Midweek Musings - Post-Masters Letdown Edition

My inevitable post-Augusta emotional crash was helped by the fact that Employee No. 2 and I played yesterday in 75 degree weather....  Yes, my pasty white legs made their first appearance but, more importantly, the bride walked nine holes.

Masters Detritus -  Sergio is everywhere, most notably on the cover of Sports Illustrated:

I haven't yet read Alan Shipnuck's accompanying article, but am curious to see how he handles it with the anachronistic lag to accommodate a weekly print magazine.  Interestingly, SI contines to publish a print preview of the Masters, but couldn't get it into my mailbox until Friday.  Guys, it kind of defeats the purpose....

Alan's piece is here, which kind of defeats the purpose of a print edition, but is worth a read.  Spoiler alert, he plays the Bobby Jones card quite liberally, as in his coda:

The sports world may obsess about results but in victory García displayed an admirable perspective. "To be totally honest, I’m very happy but I don’t feel any different," he said.

"I’m obviously thrilled about what happened here today, but I’m still the same goofy guy, so that’s not going to change." 

Here, Jones deserves the final word: Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots—but you have to play the ball where it lies. The breaks will even themselves up in the long run, if the run is long enough.

True that, and the run might have some life left in it yet...

I was rooting for Sergio, which shouldn't surprise the loyal reader.  As you well know, I tend towards the elderly and those needing it most, and that made the Spaniard my own very daily double.  But that pails in comparison to this parlay:

Yup, he parlayed Rickie in the Honda with Sergio in The Masters....  I can only imagine how he felt after Sergio pushed his birdie putt on the 72nd hole.  Maybe the guy would have been calmer had he known about The Bear....

David Dusek does a nice job at the eating crow thing, with an open letter to Sergio.  I can truly relate to this sentiment:

Last year when someone asked me why I was not picking Dustin Johnson to win the U.S. Open, I said that I would never pick him until he had already won a major. Weird things, many self-inflicted, always seemed to happen and prevent him from winning majors. Then he won at Oakmont.

Yup, but again that's an awfully passive construction.  Strange things happened to DJ largely because he was DJ...  Yeah, he grew up and applied himself to his business and, to flip the expression, you weren't so much wrong as you were late.

I felt the same way about you. It was never personal, but I did not think you could win,

but your victory at the 2017 Masters was fantastic. I hope the smile you flashed as you walked off the 18th green, and that you showed again atop the Empire State Building Monday night, stays on your face for a long time. 

I admit that there were a few times on Sunday when I thought you were going to blow it again. That second shot on 10 must have tightened your collar a bit as you walked down that fairway.

The comparisons to DJ are quite apt, because Angelina and her family have had a big impact on Sergio....

One last excerpt for you to keep in mind for a bit:

Your Ryder Cup teammates have always loved you, and you have tons of American friends on the PGA Tour, but your relationship with the fans in the United States has run hot and cold.

With one exception, but I'll circle back to that in a bit....

Riffing on a theme I mentioned on Monday, Shack and Matt Adams debate the use of Sudden Death to decide ties in The Masters here.   Geoff's position is most obviously undermined by his use of the Amen Corner Macguffin, a ploy that screams desperation.  He might as well have defied Godwin's Law.  

Let's get this out of the way quickly, as that stretch of holes simply can't be used late in the day.  Not only is it too far from the clubhouse, but it's the lowest point on the property and loses light too early.  It's TV that demands a winner on Sunday, but daylight remains a requirement....

I'm more focused on the disruption caused by the need to sign scorecards and the inevitable loss of continuity....  Geoff makes one good point tat it's far quicker to get to the tenth tee than the eighteenth, but the real argument is that settling it over multiple holes minimizes the impact of any one shot, especially that first shot.  And that tee shot on the finishing hole is so out of character with the rest of the golf course, it just seems so awfully arbitrary....  

Peter Alliss has himself in a spot of bother over a hot mic incident relating to Sergio's muse:

File this one under things you would never hear Jim Nantz utter from the tower at Augusta National. 

On the BBC's Masters broadcast on Sunday, the ever-colorful and sometimes controversial Peter Alliss was caught by a "hot mic" making a quip about Sergio Garcia's fiancee's attire. 

Moments after Garcia sunk the winning putt in his playoff with Justin Rose, the 86-year-old Alliss said over the roars that Angela Akins had "the shortest skirt on the campus."

The problem with the PC police is that truth is no defense.... although the judges did rule her outfit as "Mostly Appropriate".  And while any such piece will necessarily review his body of work, see how you take this one:

This is not the first time Alliss has found himself in hot water over comments about women. When Muirfield originally voted to not allow female members in 2016, Alliss suggested that anyone who wanted to be a member "better get married to someone who's a member."

That one seem also factually accurate, and to say far more about the club members than about women.

But that Euro Ryder Cup bonhomie we all take for granted?  Not all it seems:

Harrington told Irish radio RTÉ 2fm that he and Garcia had very different approaches to dealing with emotions on the golf course, particularly after Harrington defeated Garcia in 

a playoff at the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie. Harrington won the four-hole playoff by one stroke (one of four runner-up finishes in a major for Garcia), and recalls Garcia being less than gracious about it. 

"I gave him every out I possibly could at the 2007 Open," said Harrington. "I was as polite as I could, and as generous as I could be. But he was a very sore loser, and he continued to be a very sore loser. So clearly after that, we had a very sticky wicket I'd say."

Did this need to be said right now?  We all had issues with Sergio's attitude, and I myself have posted that video of the loogie in the cup more than was strictly necessary.  This game torments virtually everyone at some point, so I'm thinking that Paddy might have just kept his thoughts to himself.

Lexi Detritus - No doubt you've gotten an earful on this subject, as have I...  People just instinctively hate what happened, and with some considerable justification.  My original reaction can be found here, for anyone testing my internal consistency.

Mike Bamberger makes the unpopular case, and his Twitter feed might require a censor's warning:

Some players and golf observers take the view that the extra scrutiny that comes with

playing golf on TV makes this whole call-in system unfair to the more prominent players. Right after Thompson got her four-shot penalty, Woods tweeted that viewers should not be officials “wearing stripes.” 

But that view does not show a keen understanding of the intent of the rules. A player should want the scrutiny that comes with playing on TV because the player is not trying to get away with anything. The player should want to turn in the most accurate scorecard he or she can, with help from anybody who's watching.

Golf is the only game where the player is responsible for his own results, and that does color any discussions of this issue.  But I also think it's helpful to acknowledge this reality as embraced by our governing organizations, rather than just wishing it all away.

