Masters Miscellania - UPDATED

I'm told there's a tournament of some significance next week, so let's see what the chattering classes are, you know, chattering about...

• Kid Krazy - As I await the start of the telecast of the Dinah Shore Kraft Nabisco, I'm watching the replay of the Drive, Chip and Putt from Augusta earlier this morning.  This has got to be an amazingly cool experience for these kids, and I'm getting sucked in watching the young'uns try to make the Mark O'Meara putt.  They've got one video scoreboard, which seems completely out of character with the surroundings, but otherwise it's a great warm-up act for next week.

I've been very skeptical of the off-the-wall schemes to grow the game, but this actually makes sense.  It gives the kids an amazing experience to compete for, and it's not bad for Augusta National to actually let real people inside their gates.  Good stuff.

•  The Good Doctor - CNN is not a place we think of for golf coverage, but this video, titled Alister MacKenzie's Road to Augusta, is well worth five minutes of your time.  It's principally about Alwoody, his first design in England.  Mackenzie had absolutely no practical experience in golf course design, yet somehow convinced the club he was the man for the job.

The video also touches on a sad aspect of MacKenzie's life, that he never saw his masterpieces, including Augusta National, Royal Melbourne and Cypress Point, as finished projects.  

Another CNN video here has Ben Crenshaw talking about his greatest Masters moments.

• Buyer's Market - Pete Madden has an article titled Masters Ticket Prices ‘Take a Dive’ After Tiger Drops Out at golf.com, that doesn't seem to quite deliver on the premise of the headline.  A Sunday ticket decreased from $1,252 to $1,226 the day of Tiger's surgery announcement.  Does 2% really constitute a dive?  

UPDATE:  Al Z. writes to remind me that the Thursday and Friday ticket prices fell by more than 10%.  To the extent we're attributing this to Tiger, it appears that Adam Smith's invisible hand had concluded that Tiger either wouldn't be there or wouldn't be in the mix on Sunday. 

• Great Scott - Redundant, I know.  I still consider Adam Scott an underachiever given his ball-
  
  striking talent, but you'd be hard-pressed to name a nicer guy on Tour.  Ryan Herrington has the skinny in a short piece at Golf Digest's The Loop (which is their re-branded Local Knowledge blog):

The fringe benefits of being the reigning Masters champion are numerous, as Adam Scott has come to appreciate over the last 12 months. But there was one more thing he wanted to take advantage of before handing back over his green jacket to club officials: play a round of golf at Augusta National Golf Club with his father. 

Upon arriving then in Augusta on Friday to begin his title defense, Scott fulfilled the wish, taking out his dad, Phil, who coached Adam as he was growing up playing the game in Australia, for a quick 18 holes.

Good on ya mate.  I think I also heard that he gave out some of the trophies at this morning's Drive, Chip and Putt event.  Also good stuff.

• Houston, We Almost Had a Problem - Given the issues with all of the Masters faves (I shan't repeat the litany of injuries, poor form and blown leads), I had decided on the Kooch as my Masters pick.  Except, with a 4-shot 54-hole lead, it looked like he was going to jinx himself by winning the Shell Houston Open.  Fortunately, he apparently played no better than I did today, and Matt Jones chipped in to beat him in Sudden Death.  He is therefore my pick next week...unless he's stupid enough to win the Par 3.

• Couch Potato Guide - Shackelford posts an all-consuming Masters television guide at The Loop, and there's not much time for meals, restroom breaks or sleep.  Here it is in its seven-day entirety:

Monday, April 7 (All Times ET)

Golf Channel7-10 a.m. -- Morning Drive
2-5 p.m. -- Live From the Masters (includes player press conferences)
7-8:30 p.m. -- Live From the Masters
Masters.com/Masters App12-2 p.m. -- Masters on the Range 
Tuesday, April 8Golf Channel7-9 a.m. -- Morning Drive
9 a.m.-5 p.m. -- Live From the Masters (includes player news conferences)
7-9 p.m. -- Live From the Masters

