Masters Loose Ends

Many loose threads from an intense weekend of televised golf to throw together into a meandering, plotless post, i.e., just another day at the office for your humble blogger.

Rory-World - Who woulda thunk it, from a nail-biter on the 18th Friday to make the cut on the number, Rory finishes T8, his best Masters finish ever.  All that really tells you is how bad that Sunday was in 2011.

Rory shot 34-35-69, yesterday but the back-nine 35 is one you don't see too often.  Bogies on Nos. 13 and 15, the short Par-5's that Rory should be able to birdie in his sleep.  Fortunately birdies at Nos. 11, 14 and 16 got him into the red for the nine.

But of greatest import, confidential sources tell me that Caroline is again a blonde.

Worlds colliding: Caroline's membership application meets the Admission Committee.

The scariest part is that it was apparently by request:

The 15th-ranked singles player in the world, Wozniacki spent the earlier part of the week with her hair dyed bright pink. Her colorful locks were all the talk during the Par 3 tournament Wednesday, when McIlroy said he wanted her hair to "match the azaleas." 

Oddly enough, McIlroy spent some time in the azaleas looking for his ball during the first three rounds.

Planet Tiger -  For those that read my post on Tiger's surgery this comes as no surprise, but Tiger confidant Notah Begay confirms that we will not see Tiger at Pinehurst:

“I’ve been in contact with him this week. He missed being at Augusta and certainly was watching the tournament, (but) I think he needs to give (his back) a minimum of 90 days to make sure that scar tissue heals up appropriately and he doesn’t run the risk of re-injuring it. So that would push him past the U.S. Open.”

Unfortunate, but never realistic that he'd be ready by June.  And given that the next Major after that is in potentially cold and wet Liverpool, my nickel is on Tiger making it back for the PGA at Valhalla.  And Valhalla, irony alert, raises the question of whether Captain Watson wants the Striped One on his squad, or would prefer to replicate the underdog team led by Paul Azinger.  Discuss amongst yourselves...

I Saw It On TV - Shackelford posts on the Masters ratings and introduces me the the alluringly alliterative website awfulannouncing.com, who compiles the tweets of overnight ratings.  CBS's Sunday telecast received a 7.8, meaning 7.8% of American households were tuned in), down from 10.4 last year and the lowest since 2004 (and from 8.1 in 2012 when Bubba won his first green jacket).

Obviously everyone was expecting ratings to be down with Tiger MIA and Phil missing the weekend. But the poor ratings in 2004, the year of that electric back-nine duel between Phil (finally shedding the dreaded BPNTWAM* label) and Ernie, can't be solely the result of it being Easter Sunday, can it?

Ed Sherman introduces us to Brian Murphy at Yahoo Sports, who offers up some Major-quality snark about the absence of back-nine fireworks:

Even Bubba himself shot a mostly ho-hum even-par 36 on the back nine. When he said in Butler Cabin on CBS, “I was telling my caddie, ‘I don’t even remember the last few holes,’ ” the rest of us were saying: Neither do we.

And, before I respond, those of you familiar with my reverence for Sir Nick, will understand that I can't help but excerpt this comment about Tiger:

...he’s become as much a part of the Augusta National landscape as the azaleas, as much a part of the landscape as Rae’s Creek, as much a part of the landscape as CBS’ Nick Faldo referencing his three Masters wins every five minutes, as if on an egg timer.

Nick won three Masters?  Who knew?  We do love our snark, though mostly when directed at the appropriate targets, and I would clarify the comment to the extent that the smarmy Jim Nancy-boy seems to bring it up as much as the Nickster.

But it's not that we didn't get our fireworks, it's just that for some reason they came on the front nine this year.  Admittedly something of a Bizarro World Masters, but you can't blame Bubba for protecting a lead (and the drive on No. 13 and second shot on No. 15 can't be fairly described as overly-conservative).

Another new website courtesy of Shack is Classic Sports (www.classicsports.com), which tracked the number of shots shown by CBS:

Jordan Spieth led the way with 70, followed by Bubba at 68, Kuchar at 58 and finished off by Lee Westwood at zero.

When Mark W. told me over lunch Monday that Lee Westwood finished 7th, I was justifiably surprised.  

Course Set-Up - Shackelford gave his thoughts on the course set-up in his Monday Morning Drive Appearance which can be seen here.  He makes the case first that the greens were "on the edge," but also that the course was there for the taking on Sunday.  Does that mean the greens were slower or less firm on Sunday?  

He then states that after forcing the guys to play defensively in the early rounds, that they then can't turn it around on Sunday.  Really, Geoff?  Seems to me the difference this year was that when the pursuers tried to get aggressive, they didn't pull it off.  

I'm with him on the subject of the trees on Nos. 11 and 15, which he accurately notes is the antithesis of the design philosophy of Dr. MacKenzie and Bobby Jones, and ends on a positive note that it might afford the club an opportunity to undo the excesses of the Hootie Johnson/Tom Fazio changes.  

The Good Doctor - Earlier in the week we were treated to MacKenzie's original plan for a Par-3 course incorporating nine large double greens.  Now the Masters website shares this with us:

Augusta National Golf Club has a set of iconic par-3 holes. The quartet is topped by Golden Bell, the 155-yard 12th hole at the heart of Amen Corner, capable of creating champions or crushing dreams. 

Unbeknownst to many, there was almost a fifth par 3 at Augusta National. In his original drawing of the course, architect Alister MacKenzie included a 90-yard one-shotter.

In keeping with the Augusta National model, the hole even had a name chosen for it, but in a departure from the others, like Yellow Jasmine and Golden Bell, this one did not reflect the natural beauty of the trees and shrubs which were to adorn the hole. 

