Masters
Preview 2018
Hello Friends,
The anticipation is over!
Hopefully the start of The Masters will remind our old friend mother
nature to turn up the heat in the north. It is supposed to be the start of golf season.
The silver lining is we won’t be tempted
to go play golf this weekend instead of watching it. I will be huddled in the Ferger Cabin enjoying
some of Georgia’s finest chicken.
Tomorrow morning Jack and Gary will continue the tradition
of great champions starting The Masters with a friendly early tee time. Then the fireworks will begin. When Bob Jones started what became The
Masters in 1934 he was hoping to have a modest informal get together of the
great golfers he had met throughout his storied amateur career. One of the big differences between The
Masters and other tournaments was they would only play 18 holes a day so
everyone could have time to fraternize between rounds.
The tournament has long since been informal or modest. It is still a gathering of the greatest golfers
in the world. Anticipation is at an
all-time high for The Masters this year, as it should be. The top players in the game have all had good
years in the run up. Phil, DJ, JT, Rory, Bubba, J Day, Rahm all have wins on
the year. Jordan, Rickie, Rose and many
others are showing promising signs. But anticipation is at an all-time high for
one main reason. The jungle cat is back,
and he looks to be BACK.
It is going to be a great week of golf. With any luck, we will be on the edge of our
seats Sunday afternoon as we wait to see who will take home the green
jacket.
Enjoy the preview and thanks for reading
The Amateurs
The Masters was
started by the greatest amateur golfer.
He always dreamed of having an amateur winning The Masters. There also used to be a lot more amateurs in
the event. It has been since the mid
1950’s that an amateur really had a chance to win late on a Sunday. All but one of these guys are amateurs only
until they turn pro later this year. It
would still be an incredible story if one of them could get into the mix this
week.
Doc Redman- US Amateur Champion- Not since Cary
Middlecoff have we had a Doc in the The Masters. Doc won the U.S. Amateur at Riviera last
summer when the USGA moved operations to Southern California for the month of
August. To win his match Doc had one of
the greatest finishes of all time. Going
into the 35th hole of the match Doc was 2 down with two to
play. The 17th at Riviera is
a reachable par 5 and both Doc and his opponent were on in two shots. His opponent had a long putt and lagged it
down to about eight feet. Doc then had a
60 foot putt that he likely needed to make to extend the match. He put it right in the center of the cup, and
if it didn’t go in it was probably off the green. Then it was onto 18, one of
the toughest holes on the PGA tour. Doc
hit a great drive, great second shot to about 10 feet and made the putt to go
into extra holes. They then went to the famous
tenth at Riviera where Doc hit a great drive to the front of the green. His opponent hit the next five shots. After one more chip by Doc the match was
conceded. Doc was the US Amateur
champion.
Doug Ghim- US Amateur Runner Up- Doug was Doc’s
opponent that day. As you just read it
looked like he was going to win the match.
Not to take anything away from Doc, but Doug tempted fate by wearing a
Cubs hat during the final. Obviously one
world series didn’t wipe away a century of losing.
Harry Ellis- British Amateur Champion- At first I
wasn’t certain this wasn’t the Harry that is (was?) in One Direction and is a
friend of Rory’s. However, that is not
the case. That is Harry Styles and this
is Harry Ellis. Harry, who is English,
comes to Augusta from Tallahassee where he is currently attending school at
Florida State. Like Doc Redman, Harry
had an improbable comeback to win the European Amateur championship. Harry was 4 down with 5 to play. Unlike Redman, Harry parred the final 7 holes,
including two extra holes, to steal the title from Dylan Perry, an Aussie who
learned his closing skills from Greg Norman.
Lin Yuxin- Asia-Pacific Amateur champion- As I predicted in the 2016 Masters Preview
(not to brag), we were a few years away from a player in The Masters being born
in the 2000s. Lin is the youngest player in the field this year at 17 and was
born in the year 2000. Like many of his
fellow amateurs, he had a dramatic finish to earn his spot into the field. He seems to be amongst a wave of young
Chinese players making noise. He will
matriculate to University of Southern California in the fall of 2019.
Joaquin Niemann- Latin America Amateur Champion- Joaquin
has been the number 1 amateur in the world since last May. He had planned to lose that distinction in
January. He was planning to turn pro
after playing in the Latin Amateur Championship. He shot a closing 63 to win that championship,
and earn an invitation to The Masters.
As a result of being the 1 ranked amateur at the end of last season he
had previously earned and planned to skip exemptions to both the US and British
Open. This will be his last tournament
as an amateur and I expect him to make it a strong showing. This is your favorite for low amateur.
Matt Parziale- Mid Amateur champion- Last year was the
first time the mid am champion ever made the cut at The Masters. When Stew Hagestad made it last year he had
taken a leave of absence from his job.
Fortunately for the people of Brockton, Massachusetts, Matt has not taken
a leave from his job as a fireman. In
fact, when he won the mid am last year he had to rush home to get back to work. He arrived home from Atlanta at 2am and was
at work for his 7 am shift. His fire
chief calls him a first in last out kind of guy. In the final of the mid am Matt defeated a
wedding caterer from North Carolina.
This week Matt won’t be playing against anyone who makes their living
other than playing golf. Who won’t be
cheering for him though?
One additional note
about Brockton, Massachusetts, it is mostly known as a blue collar town that
was the birthplace of boxers Marvin Hagler and Rocky Marciano as well as former
Raiders owner Al Davis. However, it does
have a history with The Masters. The
greatest American golf writer Herbert Warren Wind is also from Brockton. Wind was the man who first called holes 11,
12 and 13 at Augusta National “Amen Corner.” He was also the author of America’s Gift to
Golf. It is a book compiling his articles
in Sports Illustrated and The New Yorker about each year’s Masters from 1954
and 1958-1989.
Past Champs
One of my favorite
traditions of The Masters is they invite the former winners each year. It allows the young guys to see, play and get
to know them. It is also one of the many
perks of winning because you have a week in the lime light each year to remind
everyone of your past glory. As usual,
many of these guys are playing purely for the enjoyment of it and have very
little chance of making the cut.
Angel Cabrera- 2009 Champion- Angel has always played a schedule very
different than a man of his stature in the game, but I was very surprised to
see the two time major champion with a tee time in Panama when the Web.com
event was played there earlier this year.
I was even more surprised to see him 8 over thru 10 before he
withdrew. Since 2015 Angel has played in
45 worldwide events and hasn’t finished in the top 10. The one bright spot was a big win in PNC
parent-child event in December. Some
call it his third major. His son Angel
Jr. was making putts from all over the course to carry the team. Angel has always flown under the radar, but a
good week would be a really big surprise.
