Masters Thursday

I can hardly type, as we're within a couple of hours of balls in the air....

A More Masters Moment - Everyone went ga-ga over Tiger's 9 holes with Phil, though I like this one even more:

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The caddies were already ahead of the pack, getting yardages for the approach shots to the ninth green at Augusta National. 

In the middle of the fairway, Tiger Woods walked and talked with Fred Couples to his right. To Woods’ left was 30-year-old U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Matt Parziale, a full-time firefighter in Brockton, Mass., who rounded out the Masters practice round threesome. 

Farther back toward the tee, about 20 of Parziale’s friends and fellow members at Thorny Lea Golf Club were still in shock more than two hours after the group teed off.

If you're looking for signs of a New Tiger, this just might be one.... On the flip side, let's hope Tiger doesn't decide he wants to train with firefighters.... Yanno, that Green Beret thing wasn't helpful.

Full-Contact Par 3 - Guys, let's be careful out there....

Tony Finau is scheduled to make his Masters debut on Thursday. Whether he tees it up at 

Augusta National is a different story. 

During Wednesday's Par 3 Contest, the 28-year-old suffered a gruesome injury in celebration of a hole-in-one, seemingly dislocating his ankle when running and jumping toward the green. Finau appeared to pop it back into place and finished his track around the course, quelling reactions that he would be unable to compete in the tournament. 

Unfortunately, those fears were confirmed by Golf Channel's Todd Lewis, who reports that Finau did dislocate his left ankle during the fall. While X-rays came back negative, Finau is set for an MRI on Thursday morning.

It was electric and joyous, until suddenly turning horrifying....  The Slo-Mo was even worse, the only thing missing was Peter Kostis on the Telestrator.

Old Guys Rule - This is great, though Stewart Cink was unavailable for comment:

Tom Watson may have come up just short in his bid to win the British Open at 59 years old, but he did pull off another remarkable feat on Wednesday: winning the Masters Par

3 Contest at 68 years old. 

Watson made six birdies in nine holes to edge Tommy Fleetwood by a stroke and become the oldest player by six years to win the event (62-year-old Sam Snead won the event in 1974).

The Watson Watch was officially on when he birdied four of the first five holes playing alongside two other giants of the game: Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, who shot a sporty four-under of his own to tie for third. 

No player has won the Par 3 and gone on to win the regular tournament, but that won't be a problem this year for Watson, who had just one mission this week.

 After those early birdies he started missing greens, and made a couple of silly long par putts.  

Jack was also in the mix but, true to form, played too conservatively coming home in the expectation that the less experienced players like Watson would come back to him....

Shack's got two versions of the Nicklaus ace.... the one with Player's rooting is the better by far.  For a fifteen year old it was damn good.... And by that I mean the club twirl was pure Tour Sauce.

They're All Hard For Me - Brentley Romine has a good column, asking players to name the most challenging shot(s) on the course.  Admittedly, I'm far more interested in the answers of Crenshaw/Faldo/Langer than Chappell/Hatton/Hoffmna, for rather obvious resons:

Ben Crenshaw

The shots: Tee shot on 12, holes 4 and 5

The explanation: “If you’re exposed to the elements it can be one of the hardest little shots you could ever play. To gauge that shot properly is so tough. You’re at the mercy of the wind. And 4 and 5 is a very difficult two-hole stretch near the beginning of the round. You feel like if you can play them with some consistency, you can develop a rhythm for the rest of the day. But they can be an early headache for people.”

He's far from the only one to mention No. 12, and I'm guessing that Mr. Spieth might be in agreement.  Interestingly, the older guys seem more focused on the front nine, especiall those two difficult Par-3's.

Storylines, Ranked - Alan Shipnuck's Twitter feed will be a hatefest after this:

The 9 best possible outcomes of this Masters, ranked (and, no, a Tiger Woods win isn't No. 1)

He might want to keep track of Matt Parziale, because he's developed a flair for the incendiary.... I'll just note that the piece builds slowly:

9. A HaoTong Li win

For all the talk about growing the game, nothing would change the sport’s landscape like China’s best player breaking through. Li would become a god throughout Asia and the win would lead to immense growth for the sport. Also, it would be fun to read all the whiny tweets on Sunday night from American sportswriters.

OK, but haven't we suffered enough?  You guys are on your own with this one....

 The Riddler - Shack goes deep into the new Chairman's presser, with ambiguous results:

“Although differing views may well, in fact, exist on the subject among golf’s major

stakeholders, we hope and strongly encourage all who are a part of our sport to work together in the best interest of the game as this important issue evolves,” Ridley said during his news conference. 

Asked if he felt burdened to be the tiebreaking vote between the distance-concerned U.S. Golf Association and R&A, and the distance-loving PGA Tour and PGA of America, Ridley said, “I think that we have an open line of communication, I think that our opinions are received, respectfully, and I think that that dialogue will continue as this issue evolves. So I’m not worried at all about that.”

“From our perspective, we will always do what’s necessary to maintain the integrity of our golf course,” Ridley said. “But as I said in my comments, I don’t think that’s the only approach to this. So my hope is that every organization, every stakeholder involved will look at this issue from a holistic basis and not only what might be in the best interests of their own organization.”

Which I interpret as, "Don't think I won't shoot him":

I beseech you to find an holistic solution.

 I think that's reasonably well-played from Fred, as he really doesn't want to go it alone.  And he's certainly correct in that...

Of greater interest, he discusses a specific golf hole that's been the subject of some debate:

There's a great quote from Bobby Jones dealing specifically with the 13th hole, which has been lengthened over time, and he said that the decision to go for the green in two should be a momentous one. And I would have to say that our

observations of these great players hitting middle and even short irons into that hole is not a momentous decision.

With that declaration, that the club’s most important hole has been impacted by changes in the game, Ridley’s tone and ensuing comments made clear he is tired of seeing added tees, fairways grown long and mown toward tees and other steps taken to keep Augusta National relevant.

