevailed. Odd, but in this Internet age they perhaps assume that we've learned of the outcome....
But it's Golf.com, the website of Golf Magazine that draws my ire...CTR-F: Lindberg yields zero results.... I'm not arguing for equal pay or equal treatment, but do the good folks at this venerable institution think that the exciting (if delayed) conclusion of the best of ladies' majors is not worthy of any coverage?
It was actually quite the good story, and you might want to let folks in on it....
Lucky No. 13 - On last night's Live From the Masters, Shack had a thoughtful feature on the 13th hole, which unfortunately sin't available to stream. He previewed it here:
Golf Channel Producer Dominic Dastoli and many talented camera and sound engineers have put together a piece on the 13th hole, with yours truly narrating and gently steering
The 13th hole in 1938. the conversation toward a question on many minds: is it time to lengthen the epic 13th at Augusta National?
We enlisted golf architect and historian Josh Pettit of Pacific Golf Design to put together plans of the hole.
We took these plans to Nick Faldo and Ben Crenshaw for their insights. The combination of visuals, historic footage and their insights hopefully provide a compelling look at what has made this the best par-5 on the planet, the most fascinating hole most years at The Masters and what it'll take to maintain the risk and reward.
The piece notes how guys, Bubba in any event, can now take their tee shot up over the trees on the left. Not only does that shorten the hole, but it allows the second shot to be played from a much flatter lie. The shape of the green calls for a left-to-right ball flight, but the design genius is that the ball is typically above the feet of the right-handed player.
Ben Crenshaw and Sir Nick are enlisted to discuss the issues involved, with a bit too much focus on Faldo's two-iron approach in 1996. As you know, I've been strongly against the lengthening of this hole, finding in it design perfection. I also think that it's important not to over-react to that Bubba drive... Yes, the southpaws have an advantage on this tee ball, but where he hit it seems to me as much accidental as by design.
But I want to hedge my position ever so slightly.... I've never set foot on that property and I don't know what that line over the trees looks like. To the extent that moving the tee back a short distance, someone on Geoff's piece spoke of a club length, that might be worth doing, to the extent it takes away that play and leaves them with a slightly longer shot it. If they wanted, they could go back 40-50 yards, and I just think that would take the reward out of a delicate risk-reward hole.
For anyone with an unnaturally high pain threshold, final round 1996 coverage is embedded below:
Don't miss Geoff's item on the Allister MacKenzie short-course plans for ANGC, featuring nine double greens. It was, of course, never built given that the club barely survived the depression, but interesting stuff.
Meet The New Boss... - Monday is presser day, and that includes new Chairman Fred Ridley. He makes the insufferable purists kvell when he speaks like this:
“What I think we should do, and what we have done over the years, is to go back to that
In emergency, break glass. philosophy and think about what do we need to do to make sure that we are true to the principles that Jones and MacKenzie established at the beginning,” Ridley said.
Be still my foolish heart.... As to what that means specifically for No. 13.....well, for now all we get is crickets.
As for the concept of a Masters ball?
“I think it would be difficult, frankly, to have a golf ball for one tournament, but I wouldn’t rule anything out,” Ridley said. “We’re always going to do what we think is in the best interest of the tournament.”
As I recounted to a millennial yesterday, the concept of a different ball for one tournament has a precedent, for those old enough to remember the smaller Open Championship ball.
Of Dance Cards - This group yesterday drew some eyeballs:
AUGUSTA, Ga. — It was just shy of 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon by the time the day's featured grouping headed to the 1st tee. But fans that were considering heading for the exits, worn out after hours in the sun, reconsidered as Fred Couples, Justin Thomas, and Tiger Woods headed from the range to the course.
Who is in greater demand, Freddy or Tiger?
And I'm relieved to know that the bromance endures:
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Fred Couples let the news slip in a post-round interview on Monday at Augusta National.
"Tomorrow we have another nice little group," he said. Couples had already had a nice little group; he, Justin Thomas, and Tiger Woods had just finished playing the front nine on Monday afternoon. But Tuesday?
Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Fred Couples and Thomas Pieters.
"Me and Thomas may just sit back and watch," Couples said.
Next up for Freddy, peace in the Middle East....
You Two Wanna Get a Room - You know the drill.... there's a first-time champion and not enough lockers to go around....
There is something noticeably different about Jose Maria Olazabal’s locker in AugustaNational’s Champions Locker Room this week.
“I see the locker is much fuller than it used to be,” Olazabal said.
Last year the two-time Masters champion penned a letter to fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia on the Wednesday evening of the Masters. In the note, Olazabal mentioned that he didn’t have a locker mate.
“He said, ‘I’m not sharing my locker at the moment, and I hope that I get to do it with you,’” Garcia said.
Of course, Garcia went on to win the Masters last year for his first major title, and in his winning press conference asked Augusta National member Craig Heatley if the club could find a way to assign him to Olazabal’s locker.
Well, sure, it's a safe thing to do, now that these days are behind him.
A Very Competitive Category - Golf Digest with a ranking of the major issues of the week:
Masters 2018: The 10 most syrupy Jim Nantz Masters monologues
I'm a golf blogger, so you can trust my advice. The key here is to limit the dosage, as excessive exposure can leave those without sufficient antibodies curled up on the floor in the fetal position.