Look for Angel when he joins the Champions tour in September 2019.
Mark O’Meara- 1998 Champion- It has been 20 years
since Mark’s magical major year. The
duel with Freddie Boom Boom and Double D was a great Masters. The fine folks in charge of The Masters have
done us all a great service by putting the final round broadcast for the last
50 years on YouTube. 1998 was a year I
remembered particularly enjoying so I watched that one first. I recommend watching it if you have
time. It starts off with Jim Nantz
saying, “Welcome to the final round of The Masters, and you are not going to
believe what you are about to see. “
Jack was making a charge at the age 58, and would finish tied for 6th. He dominates the first hour of coverage. Then there was a three way battle down the stretch. It looked like each guy would win at
different times. I couldn’t help but
cheer for Fred, who double bogeyed 13 and eagled 15, despite knowing the result.
Ultimately, Mark birdied 17 and 18 to win.
It was a great round of golf. Mark
is now 61, and it has been 8 years since he won on the Champions Tour. The only question with Mark is how long he
will continue to play?
Fred Boom Boom Couples- 1992 Champion- There has been both good
news and bad news so far this year. The
good news is Fred’s show on Sirius XM has returned to the PGA Tour
station. The bad news is there have been
a lot of withdrawals from events. Fred
has had recurring back problems throughout his life. This year has been no different. He hasn’t been able to hit any irons, chip or
putt since January. Needless to say this
isn’t an ideal way to prepare for The Masters.
The season is starting to mirror the 2016 season for Fred where he only
played in two events and didn’t play in The Masters. At least it looks like he is going to give it
a go this week. A hero of our time, but
probably won’t be a factor this week.
Sandy Lyle- 1988 Champion- With him turning 60 this
year, Sandy will make his final appearance at The British Open after 43 starts
there. Fortunately that will give him
more time to cater his game to Augusta National. He hasn’t made the cut since 2014. Oddly his best finish at The Masters since
his win 30 years ago was a tied for 20th in 2009.
Bernard Langer- 1985 & 1993 Champion- The greatest
Champions Tour player of all time doesn’t seem to be aging. He turned 60 in August during a year when he
won 7 times on the Champions Tour. Just
two years ago he was in the second to last group on Sunday. That is why I was a little surprised to see
he has only made the cut 3 times in the last ten years. He also hasn’t won yet on The Champions Tour
this year. Could he be finally slowing
down? Is he ready to hand the Charles
Schwab Cup over to Steve Stricker? You
know Alfonso Ribeiro will be there to see it.
Ian Woosnam- 1991 Champion- Two
years ago the wee Welshman declared if he shot in the 80s he was done playing
in The Masters. Following rounds of 82
and 81 he announced he was done playing.
This received a lot less fanfare than Tom Watson also making his swan
song at Augusta in 2016. Part of his
unhappiness with golf was his perceived slight of not being in the world golf
hall of fame. In the fall of 2016 Woozy
was inducted into the world golf hall of fame.
This gave him “a bit more enthusiasm to play.” Woozy played last year shooting rounds of
76-78. Safely under 80 both rounds last
year Woozy is back again this year. I am
guessing we will see Woozy officially hang it up in the 2021 Masters where we
can all celebrate his win 30 years prior.
Jose Maria Olazabel- 1993 &
1999 Champion- For the first time since Ollie’s emotional win in 1999, a
Spaniard was The Masters champion last year with Sergio being the third golfer
from Spain to win The Masters. As you
can see from the nice chart below, Spain is tied for fourth in participants
with four players hailing from Spain this year and of course the late great
Severiano Ballesteros would have made five.
Jose himself is an unlikely contender this year with a less than
spectacular season on the Champions Tour in progress.
Vijay Singh- The Lion- 2000 Champion- At
age 55 Vijay is still trying to play on both the PGA Tour and The Champions
Tour. It is only on The Champions Tour
where he is having success and he recorded his first win on the senior circuit
in March. As evidenced by his never
ending lawsuit against the PGA Tour involving his use of deer antler spray
Vijay is a stubborn guy and will likely keep playing both tours for a long as
he can. Vijay has missed two straight
cuts at The Masters due to poor first rounds.
I suspect we will see something similar this week.
Larry Mize- 1987 Champion- Larry will be
playing in the final Masters before he turns 60 this week. Larry’s middle name is Hogan, after the
legend himself, but barring a very big surprise Larry won’t make a run at a
late in life Masters victory like Hogan did in 1967. However, he has had some success the last few
years. He has made the cut in three of
the last four Masters, and finished 52nd each of the last two
years. If I had to bet I’d bet he will
finish 52nd. Actually I’d bet
he will miss the cut.
Trevor Immelman- 2008 Champion- A couple
of weeks ago I was watching golf with my mom and dad. The golf channel stalwart Trevor Immelman was
giving us commentary about Tiger’s action at The Valspar. My mom, who is a pretty big golf fan, asked
who he was. She clearly doesn’t remember
when Trevor held off a peak Tiger at Augusta to win the green jacket ten years
ago. Trevor is still only 38 years old
and after dropping to 1,925 he has climbed back to 1,246 in the world this year
thanks to making the cut in half the tournaments he has played in this
year. Can he make a comeback? I Doubt it.
Either way he has this great logo for himself.
Mike Weir- 2003 Champion- What more can we
say about this man? His game went south
and it isn’t coming back. I don’t know
if I should complement his persistence or call him an idiot but he is still out
there grinding and still hopeful that his game is going to click anytime. He did have one reasonable finish last
year. He finished in a tie for 15th
in the Australian PGA Championship. With
the world rankings points he earned there he moved from 1,928 to 1,325. Looking back the playoff in 2003 where Mike
Weir beat Len Mattiace was one of the most odd of all time since both players
games crumbled shortly afterwards. His
odds are 2000/1 to win his second green jacket this week.
Danny Willet- 2016 Champion- A long, long time ago Smylie Kaufman was in the
final group of The Masters, instagram just showed pictures in chronological order,
there was no such thing as fake news, and the zika virus was a big problem in
golf. Back then, a long two years ago,
Danny Willet also slipped on a green jacket, with a little assist from Jordan
Spieth. It is hard to believe it has
only been two years because Danny’s game
has really fallen off a cliff. Following
his win at The Masters, Danny moved up to 9th in the world. He has dropped to 258th now and
seems to be going lower. Danny’s demise
has partially been due an injury to his shoulder. He also switched coaches to the legendary
golf scientist Sean Foley. He is back
playing on the European Tour and trying to start fresh. That is probably a good idea, but I don’t
expect to see any change to his form this week.