He is in a very uncomfortable position, though it's a dilemma for another day....

The Culture Of The Tree -  I've been a little tough on John Feinstein in recent times, but the tough love has yielded results, notably this fine item on the most important spot withing the club (at the very least from Monday-Wednesday):

There is one thing about the Society of the Tree that is unlike anything else in the sports world or the business world: No cell phones. 

To say that Augusta National’s rules on cell phones are strict is like saying Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer are revered around here. Even members aren’t allowed to use cell phones anywhere outdoors once inside the gates. The media is allowed to bring phones into the Taj Mahal like press building that sits on the edge of the property, but is strictly forbidden from taking them anywhere near the golf course. Spectators—patrons in Augusta-speak—can’t bring them onto the property even on practice days. 

To take out a phone under the tree or almost anywhere else is to risk banishment.

Several years ago, early one morning before play began, Golf Channel’s Charlie Rymer was standing near the old press building to the right of the first fairway when someone asked if he could check on a statistic. Instinctively, Ryder pulled out his phone to call someone and check on the stat. 

Within seconds, he was set upon by two security guards, who took his phone from him and dragged him off to a small, darkened room where he had to wait for 45 minutes to learn his fate. The club finally decided to let him off easy since he was a first-time offender: he was banned from the grounds for the rest of the day, but allowed to return the next day.

The best part might be the photos:

Just read it already.

Women's Day - Exciting news from the Old Boy's Club:

In a groundbreaking moment in golf, Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley has announced the new Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship, which will take place on Saturday before the Masters. The new event will bring together 72 amateurs from around the world, with the final round being played at Augusta National. 

The first two rounds of the 54-hole stroke play event will take place at the Champions Retreat Golf Club in Augusta. After a cut to the low 30 scores, the final round will take place at Augusta National on April 6, when an amateur will be named a champion on the iconic course. 

“As a little girl, knowing you have a chance to play on the greatest stage, it would’ve sent me to the range,” said LPGA Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam.

On the one hand, this is a great move by the club, and I particularly like that it's an amateur event.  

Now, a discordant note....  Folks will find that watching women play this course is quite boring....  The front nine will punish them, and they won't reach any of the Par-5's....  

But it's a nice gesture on the part of the club. 

Midweek Masters Musings

With the local weather suddenly turned hostile, a fellow's thoughts turn to Augusta, GA....

The Practice Round That Shook The World - Secure the perimeter!  I kid you not, that's the lede:

Tuesday morning's buzz exceeded any typical practice round day: Tiger Woods and Phil

Mickelson in the same practice round group? As partners? It would have been unthinkable during the height of the pair's icy rivalry. But although Tiger and Phil are among the favorites at this year's Masters — one thing that hasn't changed over the decades — their Tuesday morning hits-and-giggles session was the latest sign that the golf world has turned upside down. 

"I never thought I'd see the day," Rory McIlroy said in his afternoon press conference with a grin. "Tiger and Phil playing a practice round at Augusta." 

Mickelson has long been famous for his Tuesday games, but Woods (to the best of our knowledge) has never shown interest in joining. His presence is a sign of the times, of a chummier Woods, and perhaps also of the pull of Fred Couples, Augusta's ageless wonder, who played with Woods on Monday and again joined on Tuesday. Thomas Pieters rounded out the group, the lanky Belgian serving as mystery fourth. 

To hear Woods tell it, the pairing was a simple case of schedules aligning. "Phil was off yesterday, just came in here to register, and he asked Joey if we were free for a game," he said. "And we were free yesterday, but he was taking the day off. So Phil and I talked about it and decided to play today."

Well, he wouldn't have asked Stevie such a thing for sure...  But I'd recommend steering clear of Tiger for your Masters pool, as he seems to have peaked a tad early: 

When Woods arrived at his eagle try, he studied it intently, then touched it down the slope. From a distance, it looked as though the ball had come to a stop just short of the hole — but then it disappeared, and something familiar happened: a Tiger Woods fist pump, and a cheeky grin to the crowd, whose roars echoed through the pines and across the rest of the course. 

Two holes later, Woods did it again: another eagle after launching a glorious long iron from the sloping fairway at 15 that came to rest five feet below the hole. He followed that with by sticking his approach on 16 to kick-in range for another birdie. "Tiger was brilliant," Pieters said.

Strange daze for sure, as Phil had this later:

“I texted him a while ago when he was playing at Valspar that it felt like it was a different time continuum because I found myself pulling so hard for him,” Mickelson said. “It was unusual. And I find that I want him to play well, and I’m excited to see him play so well.”

 Enough already... You two wanna get a room?

But inquiring minds want to know, what the hell kind of shirt is Phil rocking?  I think this guy nailed it:

Did you see this from the pond on No. 16?

Synchronized Skipping

Of course, folks are getting way in front of facts on the ground:

Fred Couples, the 1992 Masters winner, speculated that it might not be the last time they’re sharing a tee box this week. 

“Come Sunday, they may be paired together [again],” said Couples, who with Belgium’s Thomas Pieters was handed a drubbing by the U.S. odd couple in a four-ball match. “They’re playing extremely well and they love the course, and they’re going to do very, very well.”

Shouldn't say things like that out loud...  Now if it happens, it'll be as the first group out.   

He's Baaack - Playing for the first time since 2013, Tiger details his necessary adjustments:

“It’s pretty funny, it is my first event in probably two-and-a-half to three years on bent

grass,” Woods said before a full Masters interview room Tuesday. “At home, my grass is Bermuda, and it’s crazy. The ball rolls very true. It doesn’t bounce all over the place and it’s not being swept away with grain. And it’s like a pool table.”

I'm surprised that his backyard practice area doesn't have a bent-grass green.  But this we cam all relate to:

“Mainly I just had to get used to the feel of playing off of a lot of uneven lies, different shot shapes I’ve been playing, and in Florida hitting the ball low all the time,” he said before explaining that he also has had to change his wind-induced lower Florida trajectory.

