2007 Masters Preview

Hello friends, live from the Ferger Cabin, here is the complete Masters preview. It is going to be special when Arnie gets it started tomorrow morning.

It seems like just yesterday I was playing at Fulton County Stadium Golf Club, when the hot dog chef informed me that Freddie “Boom Boom” Couples was in the final group with Fatty (Phil Mickelson). Unfortunately, Boom Boom could not pull it out and we were left to watch Phil slip into a new green jacket. In an effort to get rid of the tag Fatty during the off season Phil found his newest gimmick, Karate, and lost 15-20 pounds, but the nickname still sticks. I think I would pay at least a couple hundred dollars to see Fatty participate in a karate class. When he won in 2004 he had the worst vertical ever, and now he is in Karate class. I am just picturing him in there with all these little kids like Kramer in Seinfeld begging to get ice cream after class.

So here we are a year later and a lot has changed in the world of golf. Fatty gave away the Open, Tiger started dominating again, and Vijay made a major club change. Hope you enjoy the preview, and Bill Macatee finds you well on Thursday afternoon.

GUYS I HAD NEVER HEARD OF UNTIL I LOOKED AT THE FIELD

Solid group of players I’m sure, but I am pretty confident one of these jokers won’t be donning that green jacket. Maybe in the British Open some nut case I have never heard can sneak in there (Paul Lawrie, almost Van De Velde and Levet) but not The Masters (probably because it is a lot harder to get into the Masters).

Casey Watabu- This guy won the U.S. Publinks to get in to the field. At first I was a little concerned about his chances. However, after a bit of research I really like his chances to make the cut. First, he is from Hawaii. Having watched every episode of Maui Fever, I am fully convinced that living in Hawaii with those beauties can save 5 shots a round. If he makes the move to Anna caddying for him he could contend. Second, he beat Anthony Kim in the finals. I tend to discredit any tournament that Michelle Wie got to the quarters in, but Kim is awesome and to beat him is impressive. I am calling this guy the favorite for low am.

Julian Gerrier- a few facts I have dug up on this guy. Won the British Amateur, played in the British Open where he fired 75-72 on the Old Course, and he is French. Honestly, I hope this guy misses the cut and is not low amateur.

Dave Womack- This guy won the mid-am. The one positive I see for this guy is he played for Georgia State, so he has the hometown feeling. However, he got in by winning a tournament that was made essentially for guys who weren’t quite good enough to turn pro so they had to stay amateurs, get real jobs, and be the best players at their country clubs. Since he couldn’t beat these guys in college when he was 20, I don’t know that playing less is going to make it more likely that he can now.

Yong-Eun Yang- Please feel free to call this guy Jumbo Ozaki. Do you remember for years somehow Jumbo was ranked in the top 50 by cleaning up on the Japanese tour? Then Jumbo refused to play in the U.S. for years so every major had 49 out 50 of the top 50. Apparently Mr. Yang plays in the U.S. but not well and not often. In his last 51 starts this clown has played outside of Japan 7 times. In those starts he got 65th, 75th, got beat in the first round of match play, 49th, 47th, missed cut and missed cut. How is this guy in the top 50 in the world? Admittedly I don’t know much about him, but for some reason I don’t think he is one of the best 50 players in the world.

Johan Edfors- Good sign for Johan is he has information on Wikipedia. Johan looks pretty solid, and I am going to go ahead and predict that next Ryder Cup he pairs with either Nick O’ Hern or Henrik Stenson to dismantle a U.S. Team in best ball or alternate shot. However, since it has been since ’99 that a European won at Augusta I don’t see him doing much.

Hideto Tanihara- I got this e-mail from fellow golf connoisseur Duffey D. Phelps this week that sums this guy up.

BREAKING NEWS:

The Masters has issued a sponsors exemption to the man, the myth, the legend...

Wait for it (scroll down)... (there was a lot more space that I took out)







Hideto Tanihara Obviously based on his strong showing at the CA Championship, where he shot rounds of 80, 75, 73 and 77 to finish at 70th in a 72 man field at +17 and just 27 back of Tiger.