Trunk Slammers
For the 6th
year in a row the cut will include the top 50 and ties, plus anyone within 10
shots of the lead. Since there are only
87 people in the tournament this year there won’t be too many people heading
home Friday afternoon.
Yusaku Miyazato-
Yusaku is best known as the brother of recently retired and former #1 in the
world LPGA player Ai Miyazato. Yusaku
had the greatest year of his career last year with four wins on the Japanese
Tour. As a result, he finished the year
exactly 50th in the world to get into The Masters. Yusaku is making his debut in Augusta, but he
has made the cut in the last two U.S. Opens, including a 23rd finish
at Oakmont.
His sister Ai was known for her tall socks when she
played. She would often wear knee high
socks when she played. I recently
received a pair of incredible socks made by a company called Stance. I highly recommend a pair of these. Will I try to wear them the next four
days? Maybe…YES SIR!
One additional note about the socks, the day I got them was
a Saturday. I wore them to the Blue
Jackets game that night. The Jackets had
a nice comeback win that night and have been on a tear since then.
Billy Horschel- To
say Billy has been inconsistent is probably being kind. He has been pretty bad for the better part of
18 months. He seems to play well once
every ten tournaments. One week he
played well was the first step of last year’s Texas two step. He won the Byron Nelson last May. It has only been 7 events since he finished
11th in the Tournament of Champions in Maui. I don’t like Billy’s chances this week but he
is friends with former Gator, playoff winning QB and greatest outfielder of all
time Tim Tebow. Maybe Tebow can help him pull off a miracle.
Patton Kizzire-
After his third straight missed cut in October, Patton was probably busy
working on where he was going to be on vacation this week. He had been on a steady decline to 293rd
in the world. That all changed in
November when he made his way to the OHL Classic at Mayakoba. Patton got the first of two wins in two
months there. To be honest I have a hard
time remembering he won twice, but there he is in second place every time they
throw up the Fed Ex Cup standings in tv, which is very frequently. He is now 51st in the world and
has such status he was paired with Tiger for the first two rounds at The Honda.
Bryson DeChambeau-
Two years ago Bryson was a heralded amateur who was ready to change the game of
golf with his single length clubs and scientific approach to the game. He was expecting to win The Masters. He let everyone know he had studied the
course very thoroughly. He played great
until a wild triple on 18 Friday took him out of the running. The game hasn’t changed a lot since then, and
I am not sure a single set of single length irons has been sold. He is all over the map consistency wise. Just when you start to think he was a total
flash in the pan he has a great week.
Most recently he finished second at the Arnold Palmer. Last summer he won the John Deere to get into
The Masters shortly after missing 7 cuts in a row which is how he got in The
Masters. I suspect we are looking at a
bad week this week.
Yuta Ikeda- Yuta
is making his fourth appearance in The Masters, all thanks to his dominance on
The Japanese Tour. Yuta is 10th
all-time in wins on the Japanese Tour with 19 total wins. He now stands only 75 wins behind Jumbo Ozaki
in all time wins on the Japanese Tour.
He has won a tournament every year since 2009 and each year he has won
more than one tournament (2009, 2010, 2016 & 2017) he has qualified for The
Masters by way of his standing in the world golf rankings. Of his three previous Masters he has two
missed cuts and 29th. Yuta
has been in North America for the last month and had very little success on the
course. I expect that to be the case
until he heads back to Japan.
Haotong Li- For a
few fleeting moments last July it looked like Haotong just might slip in the
back door and take home the Claret Jug as Spieth and Kuchar fumbled along. It was not to be that day, but earlier this
year he held off Rory to win the Dubai Desert Classic. He is having all this success despite two
major hindrances. First, he hails from
the land of China where the government is not exactly working on “growing the
game.” The People’s Republic of China
encourages members of the communist party not to play and is involved in closing
many courses. He also had to overcome
the embarrassment last summer of his mother trying to help him out. Last June, when Haotong was only 21 he got
upset, broke his putter in half and tossed it into a pond. His mother, not knowing exactly what
happened, waded into the pond to get the putter, which had hung up on a lily
pad, for her son. All this occurred as
the golfers waited in the fairway and announcers giggled. Ultimately, his mother reached the putter and
discovered it was in two pieces. She
then tossed it back into the pond. Here
is a photo of his mother in the green side pond during the middle of a
tournament.
Here is a link to the entire incident- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDLaS3ovC68
Satoshi Kodaira- Satoshi
is another guy who got into The Masters due to his great play in his native
Japan. He has won 6 times in Japan. He has had little success outside of
Japan. Outside of the land of rising
sun, Satoshi might be best known for blowing a lead to Phil Mickelson during
the match play and inspiring Phil to say, “I'm a little disappointed in my
attitude. I'm walking with my head down. And you know what happens when you
walk with your head down, animals, they get eaten."
Wesley Bryan- Wesley
grew up in South Carolina and became the first South Carolinian to win at
Harbour Town last year. However, he
currently lives with his wife in Augusta, Georgia so he will have the advantage
of sleeping at home this week. His
father was a golf professional and used to give lessons to the legendary Hootie
Johnson. As a result, Wesley is a rare
Masters rookie who had played Augusta National prior to getting into the
tournament.
Dylan Frittelli- Being
Jordan Speith’s best friend has worked out quite well for Justin Thomas as he
emerged as the best player in the world.
Dylan is hoping the same goes for being Jordan’s former teammate. They were teammates with the Longhorns in
2012. His career has had a different
trajectory than Jordan’s though.
Professional golfers are a very well traveled group due to the nature of
their profession, but no one has traveled more than Dylan in the last 2 years
though. He has played golf in 37
countries the last two years. He has
been very focused on his golf and has done no site seeing in any of these
countries. He has gone airport, hotel,
golf course, hotel, airport week after week in 37 different countries. Don’t look for him to be hanging out with
another one of Jordan’s friends Smylie at the Natural Light party this week.
Adam Scott- As has always been
the case with Mr. Scott he will go as far as the putter can take him. His win in 2013 with the long putter anchored
on his chest certainly helped push along the ban on the anchored putter. Last year coming into The Masters he was 9th
in the world. This year he has dropped
52 places to 61st. He seems
to be most focused on The British Open this year as he plans to spend a month
in the United Kingdom prior to the event to prepare.
Shubhankar Sharma-
Shuba made his name during the WGC in Mexico earlier this year. During the event he was paired with Phil both
Saturday and Sunday in the final pairing.