Man, he thinks of everything:

And then on top of that, how to drop the ball

You mean from hazards?  Especially after hitting the pin?  Hey, we kid because we love... 

Yours And Everyone Else's - I'm assuming that none of us need this:

Masters 2018: Our 8 favorite Masters pairings

Gee, which could those be?

10:53 a.m.: Sergio Garcia, Justin Thomas, Doc Redman (a)

The amateurs who qualify for the Masters always provide a level of intrigue, and that's

certainly the case with Doc Redman in 2018. After finishing 62nd out of 64 in the U.S. Amateur's stroke-play qualifying, the Clemson undergrad put on an incredible performance in match play, eventually winning an epic championship tilt over Doug Ghim on the 37th hole. Winning the low amateur this week would be another underdog story of sorts for Redman, as he ranks 34th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, well behind fellow 2018 Masters amateur participants Joaquin Niemann (No. 1) and Ghim (No. 4).

The traditional pairing of the defender with the U.S. Amateur Champion.... There are some juicy pairings, Phil, Rickie and Kooch doesn't suck, but it's the friggin' Masters.....they're all pretty damn good.  Even the Ted Potter, Wesley Bryan and Austin Cook group has me excited...

 Lucky Stiffs - I've waiting for this to show up online, Alan Shipnuck's feature on the lucky 28:

It's just a little blue ticket stub, maybe an inch square, emblazoned with a number in a

simple black font. But all week long at every Masters, reporters carry this talisman around as if it were one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets. This stub represents an entry into the golf world's most freighted lottery: the media outing the day after the tournament ends, when 28 lucky bastards are selected to play Augusta National, with the pins still in their traditional spots from Masters Sunday and the pines practically echoing with the roars from the day before. The interlopers are treated like members for the day, allowed to drive down Magnolia Lane and change shoes in the Champions Locker Room. The club even provides a caddie, gratis.

"It has to be the greatest perk in the entire sportswriting racket," says longtime Sports Illustrated contributor John Garrity, who played in 2010 and can still wax poetic about his majestic second shot on the par-5 15th hole, which landed three feet from the hole. It's so nice that you might fly to Augusta twice. In 2013, Sports Illustrated head of video Ian Orefice wrapped up his Masters workweek on Friday and winged home to New York City. On that Sunday at high noon the lottery winners were posted, and Orefice's cell phone immediately began to melt. Did he ever consider not flying back to Augusta to play?

"Are you f---ing crazy, man?" he asks. "As soon as I got the call, I started bugging out, frantically calling a travel agent and throwing clothes in a bag. My wife thought someone had died."

Just read it...you can thank me later.

Alan, Asked -  A Masters mailbag, and it gets a tad weird...  But there's some good stuff to begin:

If Tiger wins #15 this week, given what he will have had to overcome, would you put him above Jack on the all-time list?! #AskAlan — @BcBeany 

I phrase it like this: Tiger is the most dominant golfer of all time, Jack is the greatest. If you take the 2000 Woods vs. the 1972 Nicklaus and they play 10 times I think Tiger wins six of them. But Jack has still had the greater career when you factor in longevity, consistency and the all-time legends he had to fend off, to say nothing of the class, dignity and sportsmanship with which he conducted himself. If Tiger wins this Masters it's not only the greatest victory of his career but, quite simply, one of the most incredible achievements in sports history. It still doesn't change the Woods-Nicklaus calculus, because 18 vs. 15 is a massive difference. Three majors is an entire career; there are loads of guys in the Hall of Fame who won three majors or less. Of course, if Tiger wins this Masters he resumes his ascent of Mt. Nicklaus, and we'll have to revisit this question for a good long while.

This to me isn't especially interesting right now....  Save it for another time.

But this is:

Which lefty has a better chance, Bubba or Phil?? — @thegolfblog 

Oooh, tough one. Notwithstanding a couple of "others" from Phil in Houston, both are in good form and have a special affinity for Augusta National. It's basically a push, but Mickelson has a little bit more guile and moxie, so I'll take him by a whisker.

Which of course means that your winner will be Brian Harman.... 

Which Englishman has the best chance amongst Rose, Casey and Poulter? — Anil (@anuragi) 

Rose, for sure. If you look at the stats he has played Augusta National better than almost any other non-winner over the last decade, including a pair of runner-up finishes. Casey is a definitely a threat, too, but I think Poulter is going to run out of energy/emotion at some point.

Which means your winner will be Matthew Fitzpatrick....  though Tommy Fleetwood might have a chip on his shoulder due to his omission from the list.

Who do you think the next player is to get an official membership a la Jack and Arnie (if any)? — Shosh (@ShoshEAK) 

Crenshaw is the logical choice – everyone loves Gentle Ben, and he already does some consulting with the club about course changes and architectural issues. I could see Phil getting a jacket, too. He's a preeminent schmoozer and already part of the in-crowd with the Cypress Point/Pebble Beach Co. ownership clique, which has a lot of cross-pollination with the ANGC membership.

Ick!  Don't make me think of these folks cross-pollinating..... 

Now we start going of the reservation:

Ever seen a bird at Augusta? #AskAlan - Garrett (@public_golfer) … Have you ever seen a squirrel on the grounds? I've been 10 times. Never one. What sorcery is this? — @Luke_Boatright … Follow-up question: Is Augusta National the real-life Westworld? — Garrett

Now that you mention it, I don't think I *have* ever seen a squirrel or a bird on the grounds. It wouldn't surprise me if ANGC uses high-tech means to drive out the critters, much like my crazy old aunt who installed high-pitched sensors to keep the deer from eating her roses in her garden; she was too deaf to hear the pulses but they gave me a headache. But it also wouldn't surprise me if more nefarious, lethal, Spackler-like treatments are employed to keep any critters from intruding upon the obsessively maintained artificial reality. If that's the case, I hope the birds and squirrels rise up and fight back, much like the fetching heroines of Westworld.