Masters.com/Masters App12-2 p.m. -- Masters on the Range 
Wednesday, April 9ESPN/ESPN Deportes/WatchESPN3-5 p.m. -- Live Par-3 Contest Coverage
5-6 p.m. -- Sportscenter At The Masters
Golf Channel7-9 a.m. -- Morning Drive
9 a.m.-3 p.m. -- Live From the Masters (includes Billy Payne news conference)
7-9 p.m. -- Live From the Masters
Masters.com/Masters App12-2 p.m. -- Masters on the Range 
Thursday April 10ESPN3-7:30 p.m. -- Live First Round Coverage
8 p.m. -- First Round Encore
Masters.com/Masters App/CBSSports.com11 a.m.-1 p.m. -- Masters On the Range (Also On CBS Sports Network)
2 p.m. -- Masters Radio coverage begins
12 p.m. - Completion Of Play -- Featured Groups 1 & 2
10:45 a.m.-6 p.m. -- Amen Corner Live
11:45 a.m.-7 p.m. -- 15th & 16th holes
Golf Channel6-8 a.m. -- Morning Drive
8 a.m.-3 p.m. -- Live From the Masters
7:30-9:30 p.m. -- Live From the Masters
Friday April 11ESPN/ESPN Deportes/WatchESPN3-7:30 p.m. -- Live Second Round Coverage
8 p.m. -- Second Round Encore
Masters.com/Masters App/CBSSports.com11 a.m.-1 p.m. -- Masters On the Range (Also On CBS Sports Network)
2 p.m. -- Masters Radio coverage begins
12 p.m. - Completion Of Play -- Featured Groups 1 & 2
10:45 a.m.-6 p.m. -- Amen Corner Live
11:45 a.m.-7 p.m. -- 15th & 16th holes
Golf Channel6-8 a.m. -- Morning Drive
8 a.m.-3 p.m. -- Live From the Masters
7:30-9:30 p.m. -- Live From the Masters
Saturday April 12CBS3-7 pm -- Live Third Round Coverage
Masters.com/Masters App/CBSSports.com11 a.m.-1 p.m. -- Masters On the Range (Also On CBS Sports Network)
2 p.m. -- Masters Radio coverage begins
12 p.m. - Completion Of Play -- Featured Groups 1 & 2
10:45 a.m.-6 p.m. -- Amen Corner Live
11:45 a.m.-7 p.m. -- 15th & 16th holes
Golf Channel6-9:30 a.m. -- Morning Drive
9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. -- Live From the Masters
7-9 p.m. -- Live From the Masters
Sunday April 13CBS1-2 p.m. -- Jim Nantz Remembers Augusta: Nick Faldo At The Masters
2-7 p.m. -- Final Round Live Coverage
Masters.com/Masters App/CBSSports.com11 a.m.-1 p.m. -- Masters On the Range (Also On CBS Sports Network)
2 p.m. -- Masters Radio coverage begins
12 p.m. - Completion Of Play -- Featured Groups 1 & 2
11:45 a.m.-6 p.m. -- Amen Corner Live
12:30-7 p.m. -- 15th & 16th holes
Golf Channel6-9:30 a.m. -- Morning Drive
9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. -- Live From the Masters
7-9 p.m. -- Live From the Masters

Folks, please pace yourselves...it'd be a shame to peak on Thursday.

• Rookie Prospects - Another redundancy, but Golf Channel's Jason Sobel has high hopes for this year's Masters rookie class:

Thirty-five years ago, he became the only true first-timer to win in his initial trip down Magnolia Lane. Oh, sure, Horton Smith and Gene Sarazen were technically rookies – and Zoeller considers them part of the exclusive club – but prevailing in the first and second editions of the tournament, respectively, hardly offered the same stature as a guy toppling fellow competitors with a decade or two of experience among the azaleas. 

With one potential spot remaining, there are 23 fresh-faced rookies in this year’s 96-man field, but the quality is more stunning than the quantity.

It does seem to be a particularly strong rookie class, no surprise given the number of first-time and surprise winners on Tour.  In fact, two of the freshmen, Patrick Reed and Jimmy Walker, have each won three times in the last year, stretching the concept of rookiedom beyond recognition.  Combined with Jordan Spieth, Graham DeLaet, Billy Horschel and Victor, The Most Mysterious Man in Golf, Dubuisson, you'd assume this group will account for several green jackets before they're done.  I wouldn't be surprised to see any of these names on the leader board, but I'm skeptical that any of them understand the unique challenges of this venue.

• More Q&A - The Golfweek gang is back with another Masters-themed Q&A: 

1. Which Masters is your favorite of all-time and why?

The Writers -  Jack's 1986 Ode to Alter Kockers takes the day, though Jeff Rude does nominate the great 2004 Phil-Ernie shootout, whereby Phil shed the dreaded GPTNWAM label.

Best Line -  Adam Schupak, "Jack at 46 turning back the clock. I remember huddling around the 27-inch TV set – a big screen in those days – in the men’s locker room at the course I grew up playing. I wasn’t old enough to be in there but my dad snuck me in and I sat by the club champ and our head pro, who gave a running commentary and told me to remember this day: You just saw whyJack Nicklaus is the best that ever lived, he said."

 My Take - I'm sticking with the '75 version, with the best three players in the game (Nicklaus, Miller and Weiskopf) playing their best golf.  Before the putt dropped on No. 16, who knew Jack could dance?

2. Which Masters champion is your favorite of all-time and why?

The Writers - Not surprisingly, Jack, Freddie Couples and Gentle Ben come in for mentions, as well as an outlier.  

Best Line - Jim McCabe, "This is like asking to name your favorite child. Impossible. Can’t be done, nor should it be attempted. But if I were to be forced to produce some possible candidates, Jack Burke Jr. would surely be there and if you have to ask why, then you never met him. Truly an original."