ENJOY THE WEEK, MAYBE YOU WILL MAKE AN EAGLE AND TAKE HOME SOME CRYSTAL

If you make an eagle at Augusta, you get a piece of crystal. Probably one of the greatest parts of the tournament. If these guys are lucky they will take some home, but they wont be getting a new green jacket. Unless they go to MrBlazer.com

Michael Campbell- Michael Campbell is one of my sleeper favorite players because he only wears red sox. I once thought about doing this myself, but decided against it because it is difficult to find just red sox. However, Michael has already won his major and guys with his level don’t generally win more than one major.

Shaun Micheel- The fact that Shaun won a major is still one of the most baffling things to me. Plus he hit an all-time shot to win it.

Win a Date (Todd Hamilton)- Win A Date is now ranked 701st in the world. He has only made one cut this year and only finished inside the top 50 once last year. He is David Duval-esque, of course he was a flash in the pan and never as good as Double D, but he did beat the Big Easy head to head to win the British. We will always love you here Win a Date, but they didn’t make Win a Date with Tad Hamilton II, and Todd wont win another major. The way he is going he might be on the Nationwide tour soon.

Beemer (Rich Beem)- It has to be about time for Beemer to hit the announcing booth. He might have missed the boat though with Faldo and Mediate taking over at TGC, Faldo taking over at CBS, ABC dropping golf. I would say he is going to have to convince Andy North to retire or he will be covering womens events for a while.

Stephen Ames- I am usually not a big fan of Mr. Ames, and his dual citizenship of Canada and Trinidad & Tobago while living in the US makes no sense to me. I do want to give him credit though. I discovered, he is married to a flight attendant that he met on a plane. If this were the 1970’s I would be more impressed but still pretty solid.

Fred Funk- Augusta National is 7,445 yards. Fred averaged 272.3 yards off the tee last year. I don’t think The Nationals greens are going to hold 3 woods that well.

Richie Ramsay- Certainly he is a lot better than last years US am champ Edoardo Molinari. Maybe next year an American will win the US am.

Colin Montgomerie- Before Fatty blew the open last year Mrs. Doubtfire was busy blowing it himself, and throwing in the classic line, “what kind of rubbish is that?” A good question because that shot he hit into 18 did come up 40 yards short, and it will also be the last we hear of Monty. A guy can only take so much and that was his last run at the coveted major.

Kenneth Ferrie- For the good of all involved in this years Masters and all of us watching on HDTV I am hoping Kenneth has not been practicing, and has spent the entire off season getting a new wardrobe together, specifically bigger pants and shirts. Because I am an optimist I am going to assume that is the case.

Update: Kenneth has somehow gotten onto the cover of Sports Illustrated. The little bit of hope he may have had is gone.

Rory Sabbatini- There is no doubt that Rory can play. However, if a South African wins this year I suspect he will be named Big Easy or Goose, and an outside chance for the I-Man.

Davis Love III- Davis got the ’97 PGA, answered the when will he win a major questions, and has pretty much checked out since then. I believe he had one year when he won four times but the guy has talent up there with Tiger, Vijay, Phil and The Easy but he just seems to want to do other things. I was watching the golf channel about a month ago and he was doing a special about skiing. Is he a skier now? He plays good on the courses he likes and lousy on the ones where you have to grind your ball, which is all majors. Have to like his chances at Harbour Twon next week though.

Brett Quigley- The fact that he has never won will hurt him. However, his biggest problem is going to be wearing the new school visor. I bet “boom boom” laughs at him on the range when he sees his hat situation.

Update: Brett has flown home to because his wife is in labor. Very exciting for him, but can this help his chances? He is still going to play. My kind of guy on that move, although I am sure he is going to hear about it for the rest of his life.

Dean Wilson- Dean seems like he might be nicest guy on tour and he is making a nice career. However, when I think about Dean two thoughts come to mind: 1) He looks like the guy who used to be superman on the tv show 2) He played with and later hugged Annika after she played at Colonial. I also think it is a bad sign that his only win came last year at The International, which is no longer going to be played, and they have a different scoring system than the one being used this week at Augusta. He was college teammates with The Queer, so if he gets into a playoff with Len Mattiace I like his chances.

Joe Durant- Joe just seems like a nice guy who is very content with life right now. I am sure he would tell you he wants to win the Masters, but I don’t think it drives him. I also don’t think he has the game.