The writer does a good job, and I'll just grab some of his high points, since it's almost irrelevant which year's broadcast is involved:
Most Nantzian Line: “It’s another Sunday at Augusta: whose story is about to be told?”Most Nantzian Line: “SO close, SO many times, only to find SECOND and SOLACE in the comfort of friends and family.”Most Nantzian Line: “ . . . Has seen the greatest players in the GAME FASHION MAGICAL MOMENTS.”Most Nantzian Line: “Who will embrace the GREEN JACKET in the FINAL ROUND … OF THE MASTERS!?!?!”Most Nantzian Line: “It’s a solitary journey, but it’s one that no player … makes alone.”Most Nantzian Line: “A PERFECT PALATE for a CANVAS that seemed to be waiting for golf’s ultimate test of artistry to be CONSTRUCTED.”
I know, I'm feeling a little queasy as well.... It might be more bearable if he weren't as treacly at Harbor Town and Hartford as well.
A Parody Perhaps? - Honestly, Jim Nantz has nothing on Max Adler:
Masters 2018: Tiger As Myth
Comparing the life of the 14-time major champion to the greatest stories in the history of the world
If only he were kidding:
Tiger Woods is 10 years removed from his last major victory, five from his last regular win and not yet one full circuit round the sun from the public shaming of a mugshot photo that baldly indicated physical and psychic rock bottom. A tapestry that began with a father and the prophesy that his son would do more to change the world than Gandhi (and for a time that not seeming altogether unreasonable) unraveling into the most painfully public divorce since Henry VIII. Then followed in bewildering order by rehab, addiction, withdrawals, surgeries, chunked chips, cruel Internet memes and a fall from grace so hard and fast to forever serve as paradigm in the billion-dollar business of celebrity endorsing. All this now returning, in form, to the place where he changed the world 21 years ago as a 21-year-old black man who won the Masters by 12 shots.
Whether you have a thing for palindromes, we can all agree it’s a pretty good story. But were Tiger to win this year’s Masters, would it be the greatest story of all time? Not just in golf, but in the history of humankind.
Spoiler alert, it gets worse....
Ground Zero - Everyone knows the term, but few know the source:
On the afternoon before the start of the recent Masters golf tournament, a wonderfully evocative ceremony took place at the farthest reach of the Augusta National Course – down in the Amen Corner where Rae’s Creek intersects the 13th fairway near the tee, then parallels the front edge of the green on the short 12th and finally swirls alongside the 11th green.”
— Herbert Warren Wind in Sports Illustrated
The year was 1958, notable for Arnie's first Masters win, though under circumstances that caused Ken Venturi to be bitter until the end of his days. But here's the deep background on Wind's terminology:
Wind, who was accustomed to writing lengthy essays, combined his passion for jazz with his love of golf in writing the article. In the April 1984 edition of Golf Digest, he recalled how he came up with Amen Corner.
“I felt that I should try to come up with some appropriate name for that far corner of the course where the critical action had taken place,” Wind wrote.
He recalled a band led by Chicago clarinetist Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow and a record called "35th and Calumet." Wind remembered the reverse side as "Shoutin’ in that Amen Corner."
However, two years after Wind died in 2005, a fellow jazz buff made a discovery about the origins of Wind’s phrase.
Richard Moore had autographs of Wind and Palmer and decided he wanted to add an Amen Corner exhibit to his home museum. So he set off in pursuit of "35th and Calumet."
But Moore couldn’t find the record. He ran into one dead end after another, even after consulting with jazz experts.
Further research revealed that the flip side of "35th and Calumet" was actually "Old-Fashioned Love." It turned out that Mezzrow had never recorded "Shoutin’ in that Amen Corner," and that Mildred Bailey had actually done a version of the song that Wind had reviewed.
“Herb Wind bogeyed his memory,” Moore said in 2008.
He got the important part right....
Regressing To The Mean? - Late money is smart money:
With the official start of Masters week only hours away, Tiger Woods has been supplanted as a betting favorite for Augusta National.
Woods was listed at 100/1 at the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook when odds opened in August, but after a runner-up finish at the Valspar Championship and a T-5 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational he became an 8/1 betting favorite in mid-March. Entering the Houston Open, he was one of four co-favorites listed at 10/1.
No doubt these are now more rational, though Tiger above Justin Rose and Bubba are arbitrage opportunities for someone. :
10/1: Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas12/1: Tiger Woods14/1: Justin Rose16/1: Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson18/1: Jon Rahm, Jason Day25/1: Paul Casey30/1: Sergio Garcia, Hideki Matsuyama, Henrik Stenson, Tommy Fleetwood40/1: Matt Kuchar, Alex Noren, Patrick Reed, Marc Leishman60/1: Adam Scott, Thomas Pieters, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Charley Hoffman80/1: Tony Finau, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele, Brian Harman, Tyrrell Hatton100/1: Zach Johnson, Ryan Moore, Russell Henley, Branden Grace, Kevin Kisner, Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson
See you tomorrow.
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