 My Take - Must be a young crowd.  I'm shocked that Arnie didn't get so much as a mention,

The Squire receiving his winner's check in 1935.

as he ushered the event into the television age and it's where his army was mobilized.  I'd also include The Squire, Gene Sarazen, whose shot heard 'round the world in the second Masters (before it was called the Masters) put the little invitational on the map.  

A little history, if you will.  Gene Sarazen was born Eugenio Saracini in Harrison, NY, where your humble blogger lives and plays his golf.

Secondly, people naturally assume that Sarazen's albatross on fifteen won the tournament.  In fact, he was three strokes behind Craig Wood, who had already finished, and won it in a playoff the next day. Craig Wood was for years the answer to a trivia question, the only player to lose all four majors in a playoff, but that was before we had Greg Norman to kick around.  Golf writer and Bobby Jones muse O.B. Keeler recounted this exchange between Sarazen and playing partner Walter Hagen, after hearing the roars from Wood making birdie on No. 18:

Hagen: “Well Gene, that looks like it’s all over.” 

Sarazen: “Oh, I don’t know. They might go in from anywhere.”

Talk about a called shot.  The other notable fact about the most famous shot in golf history is who saw it.  Per Martin Davis at Golf Channel:

Jones, perhaps realizing the moment, decided to come down from the clubhouse to see if Sarazen could catch Wood, thinking he needed three birdies coming in to force a playoff. He reached Sarazen and Hagen just as a young Byron Nelson, playing the adjacent 17th hole, pushed his drive near where Sarazen’s ball had come to rest. 

So, all four of those ultimately on golf’s Mount Olympus – the hallowed Jones, the flamboyant Hagen and the soon-to-be great Nelson, watched as Sarazen’s arrow-like 4-wood hit a foot before the green, “…bounded once - twice - and settled to a smooth roll, while the ripple of sound from the big gallery went sweeping into a crescendo – and then the tornado broke,” according to Keeler.

That's a pretty amazing confluence of golf royalty.  History lesson is over and class is recessed.

3. Where does the Masters stand in your mind when compared to the other majors?

 The Writers - Mostly their favorites, though bones are thrown to the two Opens based upon venues.

Best Line - From Adam Schupak again:

A No. 1, top of the list, king of the hill. Wait, that’s New York, New York. But that’s how I feel about Augusta. If ABC Sports ever could get its hands on the broadcast rights, it could do a “Thrill of victory and agony of defeat” intro on the Masters with Larry Mize’s chip-in at 11, Tiger’s at 16, Mickelson’s “leap” at 18, Bubba’s wedge from the woods at No. 10, and Scott Hoch’s missed 2-footer at 11, Curtis Strange hitting out of Rae’s Creek at 13, Greg Norman’s implosion in ’96, and on and on. Just when it seems the Masters can’t get any better it finds a way to keep on topping the one before it. I don't know how, but it does.

My Take - It's absolutely my fave, partly because of the golf course but also the calendar.  It hits just as we're back out there hacking it around, and it's a moving rite of spring.  But what I do like is that the first three have characteristics all their own.  The Masters with its risk-reward back nine, the U.S. Open with its demanding tests requiring survival golf and the Open Championship with its linksy goodness and variable weather.  The PGA doesn't have much unique character since it gave up on match play, and is therefore less interesting than the others, though the occasional interesting venue combined with the fact that we won't have another for eight months can sometimes hold our interest. 

Supplemental Q&A

We've had good fun, or at least wasted some pixels, in reacting to the Sports Illustrated writers' weekly roundtable.  Golfweek has now jumped on the bandwagon, and has their stable of writers, folks such as Alex Miceli, Adam Schupak and Jeff Rude, participating in a familiar format.  The Tiger Q & A can be found here:

Will Tiger win another Masters?

The Writers - It splits 4-3 that he'll win another.

Best Line - From Nick Masuda, "Is it shocking that he hasn't won one since 2005? Yes, it is. But the guy is

one year removed from winning five PGA Tour tournaments and is one bad drop/hit of the flagstick away from being in control at Augusta last year. Golf smarts don't all of a sudden stop at the age of 38."

My Take - My "No" vote ties the tally, and kicks it to the Vice President in his role as President of the Senate.  

If he stays at four, be honest: How wrong were you? How many did you think he was going to win?

The Writers - Those that offer numbers range from seven up to ten.  

Best Line - From Alex Miceli, "But again that was before they "Tiger proofed" the golf course, which clearly they've done a good job of. Also in 1997, the equipment was so different and Tiger was far above his peers, but when you put the new equipment in player’s hands it leveled the playing field considerably. If you kept the status quo of 1997, he would have won many more."

My Take - I never had a specific number in mind and remained slightly more cynical about him getting to 19 than the average bear.  But as he was racking them up at the 1-2 per year clip, I fell into the same trap as everyone else in assuming the trend line would continue.  I picked Miceli's quote because I agree with his assessment that the modern equipment equalizes ball striking, to the detriment of Tiger.