Because the rules organizations have been comically inept at utilizing the new technology, they've actually required the public to inform them what's happening on their playing fields.   How is it that when Dustin Johnson's ball moved on the green at Oakmont no rules official is sitting in front of a bank of monitors?  Like this has never come up before?  

And while I somewhat regret being harsh about Phil's comments, this from Mike is important:

The Lexi Thompson situation in Mission Hills was completely different. Her ball-marking was completely haphazard and not within the rules of golf. We don’t know and cannot know and shouldn’t make a guess about her motivation in being so careless, but the fact is a half-inch on any putt, let alone a one-footer, gives a player a different line to the hole. In baseball, a hitter decides what pitch to hit. In golf, you play it as is lays.

I think we should of course give Lexi the benefit of the doubt as far as intent is concerned, but the fact is that players are abusing this to avoid spike marks and indentations, and it is therefore very important that players mark their balls properly.  And it's important that players that don't be penalized, though that's as likely to come down on the inadvertent as the intentional.  It's called deterrence...

I remain deeply troubled by the penalty being assessed the next day, and would like to see each round considered a closed piece of business.  That signing of the scorecards seems rather one-sided in retrospect, no?  It commits the player but not the tournament?  Also ironic is that the importance of the underlying action, marking and replacing the ball, will be a lesser concern under the rpoposed rules changes...

A couple of final notes, first this:

First of all, if the ball had moved at all, it had returned to its original position. Secondly, the rules allow for what a player could reasonably expect to see. Garcia was not looking at his ball through binoculars.

This troubles me, because the language that I've read is hopelessly vague, perhaps analogous to their first go at the rule change for balls moving on the green.  That didn't work out so well at Oakmont, did it?  Who can know at this point what any of this means?

Mike closed with this:

By the way, the only reason Woods was allowed to keep playing in the 2013 Masters after he described in a post-round interview the incorrect drop he took is because a TV caller had called in about the drop, and Augusta National officials decided to take no action on it. A TV viewer actually saved him that year.

That's a valuable note, as it was David Eger's intention to relay the information before Tiger signed his card.  But I'll also note that Tiger is likely more bitter about what happened later that year at the BMW, when he caused his ball to move imperceptibly while sitting on some twigs.  That movement of the ball could not be discerned in real time, but it could in slow motion....  So, on January 1, 2019, is that a violation?  

Stay tuned....

ESPN Detritus - ESPN is in a world of hurt these days, so you'd think that they'd go to pains to not piss off their remaining audience.  But this rantfest between Steven A. Smith and Max Kellerman is really quite the race to the bottom:

This notion that we’re really not competing against each other. We’re really just playing golf and it’s really competing against the course. Nonsense. There’s a game to be played. 

Each of you go out there to do it. You’re trying to compete at a level that eclipses the individuals that are also on the course. Last time I checked, that’s competition. 

He added: “I damn near told them to get a room. It was ridiculous, how they were with one another…I want to see you rooting for the other to fail.”

Kellerman actually does a reasonable job of refuting the ignorance of Smith, then unfortunately shares his own....   It's all rather unpleasant, but we should also admit that this is how many folks think of our sport.  

What Are Your Plans For Friday? - I might have to see a certain movie....  This new clip has been released:

This part is true enough.  Players of the day carried a club called a Rut Iron, because the wheels carts crossing the golf course would leave ruts in the turf.  The Rut Iron was the ancestor of the Sand Wedge, and Young Tom was the first to spin a ball back on a green.

I'm not overly optimistic about the success of the film, as it seems an impossible task to capture the historic sweep of the period.  Also, golf....  you know, it's not of mass appeal.  But you should of course read the book and it does have an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes....

Tuesday Trifles

Day 2 of the Reign From Spain, and it's time for some longer-form pieces to appear...  Shack is in savor mode, mostly so he doesn't yet have to contemplate Erin Hills...

Here's Geoff's mini-take:

A day later, the magnitude of Sergio's playoff win may not have sunk in. 

--He finally has his first major after a historic number of opportunities. 

--His play on the two back nine par-5s will join the highlight reels of best Masters moments. 

--A lifelong drawer of the ball, Garcia won hitting a fade on a course that some feel strongly favors a right-to-left shot shape.

First of all, it's "an" historic number....Thanks, Mom.  But was it an historic number?  More than Monty, for instance?  I don't know, seems like there was Carnoustie and the PGA where he dunked it against Paddy, but it's been forever since then.

And that "Some feel" is an oddly passive construction, whereas the author has never been shy about sharing his thoughts on the subject.  Truth is that there are most certainly shots, even a few important tee shots, at ANGC where that right-to-left ball flight is needed, though invariable those same holes (ten and thirteen) seem to favor the opposite flight on the second.  And there was that Nicklaus guy...

Doug Ferguson takes us through the sturm und drang of Sergio's career, inadvertently reminding folks of Sergio's sometimes off-putting personality:

There was that time at Bethpage Black in the 2002 U.S. Open when he complained about having to play in the rain, suggesting the USGA would have stopped play if Woods had been on the course. He lost a three-shot lead in the final round at Carnoustie in the 2007 British Open, and after losing in a playoff to Padraig Harrington, he said he was playing against "more than the field," intimating that somehow, the golfing gods were out to get him, too. 

A year later, Harrington rallied from three down to Garcia on the back nine and beat him at Oakland Hills in the PGA Championship. When asked later if he thought he was going to get his first major, Garcia snapped, "Next question, please. Let's try to keep this as positive as we can, please."

 Yeah, not his best look.  Of course he was right, the golfing gods were after him, just like they're after all of us....

In summarizing other players who took longer than expected to secure a major, Dough unfortunately indulges in a spot of racial profiling:

Phil Mickelson leaped — not very high — when he finally won his first major at Augusta National in 2004.

Hey, he was just checking his white privilege.... or was it his male privilege, I get so confused...

Bill Fields pulls out the "K" word to describe Sunday:

Five years after saying that he didn’t have the skills to win a major, on a day that would have been the two-time Masters Champion Seve Ballesteros’ 60th birthday, Garcia showed grit and patience — qualities he sometimes lacked at crunch time — that the Spanish legend would have admired. 

“It definitely popped into my mind a few times,” Garcia said of the Ballesteros connection. “I’m sure he helped a little bit on some of the shots, some of the putts.” 