MacKenzie's extra hole was to be known as Double or Quits, the British variation of "double or nothing." That fit perfectly with the purpose of the hole, to offer a last chance for players to make a wager to recoup losses incurred during their 18-hole round. In the drawing, the hole was placed in such a manner as to take the final resolution easily accessible. The tee box was just steps behind the original 18th green (now the ninth green after nines were reversed in 1935), on the way to the Clubhouse.

There's some doubt about whether such a hole was ever built.  While there's no record of it, there is a reference to it in an old newspaper account.  

Last Word - For now goes to Rickie Fowler, a good friend of Bubba's for this response to a question about him:

"How much has Bubba grown up in the last couple of years?" Fowler was asked.
His response: "He's gone from like 12 and a half to 14."

Bubba Golf

This was not a Masters about which we will regale our grandchildren in the decades to come, but strange as it feels to say, it might be a champion warranting such reverence.  I've always taken great pleasure in watching him play, because he's such a throwback to the days of yore when players shaped their shots and played by feel.  But I always thought he was too high-strung to hold up under this kind of pressure, but clearly I was quite wrong on that subject.  Now we have to wait and see how good he is or can really be, but two Masters in three years can't be an accident.

Shackelford saves your humble blogger several hours work with this first-rate clipping service:

Doug Ferguson, AP:

Bubba Watson's second Masters title was nothing like the green jacket he won two years ago.

David Westin, Augusta Chronicle:

Bubba Watson didn’t need a miracle shot from the pines in sudden death to win his second Mas­ters Tournament in three years. The only round in the 60s among the contenders Sunday was enough.

Steve DiMeglio, USA Today:

Bubba Watson will be the first to tell you he has issues, plenty of them, and he'll readily admit he's on the jittery side and self-diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.

Ron Sirak, GolfDigest.com:

Bubba Watson has all the shots -- and more. Sometimes when you watch him on the range it seems as if he is genetically incapable of hitting a golf ball straight.

Bob Harig, ESPN.com:

He swings out of his shoes with a pink-shafted driver, his golf ball traveling distances that are awed and admired. Bubba Golf, it is called, often with disbelief and wonder.

If Shack keeps up this good work, he just might develop a following.  And kudos to him for the green background during Masters week, a very nice touch indeed.

For some reason, Jason Sobel calls Bubba The Grinch Who Stole the Masters: 

The Grinch Who Stole the Masters is a gentle soul. He’s sensitive. He worries. He cries. Oh, he cries all the time. He’s temperamental, too. He can go from groovy to grumpy in a splash, then right back to groovy again. When he’s happy, he’s really happy, and when he’s unhappy, well, he’s really unhappy.

This time, though, he wasn’t in such a giving mood. For everyone who tingles with anticipation for 364 days in hopes of a dazzling back-nine Masters finish, he robbed this place of the roars. He took away your excitement. He turned the greatest day on the annual golf calendar into a two-hour snoozefest before dinner. 

The Grinch is named Gerry Lester Watson, Jr. – but you can call him Bubba.

No question this one was more of a grind on the back nine, but they dazzled us pretty good on the front nine, no?

Matthew Ruddy has a post on Bubba's tee shot on the 13th hole:

The shot that won the Masters for Bubba Watson wasn't the four-inch tap in on the last hole. It was a 360-yard tree-skimming parabola off the 13th tee. Watson had just taken a three-shot lead over Jordan Spieth, and the creek running alongside the 13th (and in front of the green) was probably only thing that could keep Watson from a second coat fitting.

That was a staggeringly amazing tee shot, but in no way did it win the Masters.  And just a reminder, the poo-bahs at ANGC won't let us have a blimp, on-course reporter or Shot Tracker, so those of us watching on television really had little idea of the trajectory and risk of the shot.

Watson could have played it safe and stayed to the right side of the hole, but he hit his best -- and most aggressive -- tee shot of the week, dramatically cutting the dogleg and ending up 144 yards from the flag, in the middle of the fairway. Spieth would later say that when the ball came off the face of Watson's driver, it looked like was headed out of bounds 70 yards left of the hole. Watson hit a 9-iron safely onto the green, made par and sucked all the drama out of the back nine. He cruised to a three-shot victory.

OK, not completely at their mercy, as 144 yards in means he cut his drive some 366 yards.  But as for the first sentence in that graph, I'm not actually sure Bubba could do that.

And Bubba being Bubba, Ryan Herrington confirms that Bubba went to The Waffle House early Monday morning:

Two mystery questions the photo doesn't solve: 

1) Was he wearing his green jacket? (Because that would have made it awesomer.)

2) Why weren't the hash browns on the house?

I do hope he picked up the checks for others in the restaurant.  One endearing thing about Bubba is that he is perfectly comfortable with who he is.

One last Bubba note, I happened to run across this image of the Golf World cover from two years ago:

True that.

Per Dave Shedloski, Jordan Spieth knows he had it in his hands, leading with a great Pete Carril story:

After his 16th-seeded Princeton basketball team narrowly missed registering a titanic upset over No. 1 Georgetown in the first-round of the 1989 NCAA Tournament, coach Pete Carril huddled together his dejected players and told them simply: “As bad as you feel, feeling this bad is better than never getting a chance to feel this bad."

Shackelford in a post at The Loop maintains that it was the sequence at Nos. 12 and 13 that sealed the deal:

Spieth hitting his third into the 12th hole.

Bubba Watson and Jordan Spieth agreed. The complexion of the 2014 Masters changed at the eighth and ninth holes, when Watson's birdies and Spieth's bogey led to a four-stroke swing. 

Still, anyone watching Sunday knows Spieth was still very much in the hunt until the series of events played out the 12th and 13th holes. First it was Spieth dunking his tee shot into Rae's Creek on the former. Then it was Watson laying into his drive on the 13th. These two holes were the true turning point of the final round.