Of the eight Masters he has played since his last win, Woods has finished second twice, third once, and T-4 three times. Which of those might haunt him the most?

The Writers - Both 2006 (Phil) and 2011 (Schwartzel) get two mentions and surprisingly, last year with the Friday events on No. 15 only gets one.

Best Line - From Adam Schupak, "Hard to say but I’d go with the first in 2006. Tiger had a case of the three-putts, as in six of them for the tournament and three on Sunday. He lost by three to Phil Mickelson . . . and that probably ruined whatever he was served for dinner that night."

My Take - I'll go with Adam, just because he had to wait around and put the green jacket on Phil...salt meet open wound. 

And a second, more general Masters Q & A, including Brad Klein, can be found here: 

What is your favorite hole at Augusta National?

The Writers - Split verdict, with Nos. 3, 12, 13, 15 and 16 earning mentions.  

Best Line - Bradley Klein, with a surprising choice, "Without hesitation, I’ll tell you, the par-4 third hole, only 350 yards. Nobody talks about it. It has the most fairway bunkers of any hole on the course, four. And it has the most elusive green to hold. Recently it’s become drivable, and thus all the more tempting. Yet the closer to the benched-in putting your drive lands and the shorter your second shot, the harder it is to put enough spin on the wedge to have it hold. And the Sunday hole location on the left is probably the shallowest target of any green on the entire golf course. There are so many times where shots come up just short and tumble down or land without enough spin and go over – leaving incredibly delicate little recovery shots. I love watching guys bogie the hole after hitting their tee shots into the fairway 30 yards short of that green."

My Take - I agree with Klein that No. 3 is a very underrated hole, though I'd likely go with No. 13 as the epitome of the risk-reward aspect of the back nine.  I have significant qualms about both 15 and 16, in particular I think the green at No. 16 is pretty bad.  The back right pin means that we watch the entire field hit the same 30' uphill putt.  And the dramatic Sunday pin position in theory brings the water into play, but not really since you can play away from it and work the ball off the slope.  But both holes are exciting, I'll grant them that.

What type of impact will losing the Eisenhower tree have? What is your most significant memory of the tree?

The Writers - Most think it will have little effect on the big hitters, and near unanimity on Tiger injuring his Achilles as the most significant memory.

Best Line - From Brad Klein again, "Losing it will have virtually no impact on The Masters – not with the distance and trajectory that these players hit the ball these days. Losing it will only show that Augusta National has too many trees that block views and clutter up vistas and corridors."

My Take - The problem with the Ike tree was a result of the powers that be planting the row of trees up the right side of the fairway.  The course is about the angles on the second shots, and bailing to the right provides a very difficult line into one of the more difficult greens on the golf course.  This admittedly was mitigated in recent years by the guys bombing it over the Ike tree, so any effect of its demise will likely be limited to the former champs and amateurs in the field.

What does a first-time patron at Augusta National need to do first?

The Writers - Walking the back nine gets two mentions, and there's a split verdict on the merchandise tent (though there is a mail facility to send your swag home, which is clever).

Best Line - From Adam Schupak, "And spend some time at Chinese Fir, the 440-yard, 14th and the only hole on the course without a bunker. While it may be overshadowed by so many other great holes, No. 14 is where my jaw hit the ground when I eyed the green on my first time touring the course. HDTV does not do the severity of the green justice. I would take a 3-putt and run."

My Take - If only.  

Augusta, Sweet Augusta

Cue the Billy Mac soundtrack, it's quite the year for linkage relating to the history of Augusta National Golf Club.  Just when you think you know everything, something pops up that discredits that assumption.

First up, via the usual suspect we learn that Dr. Alister MacKenzie drew up detailed plans for an 18-hole short course at Augusta National.  Josh Pettit details his discovery in a short Golf World piece and in a longer posting at mackenziearchive.org.  Here's why the good Doctor indulged in his planning, and why the world is only now seeing this plan:

Initially Mr. Jones had planned to build two full-length golf courses, but after some preliminary surveying it became evident there would not be enough acreage for two courses as well as the lots set aside for future development. Compromises were discussed but ultimately the decision was made to build just one unabated course. Subsequently, it was decided a "little" course would be built to supplement the "big" course. Described as the most idyllic part of the former nursery, a twenty-two acre plot (just South of the Berckmans’ residence and East of Magnolia Drive) with a spring, pond and creek was designated for the development of a short course.

Stored away within an archive of work from the landscape architecture firm of Frederick Law Olmsted in Brookline, Massachusetts, sits the only known copy of Mackenzie's plan for the Augusta Approach & Putt Course -- a document that has remained unknown to the golf world for the past eight decades.

Mackenzie's 1932 rendering of a short course at ANGC.