Another star golfer from Spain, and another two-time winner of the Masters, Jose Maria Olazabal, eagled the par-5 on Sunday en route to his first Green Jacket in 1994. Garcia did it this year, making a 14-footer for a 3. Olazabal had left Garcia a note earlier this week, telling his younger countryman that he had the right stuff to get it done, that he, Olazabal, wasn't sharing his locker in the Champions Locker Room with anybody and . . .

Karma, which Garcia so often thought wasn’t in his corner, seemed to be with him this week. On Saturday he got a fortunate bounce over the creek on the par-5 13th. On the same hole Sunday, he hit a poor drive and had to take an unplayable but managed to save par.

This game beats us all down, at least at times, but you don't need to be perfect to win....  Somehow I think that finally dawned on Sergio.  That piece also includes this graphic:

Rose not making four was a huge part of the turning point, but we should keep this handy for the next time the subject of potentially lengthening the thirteenth comes up.

Randall Mell captures the change in the man well with this:

The thing is, Garcia’s transformation didn’t really happen over four hours Sunday. Rose

and others who know him have seen the change for a long time now. They’ve seen Garcia become more accountable for his lot in life. They’ve seen the work he’s doing. 

That’s why Rose liked seeing Augusta National patrons embrace Garcia. 

“It’s good for Sergio,” Rose said. “Often, he feels like he's not supported the way he would like to be here in America, and it was encouraging to see the crowd get behind him. I think that they realized that he paid his dues, and they realized that he's been close so many times.” 

Garcia gets heckled as much as any player in the game. Just a month ago, Honda Classic fans in the Bear Trap’s 17th hole heaped abuse on him. 

“Hope your marriage fails,” one fan shouted.

Sergio has lacked control at times, though it's always been directed at himself.  But he's always had his supporters amongst his peers, excluding that Tiger guy.

Jaime Diaz deserves a victory lap for a recent profile of Sergio that speculated about this day, a premise that was derided in unnecessarily derided in certain dark corners of the Internet, closed his piece with this:

The paradox is that Garcia fought more fiercely and effectively than he ever has—just not with himself. “Lately I’ve been getting some good help,” he said. “And kind of

accepting, too, that if it for whatever reason it didn’t happen, my life is still going to go on. It’s not going to be a disaster.” 

Of course, that approach had made it more likely to happen. 

It’s true that at tournament’s end, Garcia was at or near the top of the field in greens in regulation, driving distance and driving accuracy. Surely some karma flowed from what would have been the late Seve Ballesteros’ 60th birthday, as well as a note from José Maria Olazábal that pointed out he currently has an opening to share his Champions Room locker. Garcia’s claw-grip putting stroke, while occasionally shaky, stayed smooth enough to miss very few of the short ones that in recent years have undermined him on the biggest occasions. 

But most of all, this Masters was won by an El Niño who is finally all grown up.

Now the future Mrs. Garcia's skirt did draw comments from Employee No. 2, but I watched closely and she was able to ascend the hill behind the 18th green without constantly tugging it down.  So, it has been determined that the ensemble is rated "Mostly Appropriate".   I'm sorry, but the decision of the judges is final...

But remember this from earlier in the week?

The arc of history is long....I just never realized it could bend it like Beckham.

Did you catch the near-miss on No. thirteen?

 As Garcia and Justin Rose were playing the 14th hole in the final round, with Rose leading by one, rumors began to swirl on social media about a potential rules infraction by Garcia on the previous hole.

Garcia's drive on the par-5 13th hole hooked left and came to rest under a cluster of thick bushes. The lie was unplayable, so he took a penalty stroke and placed his ball two club-lengths away in a bed of pine straw. A short video of the broadcast circulating on the Internet shows Garcia removing loose impediments from around the ball. The rumor was that Garcia had caused the ball to move, if ever so slightly.

That's what this game needs, another rules controversy... CBS seemingly went out of its way to not show us any high def video, and it's hard to fault them there.

But I'm curious about this rave of CBS' final hole coverage:

CBS golf analyst Nick Faldo set the stage nicely as Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose ambled up to the 18th hole of Augusta National shortly before 7:00 p.m. EST on Sunday. 

"It is in every sense of the word match play," Faldo said. "One hole." 

CBS delivered on that hole, from great visuals of Rose hitting his drive, to multiple angles of Garcia missing a chance to win from five feet, to a slo-mo replay of Rose and Garcia embracing before heading to the clubhouse prior to the playoffs.

Errr....OK.  So, two guys in the last group have separated themselves from the field, and the great Sir Nick declares it match play....  There's nothing particularly wrong with the comment, except perhaps that it could have come three holes earlier....   But wait, there's more:

Where CBS's production team was at its absolute best was on Garcia's championship-winning putt. You can quibble that Nantz talked over the moment ("After so many years, once and for all for Sergio!") but Nantz's reverence for golf always comes off genuine to me. The A-plus stuff came from director Steve Milton, who captured all the great moments around the 18th. The CBS field operators got close enough to hear Garcia wail in excitement after being embraced by his fiancée on the green. There was also a great shot of Rose staring at the scene in front of him and there was Nantz, oddly, shouting out Garcia's haters ("You're wrong again!") before Faldo offered nice perspective on why Garcia had not won in the past and why he won through the "mental scar tissue."

Nantz talking over the moment is not a small quibble, the only difference being that it's usually his tower partner that's babbling on about this or that.

CBS pretty much always delivers the goods visually, but capturing things that happen on the final green is pretty much a lay-up....  Pardon, a tap-in.  Oh, and Dear Reader, you've been played, because I didn't share this with you:

I don't watch a lot of golf — your caveat for this column — but I thought CBS was terrific on the final two holes, which is when they needed to be.

Also not a small quibble....  But why would Golf.com give him placement on their homepage?

For some reason the ratings really sucked:

 ESPN's streaming numbers were up, but are still fairly small in absolute terms:

Golf fans streamed a record 25.8 million total minutes, a five percent increase from 2016, and the two-day average minute audience of 46,812 was up three percent from the 2016 record of 45,313. Friday’s second round stream from 3-7:30 p.m. ET earned a record average minute audience of 49,038 viewers. 

The success story for the Masters on ESPN digital platforms also included a record two-day average of 961,000 unique visitors to golf content on the ESPN App, an increase of 34 percent over 2016. Also, a two-day average of 1.3 million daily unique visitors went to golf content on ESPN.com. Across all ESPN digital platforms, the two-day average minute audience of 23,000 people on golf content was a 14 percent increase from 2016.

I don't know why that would be, given the obvious strength of the leaderboard, including the common thread of Mr. Spieth.