OK, we don't get too many Spackler references this week, so we've got that going for us....

This year's Masters is being hyped as possibly one of the best ever. Tiger! Spieth found his putter! Bubba! Day & Lefty! Rory is back! JT! DJ! This all means we will probably end up with a Schwartzel/Willett type year, doesn't it? Alex Noren is going to ruin everything. — @Razorac

I fear you're right. This has been such an epic season so far and there are so many delicious storylines converging we can't possibly get the Masters we want and deserve. Noren is a great call on the prototypical buzzkill winner. Gawd help us all.

Fair enough, as I sort of riffed on this theme above, and one of the writers (it might have been Shipnuck) suggested Yuta Ikeda for similar reasons....

But while the B-word is appropriate for Danny Willett, it's amusing that the questioner would associate it with Charl.  That was one of the wildest Sudays ever, with so many show ponies in contention, and he birdied that last four holes to eke out the win.... It should be remebered more fondly.

What's your educated guess on the over/under for ANGC initiation fee and annual dues? - @Jknox_59

There's a story that has long floated around that years and years ago some dude received the coveted letter inviting him to join the club and he wrote back asking if he could pay the downstroke in two installments. He never heard back from the club. The dirty secret about the really elite golf clubs is that they're not that expensive to join; the mortgages and other large notes have long been retired. At Cypress Point, there aren't even dues, per se. The club simply takes all of the operating costs for the year, subtracts the considerable revenue generated in the pro shop and by guest fees, and then takes that amount and divides by the number of members and that's what they pay each year. Augusta National is in a different financial universe than any other club because of the zillions of dollars generated by the Masters. They don't have to charge their members anything but do it simply out of habit. I asked two people who are close friends with members what the initiation fee is and both came back with the same number: $50,000. Or, a fraction of what many new-money clubs charge.

JKnox?  I know he's a legend, but still.... Alan nails the irony that the best clubs are the cheapest....

And how's this for a segue?

We gonna see Jeff Knox this weekend? And will we ever know what he shot? #AskAlan — @Dylan_Way 

There's a 50-50 chance, as all it takes is an odd number of players to make the cut. And we *always* know what he shoots, because Knox-completists follow every hole and keep score.

Anyone unfamiliar with the legend should click through....

Who will be hitting the ceremonial tee balls in 2050? Tiger, Phil, and ... Bubba? #AskAlan — @mdstoner 

Just the first two. Hopefully. 

Who will be the next to hit a ceremonial first tee shot: Ben? Tom? Both? Someone else? — @ShootingYourAge 

That's a good duo, as both are beloved by the public and revere everything about the Masters. But they can't wait forever – Watson is already 68, and Crenshaw 66. Jack Nicklaus is still quite hearty at 78 but he has too much pride to let himself start bunting it off the tee, so I could see him calling it quits when he turns 80, thus making way for some new blood. But it might take the National Guard to get Gary Player, 82, to give up the tee box.

I'm simply hoping that Tiger can stay healthy until Shinnecock, 2050 is too far off for me...  But he nailed the Player bit.

 This is a good question:

What do you think is the closest course to Augusta a mere mortal could access? — @RoddyDG

The brilliant/revolutionary idea that Jones and MacKenzie had was to bring the linksland shot values and strategy to a parkland setting. That's why the forest of trees and rough that has sprouted up this century has been so offensive — it changes the very nature of the course. It's more brown than green but probably the most similar playing experience is MacKenzie's Royal Melbourne, which accepts guests on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. The green complexes and bunkering and angles are very evocative of ANGC. Of course, the club next door, Augusta CC, feels a lot like its neighbor, even though it's a Donald Ross design. And just across the state line in South Carolina is Sage Valley, which is Tom Fazio's take on Augusta National. It has a similar look and conditioning and even some bridges that are quite familiar. It's private but should be attainable for mere mortals.

Noted.

What part of Masters week do you look forward to the most? — @KevinBarton1 

It runs too long and there are lots of ill-fitting Men's Warehouse suits and the food is mediocre at best but I'm still going with the Wednesday night Golf Writers Association of America dinner. We give out the player of the year hardware and other meaningful awards, honoring contributions to the game and affability with the scribes and other virtues. The honored players turn up and, in this relaxed setting, give speeches that skew toward funny and touching. And of course we honor the best writing of the past year and give out a lifetime achievement award. This antiquated profession is under siege by various market forces, and so it's nice to come together for one night to celebrate the best of what we do.

Perhaps a bit inside baseball for most... Same here:

What's your favorite Masters sandwich? - LuisMJimenez 

Egg salad, but I open it up like a boss and add pickle slices, potato chips and Texas Pete's hot sauce. So f'ing good.

The dreaded best layer to never have question:

Who is the best player who hasn't won the Masters? — Trevor (@TVG14) 

It's a long list, with Lee Trevino at the top. (Actually, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen would be at the top, but it's not their fault the Masters was invented too late for them to win one.) After Trevino, you can have a fun debate who should be next: McIlroy, Els or Norman? Nick Price and Payne Stewart and Padraig and Johnny Miller also deserve mentions.

The better question is who is the worst player to have won the Masters...  

Lastly, this will put you off your pimiento-cheese sandwich:

If you were going to streak at the Masters, which hole would you recommend? And how many seconds of free-wheeling birthday-suit time would one have? Also, would said streaker get tased, shot in the arm, shot in the head, or tackled? #askingforafriend — @HogansBookLied

I'm sure that in addition to SubAir the ANGC has installed a series of sod-covered trap doors throughout the property, so the streaker would simply disappear into the center of the earth. But clearly the best place to do it would be from right behind the 12th tee. In front of you is nothing but green grass and the Hogan Bridge. There are goons hiding in the weeds behind the green but if they're not paying attention you might even be able to make it back back across the Nelson Bridge and down the 13th fairway. Also, if the whole world is going to peep my junk, I want them all to be thinking, "Amen!"