We could argue this for hours and never agree.  The sequence at Nos. 8 and 9 resulted in a four-shot swing, so I'm hard-pressed to look elsewhere for where it got away from the young lad.  And you have to acknowledge his resilience in bouncing back with the birdie at No. 10 and salvaging bogey after rinsing his tee ball at No. 12.

For one who predicted that any Masters rookies in contention would ultimately be undermined by rookie mistakes, you'd think I'd be patting myself on the back.  Instead I feel the need to take Spieth over my knee and scream in his ear, how could you make THOSE mistakes?  Every golfer on the planet knows you take your tee ball on No. 12 over the bunker and who amongst us doesn't have the image of Greg Norman's ball spinning back off the ninth green seared into his memory?  Not even a rookie should make those mistakes...

Spieth also made a few other mistakes that puzzled me.  For instance, most right-handed players hit three-wood off the tee on No. 13, a club that is far easier to draw.  I don't remember what he did on Thursday and Friday, but on both days of the weekend he stubbornly pulled driver and launched it way right. He made birdie on Saturday, but it really hurt his chances on Sunday.  And on the Par-5 eighth he hit three-wood off the tee, but then tried to draw a three wood into the green on his second, a really low-percentage shot.  If you're gonna go conservative off the tee, you need to be playing chess and commit to a conservative second shot to a comfortable wedge yardage, an entirely reasonable play with a two-shot lead.  

I may have some more Masters notes of a humorous and/or arcane nature later in the day, but wanted to get these thoughts up at a reasonable hour of the morning after.  

Masters Sunday

Early in the week I received an e-mail from our good friend Glenn, who with his wife Jewelle are our traditional Masters Sunday guests.  It is truly A Tradition Unlike Any Other, with the azaleas and dogwood in bloom, the tournament beginning on the back nine and Jewelle asleep in our rocking chair (we kid because we love).

Glenn was despondent that with injuries (Tiger and perhaps Phil), bad form (Stenson and Phil again) and blown leads (Rory and Adam Scott), he might see a back nine battle between John Senden and Matt Jones (he actually didn't use names, just gave the tourneys they had recently won).  I'm quite confident that even if he doesn't enjoy the golf on display, that the Cuban pork roast will make his trip North well worth his while.

My response to Glenn was that none of that really mattered, because somehow this tournament and golf course almost never fail to deliver the goods.  Only time for a brief overview of the plot lines, before I'm off to tee it up myself.

Bubba - I've described Bubba as a golf savant, never more so than on the back nine on Friday.  My thought

then was that he had likely taken control of the tournament too early for someone as itchy scratchy as he is, and we all know how hard it is to back up a great round with another.  

But having survived a tough Saturday just might have the effect of settling him down some, though his outward appearance might not show that.  Shackelford agrees, calling it "Still Bubba's to lose."  Shack also ran a readers' poll on who would win, but hasn't furnished the results yet.

Kooch with father Peter in 1998.

Kooch - My pick has himself right in the mix, though the less charitable might point to his difficulties closing in recent weeks.  Stephen Hennessey tells us that he has a "secret weapon" this week, his grandfather, known within the family as Big Kooch, is with them this week.  The Big Kooch is most famous for sorta kinda predicting that Matt would play in the Masters before his 1997 U.S. Amateur win.

The Rookies - A major storyline leading up to the tournament, I expected good play from some of the newbies, but was skeptical about a win.  I still think it's far more likely that one of the grizzled vets will win, but you have to love the play of Jordan Spieth and especially Jonas Blixt.  And Blixt might benefit from being under the radar and not in the final group.  

I go back to my Friday blogging of the contrast between Spieth and Patrick Reed.  Spieth was watching and learning, whereas Reed was talking about his favorite subject, himself.  But I did like this from Spieth's presser:

Spieth, who calls pretty much everyone older than him Mister, says he'll do that Sunday. "Yup, Mr. Watson," he said during his post-round press conference, adding with good humor. "Just because it will mess with him."

Off The Scrapheap - Rickie Fowler seems to be making some progress, which Max Adler attributes to his work with Butch Harmon.  And Matthew Ruddy has some thoughts on the longevity of The Mechanic and Freddie:

"The guys that hold up year after year survive because they trust what they do," says Top 50 teacher Randy Smith. "They don't try to get more from their swing than what's inside them. Jimenez is really flexible from a physical standpoint, but he's a low-ball hitter, and that is never going to be ideal at Augusta. But he doesn't change it for that week. He does what he does, and gets it from point A to point B. And he has an absolutely magnificent short game."

Bill Fields uses Jimenez's low round of the day to remind us of Ben Hogan shooting 66 from nowhere:

Ben Hogan was 54 in the spring of 1967. His body had never been the same following the 1949 car-bus accident that almost cost him his life. To be able to play in his 25th -- and what would be final -- Masters, Hogan received nearly 20 cortisone shots in his painful left shoulder.

After mediocre opening rounds:

Hogan turned in even-par 36, but then got on a roll and temporarily turned back the clock. Birdies at Nos. 10, 11, 12 came off shots to seven, one and 15 feet. He followed those by two-putting the par-5 13th from 15 feet for birdie. After a par at the 14th, Hogan made another two-putt birdie on 15. He didn’t disappoint the throng at 18th either, sinking a 25-footer for birdie to come home in 30. Those who weren't cheering were crying, so improbable had been Hogan’s afternoon.

Just amazing...