Zach Johnson- The pride of Drake University, I am a big fan of Zach. However, a guy who hits almost a slinging hook and cant work the ball from left to right I highly doubt can win the Masters. However, I do think he has a good chance to eagle 13. It really is incredible how well he plays with his lack of shot making. He is kind of a modern day Azinger.

K.J. Choi- K.J. always seems to be up there and is a great player, but I don’t like him. He just looks like a grump all the time. He is on my fantasy team and my personal dislike causes me to sit him out even though he is the second best player on the team. I also do not like the way he picks up his club. All this said, K.J. is a top twenty in the world player so he will likely do better than I am hoping.

J.J. Henry- As Americans we can only hope he never again represents us in a Ryder Cup. Oddly, in college he made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole of his conference tournament to win both the individual and team title.

Tom Pernice Jr.- I cant believe he is The Masters. He played golf for UCLA and his teammates were Corey Pavin, Steve Pate, Jay Delsing, and Duffey Waldorf. Most of those guys are way past their primes. Tom is probably the least famous of the group, but he is the only one still playing.

Vaughn Taylor- Every year I end up falling for all these jokers that are either from Augusta or played at Augusta St. Well Vaughn has been playing very well, and played for Augusta St. so one think he gets that hometown feeling going. However, through careful research, and a million asked questions to anyone who has ever been there I have determined there is no hometown advantage. I have come to realize the normal advantages of playing close to home don’t help here for two reasons. 1) No one can get tickets, so you won’t have a bunch of extra fans. 2) No one can get on the National so its not like when Vaughn was playing for Augusta State that he was able to go squeeze in a quick nine at the end of the day.

Jerry Kelly- It seems like Jerry Kelly is best in the Greater Milwaukee Open. This is not the Greater Milwaukee Open so he might struggle. I think Jerry is too much of a goof ball to do well at Augusta, at some point you need a modicum of seriousness and I don’t think Jerry has it.

Hanging out in the Champions locker room, but won be getting a new green jacket this year

These guys have won before but won’t pull it out this year

Ollie (Jose Maria Olazabal)- One of my all time favorite players, and an absolute hero around the greens. Unfortunately, in the last few years Ollie has started to struggle too much with the flat stick to be real competitive with how wild he drives the ball. I think the end was sybolized by playing in New Orleans two years ago and he missed two 3-4 footers with a chance to win the tournament allowing Fatty to slide in there and get the win. Like all European players he will continue to dominate in the Ryder Cup as long as he makes it, but I don’t think he is going to win again.

Mark O’Meara- I saw Mark’s name on the Senior Tour leaderboard last weekend and I was shocked, but then you think that 1998 was 9 years ago, and he was pretty much past his prime at that time until he somehow became best friends with Tiger, who was the fountain of youth for him. Even Ponce de Leon would have been amazed at the resurgence in 1998 for Mark. I wonder why Toyota doesn’t sponsor golf anymore.

Bernhard Langer- One of the greatest grinders ever, and like Ollie has two green jackets in his closet. However, the courses are just too long these days for him. Other than the U.S. Open you have to make a fair amount of birdies to win majors and you cant do that hitting 5-6 irons into greens when the big boys are hitting 8-9 irons.

Boom Boom- What more can I say about this man. I once wrote, and still believe, that he, along with Jack Nicholson and Michael Jordan, is one of three univerally cool people. I am a little concerned that Boom Boom has only played two rounds this season and by all accounts his back is in terrible shape, but the guy can get it around Augusta, and I think if he plays he makes his 23rd straight cut.

Woosy (Ian Woosnam)- 49 years old and 5’5”.

Sandy Lyle- I am pretty sure Sandy only plays in the Masters each year. I have not looked this up, but if he plays other events, he sure doesn’t do much. After research: Actually he played three events last year, The Masters, The British, and Pebble. He did pen a novel in 2006, called “To the Fairway Born.” I am pretty sure it is the July book for the Oprah reading club.

Larry Mize- I wonder, if Norman had won any of the times he should have won The Masters would still play in it? or still play at all? Larry needs to chip in every time he misses a green this week to have a chance.