 But this wasn't just any old wee course, as Pettit explains:

The concept for the Approach & Putt course is simple: replicate approach shots similar to those one would encounter while playing a normal course, for the purposes of practice and leisure. With its infinite flexibility, such a course could be played with just a few clubs and consume as much or as little time as desired. In correspondence with Wendell Miller, lead engineer for the Augusta National project, Mackenzie expressed his affinity for short courses: “There is, as far as I know, no interesting approach and putt courses in America. A really good one requires as much thought and planning as a full course. All those I have seen are terrible.” 

Certainly Mackenzie’s design was not lacking in interest. The plan displays eighteen one-shot holes utilizing nine large putting surfaces, each approached from opposing angles, varying in size from 7,500 to almost 15,000 square feet, with an average size of 10,600 square feet. To put that in context, the original greens on the long course at Augusta averaged 9,600 square feet (currently 6,435). In contrast, the greens on the current par-three course (built by George Cobb in 1958) average just 2,400 square feet. Mackenzie built big, exhilarating greens. Noticeably absent are any bunkers or hazards other than the creek that bisects six of the holes. This was due to the notion that this course would be intended for enjoyment rather than frustration, and that the most riveting moments for any golfer are those following each shot while the ball is in motion. The larger the greens and the more short-grass surrounding them, the more opportunity for riveting golf shots.

Pettit's longer piece is well worth a full read, including a discussion of MacKenzie's design-build process and the relationship between MacKenzie and the notoriously-difficult Clifford Roberts.  And then there are the great visuals:

The fourteenth green at MacKenzie's Pasatiempo Golf Club.  Bottom, the seventh green at Pebble Beach in the 1929 U.S. Amateur.

Elsewhere, golf.com provides a slideshow of aerial photos of Augusta National Golf Club dating back as far as 1960, including several during tournament play:

Anticipating Norman's coronation, instead photographer Jim Gund captured the consolation hug of Nick Faldo in 1996.

An aerial view of the 18th hole, also from 1996.  That long chute has subsequently been lengthened by some 60 yards, graphically demonstrating the difficulty of the tee shot.

Our last Masters-related item of the day is a geezer chic Golf World piece by Bill Fields.  We'll get to his premise in a sec, but this was my favorite bit:

Old Tom Morris, 46 when he won the 1867 British Open (and still its oldest champion), wasn't only fortunate to win that tournament but to be alive, given that average life expectancy was less than 45 at that time. Forty-six seemed much younger 119 years later when Nicklaus won the Masters at that age in 1986, but in golf terms, 46 in 1986 was a lot older than it is now. "I was playing a wood driver, playing a wound ball. It was a different game," Nicklaus said on the 25th anniversary of his sixth green jacket. "Things didn't go as far. You didn't reduce the golf course to nothing like you can today."

That's even better than shooting your age, no?  Back to the subject at hand:

A dozen golfers 50 or older are in next week's field at Augusta. Most won't factor, but newly 

Freddie dresses Bernhard after the latter's second Masters win in 1993.

50 Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiménez has to be taken seriously, as does Couples, now 54 but still plenty long enough to compete with golfers less than half his age. "If I can drive it close to these long hitters -- if they are hitting 9-irons and I'm hitting an 8, then I'm still right there and I can still do that," Couples said after shooting a second-round 67 and being one shot off Jason Day's 36-hole lead. "But when this course becomes middle to long irons every hole, you can forget it."

Surprisingly, Fields omits the strongest argument for his premise, that the Masters is without doubt the easiest of the majors to win, therefore if a geezer is going to win a major this would seem to be the place.   The Masters field this year will be under 100 players, and that includes a host of former champions and amateurs.  As much as we love it, the reality is that a Masters can be won by beating significantly fewer players than to win the Texas Valero Open.

That said, I'd need some extremely long odds to betting on the round bellies next week.  History says players such as Freddie and Langer can stay close and show up on leader boards, but in the pressure cooker of a Masters Sunday putting strokes have a way of breaking down.  And on those greens, any uncertainty or lack of conviction can make a player look like a 20-handicap.

Back to the Future

Only two things can stop Tiger -- injury or a bad marriage, Dan Jenkins, 2001

As if you needed any further proof of why Dan Jenkins is a national treasure.  I don't have much to add to what you already know from the press accounts of Tiger's surgery in Utah, except to note that he didn't so much as call or drop by while he was in my 'hood.

First, he's obviously been struggling with the back pain for longer than we've known, going back to at least last August's PGA.  This from friend Notah Begay in Michael Rosenberg's golf.com article:

This pain has been going on for quite some time. It hasn’t just happened in the last few weeks. There has been a research process, interviews, a lot of different people doing this. If this doesn’t get cleared up, it is certainly something that can hamper performance. I think that is what he is starting to realize.

The optimistic take is that clearing this up will allow him to resume the Nicklaus hunt, as per Jason Sobel:

This is not the end of the line. It’s too shortsighted to believe that Woods won’t recover from this injury as he has in the past. It’s too careless to think he won’t return as the game’s best player once again. 