And lastly, how about a shout-out to Jeff Knox, who shot a 2-under 70 yesterday.  Who is Jeff Knox?  He's an Augusta native and ANGC member who played as Rory's marker yesterday, the tenth time he's done so.  Per Rory:

"He played really well and he couldn't have been more helpful. He was really nice all the way around."  McIlroy pointed to Knox's knowledge of the greens as the main reason to be impressed by his unofficial 70. 

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone putt the greens as well as he does around here," said McIlroy, who played the massive layout in an impressive 3 hours, 5 minutes.  "I was thinking of maybe getting him to read a few of my putts out there." 

There's no truth to the rumor that Knox gave Rory two per side.

What A Difference...

a day makes, goes the old standard.  From a scrum of a leaderboard with little separation at the close of business on Thursday, Bubba goes to the whip (Ed. You're mixing your sports metaphors again) and laps the field.  Only a bogey on No. 18 from the middle of the fairway keeps the field within reach... well that and the fact that we still have 36 holes to play.

We'll let Shackelford tell us why Bubba is going to win this thing:

Bubba Watson is going to win this Masters. He’s got more game than anyone on the leaderboard, as evidenced multiple times during his incoming 32, giving him a 137 total for two days (-7). 

The ability to overpower Augusta National?  How about 186-yard 9-irons like the 16th hole shot today that set up a birdie. 

Shot shaping?  Up, down, left and right? Bubba isn’t afraid to combine multiple elements into a shot.

Wind shots?  He may be one of the last players on the planet willing and able to play a low-burner under Masters pressure. His super-low cutting 315-yarder on 17 had the patrons oo-ing and ahh-ing. 

Putting?  He hasn’t three putted in 291 holes, the longest streak on the PGA Tour by well over 100.

Well argued, Counselor.  Though by law I'm required to quibble.  There's a guy named Scott up there that has as much or more game, though it's certainly true that names like Bjorn, Senden and Blixt aren't going to scare anyone.  And as relates to the shot shaping, he's no doubt an artiste in the mold of, say Tom Weiskopf, though of course he's already won more of these than Tom.  Probably the biggest concern is that he might have broken from the field too early, leaving way too much time to, you know, think about it.

Ron Sirak penned this ode to Bubba:

Perhaps it is the mole on his cheek, or the wide-eyed way he answers a question. There is

A nine iron folks...he's Bubba-long.

something, however, about Bubba Watson that makes me feel like I am interviewing the third runner-up in the Latka Gravas lookalike contest.

But it gets better:

Bubba is looking -- and sounding -- more like the guy who hit that incredible hook out of the forest primeval to win a playoff here with Louis Oosthuizen than the man mired in The Great Funk that began after that victory. The win at Augusta National two years ago was his fourth career PGA Tour triumph, but No. 5 did not come until 22 months later at the Northern Trust Open this February. You get the feeling he will not have to wait as long for No. 6. 

Perhaps only a couple of days.

I may mix my sports analogies, but this guy just went from Andy Kaufman to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in two graphs, journalistic whiplash if I've ever seen it.  

But even the man from Baghdad, FL can't pass up a Patrick Reed joke:

"Learning to be a good dad, learning to be a better husband, it takes time on you, it takes energy, ”Watson said. And then learning how to refocus, repractice, get back to the level that I think I should be at…top-25 player in the world. Not going to say top-five player in the world. Sorry, Patrick Reed.

I did like this bit of candor from his presser:

Asked why he struggled so much in 2013, he said: "I was still celebrating my green jacket. How many green jackets you got? If you had one, you would celebrate it for a year or two."

Despite evidence to the contrary, there are still other players in contention.  Adam Scott is no doubt the bookies' second choice at this point, courtesy of intestinal fiber that allowed him to overcome a horrible start.  Three over after six holes, he stopped the bogey bus and shot 33 on the inward nine to keep his chances of dressing himself late Sunday alive.

Rory had some words about the setup, the kinds of things you say after shooting 77:

Friday's pin positions did nothing to suggest Masters competitors were to be offered respite. On the 1st, 2nd and 11th holes, the flags were tucked into the left side. The pin was just four yards inside the right edge of the 3rd with the hole on the 5th in a place, again on the right, which had never been used before in Masters history. It proved a recurring, tough theme. On the 10th, the hole location was further right than Mussolini. 

"It brings the guys that don't hit it as far into the mix a little bit more," explained McIlroy. "It almost becomes like chess."

It seemed the pins were tougher on Thursday, but it was windier and the course was one-day-without-water firmer.   And there's lots of talk that the thinning of the trees caused by the ice storm is creating trickier wind swirling.

Rory made a grinding par on No. 18 to make the cut on the number... his reward for that?  He's the first guy out playing with a marker.  I'll feel better when it's confirmed that the marker is not Caroline.

Phil, we hardly knew ye... no doubt golf buddy Colin King will be desolate when I see him on the putting green in 45 minutes.  I had heard that Phil made yet another triple, this time on No. 12, but didn't realize it was an aqua-free triple:

His tee shot cleared Rae's Creek -- typically the first big concern -- and found the front bunker. 

His next shot sailed over the green and fell into the side of the back bunker. From there, he blasted through the green and back into the same bunker where his troubles began. 

He got that out to about 18 feet and two-putted for a triple bogey.

I did like this piece on the Yin and Yang of Augusta:

Yin: The Masters app for smartphones, which debuted in 2009, led the way for other tournaments to create similar apps.

Yang: It's still the only golf tournament where fans cannot bring their phones. As a result, the practice-round days when photos are permitted force people to buy that antiquated, single-app device called a "camera."

I'm actually more frustrated by the limitations they put on the television coverage.  No on-course reports and no blimp overhead.  Tell me you didn't crave the blimp shot of Bubba's gap wedge from two years ago... 

Lastly, Shackelford points us to this slideshow of old N.Y. Times photos of Augusta, well worth a few minutes of your time.