On the list of things about which I couldn't care less...

The best active players to have never won a major

Well, what took so long?  But which is the more ridiculous entry on the list, Ian Poulter (Do you not know the meaning of the word "Best") or Brroks Koepka (who's been on Tour since at least November).

And this:

An injured Dustin Johnson opens as 2017 U.S. Open favorite

 Actually, the surprising thing is that they don't expect him back until May...  So much for the two days he needed.

As for this, you make the call:

Ranking the 9 most obscure Masters champions

OK, I'll grant you Herman Keiser, Trevor Immelman and Charles Coody....  But Zach doesn't belong on that list.  And no Doug Ford?  No Bob Goalby?  Henry Picard, anyone?

As for the Tiger tweet that I noted in yesterday's wrappage, just click here to see Judge Judy's reaction....

Weekend Wrap - Masters Edition

For some reason Bob Marley's Redemption Song has been the soundtrack of my mind since about 7:30 last night:

But my hand was made strong

By the hand of the Almighty

We forward in this generation

Triumphantly

OK, where were we?  Mike Bamberger has been around long enough to have seen that which a few years back made Sergio himself say that he didn't have the right stuff to win a major:

AUGUSTA, Ga. —Eight p.m. The day's last light. Sergio Garcia, back on the practice green for the second time this day, but not for more putting work. This time, in a wooden 

high-back chair with a green cushion. The winner's throne. Stewart Hagestad, accepting the silver cup as low amateur, with the grace that is supposed to typify the game, turned to Garcia, who is 37, and said, "You were my hero growing up." The new winner—finally getting his first major championship—grinned like a man who knew that the rest of his life was now going to be a lot easier. 

We've watched him grow up, or many of us have. In 1999, Garcia was the low amateur here. Another Spaniard, Jose Maria Olazabal, won the second of his two Masters titles. Olazabal followed Seve Ballesteros, another Spaniard, who won green jackets in 1980 and 1983. Those two men were Garcia's heroes when he was growing up. It's an extraordinary thing. The Masters has been played 81 times. Five times it has been won by a Spaniard, golfing artistas who play the game in a way that is absolutely mesmerizing.

That's true enough, but somehow Sergio has always been a far more tortured soul than his two countrymen, and this one is all the sweeter because it seemed apparent that his time had passed.  He also seemed to have made his peace with that fact, and perhaps that's what allowed him to stay out of his own way...

For what is essentially a generic game piece, Mike captures quite a bit on the two protagonists:

But by quarter-after-six, it was obvious that the winner would come of the last twosome.

One (Sergio) needed it more than the other. He's an old 37. He's done everything you could do in the game, with one notable exception. He's won all over the world. He's led a glamorous life. He's been on winning Ryder Cup teams. But he plays in an era where majors have been venerated as never before, and his resume—his golfing life—was incomplete.

Rose is already a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He's 36, and he was, like his Sunday playing partner, a teenage wunderkind. We've watched Rose grow up too, though not as intensely as we have watched Garcia. (For one thing, it's hard to feel an emotional connection to a player who plays such technically exemplary golf.) Rose was playing with house money on Sunday, with his Olympic gold medal from last summer in Rio and his 2013 U.S. Open victory at Merion. The stakes were high for him, of course. Huge. But not life-changing.

Give the eerie parallels in their careers, it's amazing how different they are.  A hole-out here, a scissor kick there, both great ball-strikers whose putters betray them with some frequency.  But while I have no problem with Mike's characterization of Rose as a technocrat, he's also just a nice guy...  I do think he needed this a bit more than Mike lets on, as he's not a guy that's won all that much...  Rio is way over-valued given the weakness of its field, and a bit of time has lapsed since Merion.  

Michael Rosenberg had this on Sergio's belief in himself:

Well, what did fans know? They hadn't seen Garcia at peace lately, thanks to his engagement to Angela Akins, or the notes of encouragement that Akins asked their friends and family to send him. They hadn't seen the Post-Its on the bathroom mirror in the house they rented in Augusta this week, with inspirational quotes from Buddha and Audrey Hepburn and one that read: Don't forget to be amazing.

Audrey Hepburn?  But, we can all agree, he didn't forget to be amazing....  Especially on the 13th hole where, let's admit it, we all thought he'd come undun....

For Garcia, the answer was in the pine straw. There was a time – OK, a decade or two –

when doubt would have beaten him straight-up. But this is a different time. He felt it all week. Augusta National does not set up that well for Garcia's game – he prefers a fade, and the course calls for hitting a lot of draws, which is why he ended up in the pine straw in the first place. But Augusta is ideal for Garcia's new mental approach. Garcia now understands that bad breaks happen. What matters is what you do next. That kind of thinking is what wins the Masters.

Wait a sec, buddy...  I have it on good authority that the answer is in the dirt... He's not the only one that thought that ANGC doesn't set up that well for him, as I always thought he'd win an Open Championship or three.  

Of course the Tour Confidential panel was convened last evening, and were asked whether Sergio won or Justin lost:

Shane Bacon: I think the biggest takeaway for me was how Sergio didn't let the mistakes and the loose shots get to him. He should have birdied the 8th, had a great look at 9 and after back-to-back bogeys on 10 and 11 it all looked lost. But Sergio hung in, made that insane par on 13 and from there it was great shot after great shot. Ten years ago Sergio Garcia isn't winning this Masters. Heck, two years ago he isn't winning this Masters. But Garcia is a happier and more content guy than he has ever been and his resolve was the difference. 

Josh Sens: I'm with Shane. On the one hand, you could say that Rose failed to deliver the knockout punch when he had Sergio on the ropes. But the real take-away is the resolve Garcia showed. When his tee shot found the hazard on the 13th, who among us didn't think he was done? I wonder whether Rose himself even suffered the slightest mental letup at that moment, thinking that Garcia was a goner.

As is often the case, it's a bit of each....  Not that Rose lost it, but they each gave the other guy opportunities.  There's little doubt that Sergio's all-world par on No. 13 was necessary for him to stay in it, but it was likely insufficient had Rose made the birdie one expects from the fairway.

The eagle on 15 was huge... excuse me, YUUUUGE, but Rose's bogey on 17 was also a big factor....

Let me just ask at this point am I the only one uncomfortable with how we resolve ties, especially at Augusta?  There's this amazing adrenaline rush as you come up No. 18, and then in this case a huge letdown from missed putts.  Then they cool their jets for fifteen minutes and then get sent out to the tightest tee shot on the course... It's gotta be very hard on them to maintain their game face.