On that note, I'll bid you adieu. 

Masters Tuesday

Before the promised "Flood-the-Zone" Masters coverage, a quick note about our golfing press.  This is the header at Golfweek:

Seems about right... Lede with yesterday's conclusion of the Dinah Shore, and use the remainder of the real estate to tease The Masters and related stories.

Golf Digest takes a different track, with Tiger drawing the eyeballs and other Masters bits up top.  Oddly, the first reference to the dessert doings is an item on the clubs used by Pernilla Lindberg to win, before they've bothered to inform us that she prevailed.  Odd, but in this Internet age they perhaps assume that we've learned of the outcome....

But it's Golf.com, the website of Golf Magazine that draws my ire...CTR-F: Lindberg yields zero results....  I'm not arguing for equal pay or equal treatment, but do the good folks at this venerable institution think that the exciting (if delayed) conclusion of the best of ladies' majors is not worthy of any coverage?  

It was actually quite the good story, and you might want to let folks in on it....

Lucky No. 13 - On last night's Live From the Masters, Shack had a thoughtful feature on the 13th hole, which unfortunately sin't available to stream.  He previewed it here:

Golf Channel Producer Dominic Dastoli and many talented camera and sound engineers have put together a piece on the 13th hole, with yours truly narrating and gently steering 

The 13th hole in 1938.

the conversation toward a question on many minds: is it time to lengthen the epic 13th at Augusta National? 

We enlisted golf architect and historian Josh Pettit of Pacific Golf Design to put together plans of the hole.

We took these plans to Nick Faldo and Ben Crenshaw for their insights. The combination of visuals, historic footage and their insights hopefully provide a compelling look at what has made this the best par-5 on the planet, the most fascinating hole most years at The Masters and what it'll take to maintain the risk and reward.

The piece notes how guys, Bubba in any event, can now take their tee shot up over the trees on the left.  Not only does that shorten the hole, but it allows the second shot to be played from a much flatter lie.  The shape of the green calls for a left-to-right ball flight, but the design genius is that the ball is typically above the feet of the right-handed player.

Ben Crenshaw and Sir Nick are enlisted to discuss the issues involved, with a bit too much focus on Faldo's two-iron approach in 1996.  As you know, I've been strongly against the lengthening of this hole, finding in it design perfection.  I also think that it's important not to over-react to that Bubba drive...  Yes, the southpaws have an advantage on this tee ball, but where he hit it seems to me as much accidental as by design.

But I want to hedge my position ever so slightly....  I've never set foot on that property and I don't know what that line over the trees looks like.  To the extent that moving the tee back a short distance, someone on Geoff's piece spoke of a club length, that might be worth doing, to the extent it takes away that play and leaves them with a slightly longer shot it.  If they wanted, they could go back 40-50 yards, and I just think that would take the reward out of a delicate risk-reward hole.

For anyone with an unnaturally high pain threshold, final round 1996 coverage is embedded below:

Don't miss Geoff's item on the Allister MacKenzie short-course plans for ANGC, featuring nine double greens.  It was, of course, never built given that the club barely survived the depression, but interesting stuff.

Meet The New Boss... - Monday is presser day, and that includes new Chairman Fred Ridley.  He makes the insufferable purists kvell when he speaks like this:

“What I think we should do, and what we have done over the years, is to go back to that 

In emergency, break glass.

philosophy and think about what do we need to do to make sure that we are true to the principles that Jones and MacKenzie established at the beginning,” Ridley said.

Be still my foolish heart....  As to what that means specifically for No. 13.....well, for now all we get is crickets.  

As for the concept of a Masters ball?

“I think it would be difficult, frankly, to have a golf ball for one tournament, but I wouldn’t rule anything out,” Ridley said. “We’re always going to do what we think is in the best interest of the tournament.”

As I recounted to a millennial yesterday, the concept of a different ball for one tournament has a precedent, for those old enough to remember the smaller Open Championship ball.

 Of Dance Cards - This group yesterday drew some eyeballs:

AUGUSTA, Ga. — It was just shy of 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon by the time the day's featured grouping headed to the 1st tee. But fans that were considering heading for the exits, worn out after hours in the sun, reconsidered as Fred Couples, Justin Thomas, and Tiger Woods headed from the range to the course.

Who is in greater demand, Freddy or Tiger?

And I'm relieved to know that the bromance endures:

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Fred Couples let the news slip in a post-round interview on Monday at Augusta National. 

"Tomorrow we have another nice little group," he said. Couples had already had a nice little group; he, Justin Thomas, and Tiger Woods had just finished playing the front nine on Monday afternoon. But Tuesday? 

Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Fred Couples and Thomas Pieters. 

"Me and Thomas may just sit back and watch," Couples said.

Next up for Freddy, peace in the Middle East....

You Two Wanna Get a Room -  You know the drill.... there's a first-time champion and not enough lockers to go around....

There is something noticeably different about Jose Maria Olazabal’s locker in Augusta

National’s Champions Locker Room this week. 

“I see the locker is much fuller than it used to be,” Olazabal said. 

Last year the two-time Masters champion penned a letter to fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia on the Wednesday evening of the Masters. In the note, Olazabal mentioned that he didn’t have a locker mate. 

“He said, ‘I’m not sharing my locker at the moment, and I hope that I get to do it with you,’” Garcia said. 

Of course, Garcia went on to win the Masters last year for his first major title, and in his winning press conference asked Augusta National member Craig Heatley if the club could find a way to assign him to Olazabal’s locker.

Well, sure, it's a safe thing to do, now that these days are behind him. 