That’s probably not the popular opinion right now. You might think he’s done. You might think the chase to catch Jack is over. You might think he’s doomed – if such a term is the proper description – to be the second-leading major winner ever. 

The most riveting subplot in sports will only become more intriguing when he returns.

And Bob Harig:

But if Woods, 38, can put aside the short-term disappointment, getting to the bottom of his back issues, getting it fixed, and moving forward can actually be a good thing for the 14-time major champion. 

That is not to say he'll come back ready to win at Pinehurst or Royal Liverpool or Valhalla. Or that he'll even be ready for the Ryder Cup. 

And yet it offers the hope that his back pain, which has bothered him in some form since last year's PGA Championship, can be alleviated and he can get back to the business of playing golf at a high level.

(h/t Shackelford for those links).

Color me a tad skeptical, as this is far from the only breakdown in Woods' body we're seeing and the sound of the clock ticking is only getting louder.

Now, the question on everyone's mind is when might we see the Striped on again?  There's no firm timeline, but for a proxy Shack takes us back to Graham Delaet's similar surgery a few years back and this timeline:

Q. After the surgery, how long before you were able to pick up a club?

GRAHAM DeLAET: It was at the two-month Mark where I started hitting little chips and putts and half-wedges, kind of thing. By the time -- it wasn't probably until November that I could really like go after a drive as hard as I could, or really lash at one in the deep rough kind of thing.

DeLaet, approximately ten years younger than Woods, had his surgery on January 3rd of that year.

And do check out this Golf Central interview with Dr. Ara Suppiah, which features a jelly donut as a proxy for Tiger's back (sorry, but it's again a form of video that Blogger will not allow me to embed).  He suggests that it will likely be 6-8 weeks before Tiger can chip and putt (bye bye Pinehurst) and perhaps four months before he can hit a driver at full speed (adios Hoylake and don't prepay for the house at Valhalla).  Interestingly, he also has some caution regarding the heavy lifting and squats that Tiger famously loves and about which I've previously expressed skepticism.

Weekly Q&A

Our weekly round table with the Sports Illustrated gang is upon once again.  No special guests this week, but  a reminder is in order that their discussion took place before news of Tiger's surgery came up,

1. We’re less than two weeks away from the start of the Masters and Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are both sidelined with injuries. If neither Tiger nor Mickelson answers the bell to play in the Masters, how much does that influence your interest in the event?

The Pros:  Some, but not a whole lot for real golf fans

Best Line:  From Jeff Ritter, "It's the more casual viewers who would turn their attention elsewhere. If Tiger and Phil miss the Masters, this could be the biggest season ever for "Dancing With The Stars." I will now smack myself in the head with a bunker rake."

My Take:  It does affect the intensity level of the countdown to the Masters a bit.  But if you can't trust this event to produce great golf and Sunday drama, perhaps, as Gary Van Sickle suggests, you should go back to reading Bowling Digest.

2. The R&A Golf Club urged its members to accept women members this week following the controversy of holding the Open Championship at all-male Muirfield last summer. Do you have a problem with majors being held at clubs that don’t allow women?

The Pros:  As the old beer ads said, they feel strongly both ways.  They defend the rights of private clubs, but also acknowledge that when such clubs hold major championships the optics are pretty bad.  

Best Line:  From Van Cynical, "The UK is 20 years behind us in a few areas, and this is one of them. This is a chance to play catch-up. I think a more interesting question is, will the R&A members vote to accept women? Can you imagine if they vote ‘no’? It'll be a crapstorm."

My Take:  I've written extensively on this, and expect that I'll continue to do so.  I'll also admit that I feel strongly both ways.  Golf has a very unfortunate history of being exclusionary, and you can't simultaneously work to grow the game while excluding half the human race.  On the other hand, I also think that the issue is somewhat frivolous in that solving the problem at Augusta National resulted in two very wealthy, connected women who could play there anytime they wanted became members.  We're not talking about a major civil rights issue here, so perhaps the volume could be turned down a notch.

3. Slow play appears to be reaching a tipping point on the PGA Tour in 2014. Last week, Kevin Na was heckled at Bay Hill. This week, Johnny Miller said he’d quit announcing if everyone played like Andrew Loupe and the final group Sunday took three hours to play the front nine. Do you sense that the Tour might take some action to address slow play? Why or why not?

The Pros:  No optimism that the Tour will address the issue.

Best Line:  from Josh Sens, "I'd like to give you an answer, but I need to consult my caddy first, then consider the question from six different angles, then toss some grass up to see which way the political winds are blowing before summoning an official for a ruling. Please cut to one of other panelists in the meantime."

My Take:  Take a gander at this:

Commissioner Ratched is on record as saying that the problem is not severe enough to warrant action.  The players are fluent in English and have drawn the obvious conclusion.