An aerial shot of the ninth and eighteenth greens from the 1960's.

It's moving day, by which I mean that I need to get moving to make my 8:20 tee time.

Life By The Drop...

... is a favorite Stevie Ray Vaughn song of mine.  The following started as a bullet point in yesterday's Masters post, but I soon realized that there was easily enough new information to warrant, paraphrasing Virginia Woolf, a post of its own.

Alan Shipnuck takes us on a nostalgic trip down memory lane to revisit the dramatic win by Adam Scott improper drop taken by Tiger Woods in last year's Masters.  The set-up:

The 2013 Masters was supposed to be a return to glory for Tiger Woods. Four weeks earlier he had reassumed his spot atop the World Ranking, a significant milestone on the long journey back to dominance. Woods had rebuilt his life and golf game since his fall from grace in 2009; a win at the Masters would complete the journey. Few athletes have as much freighted history with a venue as Woods does with Augusta National. It is where his legend was born with a record win in 1997.

Tiger's perfect form shows his work with Sean Foley is paying off.

After detours through Billy Payne taking Tiger over his knee in his 2010 presser and Guan Tianlang's slow-play penalty, Shipnuck gets to the crux of the matter:

The Guan debate highlighted the tournament's idiosyncratic rules infrastructure. The Masters rules committee consists of 40 officials who are cherry-picked from ruling bodies and golf organizations worldwide. They fall under the domain of the powerful three-man competition committee, which is chaired by Augusta National member Fred Ridley. However, the vast majority of rules officials are not members and thus, unlike Ridley, not beholden to the club. And even though it has by far the smallest field of the four majors, the Masters is the only one that does not assign a walking rules official to every group.

How crazy is this? They have more than enough officials to cover every group, or to place two officials on every hole. Then there was this:

About Augusta National's flagsticks: Though a club spokesman says otherwise, one caddie suggests there was something different about them in 2013. "All the players and caddies were talking about it," says the veteran caddie, who requested anonymity. "They were like twice as thick as usual. I had a feeling someone was going to get a bad break and have a ball bounce hard off the flag."

That's completely new to me. Has anyone heard this before?  Tiger in playing his third shot to No. 15 gets one of these breaks described above, hitting the pin and bouncing back into the water.  He fails to call for a rules official and takes his relief near where he had played his third shot, hits an equally good shot and seemingly minimizes the damage by saving bogey.  Had this been the end of it, he may not have been penalized.  But it wasn't the end of it, because in a post-round interview with ESPN's Tom Rinaldi, he spoke of intentionally dropping two paces further back from where he hit his third shot, thereby ultimately sealing his fate.  To briefly explain, Tiger could have legally taken his relief further back, but it had to be on the line where his ball entered the hazard, but that was after it had bounced off the flagstick.

Now, enter David Eger into our tale:

David Eger, 62, has long been one of golf's preeminent rules experts. After going broke trying

Tiger seemingly saves bogey with this shot.

to play the PGA Tour in the late 1970s, he became a high-level bureaucrat, serving as director of tournament administration for the Tour and later as its vice president of competition; in between he was senior director of rules and competition for the USGA. He has gone on to have a successful career on the Champions tour, winning four times. "The rules of golf are like a religion to David," says his contemporary Mike Donald. "He has a lot of conviction in his beliefs." 

Eger was at home in Charlotte watching the Friday action on his 60-inch high-def television. As Woods was playing the 14th hole, Eger's wife, Tricia, asked for help in the garden. He set the DVR and walked outside. Woods was putting on the 16th green when Eger settled back in front of the TV. He noticed that Woods had dropped a shot on number 15, so he rewound the telecast to see where Tiger had erred. "The thing I saw immediately," Eger says, "was that there was no divot hole when [Woods] played his third shot, but when he dropped the ball to play his fifth shot, he was several steps in back of an obvious divot hole. I kept replaying it to make sure I was seeing it correctly. I realized he had played from the improper spot—there was no doubt it was a penalty. The question was whether [officials] would get to it before he signed his scorecard. That was my only motivation—to prevent Tiger from being disqualified [for signing an incorrect scorecard]. Because I had no doubt other people would catch the infraction too."

Eger texted his concerns to a friend that he knew was working the Masters, and this concern ultimately gets conveyed to Fred Ridley.  But it turns out that Eger and Ridley have some history:

"We've had a few disagreements through the years," Eger admits. He played for the 1989 U.S. Walker Cup team, which was captained by Ridley. In an opening-day foursomes match Eger recalls conceding a 10-inch putt, earning an admonishment from his captain that he found insulting. Eger competed at the U.S. Open nine years later, and during a backup in play he practiced his putting on the vacant 7th green. Though it is allowed at the Open, Ridley, who was then the USGA's treasurer and working the event as a rules official, approached Eger and suggested he was committing a violation. Eger told him to check with another official and continued putting. Ridley returned to acknowledge his mistake, but the hard feelings endure. Eger recounted these episodes in a first-person piece in the October 2013 Golf Digest and concluded with the kind of public put-down that is rare in the chummy world of golf administration: "In my view, Ridley's knowledge of the Rules of Golf was, and is, suspect."

And it's well past time to introduce our other protagonist, Fred Ridley:

Ridley and Craig Heatley meet the press on Saturday.

Fred Ridley is the answer to a trivia question: Who is the last U.S. Amateur champion not to turn pro? He claimed that title in 1975, shortly after graduating from Florida, where he played on a team that won the '73 national championship. Ridley competed in three consecutive Masters beginning in 1976, the start of his enduring love affair with Augusta National. "He revered Bobby Jones and everything he stood for," says good friend Tom Shannon. "That played into his decision not to turn pro." Ridley went to the Stetson University College of Law and built a successful practice in Tampa. He became the insider's insider, holding a number of positions within the USGA, including president from 2004 to '06, and often helped resolve rules disputes at USGA events. "Fred was not our most knowledgeable person on the rules, and I think he'd tell you that," says Mike Davis, the USGA's executive director. "But what made him so effective when it came to resolving sticky rules situations was that he was quick to solicit advice and counsel from other experts."