Seve- Ollie had a great short game, but Seve was a total magician. Seve has pretty washed up by the time I started paying attention to golf, but I remember at the ’95 Ryder Cup at Oak Hill. Seve was in jail all day and I think he made 3 or 4 chips/lobs/pitches and stole a point away from the Americans. Unfortunately, the courses are a little too long, and he is way too wild, for a person to play like Seve did, but the man could get it in the hole.

The Walrus (Craig Stadler)- I would say your chances of winning The Masters are not good if there is debate whether you are the best player in your family.

Watson- Awesome player, one of the all-time greats. I just watched playing lessons with pros featuring Tom and the guy knows a ton about golf. Obviously, he is too old to win and not a good enough putter, but I would love to see a guy like Tom come along and challenge Tiger. Some of these young guys have too much talent not to at some point, right? Also if you want to read a good book I recommend Caddie for Life about Bruce Edwards. If you live in Columbus, Dukes has my copy so if you want to have it just ask him.

Gentle Ben (Ben Crenshaw)- The ’95 Masters was really when I fell in love with The Masters. I had recently read Harvy Penick’s “Little Red Book” and “Little Green Book (If you play Golf you are my friend).” So I considered myself a bit of a fan of Harvy, still do in fact. I also used to have a VHS tape of how to putt by Ben, so I was a big fan of his as well. Ben made everything that week, and his “collapse” at the end is one of the great reactions to winning, probably only behind Tiger’s fist pump at Sawgrass to win the ’94 Am, and Nicklaus throwing his putter in the air at the British.

Fuzzy- Do you think Fuzzy was happy to hear Fatty was serving fried chicken at the Champions dinner? Did he find it ironic?

Gary Player- Gary is making his 50th start in the Masters, which is simply incredible. What more can you say about the guy? A top 10 all-time player, career greand slam, and just look how many South Africans are on tour largely due to him.

The Stare (Raymond Floyd)- I once read a great book about scoring written by Raymond Floyd. I think it was called, “The Art of Scoring.” Very interesting to read how he manged his ball around the course.

Weekend Pretenders

These guys might be around on Saturday, but they will fade and when the tournament starts on Sunday afternoon they will be long gone.

The Easy (Ernie Els)- I just don’t know what to think about the Big easy right now. He seems to either not really care, which I highly doubt, or is not real sure of his game right now. When he was winning his three majors, he never really seemed overly interested, but he just played great golf. However, he just cant get it in gear. I don’t know if he is emotionally scarred from losing the playoff to Win a Date, or if his knee injury is not fully recovered, but his game baffles me. This guy has almost as much talent as Tiger and Phil and is on par with Vijay, A Scott, but he hasn’t won in the US since 2004, and hasn’t really had a good chance to win a major since then either. I don’t think he will do much in the Masters but I hope a return to Oakmont in June will get him going.

Ben Curtis- As the new man sponsored by the NFL, it is always interesting to see what team he is wearing. I am going to say Falcons, Dolphins, Bears, and Browns. When I think about Ben’s chances I think about how slow the greens at Mill Creek are and I am amazed he can even keep a putt on the green at Augusta.

John Kelly- Usually I wouldn’t pick the US Amateur runner up as a guy who could sneak in there but his caddie is incredible. His caddie Barr, who spends most of his time as a fianancial analyst, has had incredible success. He led Jay Haas jr. to a spot in the Wachovia field last year, and was the caddy when recent Wake forest grad Kyle Reifers won the first Nationwide event he played in. I am not sure he can save as many strokes as Anna from Maui Fever could, but he can save a few.

Aaron Oberholser- I really dislike AO, as he calls himself, but he is a good player and will be on tour for twently more years. Who refers to themselves not only in the third person, but also as their initials? I could see AO winning a PGA someday just because he seems so darn competitive. I think his competitiveness causes him to act like a whiny baby, which is why most don’t like him.

Scott Verplank- All of his peers seem to love his game, as evidenced by his 2 captain picks for the Ryder Cup. However, as far as I can tell he has done very little to merit this love. He has won four times on tour, twice in the 1980’s and twice since the turn of the century. He has diabetes which if he gets into contention we will hear about a million times.