A Very Competitive Category - Golf Digest with a ranking of the major issues of the week:

Masters 2018: The 10 most syrupy Jim Nantz Masters monologues

I'm a golf blogger, so you can trust my advice.  The key here is to limit the dosage, as excessive exposure can leave those without sufficient antibodies curled up on the floor in the fetal position.

The writer does a good job, and I'll just grab some of his high points, since it's almost irrelevant which year's broadcast is involved:

Most Nantzian Line: “It’s another Sunday at Augusta: whose story is about to be told?”

Most Nantzian Line: “SO close, SO many times, only to find SECOND and SOLACE in the comfort of friends and family.”

Most Nantzian Line: “ . . . Has seen the greatest players in the GAME FASHION MAGICAL MOMENTS.”

Most Nantzian Line: “Who will embrace the GREEN JACKET in the FINAL ROUND … OF THE MASTERS!?!?!”

Most Nantzian Line: “It’s a solitary journey, but it’s one that no player … makes alone.”

Most Nantzian Line: “A PERFECT PALATE for a CANVAS that seemed to be waiting for golf’s ultimate test of artistry to be CONSTRUCTED.”

I know, I'm feeling a little queasy as well....  It might be more bearable if he weren't as treacly at Harbor Town and Hartford as well.

 A Parody Perhaps? - Honestly, Jim Nantz has nothing on Max Adler:

Masters 2018: Tiger As Myth 

Comparing the life of the 14-time major champion to the greatest stories in the history of the world

If only he were kidding:

Tiger Woods is 10 years removed from his last major victory, five from his last regular win and not yet one full circuit round the sun from the public shaming of a mugshot photo that baldly indicated physical and psychic rock bottom. A tapestry that began with a father and the prophesy that his son would do more to change the world than Gandhi (and for a time that not seeming altogether unreasonable) unraveling into the most painfully public divorce since Henry VIII. Then followed in bewildering order by rehab, addiction, withdrawals, surgeries, chunked chips, cruel Internet memes and a fall from grace so hard and fast to forever serve as paradigm in the billion-dollar business of celebrity endorsing. All this now returning, in form, to the place where he changed the world 21 years ago as a 21-year-old black man who won the Masters by 12 shots. 

Whether you have a thing for palindromes, we can all agree it’s a pretty good story. But were Tiger to win this year’s Masters, would it be the greatest story of all time? Not just in golf, but in the history of humankind.

Spoiler alert, it gets worse....

Ground Zero -  Everyone knows the term, but few know the source:

On the afternoon before the start of the recent Masters golf tournament, a wonderfully evocative ceremony took place at the farthest reach of the Augusta National Course – down in the Amen Corner where Rae’s Creek intersects the 13th fairway near the tee, then parallels the front edge of the green on the short 12th and finally swirls alongside the 11th green.” 

— Herbert Warren Wind in Sports Illustrated

The year was 1958, notable for Arnie's first Masters win, though under circumstances that caused Ken Venturi to be bitter until the end of his days.  But here's the deep background on Wind's terminology:

Wind, who was accustomed to writing lengthy essays, combined his passion for jazz with his love of golf in writing the article. In the April 1984 edition of Golf Digest, he recalled how he came up with Amen Corner. 

“I felt that I should try to come up with some appropriate name for that far corner of the course where the critical action had taken place,” Wind wrote. 

He recalled a band led by Chicago clarinetist Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow and a record called "35th and Calumet." Wind remembered the reverse side as "Shoutin’ in that Amen Corner." 

However, two years after Wind died in 2005, a fellow jazz buff made a discovery about the origins of Wind’s phrase. 

Richard Moore had autographs of Wind and Palmer and decided he wanted to add an Amen Corner exhibit to his home museum. So he set off in pursuit of "35th and Calumet." 

But Moore couldn’t find the record. He ran into one dead end after another, even after consulting with jazz experts. 

Further research revealed that the flip side of "35th and Calumet" was actually "Old-Fashioned Love." It turned out that Mezzrow had never recorded "Shoutin’ in that Amen Corner," and that Mildred Bailey had actually done a version of the song that Wind had reviewed. 

“Herb Wind bogeyed his memory,” Moore said in 2008.

 He got the important part right....

Regressing To The Mean? - Late money is smart money:

With the official start of Masters week only hours away, Tiger Woods has been supplanted as a betting favorite for Augusta National. 

Woods was listed at 100/1 at the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook when odds opened in August, but after a runner-up finish at the Valspar Championship and a T-5 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational he became an 8/1 betting favorite in mid-March. Entering the Houston Open, he was one of four co-favorites listed at 10/1.

No doubt these are now more rational, though Tiger above Justin Rose and Bubba are arbitrage opportunities for someone. :

10/1: Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas

12/1: Tiger Woods

14/1: Justin Rose

16/1: Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson

18/1: Jon Rahm, Jason Day

25/1: Paul Casey

30/1: Sergio Garcia, Hideki Matsuyama, Henrik Stenson, Tommy Fleetwood

40/1: Matt Kuchar, Alex Noren, Patrick Reed, Marc Leishman

60/1: Adam Scott, Thomas Pieters, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Charley Hoffman

80/1: Tony Finau, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele, Brian Harman, Tyrrell Hatton

100/1: Zach Johnson, Ryan Moore, Russell Henley, Branden Grace, Kevin Kisner, Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson

 See you tomorrow.

Weekend Wrap

Waking up today was a bizarre experience.  After playing my first two rounds of the season, to see deeper snow than experienced all winter in Utah.  I think the big guy is just effing with me....

Master of None - I am not now nor will I ever be an Ian Poulter fan, yet respect must be paid:

Much like he has the last two years, Ian Poulter had to battle all the way to the end at the Houston Open. Needing birdie at the 72nd hole to join a playoff with Beau Hossler,

Poulter came up clutch and buried a 20-footer, leading to an emotional celebration we've come to know from the fiery Englishman. 