I did like this question:

2. Aside from Rose, who's kicking himself most about an opportunity missed to win the Masters?

Bacon: I think you have to say Phil Mickelson. He's 46 and you can't think he will have a lot more shots at winning a fourth green jacket.

Sens: Phil might be kicking himself, but if that's the case, then Spieth should be in full-blown self-flagellation mode. He survived two disastrous holes in the first two days and scraped right back into contention to start the final round. Sure, as he said in his post-round interview, he gets to keep coming back for the next 50 years. But Sunday still got away from him in a big way.

Let's face it, we all expected more form that penultimate group, but it's always surprising when Spieth loses because of a balky putter....  And would you have dreamed that Rickie could cough up an ugly 76 and that Jordan would rinse one on No. 12?  I know, he had to be aggressive, but c'mon...

But there's also this guy:

Bamberger: Dustin Johnson. The way he's been playing, shooting 10 under this week would have been almost easy.

Well, we never know, but it is a shame that we didn't have the chance to find out...  We were with a friend on Friday that has had a need for walking socks, you know, the ones with sticky things on the bottom for traction and intends to send DJ a pair.

 This was also an astute question, so much so that I don't need to excerpt the answers...

3. Garcia said on Saturday night that the seven-foot par putt he made at the 18th to close the third round wasn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it got him in the final twosome with his friend Rose versus drawing Jordan Spieth, an Augusta favorite. How important was that in settling Sergio's nerves?

Yes, and we all benefited from the great vibe from that pairing.  I found it very reminiscent of the Scott-Cabrera playoff in 2013.  

It's a particularly good week for questions (Rahm v. Pieters, most notably), and they go out a good one, to wit, with the proverbial monkey shed, will Sergio win another:

Bacon: It took him 37 years to get the first one so sure, I like him at the 2054 Open Championship! Honestly, who knows … I'm sure Garcia will be in contention five to 10 more times in majors, and if the putts drop, or his opponent hits a tree in the playoff hole, he could prevail. 

Bamberger: I don't know and he doesn't care.

You'd think he would become more dangerous going forward, but it will be some time before he cares....  I think a windy Open Championship is right up his alley, but it's remains golf, so none of us know anything...

Loose Ends - Masters-related trivialities....

Twitter has been unduly harsh to Justin Rose over his sunglasses, such as this:

Aren't you going to feel badly, Mr. Jones?

As it turns out, Rose wears those large shades to protect himself from severe allergies. I

played 9 holes with him on the Monday after the 2014 Masters, and he explained to me that protecting his eyes from pollen was essential to avoiding a debilitating reaction to allergies. (Alas, he sneezed and coughed his way through those 9 holes of golf.) 

And just in case you think Rose's shades look cool (!), they're the Adidas Kumacross 2.0s, which sell on Amazon for as low as $77.

Wouldn't You? - Sergio Garcia is considering wearing his green jacket at his wedding

Do we think this is genuine?

Sergio had taken the high road and tweeted a welcome to him when he signed with TaylorMade....  I guess it's good when they act like mature adults, though the blogging thereof is less fun.

Joel Beall had five takeaways from the event, though color me unconvinced on this one:

Hope for Rory

But, for a man that’s had a mixed history at the Masters, McIlroy should leave the 2017 event with hope. For the first time in his career, he was able to avoid the big numbers, and displayed a scrambling ability that, frankly, he’s never had. 

“Coming off the course yesterday I was frustrated. But today I am encouraged. I feel more comfortable around the place,” McIlroy said. “I feel like every time I tee up here I have a really good chance to win. I prepared well. I came a couple of times beforehand and that is something I will keep doing in the future.” 

It was a tad jarring to see Rory so off with his iron game, showing zero semblance of distance control. For years, some observers chalked it up to his equipment. Now, it’s a display that will fuel the fire around a possible looper change. Still, though he leaves without a green jacket, he does leave with hope, not only for a future Masters bid, but for a successful finish to the season.

Really?  I find that the back door Top Tens are all blurring together....  I find it interesting that he links to the players dishing on his looper, because I did hear him ask J.P. "What happened there?" after air-mailing a green earlier in the week.

But it doesn't seem like he plays these greens all that well, though admittedly he didn't get much airtime on the weekend.  But logically this is only going to get harder for him as the years roll by, and he gets tired of being asked about the career slam.

I'll leave things there for now, but I'm sure there will be more in the coming days....

Sunday

Just a few thoughts before the fun begins....  

This was Stina Sternberg from way back in February:

So, pretty much has to be Rose, no?

Have you watched any of their streaming coverage?  I did on Thursday, and it was pretty great.  Specifically, I watched a bit of the 15th-16th hole coverage, having predicted how hard the former would play, but more of the Amen corner action, because....well, you know why.

No doubt you caught Spieth's shot from the pine straw on No. 13 yesterday, but here's what CBS didn't share:

Jordan Spieth and Michael Greller usually talk a lot before every shot, but faced with a 228-yard second shot off pine straw in the trees on the par-5 13th hole Saturday

afternoon, the player said something new to his caddie. 

“What would Arnie do?” 

Invoking the name of swashbuckling four-time Masters champion Arnold Palmer was a way for Spieth, who won the Tournament in 2015, to remind himself that bold can be beautiful at Augusta National. 

“I think Mike was taken aback,” Spieth said. “He was very much pressing for a lay-up there, and laying up was the smart shot. I couldn't see the green, given where the tree was located. The actual shot wasn’t blocked. It was just about committing to what you can see and what you actually know is there.”

WWJAD?  Gotta remember that, but I feel compelled to remind that what Arnie himself did as often as not ended in tears...

But why didn't we get this interesting exchange on the main broadcast?  Oh, and when I tuned in on Thursday, guess what they have on the thirteenth tee on the Amen Corner stream?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Yup, they have, wait for it, ProTracer....  But not on the ESPN/CBS coverage....  Nope, wouldn't be prudent to allow viewers to actually see where a golf ball is headed... 

The Tour Confidential Crew took a crack at The Question, and it's a split verdict:

Alan Shipnuck: He doesn't exude as much personality as some of the other big names

on the board, but I'm going with Justin Rose. That back-nine 31 on Saturday was pure class, and every part of his game looks rock-solid right now. The gold medal in Rio made Rose hungry to do more great things in the game. Tomorrow he will. 