Phil thought he was a media member when he walked onto the tee
Saturday. But Shuba, a 21 year old from
India, was in the lead the entire day Saturday and played reasonably well
Sunday. Ultimately he was over taken by
Phil and Justin Thomas. The Masters
committee was so impressed they extended him a special invitation to this
week’s tournament. He has his whole
family traveling from India to be there with him this week.
Jhonattan Vegas- The
Canadian Open was the one event the man with six green jackets never won. Jack ended up with 7 runner-up finishes in
Canada and designed the course that has hosted it most years for 29 of the last
40 years, but never ended with the lowest score. Johnny Vegas does not have this issue. He has won the RBC Canadian Open the last two
years. The man from Venezuela has
clearly taken to Canada and played great up there. Coming into last year’s event he had missed
five cuts in a row, but walked away with his second straight Canadian
Open. His track record at The Masters
has not been nearly as successful with two missed cuts in his two previous
appearances.
Gary Woodland- The
week did not start out the way he wanted for the Kansas alum as his Jayhawks
got clobbered by Villanova. That might
end up being the high point on the week for him. The Masters has also not been kind to him
over the years. He missed the cut the
last two times he played, last year and in 2015. In 2012 he ruptured his wrist during the third
round. He finished that round with an 85
and withdrew.
Bernd Wiesberger-
The greatest Austrian golfer of all time is making his fourth appearance at The
Masters this year. On his PGA Given Tour
profile he lists one of his interests as simply the internet. Given how vast the internet is this really
could mean just about anything, but also who doesn’t like the internet most of
the time? If he does find himself in
Butler Cabin on Sunday night maybe he can teach Jim Nantz all about memes.
The Wounded
These three are making
a valiant effort to play this week. They
are all injured, sick or coming off an injury that has kept them out for
significant stretches recently.
Marty Kaymer-
Like his fellow U.S. Open champion, Brooks Koepka, Marty is suffering from a
wrist injury. However, he was able to
make a return to action at the Shell Houston open last week where he missed the
cut. Given his lackluster results at The
Masters, and his lack of play in the lead up I would be surprised to see him
play well this week.
Jimmy Walker- On
the eve of last year’s Masters Jimmy was diagnosed with Lyme disease that he
likely contracted in November 2016 shortly after the greatest win of his career
at the PGA at Baltusrol. Oddly, his wife
was also diagnosed with Lyme disease early this year. Unfortunately as a result of this disease
Jimmy had a terrible year last year and while improving is not back to his top
form.
Hideki Matsuyama-
For a guy who has been in the top 10 in the world for the last two years there
isn’t a lot known about Hideki.
Following the PGA, where he contended all week, he announced that his
wife had a baby. The big surprise was he
was married. As he explained no one ever
asked him if he was married so it never came up. An injured wrist kept Hideki out of action a
lot the winter. He returned to play Bay
Hill and match play, with mediocre results.
He has been practicing at Augusta for the last week and hoping he can
get everything worked out.
Playing the weekend
The top 50 and ties
and all those within 10 shots of the leader after the second round will be
invited to play rounds three and four.
Brendan Steele-
Brendan is making a run at Johnny Miller for best golfer in the Napa
Valley. He has won the Safeway Open
played at Silverado the last two years.
The only guy who plays as good after some vino is Lebron. Sheesh!
Cameron Smith-
Cameron is a one of only four Australians in the Masters, the lowest since 2013
when an Australian won for the first and so far only time with Adam Scott’s victory. Cameron is only 24 but is making his second
appearance at Augusta National. He
finished 55th in 2016.
Cameron is the most millennial seeming player in the field. He usually wears a flat brim hat. He also dreams of opening a coffee shop when
he golf career is over.
Austin Cook-
Austin qualified for the Masters by winning one of the most prestigious events
on tour, The RSM at Sea Island. He is
making his debut at Augusta National this year, having attended the event twice
as a fan. Until he got his PGA Tour card
at the end of last season from the web.com tour his wife, Crys, was serving as
part time caddie for him. So far he has
been very solid. Outside of his win he
has only missed one cut in twelve starts on tour this year.
Tyrell Hatton-
Tyrell had the pleasure of playing with Phil Mickelson in the final round of
the WGC in Mexico. Like many people,
Phil didn’t know how to pronounce Tyrell’s name. Phil asked him and it is pronounced
Tier-Rell. Outside of his hot temper,
Tyrell is most known for his wins the last two years at the Alfred Dunhill
Links Championship held at St. Andrews.
St. Andrews was the favorite course for both Bobby Jones and Alister
MacKenzie. It was the inspiration when
they designed Augusta National in the early 1930’s. This connection did not help Tyrell last year
as he missed the cut. With all the
changes to Augusta National since the 1930’s I do not see that changing too
much this year.
Jason Dufner- Dufner
had the best win on tour last year that involved two rain delays in the last
four holes. Dufner does not have a deal
for the hat he has to wear this year. His
agent is a Miami University alum so this is clearly a brilliant marketing move
on his part. As a result, he has worn
some of the most interesting head wear on tour.
His hats have featured Notorious B.I.G, an American flag, a Blue Jays
camo hat, An Indians hat, a Yo (heart) Mexico, and this Boss hat.
Tony Finau- Tony
is the second graduate of The Big Break to play in The Masters following the
great Matt Every. Prior to his time on
the Big Break, Tony grew up in Utah where he and his brother Gipper practiced
by hitting into a mattress in the garage during the long winter. This winding road eventually led to him
becoming a world record holder last week.
I am not sure why this record exists but he teamed up with Paige
Spiranac’s fiancé to hit and catch 12 golf shots over 100 meters. Tony was the hitter and the fiancé, who used
to play minor league baseball, caught them. They beat the previous record of 11. It was not on their first try.
Ryan Moore- After
being tired last year due to playing in the Ryder Cup in 2016, Ryan gave
himself a true offseason this year by taking off three months from November to
February. During that time he started a
new fitness routine and diet causing him to lose 20 pounds. He has played well in his return to the tour
with two top 10’s in four events.
Ted Potter Jr.-
Ted is from Ocala, Florida. Ocala is
known for horses. However, there is a
great golf course there called Golden Ocala.
Golden Ocala hosted a LPGA event the last few years. What makes Golden Ocala special is there are
eight holes on the course that are replicas of other famous holes. Three of these replicas are from Augusta
National. It has replicas of 12, 13 and
16. I expect Ted will do very well on
these three holes this week. However,
the other 15 could be too much to handle.
Golden Ocala also has replica holes from St. Andrews,
Baltusrol and Muirfield.