From there, the hard work was done. All the 42-year-old needed was par on the first playoff hole to capture his first worldwide victory since 2012 and earn the coveted final invitation to the Masters. 

"Had to dig deep today, just rolled it in at the right time," said Poulter, whose final-round 67 at Golf Club of Houston was highlighted by that final putt in regulation, one that was aided by seeing Hossler's longer birdie look on the same line. Hossler's effort looked like it would fall and give him his first PGA Tour title and the same spot in the Masters, but it just missed on the high side.

I though his game sufficiently diminished that this wouldn't be possible, but he proved me wrong.  And after that cruel false alarm in Austin, I'm quite happy for the man.

Seems a given at this point that he'll be in Paris in September...  At the very least, that will drive up the amplitude on an event that's already in the red zone.  

Exit question:  Will this help save the Houston Open?  The event seems a top tier candidate for retirement, principally because of the absence of a sponsor.

A Cautionary Tale -  For The Masters, that is:

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) — Inbee Park and Pernilla Lindberg will return to

Mission Hills on Monday morning to decide the ANA Inspiration. 

They played the par-5 18th four extra times before it was too dark to continue. Jennifer Song dropped out with a par on the third extra hole, and Park and Lindberg decided to play one more hole in fading light. 

Twenty minutes after sunset with portable lights and the scoreboard helping illuminate the green, Park made a 6-foot par putt and Lindberg knocked in a 2-footer to match. 

They will resume play Monday at 11 a.m. ET on the par-4 10th.

For the Tour that has made an art form of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, this is oh so familiar....

It was a great final round for the girls, with a bunched leaderboard featuring a wonderful mix of names big and small.  It even featured two pairs of sisters in contention, if that term is loosely defined.  

After the finish of the fourth round, I had to decide whether to push myself to stay awake long enough to watch the playoff....  Eventually I decided against, mostly because I had a feeling they were going to be awhile...  None of the three ladies had the firepower to reach the green in two, but for reasons that escape me the pin was placed in a spot where the balls fed to it...  

This is why playing the same hole again and again in playoffs should be discouraged.  It's too easy to morph into a live production of Groundhog Day.

In terms of timing, the organizers didn't do much wrong, as they had an hour of daylight for the playoff.  At The Masters, though, there's barely enough time for two holes to be played.  Famously, if Adam Scott hadn't made that putt a few years back, they too would have returned Monday morning.  Just a really bad way to crown the winner of a major....

I do want to give credit to Golf Channel, who aired a full nine hours of coverage on Thursday and Friday.  Not quite the all-day BBC coverage of an Open Championship, but a nice commitment to the ladies.

Masters Stuff - We'll lede with the silly:

Patrons lucky enough to score Masters tickets will be greeted by Augusta National's brand new merchandise center, which officially opened today. 

The new facility, located to the right of the 1st fairway, took 20 weeks to build and has twice the floor space as the previous building. 

Sixty-four registers will lead to quicker checkouts, and there's also a larger shipping facility. The shop boasts 125 different styles of hats and has a few new items to display this year as well, including infant caddie jumpsuit onesies, pajama pants, Masters playing cards, vintage coasters and more. 

It's been a busy couple of years for the club. It was just last year when it opened its lavish new press building for the Masters.

Shack does his typical review of the swag, and points us to some highlights:

Garden Gnome ($35) — Do we need to tell you this is cool and a great value? Look at him!

Does Fluff get royalties?

At his blog he had this intriguing tease:

So with that, just some of the best merchandise items I found, though I've already heard rumors of something wonderfully bizarre that I missed! I will investigate and report back.

What could it be?  I'm hoping for a Clifford Roberts bobble-head, but I don't think these folks have that kind of sense of humor....

The Tour Confidential panel ledes with the inevitable Tiger question:

Josh Sens: Tiger as a betting favorite is irrational exuberance and bears no relation to his 

true statistical chances. At this point, I think it's pretty clear that he can win but I would wager heavily against it. There's just too much depth in the field. The caveat is that I've been so wildly incorrect in my Tiger predictions that if you believe anything I've said about him you probably also believe Mexico was going to pay for the wall.

Michael Bamberger: There are 30 players who I think would have a better chance to win than Tiger. I'd be surprised if he doesn't contend, but to win right now, nearly 10 years after his last major and five years after his last Tour win, is asking too much.

Click through if you're looking for folks that are picking him, but I'll remind folks of 2013.  Tiger played well enough to win five times and reclaimed his No. 1 world ranking, but he played quite poorly on the weekend in all the majors.  

Asked for their favorite non-Tiger storyline, the ink-stained wretches had these thoughts:

Sens: The general theme of old guard vs. young guns is compelling in its own right. But to pick something more specific, I'd say Rory, with his game rounding into shape just in time for him to have a crack at completing the career grand slam. That's a great threadline, especially when you throw in the demons that lurk out there for him. If he's in contention on Sunday, it will be epic theater. And I bet you a thousand bucks he favors the right side on the 10th hole.

Shipnuck: It's funny that no one is talking about the keynote player of recent Masters: Spieth. To watch a wounded Jordan brawl with the course that has defined him will be fascinating theater. But for sheer emotion, you can't top another Phil run at the jacket. Around Augusta, Woods is revered but Mickelson is beloved, and if Phil is there late on Sunday it will be bedlam.

That it will be, but Tiger would of course create bedlam as well.  And if they're both in the mix?  Next up is an interesting query, their predictions for who will lay an egg:

Sens: It's golf so things can change in an eye-blink, of course, but DJ's game looked rough around the edges last time out. Rough around the edges doesn't get it done at Augusta, yet he remains one of the betting favorites. He gets my money as the big name most likely to disappoint. 

Shipnuck: I'll say Rory. Masters week he always looks like a cat on a hot tin roof. If he misses a couple of 5-footers early in his round on Thursday his whole Masters goes pear-shaped.