Joshua Berhow: Rickie Fowler has had the best putting week, and it’s not close. He was a little shaky in how he closed his victory at the Honda, but winning is a learning process, and he’s learning. As much as I want to say Spieth right here, it’s going to happen for Rickie at some point. One of golf’s brightest stars is about to take the next step, and it couldn’t be better for the game.

Then there's this meme:

Sean Steinemann: Sergio Garcia. Solely based on the great break he got on the par-5 13th on Saturday when his ball hung up on the edge of Rae's creek. For a guy who has historically gotten all the bad breaks, I think this is a sign that things are ready to go Sergio's way. Oh, and the fact that tomorrow would have been Seve's 60th birthday doesn't hurt his cause either. Extra motivation.

Joe Passov: 

Three responses so far, and three compelling, persuasive – and different – answers. My heart says Sergio finally gets it done, but my eyes have seen him miss too many makeable putts early and late in final rounds when he's in contention. You could flip a coin among the others, but mine has landed on Justin Rose. He's posted five top 15s in his last six Masters, including a T2 in 2015. I don't know why he's always overlooked, never the favorite, but he dons the green jacket on Sunday.

You mean, Joe, like that one on No. 9 yesterday?  But do you really not know why Rose is overlooked?  You might just want to check out his putting stats....

But admit it, you had the same reaction when Sergio's ball hung up on No. 13...   Is this the year?  I'm gonna guess that it's just the gods F***ing with Sergio,but who knows?  He might need one of those today as well.  

You have to get to the bottom of the piece to find someone picking Spieth, but I'll take credit there as well.  Attempting to maintain the integrity of his pool in light of the DJ WD, Yale offered all entrants the opportunity to swap their Tier One selection on Friday morning.  Seizing the opportunity, I astutely traded in Spieth for Rory, picking up three strokes in the bargain.  I know, it's just a gift...

Of course the equally astute Mark W., in his pre-Masters e-mail, ended his thoughts with a all-cap "Not Sergio".   

Alex Myers has this provocative header:

18 holes with the best Masters player you've never heard of

Oh my gosh, he's right there!" 

I'm pretty sure the blonde patron standing in the middle of the crosswalk on the fifth hole was talking about Jason Day, but I couldn't be certain. Jeff Knox was walking right behind. 

Knox is the Augusta National member who has developed a cult following at the Masters in recent years, by getting to play as a marker when an odd number of players make the cut. And playing well. Knox's conquests include Sergio Garcia and then World No. 1 Rory McIlroy in 2014.

I didn't get it because surely we've all heard of Jason Day.... But this was cute:

It's possible that Day got less sleep on Friday night than the tournament's leaders after learning about his Saturday pairing. When I asked him about Knox's reputation as a giant slayer around these parts he laughed. But he knew. Oh, he knew. 

"I heard that he beat Rory," Day said. "He said he was nervous on the first tee and I'm like, in my head I'm like, I'm kind of nervous because I don't want to let my marker beat me."

And this might be even funnier:

It's not about me, but Unplayable Lies readers are well acquainted with Mr. Knox's body of work.... So, which of you requested the signed flag?

Add this to the list of things CBS thought we didn't need to see.  No doubt you heard that Phil started with two birdies, and then no doubt asked himself what Arnie would do, and made double at the short third...  Errr, not exactly:

WHAT PHIL DID NEXT 

After Phil Mickelson hit drives of 313 and 312 yards and made birdie at the first two holes, it's hard to understand why he opted for the safe play off the tee at the 350-yard 3rd. His iron found a fairway bunker, and from there he made a mess of things, taking double. The momentum sucked out of him, Mickelson walked off the 9th green at three over par. By the end of the day he was eight back. 

But among the leaders, Phil wasn't alone in his struggles at the 3rd. Fowler, the first player to get to five under on Saturday, had to make a 14-footer to salvage bogey. And Ryan Moore's streak of 26 holes without a bogey ended at Flowering Peach.

We're at the mercy of what the gods of CBS show us, but the only players putting it close yesterday were those leaving full wedges in.  Today's pin will no doubt be on the narrower left side, so carpe diem.

I'll leave you with this wonderful look at Rickie's yardage book:

They're like works of art....

Enjoy this afternoon.

Friday Thoughts

Well, that was interesting....  The weather forecast was spot-on, and the players adapted as well as possible.  Not the players on my own fine roster, of course, but some players....

That may have been one of the finest rounds of golf I've ever seen play in challenging conditions.  I speak, of course, of Will McGirt's 69...  Charlie?  To paraphrase the Founder, he plays a game with which I am unfamiliar....

We often lead with a link to Shack, just never on this subject:

Though we don’t talk to them and never see them work, the “Cup And Tee Marker Placement Committee” took the forecast and planned for it with a setup by shelving the traditional Wednesday evening effort to ratchet up the course to Masters speeds. 

Instead, they put holes in safe spots—if there is such a thing on these severely contoured greens—and let the wind do the ratcheting. The result produced a course that could be conquered. Just ask 65-shooter Charley Hoffman.

Larry Mize, who's seen a thing or two having grown up in Augusta, had this to say:

“I think the setup is really good, because, under these conditions, it’s just going to be hard,” he said. “They put the tee up on 4. I think they made the pins accessible. I think they did a really good job. It’s hard, don’t get me wrong, but I think they did a great job.” 

The golf course presented a brutal challenge, but it never tipped over the edge. Oh sure, epic scoring averages were posted at the par-4 first (4.548, first in difficulty) and par-5 15th (5.215, ninth in difficulty).

Given that ESPN didn't come on the air until an hour after the last tee time, we obviously saw no coverage of the difficult first hole.  Eleven was brutal as well, but that hole is supposed to be brutal.

And for today?

The official forecast warns of “a chilly start, then partly cloudy, breezy and cooler.” Count on a low of 43 degrees, a high of 65. Prepare for similar winds from the west turning to the northwest at 12-18 mph, with gusts from 25-28 mph. 

Another tough day lies ahead for the players and the preparers, but nothing as ominous as they faced Thursday. You’re only as good as your last success, the saying goes. But what a success Day 1 of the Masters turned out to be.

As Phil noted in his post-round comments, this wasn't as harsh as it might have been because of the heavy rains earlier in the week.  Today's winds should not be as fierce as yesterday's, but if the course dries out and firms up, it could be every bit as difficult.  Oh, and how many easy pin positions do you think they have on these greens?

Beth Ann Nichols' item is ostensibly about Charlie Hoffman's round, but I liked these bits:

“This place is always about picking the shots that you need to hit,” said Paul Casey.