Webby Simpson- It
is good to see Webb has turned the corner with his putting and is back on the
upswing. The anchor ban really hurt Webb
for a few years. No one is ever going to
call Webb’s game pretty, but he is playing much better and has three top 10s so
far this year. More importantly, he is
ranked 11th on tour in strokes gained putting. Despite the positives his game is showing, if
he is going to win The Master’s it will be in a year when the final round is on
Easter Sunday.
Ross Fisher- Ross
had his best earnings year ever last year, but he hasn’t won since 2014. Ross is a guy who is sometimes around the
leaderboard but then fades away.
Matthew Fitzpatrick- As I read through
“America’s Gift to Golf” this spring it occurred to me that during the 1970s
three of the best twenty players in the world went to Ohio State. Jack of course needs no introduction. Tom Weiskopf and J.C. Snead were both great
players and had numerous chances to win The Masters throughout the 1970s. Jack certainly didn’t help Tom’s chances in
1975. Unfortunately, there are not any
Buckeyes in the field this year. I was
curious about the places all the players went so I went through the list. There were 51 players who went to college in
the United States. If people went to
more than one college I listed them with the last one they attended. Here
is the breakdown.
Of course it is not a surprise the best golfers are
attending places where it was warm. I
was surprised there were very few people who went to a college in the Midwest
and none in the northeast.
Mr. Fitzpatrick is one of the rare people who went to
college in the Midwest. Of course he
went there shorter than most basketball players at Duke and Kentucky. He dropped out after the first semester. So far it has worked out very nicely for
him. He has four wins on the European
tour and doesn’t turn 24 until September.
He will be representing the wildcats for a long time to come in
professional golf.
Francesco Molinari-
Frankie got fired up recently for getting fined for taking too long to hit a
shot. He ranted about it on twitter and
explained there were many extenuating circumstances and it was certainly not
his fault. Unfortunately, this is a
scene we might see all summer in Columbus, because Frankie was likely on edge
about something else. Frankie is a big
fan of West Ham football (soccer). The
fans are very unhappy with the ownership of the team. Some have rushed the field, some have thrown
things at the owners during games, many have complained online. Frankie handled things a little different by
ranting about unrelated issues on twitter.
Si Woo Kim- About
a year ago I was on vacation in California playing golf as a single. I was paired with a couple who were from
South Korea. They told me that it is a
requirement in South Korea when you make the turn you are required to eat fried
chicken and drink beer. Sadly, that
particular day we didn’t partake in that tradition. I was also a little skeptical because I had
never heard of such a thing. In the last
nine months a new golf publication called The Golfers Journal started. It is a quarterly publication and so far
there have been three issues. It is a
very cool magazine with great pictures and stories about golf stuff that is a
little off the beaten path. If you are
interested in golf magazines covering items outside of the PGA Tour I highly
recommend it. In the third edition there
is a great story about a golf course in South Korea. Golf in South Korea is quite a bit different
than golf in America. While the story
didn’t totally confirm what I was told it did make it sound like something that
may occur at some courses.
Anyway, Si Woo is the only man from South Korea in the field
this week. For a guy who is 22 with two
wins, one at The Players he flies way under the radar. He is probably most known for the song
international fans sang created and Dustin Johnson made famous at the
Presidents Cup last year, “I Si Woo Shakin’ That Ass.”
Rafa Cabrera-Bello- Based on my undocumented study of looking up
professional golfers PGA Tour profiles, about 90% of them list watching movies
as one of their two or three interests.
I presume this is due to the fact that they are both travelling and in
hotels all the time. Also who doesn’t
enjoy a movie from time to time? Rafa is
an exception. He enjoys water sports,
skiing and surfing. He especially likes
to surf at his house in Bali.
Adam Hadwin- Adam
is from Moose Jaw, Canada and matriculated to Louisville where he graduated in
2009. Somewhere along the line he picked
up a love for cooking and a credential as a Kentucky Colonel. Despite doing some research, it was not
exactly clear what a Kentucky Colonel is.
Prior to 1932 there were not very many Kentucky Colonels. Ruby Laffoon, who was governor for 1931-1935
went crazy and named five times more Colonels then had been named in the first
119 years of the program. It was during
Ruby’s reign that the most famous colonel of them all, Colonel Sanders was
commissioned. So we can thank Governor
Laffoon for the delicious fried chicken available all over the world.
Kyle Stanley- The
man with the finest last name on tour, edging out second place Daniel Berger,
makes his triumphant return to The Masters after a six year absence. After almost losing his PGA tour card in 2016
Kyle had a great win last year to earn his way back to Augusta. He has been one of the best players on tour
from tee to green the last two years, but falls short around and on the
green. This doesn’t bode well for
sustained success at Augusta National.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat-
This fall I was eating breakfast with someone and we saw the man known as the
barn rat on television. This gentleman
was not familiar with him Mr. Barn Rat and could not get over the fact that a
man who plays golf most days could be as fat as Kiradech is. The next morning we were having breakfast
again and he we had almost the same conversation. In an era of professional golf when the fat
man has gone the way of the dodo bird, it is good to see him carrying the torch
for the large and round golfer. It has
been since 1982 with Craig Stadler that a round fellow has won the Masters
(potentially excluding Phil in 2004 & 2006).
Henrik “Steely”
Stenson- Nobody makes the game look easier than the man of steel. He gets up on every tee throws the ball down
on the ground and rips his three wood 300 yards. Then he hits his irons high and straight as
an arrow. We saw this all come to
fruition in his duel with Phil when he won the British Open in 2016. Given the ease he makes the game appear it is
surprising he hasn’t played well at The Masters over the years. His best finish ever has been a tie for 14th
and he missed the cut last year.
Matt Kuchar- I
have always thought Kuchar would win a Master’s due to the great story it would
be since he is a proud yellow jacket like the founder of Augusta National and
he had his original break out during the 1998 championship. Much like every tournament he plays in he has
had a number of top 10s and a few close calls.
Matt is likely to pass Steve Stricker this year as the guy with the most
earnings on the PGA Tour without a major.
He needs about $700 thousand more in earnings to pass Stricker, which
will put him at about $44 million in career earnings. So even if he doesn’t have a green jacket at
the end of this week, he will be smiling on his way to the bank. Contrast that with Ben Hogan who won 9 majors
in his career and earned $332 thousand.
Kevin Chappell- Chappy,
as he is known on tour, is one of the most consistent players. He also gets almost no fanfare. The key to his consistency is his ball
striking. Last year that carried him to
tie for 7th thanks to a closing 68.