Steve Stricker- It really didn’t look good for Steve last year as he was playing on sponsors invites, and past champions invitations. However, he strung together a nice little stretch of top 10’s and then was in contention late on Sunday at the U.S. Open and ended up 34th on the money list last year making $1.8 million. All in all I would say it was a good year for Steve. For a little while I was worried that his wife was going to have to get back on the bag.

Chris DiMarco- In my opinion Chris has the uglieest game on tour. He has a swing that is as herky jerky as Furyk’s and he uses the claw to putt. Plus he went to Florida so I really don’t have many good things to say about the guy right now.

David Toms- I really don’t have much to say about D Toms. Three years ago he seemed to be on the cusp of a top 10 player, and a multiple major champion. Now he doesn’t. I don’t know if the heart issue scared him so he started practicing less and spending more time with his family, or if his game doesn’t isnt great right now, but he is a tough one to figure out.

Troy Matteson- Making his first start at Augusta, but he is a good player. Is the leading single season money winner on the Nationwide tour. Oddly, lists Superman as his hero, so it is a little surprising he is married.

Lumpy (Tim Herron)- I wonder if Lumpy is going to start taking Karate now that he has seen how much weight Phil has lost.

Henrik Stenson & Niclas Fasth- Both good Swedish players, but they both make you miss the flipped up visor of Jesper Parnevik. Henrik is going to be in the hunt someday.

Shingo Katayama- SHINGO!!! The Japanese Cowboy hasn’t really been heard from since the PGA where D Toms won, but I will never forget his incredible hat he wore. Now that I have my new Tilley hat, I often wonder what the point of have the sides buttoned up is, and I would really like to talk to Shingo so I could ask him that question. Apparently he is in the top 50 in the world although I am not really sure why other than tournaments from 2005 count in the rankings.

Darren Clarke- This is the first year ever that I havent heard one analyst say Darren is a dark horse, so maybe he will actually play well this year. Speaking of analysts, I was watching the golf channel last night and they had this guy named Alex Miceli, who looked like a total dufus. He was wearing a tweed jacket, a bow tie, a weird shade of khaki pants, and he had a mustache. It really made me miss the horribly corny “tomorrow’s headline” by Brian Hewitt.

Jeev Milkha Singh- Any relation to Vijay? No. Jeev is the first Indian player in the Masters, and seems to be a good player. Interestingly, he received India’s fourth highest civil honor in 2007 Padma Shri. Does anyone know what America’s fourth highest civil honor is?

Ben Crane- On PGAtour.com for each players bio they have a bar graph for power, accuracy, shortgame, and putting. Each category is 1-10, with 10 being the best. Most people have between 4-8 in every category. Ben has 1-6 in each category, and he has by far the lowest power of anyone I have seen. I looked up Pavin and Funk and they both had way more power than Crane. Looking at these stats I really wonder how Crane is even on tour. I am now seeing why he is so slow, he has to think so much about each shot just to compete based on his stats. Incredible, I am amazed this guy has been on tour for so many years and won twice.

Thomas Bjorn- In sports I sometimes wonder if one little thing had been changed would a whole persons career been changed. For an extreme example, if Jordan misses that shot to win the ’82 title, or if Georgetown scores and he is not considered the hero, does he still go on to dominate like he does? Or does he go on to have a very good career, but not the most clutch player we have ever seen? I would say he would still go on to be Jordan.

I wonder in Bjorn had gotten out of the sand at Royal St. Georges if he would have gone on to be more of a force. Probably not.

Robert Allenby- Like his buddy Appleby, Allenby is one major away from being talked about as being a top tier player. However, neither one of those guys ever even come close to winning majors. Allenby’s best chance was when he entered the 2003 U.S. Open under the alias Stephen Leaney, and finished 2nd to Furyk.

Lee Westwood- At the end of 2000 Lee looked like he was going to be superstar. He won 5 times on the European tour that year, was 27 and it looked like he was going to dominate. Since then he has just fallen apart. He won twice in 2003, but that is it. His record in majors has been equally as bad. Interestingly he had children in 2001. Is this a coincidence? I don’t know, but it makes you wonder if Tiger will ever win again after July.

Bradley Dredge- Bradley has only played on this side of the pond once in the last two years, and he missed the cut that time. He is going to be confused with our system of measurement, having ice in his drink, and the fact that we water the course.

John Rollins- John has given away two tournaments this year, so I am not real optimistic that he can hold on down the stetch of Augusta.