“Today was just about picking the time.” 

The par-5 15th proved particularly tricky. Scott hit a 4-iron to lay up and said playing competitor Kevin Kisner, who was standing ahead in the fairway, watched Scott’s ball fly 15 yards backward at the peak of its flight. 

The third shot wasn’t any easier. 

“That wedge shot on 15, who knows what’s going to happen,” said Kisner, who carded a 74. “I had 97 (to the hole) or something like that. Hit a pitching wedge, which is a 135-yard club for me, so that kind of gives you an idea.”

Did you catch that ten minute span when the wind dropped, and all of a sudden head covers were coming off in the fifteenth fairway?  It was borderline insane to go for it, but that's how much they hate a wedge into that green...

 Sean Zak tries to live up to this header:

Was Charley Hoffman's 65 the best first round in Masters history?

I'm gonna go with "No", but it was damned good....  Here are the comparisons:

Greg Norman (1996) — 10.40 strokes better than field average

Jack Burke Jr. (1955) — 10.23

Darren Clarke (2003) — 10.20

Mike Donald (1990) — 10.02

Charley Hoffman (2017) — 9.97

Jordan Spieth (2015) — 9.42

John Huston (1997) — 9.11

Can you see why I'm uninterested in the question?  But Norman in '96 rings a bell....  How did that Masters turn out?

The road forward?  Like me, I'm sure most tend to look past Hoffman, McGirt and Westwood to that gaggle of players between 1- and +1:

T4: Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose, Jason Dufner, Sergio Garcia and four others (-1): Mickelson admitted after the round that a 71 was a great score for the day, and he seemed more than pleased with where he was heading into Friday. Garcia had one of the only bogey-free rounds of the day, while the rest of this group went up-and-down through their 18 at Augusta. Matthew Fitzpatrick, for example, had a much more stressful ride to his 71 than Garcia, carding four birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey on 18.

T12. Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els, Matt Kuchar, Thomas Pieters and three others (E): With a seven-stroke deficit, this group at even par has to be where we draw line in terms of needing to go low on Friday to have a shot to win. Hoffman will face harsh winds, but so will the rest of the field and this group will likely separate itself between the contenders and players that will be happy to make it to the weekend.

T19. Rickie Fowler, Fred Couples, Justin Thomas, Danny Willett and four others (+1): How about Couples dropping a 73 to finish in the top-20 here in 2017? On the other end of the experience ratings here at one-over is rising star Jon Rahm, and with both Thomas and Mark Leishman here, there’s a lot of potential for a player to jump up into the top-10 before the weekend.

You'd think out ultimate winner would come out of one of those three packs, but it's still early days....

The Tour Confidential panel is doing a daily thing, and they're asked to pick one player to make a move today:

Sean Zak: Rickie Fowler. The wind isn’t going away anytime soon, and if you had a chance to watch Fowler Thursday, you saw a man in fine control of his ball flight. I think a number of players lucked into 70s and 71s. I think Rickie bad-lucked into a 73, and I expect that controlled golf to get him under 70 Friday.

I agree, Sean, but isn't that sort of what Rickie does?  He looked much better than his card, but for him to win I think he needs to play well in the winds, and he let his best chance slip away.

Michael Rosenberg. Sure, an obvious choice. But he had two top 10s in the past month and showed great resolve with his opening 72 in the worst of the tough Thursday conditions. 

Alan Shipnuck: Give me Phil or give me...not death, just disappointment. Once again Lefty has thrown himself into the fray. His eagle on the second hole put a charge into this tournament, and surely it's kismet that he's 46 years old, a magical number around these parts. Lots of wind and increasingly crusty greens puts a premium on short-game and game-planning and nobody does it better at ANGC than this three-time champ. 

Michael Bamberger: Fred.  Studies show that when he plays a good first round at the Masters, his second is better.

OK, let's agree that we all love Freddy, and his 73 yesterday is nothing short of wonderful.  But, back to reality...

Yale's pool was in a state with the late WD of DJ, so he gave us all a mulligan on that Tier 1 pick.   I opted for Rory, somewhat impressed with his bounceback yesterday on the back side.  If he can hang on today, the weekend should set up nicely for him....  I know, that's a lot of "ifs", but I feel mostly the same about Phil.  The longer he hangs around the more dangerous he becomes....

Ready to have some fun....  This ought to meet your needs:

WHERE DOES DUSTIN JOHNSON'S STAIR SLIP RANK AMONG THE FREAKIEST GOLF INJURIES? LET'S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK

Here's the premise:

But how freak and unfortunate was it? Perhaps you need to compare it to other bizarre golf injuries in recent memory to put it in its proper place. So from teeth brushing to soft beds to celebrations gone awfully awry, let's take a look at other recent freak golf injuries to see where DJ, um, falls.

Oh, I see what you did there, Sam....  But, you know, I handle the humor around here.

I have no recollection of this one, though I am a fan of rigorous oral hygiene:

8. Jim Furyk pulls a muscle brushing his teeth

You hear stories like this and you wonder if you're really brushing hard enough. In reality, Furyk had just brushed his teeth and then threw back a pill, which caused a tweak in his neck that forced him to withdraw from the 2006 Buick Classic. He returned for the next week's U.S. Open, where he finished T-2.

Freak quotient: 6

Ummm Sam, you might be the only person in America that is buying this explanation:

6. Dustin Johnson injures back lifting a jet ski

As the story goes, Johnson had tweaked his back earlier in the 2012 season, but that makes his decision to lift a jet ski near his Florida home all the more confounding. The back injury caused Johnson to withdraw from that year's Masters, which could be considered a crushing blow, but not as bad as well, you know.

Freak quotient: 7

Coke bender, jet-ski, whatever...

This isn't a player of DJ's caliber, but wow!

2. Brandt Jobe slices fingers in sweeping injury We're certainly not making light of it, since the whole thing is pretty awful. In 2006, Jobe was sweeping in his garage when the handle of the broom shattered and sliced off the tips of two fingers. He had to pick the two tips off the floor and put them in ice, and had them reattached at the hospital. He didn't play a full season on the PGA Tour for five years.Freak quotient: 9

Kids, let that be a lesson to you on the dangers of cleaning up....

Shack links to and is complimentary of this ESPN item setting up the lost opportunity for Dustin, but I rather dislike it:

Really, the only surprising development here is that Johnson didn't slip on a banana peel discarded by his brother and caddie, Austin, another easy target on tour. The Johnsons

have long been cast in golf circles as the opposite of rocket scientists, whatever that is, and they've never seemed to take great offense to the labels.