4. The TPC San Antonio's AT&T Oaks course, the Greg Norman-designed venue for this week's Valero Texas Open, features a large bunker in the middle of the green at the par-3 16th. Is this the kind of fun design feature that lends spice and variety to PGA Tour setups, or is it a silly gimmick that should be shelved?

The Pros:  As you'd expect, they're all over the lot, with many considering it a poor relative of the 6th at Riviera.

Best Line:  From Eamon Lynch, "Singling out one hole for special criticism on a Greg Norman design is like picking out one pimple in a mass of acne as being particularly unappealing.

My Take:  Eamon, that's gonna leave a mark.  I don't know the hole well enough to jjudge, but the 6th at Riviera works because it creates several smaller greens.  In that sense it's a variant of C.B. Macdonald's Short Hole template, a short, often downhill Par 3 with a large green divided by ridges into several smaller targets.  Easy to hit the green, much harder to land the ball on the correct tier or segment.

5. Graeme McDowell backtracked on some seemingly obvious remarks about how Tiger Woods’ aura has been diminished in recent years after McDowell was criticized on Twitter. Has social media made players more or less candid in sharing their opinions?

The Pros:  Most think that, Poulter and Elkington aside, the players have become much more guarded in their use of social media.  

Best Line:  from the soon-to-be-retired Travelin' Joe, "It's a lousy Catch-22. Fans and media love the spontaneous, honest tweets from those we follow, yet we condemn the sender when the comments burn too hot. G-Mac just won the Golf Writers of America's award for media friendliness. Tweet away, G-Mac. We love what you do, even when we don't agree."

My Take:  I hated the inevitable walkback.  A few days ago I linked to Shackelford's State of the Game podcast with Gil Capps, and they discussed this at some length.  Capps recited many of the brazen comments of Nicklaus, Miller, etc. in the day, and you just imagine the....what's the word Van Sicle used, crapstorm, that would ensue today.  

6. Bill Murray wore PBR-print pants and a Dalai Lama T-shirt at a charity golf event earlier this week, so we know who the best-dressed amateur golfer is. Who’s the best-dressed player on the PGA Tour? What about all-time?

The Pros:  Hogan gets the most mentions for the all-time list, and I regret to note one tongue-in-cheek reference of Daly in the modern category.

Best Line:  Van Sickle again, "Today's players are dressed largely by the same half-dozen clothing-makers. How do you single anyone out? All-time, Gene Sarazen stood out for wearing knickers and ties back in the day when that was normal attire. I don't know what makes you best-dressed these days, but anyone who says ‘John Daly’ is banned from Tour Confidential forever."

My Take:  Another good finishing question, though it's not a subject that I have any particular expertise on.  For old-timers I'd go with Bobby Jones for making it work without microfibers with an honorable mention to Payne Stewart for inventing the half-sleeve rainshirt at Pinehurst.  For modern players I might take the Tiger of the late aughts, as his current threads have gotten a bit too techy for my eye.

Fourteen is the New Eighteen

Cameron Morfit has an interesting piece at golf.com titled Will Tiger Woods Be Forever Stuck On Major No. 14?  It's somewhat tardy, as the golf press has been all over this in recent days and even unpaid bloggers have been toiling in this field for months if not years.   

Morfit starts on an extremely unpromising note:

It's an age-old philosophical question: If you could know the date you were going to die and

Seems like ages ago, doesn't it?

how it was going to happen, would you want to? 

As the Masters approaches, it seems that golf fans are wrestling with a variation of that conundrum: If you could know beyond a doubt that Tiger Woods will never claim another major -- that history will show him winning his last in what we all assumed had been the middle of his prime, at age 32, at the 2008 U.S. Open --would you want to know that?

OK, I'm new at this writing thing, but I thought the purpose of editors was to put big blue lines through that first paragraph?  Golf and death should never be mixed, unless someone dies on the golf course.

And the second graph isn't much better.  The answer is clearly no, as knowledge of the outcome robs sports of any drama.  If you're in doubt on this, watch me cover my ears as I run through the locker room after my round on Open Championship Sunday, desperate to get to my Tivo unburdened by any knowledge of the results.

So, having been a tad harsh, why do I think Morfit's effort is of interest?  Though he's buried the lede, he makes two important points on this subject.  The first is one I've been making for quite a while:

Tiger is stuck at 14 major wins. He'll need four more to equal Jack Nicklaus's mythic total, and five more -- keep in mind, five majors is Phil Mickelson's current career total -- to set the game's new gold standard.

That's the crux of the can Tiger beat Jack issue.  Back in the aughts when he was winning one or two majors each year, five more seemed inevitable.  But, especially in light of his physical issues, what are the chances of Tiger having Phil's majors career from age 38 to retirement?   