Chez Reavie- For
two weeks in January Chez was one of the best players in the world. He lost in a playoff to Gary Woodland in
Phoenix, which took place during the start of the Super Bowl. Even the staunchest golf fans missed it. The
next week finished second to Ted Potter at Pebble Beach. Spanning 16 years this is his fourth Masters
appearance and he is still awaiting his first weekend tee time.
Charl Schwartzel-
When Charl won the Masters in 2011 when he was 26 it came out of nowhere in a
lot of ways. He struggled at The Masters
from 2012-2017, but then again last year he was back for a third place
finish. Unfortunately, so far this year
he game has not been good. He is 172nd
on tour in total strokes gained on tour and has dropped from 16th in
the world last June to 58th currently.
Patrick Cantlay- Every
time I hear discussion about Josh Rosen I can’t help but think of Patrick
Cantlay. They are by no means twins, but
they are both nerdy looking tall guys from UCLA, who happen to be world class
athletes. Fortunately for Patrick he is
not a football player because he had to miss a lot of time due to a back injury
that I am sure would be much worse if he were playing football instead of golf. After missing most of the 2014, 2015 and 2016
seasons due to injury and tragedy, Patrick came back strong last year. Since he got started again Patrick has a win
and is up to 33rd in the world.
He was the best amateur in the world in the summer of 2011 and shot a 61
in a PGA Tour event at Hartford. He was
upset in the finals of the US Amateur that year by Kelly Kraft but he got
invited to The Masters in 2012 where was he low amateur. I expect a big week from him.
Branden Grace- Johnny
was the first guy to shoot 63 in a major champion. Tiger and Phil both lipped out on 18 and
ended up with 63s. Ten years apart Nick
Price (1986) and Greg Norman (1996) are the only two who have done it The
Masters. Jack, Gary, Faldo, Vijay and
Rory had all shot 63 in a major championship too. But no one other than Branden Grace has shot
under 63 in a major champion. Last year
at Royal Birkdale Branden Grace shot a 62.
Prior to the historic round he was convinced very few people would
recognize him. Now the same number of
people would recognize him.
No disrespect intended
to two time Masters champion Ben Hogan who shot 62 in the 1942 Hale America
Open. The Hale America Open was played
in place of the US Open in 1942. Hogan considered The Hale America Open a major
and his fifth U.S. Open. The USGA does
not recognize it as such.
Brian Harman- The
little bulldog has really come into his own during the last year. He has climbed from outside the top 100 to 23rd
in the last year. He battled it out down
the stretch with Brooks last year in Wisconsin.
Now he is ready for his second Masters, a tournament he grew up dreaming
of from down the road in Savannah. If he
(or another lefty) is able to do it this week, lefties will have won 7 of the
past 16 Masters.
Ian Poultry- I’d
like to be writing about Beau Hossler here, but Ian earned his place fair and
square. A year ago it looked like he lost
his card after failing to earn enough points on a medical exemption. However, Brian Gay, who was also on a medical
exemption, noticed the Tour had changed the way FedEx Cup points were tallied. He claimed he and Poulter should get points
tabulated the way they were in the year they had to sit out for medical
reasons. The Tour agreed and Poulter was
saved by math. Then three weeks ago at
the match play someone told him he would be in the top 50 in the world even if
he lost his next match. He lost and
learned that he was actually not in The Masters. Once again, he was screwed by math. Last week he took matters into his own hands
making birdie on the 18th to force a playoff and then winning on the
first hole of sudden death making math irrelevant.
Charley Hoffman- Last
year Charley was the first round leader and had the lead a lot of the third
round. Unfortunately, he slid back at
the end of the third round and totally fell apart in the fourth round. Charley recovered and had his best ever
finish in a major at the U.S. Open. He
has gotten off to a slower start this year than last year. However, he has played well at Augusta in the
past and that should be the case again this week. The golf gods smile on the green glove at
Augusta.
Russell Henley-
This could be a very big week for Russell.
According to his PGA Tour profile he has three things on his bucket list
and he could get them all done this week.
He wants to win The Masters, go skydiving and visit Italy. He could win The Masters Sunday, fly to Italy
Monday and skydive while he is there.
And if things don’t work out this week, at least he can knock 67% of his
bucket list off this week.
Jerk Johnson- 2007 Champion- It just never ends with this guy. This is from a recent article he wrote in
Golf Digest. “I play a lot of H-O-R-S-E in the driveway with my oldest son,
Will. He just turned 11. Obviously I’m better than he is, so I let him
stay close. I’ll miss on purpose so I’m
at H-O-R-S and he’s only at H-O.” First, he is bragging about how good he is at
H-O-R-S-E. Then he is purposely teasing
an 11 year old. Pick on someone your own
size Jerk. But the worst part is the language
is teaching his kids. A decent guy would
at least play P-I-G. If this is the kind
of stuff he is admitting to I don’t want to think about what else is going on
at the Johnson house.
Pat Perez- A
couple weeks ago my wife asked me if I had ever heard of Pat Perez. Of course I had, in fact he won me some money
last year as a member of my fantasy team.
However, I knew there are plenty of reasons to she would ask about him
and I could tell she wasn’t real impressed by what she saw. Turns out she was on his wife’s Instagram page. Pat likes to express his love for his wife on
there in interesting ways. There is no doubt
Pat marches to the beat of his own drummer and has upset a lot of people over
the years. At the age of 42 he is
playing the best golf of his career. He
came back about 18 months ago from an injury and since then has two of his
three overall PGA Tour wins.
Thomas Pieters- Thomas
finished 4th last year’s Masters propelling him past noted blogger
Nicolas Colsaerts to the second greatest Belgian golfer of all time behind only
Flory Van Donck. Thomas came to America
in 2010 to play golf for the Fightin’ Illini, where he won the NCAA
Championship. In order to learn English
he supplemented his studies by watching the show Friends. I am sure the friendships he studied between
Ross, Chandler, Joey, Phoebe, Monica and Rachel came in very handy when he
played a practice round on Tuesday with longtime close friends Tiger and Phil. Regarding the practice round, it hardly seems
fair Tiger and Phil played Thomas and Fred.
Fred is an old man with a bad back taking on the two best players of a
generation?
Alex Noren- A
year ago Alex was one of the most controversial guys on tour due to his high,
and some felt undeserved, ranking in the world golf rankings. Last year he was 9th in the world
when The Masters began, but because his ranking was boosted by wins in Europe
many were skeptical. He did himself no
favors with the skeptics by missing the cut with rounds of 74-78. This year he comes in ranked 14th,
but without any controversy. He has
three top three finishes on the PGA Tour this year.
One item I did not know before, but according to The Masters
website, if you miss the cut you still get paid $10,000.