But this is no laughing matter for the sport, for Augusta National or for anyone who cares about great athletes trying to do great things.

All golf fans are disappointed by DJ's withdrawal, and you're the one that went with the banana peel metaphor....  So, what exactly is our offense?  But it gets worse:

He wasn't just golf's reigning freak of nature anymore, half-LeBron and half-Gronk. He wasn't just the explosive, 6-foot-4 long baller with a condor's wingspan who happens to be engaged to the famously beautiful and beautifully famous Paulina Gretzky.

Johnson arrived at Augusta National as the world's top-ranked, and hottest, player. He had won three consecutive tournaments and, at 32, was very much in the sweet spot of his prime. With his brute power and ever-improving short game, he had a chance to do what Tiger Woods did here 20 years ago and, you know, pull a Secretariat on field.

Really?  ESPN is one of the few remaining news organizations with a full-time golf writer, but not this guy....  Perhaps he should return to horse-racing or lacrosse, because he seems to be unfamiliar with the rhythms of our game.

Maybe after playing Secretariat he could go negotiate peace in the Mideast and search for the Ark of The Covenant...  The freakish accident denied him an opportunity at the peak of his game, and we're all saddened that we won't have the opportunity to see how it would have turned out.  But get a hold of yourself, man, just because he won the last three times he pegged means little this week.   

OK, ready to have a little fun at my expense?  Silly question, I know...  So, I correctly predicted the challenges at the fifteenth hole yesterday.  But while you might have heard that Jordan got into a spot of bother there yesterday, my entire roster went along for the ride.  From top to bottom, here's how they played the hole:

1. Spieth -9
2. Reed - 5
3. Rafa - 5
4. Fleetwood - 7
5. Fisher - 8
6. Kjeldsen - 4

I know, what's Soren doing on my team?  That's a total of eight over with a double, triple and a quad.... as per my '62 Mets analogy, Can't anyone here play this game?

Go Time

I like what they did with the Par-3 Contest, how about you?  We kid because we love....

Today's "Of Course He Did" Item:  DJ has never been considered the sharpest knife in the drawer, but this may be a new low:

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Masters favorite Dustin Johnson is on the clock, facing a 2:03 p.m. Thursday tee time at Augusta National after a serious fall injured his lower back

Wednesday afternoon. 

It remains uncertain if Johnson, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, will be able to play this weekend. 

“At roughly 3pm today, Dustin took a serious fall on a staircase in his Augusta rental home,” said Johnson’s manager, David Winkle of Hambric Sports, in a statement. “He landed very hard on his lower back and is now resting, although quite uncomfortably. He has been advised to remain immobile and begin a regiment of anti-inflammatory medication and icing with the hope of being able to play.”

No doubt lots of pool entries started with him, so all I can say is Na-Na....

The good news is that he was scheduled to go in the last group of the day, allowing plent of time for the physios to do their magic... The bad news?  Guys with balky backs just love playing in the wind....

Members of the gallery will be given this badge:

That's one military for which forced conscription is unnecessary....

With malice toward none, I eagerly await the play in today's winds:

Jordan Spieth had a compass out as he played the second nine during his Tuesday

preparation at Augusta National – and not because he didn’t know where he was going.

With westerly winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour – gusting to 30 to 40 mph – forecast for the first round Thursday, the 2015 Masters champion was just trying to be ready for the possibly extreme conditions. 

“It will certainly affect the opportunities on 13, 15 and 16,” Spieth said. “It’ll make a significant difference there on the back nine.” 

If the wind blows as predicted Thursday and Friday – when the forecast calls for temperatures in the 40s in the morning and west-northwest wind from 15 to 20 mph, gusting up to 30 mph – the strong breeze will be a huge factor starting at the first hole, which runs uphill to the west.

Jordan is legitimately to young to have heard that you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows... Folks are inevitably comparing this to 2007 (Zach) and 1956, when Jackie Burke, Jr. somehow through up a 71 in very harsh Sunday conditions.  The issue this year is that they could be out there for six hours, with the amateurs and former champions needing to hole out eighteen times.  Thank God Ben isn't playing this year....

My biggest laugh last nigh was when Aaron Oberholser applied his vast intellect to identify holes that would be most effected, and essentially came up with three that will be effectively downwind.  Really, Aaron, so none of the eighteen are into the fan?  Curious, that....

I haven't spent any time over a course map, but a couple of spots come to mind....  No. 12 of course, because that's a bear in almost any wind and at a length where it's really hard to stay under the wind.  Oh, and not too many places to set your ball down....  But I'm looking forward to seeing the guys on No. 15 as well...  Into the breeze it isn't going to be very reachable, and that third shot from a downhill lie is terrifying without the wind...  the only saving grace is that the place will be soft....

You'd have to think that those going early have an advantage...  not only are the winds suppose to strengthen through the day, but hour-by-hour those winds will dry the place out and firm it up.

One does like to see a player keep his sense of humor:

Jordan Spieth sure looked comfortable talking about Augusta National's 12th hole on Tuesday. He looked even more at ease playing the famed par 3. 

Spieth stuck his approach shot to tap-in range to draw a loud early-week Masters roar. And he knew just what to say to get a different kind of reaction from the patrons. 

"It was about that far (indicating a foot), I turned to the crowd and said, 'I really could have used that one about 12 months ago' to some significant laughter," Spieth said.

That hole is always pretty easy....on Tuesday.

Funny, this is mostly how I look listening to the guy on the left:

They didn't get their chance to go mano a mano in the Par-3 contest....

OK, I've kept you in suspense long enough....  here's to entry page for Yale "Bluto" Stogel's Masters pool:

There's a few names missing on the lower right, but unless Sandy Lyle is your guy you'll get the drill...

Bearing in mind that I remain the '62 Mets of Fantasy Golf, my picks were:

1. Spieth
2. Reed
3. Rafa
4. Fleetwood
5. Fisher
6. Kjeldsen

Spieth is an accommodation to the wind on Thursday and Friday.  The pick was made before the DJ news broke, but obviously it's likely that there will be a high premium on scrambling.  Reed is the pick that will undoubtedly tank my roster, as he's never played well there as a pro, despite extensive time on the course as a collegian.  Tyrrell Hatton would be great pick, but not in Tier 2....(same with Alex Noren).  I would have preferred to take two from the last group, as nothing in Tier 5 seems very appetizing....

But there you have it, let the ridicule flow.  Oh, and enjoy the week....