So, how did this go horribly awry?  Do read Shipnuck's long piece as it fills in much important background on ANGC's history with the rules.  With Arnold Palmer in 1958, they gave the appearance of cutting slack for a big star, overruling the rules official on the scene and allowing him to play a second ball after making double bogey with the first.  Read this Bob Harig piece from the time of Ken Venturi's death to see why Venturi remained bitter about it his entire life.  On the other hand, they were needlessly harsh with Roberto de Vincenzo's scorecard mishap, but then again he wasn't a star of the same magnitude.

Back to Shipnuck:

As Ridley stared at his TV screen, reviewing the drop, the moment of truth arrived for him, for Woods and for a tournament they both venerate. Ridley may have had a history of being a consensus builder, but Augusta National has long clung to an autocratic style. Did Ridley choose not to see a violation because he knew the tip had come from Eger? Was he hesitant to create more bad headlines while the tournament was being pilloried for the Guan penalty? Did Ridley think his chances of succeeding Payne as chairman—he'd long been considered the heir apparent—would be jeopardized if he DQ'd Tiger Woods from the Masters? All we can do is wonder, because Ridley has retreated behind Augusta National's traditional wall of silence: Through the club he declined to be interviewed for this story. 

Ridley's initial mistake in not spotting the violation was compounded by an even bigger one: Although consulting with a player is standard procedure in such a situation, he chose not to talk with Woods before he signed his scorecard. "I fully expected to see a half-dozen guys in green jackets intercept Tiger as he walked off the [18th] green," says Eger. No one materialized.

That was obviously the critical mistake as you always talk to the player.  Unaware of Woods' comments to

Tiger's six morphs into an 8.

Rinaldi, he couldn't identify a violation from the tape and, with the appearance of hindsight, appears to have been overly eager to have this issue go away.  There's also some good stuff in Shipnuck's piece about Golf Channel's coverage, with Brandel Chamblee figuring prominently.  Good stuff in view of Chamblee's critical comments later in the year and the resulting feud.

In view of Tiger's comments to Rinaldi, the illegality of the drop is unassailable, but because of Ridley's failure to talk to and advise Tiger of the issue, Tiger has by now signed this scorecard, raising the issue to Defcon 5.  So, naturally he will be disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard, right?

Not so much, as it turns out:

It would not be made clear until a few hours later, but the competition committee had acted not under the revision to Decision 33-7/4.5 but under 33-7 itself, which dates to 1952 and has been untouched since '88. It states, "A penalty of disqualification may in exceptional individual cases be waived, modified or imposed if the Committee considers such action warranted."

Is that rule intended to cover the laziness or indifference resulting from a petty feud of rules officials?  There's no answer possible, though that's obviously the favorable interpretation of the Rules Committee's action (the less charitable one is that they were protecting their primary show pony).  

I'll let Alan take us out:

A year after the drop, many of those involved wish the whole thing would just go away. Augusta National's culture of stonewalling has a chilling effect—no print reporter would speak on the record for this story, while Woods, Steinberg and LaCava declined interview requests, just as Golf Channel execs silenced their on-air talent. What we do have are the words from Ridley's press conference, and one mournful line rings even more true now. Asked if he wished he had spoken to Woods before he signed his scorecard on that fateful Friday evening, Ridley replied, "There's not a day that goes by that there are not some things I wish I would have done differently."

So do we.

Your One-Stop Masters Linkfest

A great Thursday has left us with as little separation as I can remember on a leader board, with 52 of 97 players at +2 or better.  A couple of quick thoughts from your humble blogger, then we'll see what others are talking about:

Of course the Most Interesting Man in Golf was there.

Conditions - Despite the heavy rains on Monday, the course was in its usual pristine condition.  It seemed from watching on television that it was only reasonably firm, with approach shots holding predictably well.  Those with a mean streak, myself included, are hoping that it firms up each day, making it increasingly critical to be playing one's approach from the fairway.

Set-up - It seemed a pretty tough set of pins for a Thursday to this viewer, an opinion seconded by the chattering classes.  On the broadcast Peter Kostis called the pins a 9.2 on a toughness scale of 1-10, and Graeme McDowell tweeted after seeing the pin sheet "They're not breaking us in gently," specifically citing the pins on Nos. 5, 10 and 16.

As for No. 16, the strategic brilliance of the green has long eluded me.  By far my least favorite pin position is back right, and I'm glad we got it behind us on Thursday.  It's a terribly small shelf, and the players have to be realistic in attacking it, as long is almost a guaranteed bogey.  Anyone in doubt can just take a look at Ernie's bunker shot yesterday.  Any shorter and it stays in the bunker, yet it ran out a good 15-18 feet past the cup.  With that pin all you see is the best players in the world hitting the same 45-foot uphill putt... in what way is that interesting?

The question it begs for me is whether the use of a tough set of Thursday pins reflects their belief that the

Rory plays from the bunker on No. 2.

greens will be too firm and fast for these pins on the weekend.  If only...

Leader Board - What more could you want?  No matter who you're rooting for or betting on, he's still in the hunt.  Except, of course, if you're rooting for The Duf or Brandon Grace...  

Best Shots of the Day - From what I saw, you'd have to choose between Sang-Moon Bae's delicate pitch-in from behind No. 15 and Phil's bomb on No. 10.  