Badds (Aaron Baddeley)- Last year I really ripped Mr. Baddely in my preview. Fortunately for him, he got a copy of it and really used it to motivate himself for the rest of the year which included two wins. I assume my cut of the winnings is in the mail. In the famous words of Viktor Navorski, of Terminal fame, “I wait.” It seems like he has gotten his game back together. Could have been karma for that awful commercial he was in that dragged him down.

Calc- Calc is a poor man’s Boom Boom. Has been a very good player for a long time, won a major (the British, not as good as The Masters), has a terrible back, and loves life out on the tour. Got to like Calc though, and he really seems to be a straight shooter.

Bart Bryant- Bart is just enjoying the ride right now and how could you not. He played the mini tours for 20+ years and now he is at Augusta. Pretty big change in lifestyle.

Paul Goydos- It is incredible how far in golf two good weeks can take you. Just ask John Daly.

Queer (Mike Weir)- After he won in 2003 it was funny to say he was the best lefty in the world now. With the emergence of Nick O’Hern and Bubba Watson, he is in serious jeopardy of falling to fourth.

The Goose (Retief Goosen)- Wasn’t it two years ago we were talking about the “Big 5”? What happened to the South Africans in this group.

The Mechanic (Miguel Angel Jimenez)- The mechanic has a solid game, but he seems to be extremely inconsistent with his game. In 2004 he won 4 times in Europe and climbed to just outside the top 10 in the world. Since then he has only won once in 2005, and has fallen to 65th in the world. I think being 65th in the world is pretty good, and if I were ever able to become the 65th best accountant in the world I would probably be doing pretty good. However, if I were to be the 65th best accountant and somehow there was a tournament featuring all the accountants ahead of me I would have to be worried about my chances to win.

Billy Mayfair- It is amazing to me that Billy has played so well for so long. The fact that he has the putting stroke of a 25 handicap and all the health issues, his success is amazing. However, he does not seem to be playing very well this year. He looks okay as far as keeping his card goes, thanks to getting fifth in Phoenix, but he has only made a third of the cuts this year (3/9). He has shown improvement at Augusta after missing a bunch of cuts in a row to start his career, he had his best finish ever last year at T14. If he improves that much this year he will win, but I think the last 13 spots are harder to climb.

Rod Pampling- It seems like most Australian players over the years have been pretty charismatic from “the shark” to Ian Baker and now A. Scott, Ogilvie, and Badds. However, Rod Pampling is not. He is a total bore as far as I can tell. I think part of it is because he is married to a psychologist so he cant open up too much or he is going to be analyzed to death, so he just keeps all his emotion bottled up. Solid player and has played well at Augusta in the past.

Nick O- I honestly know very little about Nick except he is a lefty, and he has beat Tiger twice in match play. I could care less what side of the ball he stands on, but beating Tiger twice is incredibale. In the Sports Illustrated that came out last week all it did was talk about how Tiger is the most incredible competitor and how he hates to lose. Yet somehow Nick O beat him twice. I can see once if Tiger is not really focused or whatever, but you know the second time he wanted to kill him, and Nick won again. Very impressive.

Paul Casey- Like David Howell, Paul is a very good player, who has status here in the US but chooses to play almost exclusively in Europe. This is fine, I would much rather live in my native country, but I don’t know that it is condicive to winning The Masters. I have never played golf in Europe, but based on watching it on tv the courses over there look a lot different than Augusta National does. Of course he played at Arizona State, but desert golf is also different that Augusta National.

Robert Karlsson- It seems like Robert is in good shape to make a good showing. He seems to have come to the US to get ready as he has played five times over here since Dubai. He is 33rd in the world and seems to have gotten a lot better over the years. However, this will be his fourth week in a row to play and unless he is the next Vijay Singh, it seems this is not a real good thing to do.



Good chance to be invited back next year

As we all know the top 16 and ties got invited back the next year

Paddy (Padraig Harrington)- I really like Padraig’s hopes at Augusta for two reasons. First, he went to college and graduated with a degree in accounting, proving he is a very intelligent person. I don’t think it is crazy to say accountants are the single smartest group of people in the world. Second, as an Irishman, Padraig has to see the green jacket as the perfect St. Pattys Day wardrobe. No matter where you are in the world on March 17th, if you are wearing an official Masters green jacket, you will have the best thing on at the party. That is the little extra motivation one needs to pull it off at Augusta.