Louis Oosthuizen-
I am in a year-long fantasy league and my dad is also in it. This year when I told him I had Louis on my
team he warned me that he would the great tease. He is in the mix a lot of weeks after two
rounds only to fade over the weekend. So
far my dad has not been wrong. I still
have faith in Louis though. After his
big win in the 2010 British Open much was expected of Louis. He has a great golf swing. He is also only the 7th golfer to
finish second in all four major championships completing this feat last year
when he finished second at The PGA Championship.
Daniel Berger-
Much like Brendan Steele and Johnny Vegas, Berger has won the same tournament
the last two years. In his case he has
won the St Jude in Memphis each of the last two years. Those are his only two wins so far but he is
consistently in the top 20 week to week.
With his unorthodox swing but impressive consistency we could be looking
at a cocky version of Jim Furyk.
Rick Fowler- As
you likely know if you are reading this, the format of the Feherty show has
changed this season. Likely due to the
fact they have run out of interesting people willing to come on the show, the
format is now a round table with 2 or 3 guests.
The first episode of the season featured the greatest player of all time
and 6 time Masters champion, Jack Nicklaus, one half of the greatest doubles
tennis team of all time, Bob Bryan and the greatest Puma spokesman of all time,
Rickie Fowler. At one point Feherty asks
Rickie how he prepares for a major. Rickie
explains he treats majors the same as any other tournament as far as a
preparation. Eventually Jack steps in, “I’m not sure that taking every
tournament the same Rickie is exactly the way to win a major.” The question, did Rick take the advice
seriously and get some tips from Jack?
And does he have the game to capitalize if he did?
A year ago Rickie was poised to make his move on Sunday,
being the co-leader after the second round, and one back after the third
round. He was paired with fellow spring
breaker Jordan Spieth on Sunday. His
game was all over the place on that final day and he was unable to save par
after par. Eventually he dropped down to
11th.
Marc Leishman-
After his career best year last year Big Leish is ready to win a major. He came awfully close in 2015 to winning the
British Open when he lost a playoff at St. Andrews. I like him to win a major at some point, but
not this week.
Top 16 and Ties
Back in the old days
everyone who finished in the top 16 and ties qualified for The Masters the
following year. That has been lowered to
top 12 and ties for the past few years.
Unlike The Masters I like to stick to my traditions.
16. Jason Day- Last
year he had all kinds of problems. His
mother was sick. He chose to fire his
swing coach and caddie who was like a father to him. His wife Ellie had a miscarriage. His golf also suffered. This year he came out with a vengeance. He
won at Torrey Pines and followed that up with a second place finish at Pebble
Beach. He hasn’t played very much since
then, which is probably good given his susceptibility to injury. I like Jason to have a strong week.
15. Sergio- 2017 and Defending Champion- Two years ago I wrote about Sergio, “Probably my biggest regret in the
history of writing this preview, even bigger than ever starting to do it in the
first place, is the fact that I once picked The Canary to win it all.
Every time I see him on TV I am reminded of this great blunder, but my thinking
at the time was his new found success with the claw grip. Not only have I
given up on Sergio but it seems he would be as surprised as anyone to win this
week.” Clearly I am on top of it. Aren’t you glad I waited until we were 80%
through to drop the news of how useless these predictions are?
A year ago the man changed his legacy forever with his
win. The 13th hole at Augusta
National is named Azalea. Last year
Sergio went left into the trees there and everyone had the same thought, “Oh
no, this is how it all ends for Sergio.”
Then he made a great par there, eagled 15 and ultimately birdied 18 in
the playoff to win. Now he has a
daughter who is also named Azalea in honor of that tremendous recovery. I suspect Sergio will ride the good vibes
from last year into a solid week, but the same reasons he hadn’t won before will
hurt him again this week. It just won’t
hurt like it had before last year.
14. Pat Reed- The Ryder Cup legend has had decidedly less
success at The Masters. His best finish
in four starts is a tie for 22nd and he missed the cut for the
second time last year. I think a big
reason for his lack of success is his ball flight is a big sweeping draw. However, during the Valspar he dramatically
brought out a few cut shots. I don’t
think these will get him a green jacket, but I think he will have an improved
finish this week.
13. Xander Schauffele-
Xander won a green jacket last year when he won at America’s resort. That win got him into this year’s
Masters. He also won at Atlanta Athletic
Club where Bob Jones learned the game. All
signs point to success.
But no one making their first appearance at Augusta since
1979 when Frank Urban Zoeller won. I
don’t see that changing this year.
12. Paul Casey- During his big win at The
Valspar, I, like most Americans, was hoping for a win for Tiger. I wasn’t worried about Paul Casey winning for
the simple fact that Paul never wins tournaments. He did that day though for the first time
since 2009. Does this change his chances
for more wins now? I’d like to say so
because he seems like a nice guy, but I am not so sure. He happened to have the greatest putting day
of his career on the final day of that tournament. It has always been his putter that held him
back and I suspect that will continue to be the reason he keeps finishing high
without winning.
11. Jon Rahm- There are a lot of things not
to like about Jon Rahm. He has temper tantrums
on the course from time to time. Curtis
Strange thought he was too friendly during a playoff he was in this year when
he won the Bob Hope in Palm Springs. His
clothes don’t fit his correctly. He got
two iffy rulings last summer during the Irish and British Opens. But the reason I don’t like him is his
insults of the fine fans at The Memorial Tournament. It was reported by the guys at No Laying Up
that on each of the last 4 holes he was rude to the crowd. He even went as far to call someone a
lard. This is outright blasphemy because
I was at The Memorial last year on Friday.
Everyone I saw was in wonderful shape.
All that said, he is a wonderful golfer. If he can keep his cool we could be going
from Spaniard to Spaniard Sunday night.
10. Kevin Kisner- Kisner grew up a stones
throw away from Augusta in Aiken, South Carolina. He grew up playing on a course in Aiken where
the greens were designed by Alister MacKenzie after he finished up at Augusta
National. One would think that would
give Kisner an advantage, and it probably does around the greens where he is
one of the best putters on tour. Where
he will be hurt is the distance of Augusta National. Kisner is one of the shorter drivers on
tour. He is ranked 177th in
driving distance hitting it a mere 287 yards on average. We saw this hurt him at Quail Hollow last
year when Justin Thomas could take on holes differently than him. He is praying for a dry week, but it doesn’t
look like he will get it.