Worst Shots of the Day - Phil's chip on No. 7, from some 35 feet from the cup he caught all of it and it never had a chance to hold the green.  Unfortunately for Phil, his bogey and double-bogey putts on the same hole also get honorable mention.  

King Louis tee shot on No. 12 takes the silver, as it wasn't within 20 yards of dry land (or 30 yards of his target).  He later admitted that he chunked it, and it's always refreshing to hear these guys candidly admit that.

A Lifetime Achievement Award in this category to Mark W.'s pretournament pick Sergio Garcia for not threatening the cup on an uphill 2 ½-foot birdie putt on No. 15 (and his putt on No. 17 wasn't much better).  We keep hearing about Sergio's improved putting, but he doesn't look all the confident, does he?  

And how about the lovable Duf?  Puts his second shot on the Par-5 13th over the green, and somehow makes a nine.  Bob Harig has the blow-by-blow, if you have the stomach for it...

Righting the Ship - Walking off the 13th green at +2, Jimmy Walker played his last five holes at -4 to post a 70.

Wasting a Good Start - Webb Simpson birdied his first three holes, lost the plot, and doubles at Nos. 5 and 15 left him at +2 for the day.

Getting the Least Out of a Good Round - Defending champion (and the bride's pick) Adam Scott was quite happy with posting a 69, but it's not hard to see how it could have been much better.  He made a double on No. 12 after rinsing his tee shot, and has three-putt pars on both of the back nine Par-5's.  

You've no doubt heard enough from me by now, so what are others saying?

Haas with new Luggage Toter.

Starting with the leader, Gene Wojciechowski informs us of a personnel change:

This is how you maybe win a Masters: 

You go liquid nitrogen cold. You make a business decision that Frank and Claire Underwood could admire. You decide the

The Real Deal - Accept No Imitations.

possibility of a green jacket is 

thicker than blood.  

You fire your brother.  

That's what your first-round Masters leader did not long ago. Bill Haas pink-slipped Jay Haas 

Jr. as his caddie. Bill was so upset by the change that he shot a 4-under-par 68 on a sun-smooched Thursday at Augusta National.

Fair enough, but I'm a traditionalist and that really should have been a Francis Urquhart reference.   

Shackelford posts about the difficulty of the Par-3 twelfth at The Loop:

Even the Defender Sometimes Has to Assume the Position.

Adam Scott had a decent excuse for his 12th-hole double bogey. The defending champion received “the most incredible ovation” as he came to the tee, then lost his focus, donating a 9-iron shot into Rae’s Creek for the first time in his career. 

Scott’s unsightly 5 added to the hole’s 3.423 scoring average, making the 12th the second toughest hole Thursday with just six birdies recorded. (The par-4 11th ranked first, averaging 4.474 strokes with only two birdies. Amen Corner indeed.)

Not to be harsh, but is that really such a decent excuse?  In any event, that pin on the right has been driving the boys crazy for as long as I've been watching the Masters, just somewhat surprising given the modest breezes.  

Bill Fields has an interesting piece on watching play at the short Par-4 third.  This is a temptress of a hole,

built long before driveable Par-4's became cool.  As in his piece, the lads tend to play it conservatively in the early rounds, but it's been the scene of many meltdowns from aggressive play on Sunday, none more famous than Jeff Maggert bouncing a ball into himself from the fairway bunker in 2003.  What Jeff Maggert was doing in the last group on Sunday we'll leave for another day.

Coleman McDowell and Rex Hoggard have slightly different takes on Phil's opening 76, with this being the former's lede:

Normally when Phil Mickelson says he hit it well after carding a 76, it’s a dubious claim.

In his opening round at Augusta National, it was absolute fact. 

The three-time Masters champ hit 12 greens and nine fairways en route to a four-over round, good enough for 67th place after opening day at Augusta. Those weren’t mind-blowing stats, but they weren't stats fit for a 76, either. The few misses with his often-erratic driver were mere steps off the fairway instead of giant leaps into the pine straw.

Doesn't that qualify as the soft bigotry of low expectations?  I didn't notice Phil giving himself too many makeable birdie putts, and his chipping (see Nos. 7, 11 and 14) was dreadful.  And let's not mention the wedge into No. 15.... And if he was hitting it so great, why the iron off No. 8?  Has anyone heard him explain his thinking there?

Jeff Babineau and Michael Rosenberg cover the young guns, about whom we heard so much coming into the event.  The former covers the glam pairing of McIlroy, Spieth and Reed:

If morning on opening day at the 78th Masters belonged to legends who own multiple green jackets, then the afternoon session was about those rising stars of today who are chasing after them. It’s not often that Rory McIlroy, all of 24 years old, is the resident graybeard in his threesome, but that was the case on Thursday when he paired with Masters rookies Patrick Reed (23) and Jordan Spieth, who in July finally will be old enough to legally enjoy a beer.

This I thought was the gist of it:

He (Spieth) noted instances in the round where McIlroy knew to hit to certain spots that he and Reed did not, such as at the par-4 17th, where McIlroy had wedge in his hand but played safely left of the far-right hole location. Reed made bogey when his approach bounded over the green.

That's exactly how I saw it, as Rory played safely 15 feet left of a sucker pin on the front right section of the green.  Rosenberg has a similar reaction as I did to Reed's brashness and play:

You could see Patrick Reed coming for a few years, even if you didn't know his name. Reed is 

Patrick loses his grip.

damn good. He knows it and doesn't mind saying it. It is not fair to say he acts like he invented golf. But he does act like golf was invented recently – like someone hit the restart button on golf five years ago, and everything that happened before is irrelevant. 

Reed finished the first Masters round of his life by going bogey-bogey-bogey for a one-over 73, and there is a lesson there. The question is whether he wants to learn it.