That's the great thing about this course and event, one can see any of these guys going either direction....  Votes were also recorded for Bubba, Rickie and Jordan.  

The gang is also asked to pick the best and worst golf holes... here's an interesting answer:

Sens: I've only walked the course, never played it. So 12 and 13 are obvious picks. But being a sucker for short par-4s, I'm going to go with No. 3. It comes too early in the round to have spawned a zillion indelible highlights. But I love its subtlety and shot-making options. For worst, I'd say the lengthened par-4 7th, an architectural casualty of Tiger-proofing.

No. 3 is a worthy addition to the discussion, though it's also a hole that plays quite differently depending on where the pin is placed.  That Sunday pin makes it a less interesting hole in my mind, but your mileage may vary.

Marksbury: I just love No. 13. The azaelea-framed green gets me every time. And I'll second Sean's sentiments on No. 4. It just doesn't have the grand feel the rest of the holes do.

That front pin on No. 4 just leaves no obvious way to play the hole....  You'll have to click through to read their projected winners, but Justin Rose, who I like very much this week, gets a good amount of love.

Ron Whitten has an interesting history of the ANGC greens:

Of all the elements that make Augusta National a championship test, the most heralded are its greens, a confounding collection of befuddling breaks and slippery slopes. Think

of the tiny shelf on the right of the sixth green, the mammoth mounds in the 14th green, the subtle trench at the fifth, and the nasty tongue on No. 9 that propels balls back down the fairway. 

But these are not the original green contours. These are modified ones, considerably softened. The original greens were even more outrageous and outlandish. Eighty years ago, they were changed, for the better, at least in the mind of one golf course critic, who wrote: 

“The artificial thrown-up sand dune formations. which were intended to give the foreign touch to a number of greens at the home of the Masters tournament, have been replaced by a more modern American conception of proper contours to test a player’s skill.”

You're not going anywhere in this snow, so read it all.  The key figure is Perry Maxwell, though his work in reshaping the greens draws the ire of Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts at times.   It doesn't negate the audacity of the original Jones Mackenzie vision, but golf course aren't static creations.

Jeff Ritter clearly has too much time on his hands, ranking the Masters' Sundays of this century.  I think we can all agree that they should have taken 2008 off.  I've no argument with his winner, but many with his other rankings... And this one might offend a certain Canuck:

11. 2003 – Winner: Mike Wier

Just a reminder that that was the year they Tiger-proofed the course, resulting in the Mike Weir - Len Mattiace playoff.  Two shorter hitters were not to be found....

Last up, name that caddy:

Last year Ariya Jutanugarn told Kiradech Aphibarnrat that if he qualified for the

Masters, she had dibs on carrying his bag in the Par 3 Contest. She’ll be the second LPGA World No. 1 to wear the white jumpsuit, following in the footsteps of Lydia Ko two years ago. 

The Thai pair have known each other for more than a decade, growing up in the same junior golf circles, though they have never played a round of golf together. Jutanugarn plans to attend the Masters from Monday to Saturday, flying out Sunday for the LPGA tournament in Hawaii. 

“I’m going to stay with him too, same house,” Jutanugarn told The Forecaddie. “Hope he has a couch available for me.”

I didn't remember Lydia doing that, but she has some helpful advice for Ariya:

Any advice for Jutanugarn’s first loop? 

“Get the right size fitting jumpsuit thing,” she said. “I reckon mine was long.”

Tell him that, should he be leading when he comes to No, 9, to hit it in the water....

We'll be flooding the zone this week, but for now we'll go elsewhere.

Udder Stuff -  Shack did his usual April Fools posts, though it seems more forced than ever.  The pics are really all you need:

I get his point, though it would be an easy carry....

An this:

I see what you did there....  The good news is that Lydia is increasingly available for weekend filming.

Friends don't let friends do time....  ESPN checks in with Billy Walters, who has unceremoniously removed a certain golfer from his X-Mas card list:

"Here is a guy that all he had to do was come forward and tell the truth," Walters said in October, as he leaned forward in a chair behind his nearly 10-foot-wide office desk, its

marble top home to three computer monitors. "That was all he had to do. The guy wouldn't do that because he was concerned about his image. He was concerned about his endorsements. 

"My God, in the meantime a man's life is on the line. He's going to go to prison. And you got prosecutors up there during the entire trial, the entire month -- all they talked about over and over was me giving my friends insider information. That is all they talked about. And they knew those jurors were all up on the internet reading that stuff about Phil [profiting from the Dean Foods stock purchase]."

OK, it's really hard to know what he means by this, and he's not a man worthy of the benefit of the doubt.  The story doesn't reflect well on our Phil, though not in ways that would seem to help Walters:

Both Walters' team and prosecutors agreed that, in the summer of 2012, at the height of the insider trading, the professional golfer owed a sports gambling debt to Walters of $1.95 million. Also stipulated was that Mickelson had accrued and repaid similar gambling debts in the past to Walters. 

The government argued that Mickelson's text and phone communication with Walters in July 2012 was tied to Dean Foods information Walters had been hearing from Davis, the former board chairman. On July 30, Mickelson purchased 3,900 shares of Dean Foods in an account under his and his wife's name. He purchased another 240 shares in trust accounts for his then-minor children. A day later, Mickelson invested $2.4 million in an additional 196,100 shares.

The question I've long asked is why that debt was unpaid.  The allegation that Phil is protecting his reputation is both true and highly ironic, as a man worried about said reputation would not be a pal of Billy Walters....  Phil was quite lucky to avoid any legal consequences from this incident, but it's quite the black mark for him in many ways.

However, the issue for Walters seems to be the source of his information in trading in the stock, and I don't see where Phil would have exculpatory information that would take Walters off the hook.  The most likely scenario seems to be that Phil received the insider information from Walters, and likely was smart enough to not inquire as to the the source.

But absent this stock tip, would the gambling debt has remained unpaid?