9. Rory McIlroy- The most tantalizing man
in golf because he is such a good driver he has a wedge into almost every
hole. Naturally one thinks it would be
easy to get his wedge game and putting in order. However, all of last year and a lot of this
year the putting let him down. Prior to
the Arnold Palmer Invitational he was the 124th ranked putter. That week he had 100 putts in route to a
dominating performance. This time it was
due to a tip from Brad Faxon, where he needs to relax more. Last year at The Memorial he switched to
cross handed putting and had the best putting week to that point of his career. Everyone was certain he was Ben Crenshaw now. The build up to the US Open last year was
Rory was back. Then he missed the cut
there thanks to more bad putting. So the
question is will his putting from Orlando sustain and or does he regress? I am betting on regression.
8. Phil-
2004, 2006 & 2010 Champion- At age 47 Phil is trying to become the
oldest winner of The Masters. The longer
he plays and looks nimble the more it looks like he will have the longevity of
Sam Snead. My favorite Phil has always
been when he wears the pin stripe pants to play like he just got out of his
suit and only had time to change his shirt.
That was before he wore a button down shirt for his practice round
Tuesday like he was headed to work in business casual. My dream now is the button down and pin
stripes in one day. It would look great with a green jacket. Can he avoid enough big numbers to do it?
7. Tommy Fleetwood- Tommy made his debut
at Augusta last year, but it did not go as planned. After rounds of 74-78 he headed home for the
weekend. That was about the only bad
thing that happened to Tommy on the course last year. He had his career best year last year and is
off to another great start this year.
Off the course was also a success where he had a child and got
married. He got invited to Tiger’s event
in the Bahamas where he reports Tiger was very friendly and posed for pictures
with him and his step kids.
6. Dustin Johnson- A year ago he was the
overwhelming favorite coming into Augusta.
Only to be derailed by a slippery floor and a flight of stairs, or
whatever other stories are floating around in the world. This year he has wisely rented a ranch.
Statistically what
I am about to write is totally wrong.
Based on strokes gained every part of his game has improved this year
compared to last year except approach shots.
He is also number 1 in overall strokes gained. Last year he was also first, but he is a half
shot better so far this year. But he
just doesn’t look as sharp and the results also indicate that. A year ago his finishes coming into The
Masters were 3, 1, 1, and 1. This year
in the same events they are 2, 16, 7 and 59.
I don’t know what, but something is off.
5. Jordan Spieth- 2015 Champion- In the same article
where Jerk Johnson bragged about his horse game, he also discussed what he
called his grit test. He said Jordan did
the best anyone has ever done on his, possibly fictional and arbitrary
test. For a guy whose main attribute is
grit that is a big compliment though.
Jordan has also become a great iron player. Finally, his record at The Masters the last
four years is remarkable, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 11th
with a 74 in the final round. So why
don’t I like his chances?
First and most importantly, he might have the
yips. In 2015 he was without a doubt the best putter in the
world. He had the odd quirk of sometimes looking at the hole and
sometimes the ball on short putts, but it was a quirk instead of a
concern. It is a major concern now. Jordan (and Michael)
miss a lot of short putts and are ranked 185th in the shots gained
on the green. Jordan insists the issue
is an alignment issue and not the yips, but it has been a few months of trying
to get the alignment issue fixed.
The second concern for Jordan is the 12th hole. It
is very reasonable to have bad memories here.
He infamously blew the Masters two years on 12. Last year his chances were very slim by the
time he got to 12 on Sunday, but they again disappeared to a watery grave. If he has a chance Sunday afternoon can his
nerves survive four footers and the 12th hole? I
don’t think so, but I would like to see him go for it.
4. Justin Rose-
Oh what could have and maybe should have been last year! Until Sergio actually won last year it was
hard to imagine he would win simply due to all of the heartbreak. When Sergio was standing in the trees on 13
it looked certain Justin Rose would be the one to win the green jacket. Justin didn’t wallow in his loss though and
turned in one of his best seasons to date.
His strong play has continued this year.
He has finished 2nd, 10th, 2nd the last
three years at Augusta. He has also
stopped wearing the enormous sunglasses.
He won’t waste extra energy holding his head up all week which could
save him the stroke he so desperately needed last year.
3. Bubba- 2012 & 2014 Champion- A
lot has been made of the extreme slump Bubba was in last year. Many attribute it to the choice he made to
use a colored golf ball with little compression. It was a curious decision to be sure. While that may have been a factor, I think
back to another decision he made and thank him for his service. In 2016 a lot of golfers declined the trip to
Brazil for the Olympics, but Bubba bravely made his way south. He seemed to enjoy himself, but returned back
to the states without a golf game. Whatever
the reason last season was such a disaster he considered retirement. This year has been a different story. After taking on the great Justin Bieber in a
celebrity basketball game during the middle of the tournament at Riviera he has
been unbeatable. He won at Riviera and
then dusted the field in the match play.
It is also an even year so you have to love the 2012 and 2014 champion.
2. Justin Thomas- Until 15 months ago Justin
was most known as a promising young player, who was friends with Jordan Spieth. He didn’t make the Ryder Cup team in 2016 and
it was not a big deal. Since then he has
been the best player in world with six wins including the PGA Championship in
August. In addition to his win at The
Honda Classic he has finished 2nd and 4th in the last two
events he has played, both World Golf Championship events. The only negative you could say about him so
far is his quick trigger on getting a guy thrown out the Honda Classic. This won’t be an issue at Augusta because any
hecklers will be handled promptly by the powers that be, up to but not limited
to their life. There is just one guy he
hasn’t had to deal with during this hot streak.
1. Tiger- 1997, 2001, 2002 & 2005 Champion- It has been 10 years since
the dramatic one legged victory at Torrey.
At times it has seemed like a lot longer. And at times it seemed like he would never be
back. Tiger released a video of himself
hitting pitch shots on August 31st.
Immediately the discussion of whether or not he could win The Masters
with just a wedge and pitch shots started.
Then he released a video of his full swing. Then he played well in the Bahamas. We had been there just a year before so there
was still room for concern. Every swing
at Torrey Pines and Riviera was scary as you waited for him to wince. Then in Florida Tiger started looking like himself
again. You could stop worrying about
injury and start hoping he might win.
Tiger didn’t quite win but the man was electric. The Honda and Valspar were the most watched
golf tournaments since last years Masters.
During those events Tiger gave no reason to believe he wasn’t the best
player in the world if he could knock off a little bit of rust. There is no doubt this is the one he
wants. The only thing that can stop him
now is wearing the wrong shirt on Sunday.
If he breaks out the collared plain red shirt on Sunday it is all over.
From there you can start counting up to 18. The US Open heads to Pebble Beach next year. He has played well there in the past.