I thought Reed's play on Nos. 16-18 would make a perfect instructional video for Masters rookies.  He didn't hit anything all that badly, just a hair too aggressive which cost him on each hole.  I agree that it's a very talented group of Masters rookies, but if the course firms up as expected over the next few days, that should logically make experience even more important.  Spieth on the one hand seems to get it... Reed not so much.

One last note... I'm a David Feherty fan, but he really stepped into it in trying to describe Tiger's illegal drop last year on No. 15.  Listening to him try to escape from the verbal box canyon he needlessly strolled into was my laugh for the day.  It just so happens that I'm working on a longer post on that subject, so David give me a call and I'll explain it to you.

Thursday Thoughts

There isn't a hole out there that can't be birdied if you just think. But there isn't one that can't be double-bogeyed if you stop thinking.   BOBBY JONES on Augusta National

No doubt we'll see lots of each, as the festivities are already under way.  But where to start?

• Kickoff - It was good fun watching the Big Three tweaking each other as they ambled around the Par

  

  Arnie, shouldn't that be a darker shade of green?

   -3 course yesterday, though it does have a way of making us feel old.  They've now fulfilled their obligations as honorary starters, and have earned the right to kick back and enjoy the next four days with the rest of us.  Jack summed up his objectives thusly:

Jack Nicklaus said he accomplished the true goal in fulfilling his duties again as honorary starter at the

Add caption

Masters with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player on Thursday morning.

Don't hurt yourself and don't embarrass yourself.

It's a pretty easy room in that sense. Not sure there's anything these three gents could do to embarrass themselves. And for those who are more results oriented:

He certainly didn't do the latter. After Palmer and Player both successful found the fairway with their shots -- each to steady applause -- Nicklaus did the same, with his tee shot coming to rest just a yard or so past Player's. 

"It's not bad," Player noted afterward, "because he used to outdrive me by 50 yards."

Gary told us earlier in the week that he was doing 200 sit-ups a day to ensure that he outdrove his playing partners, so we'll stay tuned to see if he toughens up the regimen for next year.  Arnie was asked how long they intended to do it, and had this reply:

"As long as they keep asking."

Works for me...

• I Feel Your Payne - Billy Payne's annual State of Billy Payne press conference is a Wednesday tradition at the Masters, and nobody can pull it off with quite the  élan of Billy Payne.  There were only two items that qualify as news, no matter how low one sets the bar:

In the afterglow of the Drive, Chip and Putt competition Sunday, Augusta National Golf Club Chairman Billy Payne was in a jovial mood at his annual news conference Wednesday.

With few controversial issues on the docket and a year of Adam Scott as Masters Champion, Payne spent most of his time discussing the success of the Drive, Chip and Putt contest having received numerous positive comments from members on the Sunday competition.

Extremely happy with the competition and due to the success, Payne expressed that next year’s event will be dramatically expanded to 250 qualifying venues in all 50 states and allowing more than 50,000 kids to compete for their opportunity to play at Augusta National.

I don't pass up any shots at the stuffy poobahs in our sport, but this really was a great event and the Augusta folks were the ones that made it happen.  The fact that it took the green jacket guys to think of something like this does not reflect well on those (I'm speaking to you, Mr. Bishop) in whose jurisdiction this would seem to fall.  As relates to the recently deceased loblolly pine:

Payne expressed his dismay of the loss of the Eisenhower Tree on the 17th hole and while the tree was a strategic factor to the hole, the Chairman was more concerned about the loss of the link between President Eisenhower and the club.

No decision has been made on whether to replace the tree.  At this point it makes sense to see how the hole plays in competition, as it's still a fairly tight driving hole.

• Par-3 - I watched about half of the coverage of the Par-3, generating the same mixed feeling as ever.  I've taken to calling it the second most painful day of televised golf, ceding the title to CBS' Saturday

  

  Arnie's pink shirt seems to have become a Par-3 tradition.

  coverage from Pebble (isn't it well past time that Ray Romano be invited to play in the Par-3).  It's no doubt a wonderful day for fathers to walk the course with their kids, it's just that by the 43rd cute urchin you've about had enough.

While Alex Myers removes Ryan Moore from the list of contenders:

No, it's not because Moore favors a fade off the tee or because he's never finished better than T-13 in five trips to Augusta National, but rather because he played too well at Wednesday's Par-3 contest. Moore won by firing a six-under-par 21 and as those familiar with Masters history know, the Par-3 winner has never gone on to win the main event that week.

Moore himself said he ain't worried about no stinkin' curse:

"I'm not afraid of it," Moore said. "You never know. Someone has got to break that curse at some point in time, so hopefully it's me, if I end up winning. Who knows? I might go shoot 8 under or something, make a couple hole-in-ones. We'll see."

And Ashley Mayo had a cute post on things overheard in the gallery during the Par-3:

Guy, to Masters guard: "Is it illegal to ask players for their autograph while they're

walking down this fairway?" Guard: "Yes, and there's no way they're gonna stop for you." Guy, whispering to his group of buddies: "You hit him low, and I'll hit him high. Let's knock him out."

And:

Woman, to guy standing next to her: "Webb Simpson is making his pregnant wife carry his clubs? Pig."

• Passov, Temporarily Reprieved - Travelin' Joe, whose job I covet, returns to my good graces with a fun slideshow of little known facts about ANGC.  If you've been reading Unplayable Lies for the last few weeks, many of these tidbits are already known to you, but we're all killing time until CBS comes on at 3:00.

• Swag Update - Shackelford continues his groundbreaking coverage of the Masters merchandise tent, identifying a new favorite item, a $25 ashtray/glass tray featuring one of Mackenzie's early course plans:

Wonder if they sell these on the Internet?