The second point, and one I'm envious of, is that Morfit has come up with the perfect potential analogy to Tiger's 2008 U.S. Open win at age 32:

Arnold Palmer, 50 years ago this month, won what turned out to be his last Masters and his last major, despite the fact that he was only 34. Endings don't always have the grace to announce themselves, to give "closure." Sure, some of them do. Jack winning the 1986 Masters at 46? That was closure with a bow on top, like the finale of "Breaking Bad." But maybe the end of the reign for Woods, as with Palmer before him, will be more like the last episode of "The Sopranos": We'll just sit there staring at nothing, wondering, "Wait -- so that's it?" Kind of like we are now.

Geez, how about the courtesy of a spoiler alert for Breaking Bad, as the brdie and I are still muddling through Season 4.

Morfit adds this color on Palmer c. 1964:

But then there's Palmer. Fifty years ago he won the Masters for a record fourth time, by six shots. At 34, he was seemingly in the prime of his career. He hit the ball a mile. He played and lived under a microscope. According to the Sports Illustrated account of the tournament, his fellow competitors "hesitated to think" what the future might hold for the dominant Palmer.

Isn't that perfect?  You can see why it's resulted in a case of bloggingfreude on my part.

 Morfit adds this to hedge his bet:

Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Sam Snead and even Lee Trevino won at least one major when they were as old or older than Woods is today (38). Hogan won five of them after his 38th birthday, and Nicklaus was 46 when he won the 1986 Masters. Player slipped the green jacket on in 1978 at the age of 42. And it's not like Woods hasn't come close at Augusta. He always comes close: T4s in three of the last four years.

The list of players who won frequently in their forties is quite short, pretty much limited to Sam Snead and Vijay Singh.  The Hogan example is probably the most optimistic for Tiger, as he played about six events a year in deference to his physical limitations resulting from the horrific auto accident.  But there was only one Hogan, so I'm taking the under.

Flotsam and Jetsam™ - April Fools Day Edition

Not really enough here to justify using the valuable F&J brand, but Shackelford pulled an all-niter to produce a series of posts appropriate to the day, so why not go along for the ride:

• Trump national Pacific Gailes - Is the name Trump has in mind when he completes the purchase of Bandon Dunes Resort from Mike Keiser.  

"I showed him video of one of Saddam Hussein's old palaces," Trump said. "You know, before we bombed the *&^% out of it with a real President in the White House. Keiser really liked the use of gold trim on the toilet seats and especially the gold-plated sink stoppers. Did you know they don't even have sink stoppers in the rooms at Bandon? It's a dump, let's be honest. I'll put some money into the place and make it the greatest resort on an ocean in the world, outside of Trump International Scotland. It'll be way better than Pebble Beach, St. Andrews, anything you can think of really. Except Trump International Scotland."

That's a reasonably good impression of the bombastic Trump, but the sink stopper reference is comedy gold, though requiring explanation.  It dates back to a 2012 review of Bandon by the usually sober Ron Whitten, in which he skewers the accommodations because of the absence of sink stoppers.  Shack was all over it in this post.  

Curiously Shack opts for this photoshop effort: 

Instead of this old favorite: 

What, they don't have wind on the Oregon coast?

• Peace in our Time -  In which we hear that the biggest feud in golf (well, the biggest not involving Stevie Williams) has been settled with the news that Brandel Chamblee will join Tiger's physical rehabilitation team during Masters week:

"I'm excited to join Tiger's team," Chamblee said in a statement released by Golf Channel. "I will be able to juggle my Live From duties with whatever he needs me to do to help his back. I'm also hoping I'll get a few opportunities to whisper in his ear about anything I see him doing wrong with his swing, which is pretty much everything."

That should work out well.  No quibbles with the use of this photoshop effort, though Tiger does seem to be enjoying it way too much.  The reader can insert his or her own happy ending joke.

• Short the Queen - Includes the sad news that the odds on Queen Elizabeth being the first woman member of the R&A have lengthened from 3:1 to 4:1, with the new favorite being...well, you'll just have to read the excerpt: 

"We still feel the Queen is a solid choice at 4-1 after she opened at 3-1," said PaddyPower's director of international marketing, Ronan Lard. "Condoleeza has been a popular choice, which is why she's down to 6-1 after opening at 9-1. However Mr. Jenner, excuse me, the soon-to-be-Ms. Jenner, has been quite popular after he/she was seen playing golf at a charity event. The punters appear to think that having once had a penis sets her up nicely to be more relatable to the old boys at the Royal and Ancient."

Not exactly sure how this squares with Shack's outrage at the outing of Dr. V. way back when, but funny is funny.

• Task Forces Gone Wild - Lastly, this little nugget from the bureaucratic miasma that are our governing institutions:

Golf Digest Magazine--full disclosure: a partner of this blog--will be adding to its internationally-renowned ranking franchises by soon announcing a task force to rank golf's fastest growing marketplace: task forces charging themselves with growing the game. 

"It's a hot growth industry and we think our readers will be very interested to learn which task force is doing the best job giving the impression they are doing a good job," confirmed Golf Digest Editor-in-Chief Jerry Tarde via email.

A Happy April Fools Day to all, especially my brother for whom it's his birthday.