Tim Clark- I think Tim uses the same mindset as Tiger, in that the other tournaments really don’t matter to him. Unfortunately for him, he is not the best player ever, but simply a short (shorter than me) guy who putts with a long putter. I am not even sure he plays in the other events, but he is always right there at the end of every major. How many years in a row have you been watching the U.S. Open and they cut to the little guy draining a putt from across the green about 4 holes in front of the leader and all of the sudden he sneaks on NBC’s little leaderboard on the bottom of the screen? He also finshed second last year in the Masters by making a sand shot on 18. If fatty had finshed the Masters the way he did the U.S. Open this guy would own a green jacket.

Stewart Cink- In honor of the guy who got on the MARTA train Saturday decked in Georgia Tech gear (I think he was wearing a Kenny Anderson jersey), I say this, in 2001 if someone would have told me that Double D and Stewart Cink would be where they are now I would not have believed it. Double D, as has been documented, has lost it, and for the first time is not in the field. Stewart was riding high as a young up and comer, but ever since he blew that U.S. Open he has never been the same. I just looked him up on PGAtour.com and they had a win in the three tour challenge as one of his wins. I didn’t even know they still had that tournament. Although Wendy’s is an excellent restaurant.

Sergio Garcia- I am pretty sure this isnt the Ryder Cup so Sergio wont be able to putt still. I wonder if Seve and Jose Maria sit around and discuss how they had two of the greatest short games of all time and Sergio simply cannot putt. If Seve or Ollie could have hit it like Sergio they would have both won career Grand Slams. I think Sergio will eventually win a major, but it will either be the British or PGA. I also think if he started endorsing Budweiser instead of Michelob Ultra that would help him.

Luke Donald- Luke finished third at Augusta in 2005, and he has almost everything you really want at Augusta, but he just doesn’t hit it far enough. Since everyone in Atlanta told me it hasn’t rained in months that means that without a doubt it will pour on Thursday delaying the action and driving me crazy. Less importantly, this will make the course too long for most players, including Luke.

Update: According the AO, it has rained in Augusta and the course is playing very long.

Immelman- As Gary player gets ready to tee it up for his 50th time at Augusta, I submit that the best South African player in the world is Trevor Immelman. This is based on very weak evidence, as the goose is actually ranked higher than the I-man and of course Gary, The Easy, and the goose have a better resumes, but Trevor is awesome and he is only 27. He has only won once on tour, but that one was the Western last year and he held off a charging Tiger. He was the only one to beat Tiger in stroke play for about 7 months.

Stuart Appleby- Stuart quietly has become the best player not to have won a major. I don’t think his name gets brought up as the best player without a mjaor because he is 36, and he kind of flies under the radar because no one can get him and Robert Allenby straight. However, he has no real weaknesses in his game, and with a win, he would quickly be looked at like a top ten player in the world.

Wetterich- I have been following Bretts career pretty closely and his rise has been incredible. One day he was just some no name having parties hosted at Stiegs and the next he is playing for the Ryder Cup team. I don’t know that he putts it well enough to win, but he can bomb it so I think he can have a good showing. Augusta caters to long hitters so much now that it really does limit the field of guys who can win and Wetterich is one of those guys who hits it long enough to compete.

Camilo- Last year coming into The Masters Camilo was on fire. I think he had already made close to a million dollars at that point. Sadly, he was not actually in the Masters. This year he is not nearly as hot, although he did almost win at the Honda. I think the more important question is, when do you think Camilo will start to read the greens in a usual way? He is probably all over yoga and pilates class at the gym, but at some point “the spider” is going to have to fade. I am going to say he makes it to 28 still doing it, and it quietly fades away from there. I also wonder if it will hurt his game to lose this green reading stance.

David Howell- I bet I have seen David Howell hit less than 20 golf shots in his career, but for some reason I really have high hopes for him. Completely irrational other than he dominates in Europe. Could turn into the first great player who chooses not to play in the U.S. full time, or he could become the next Mrs. Doubtfire.

Ian Poulter- Ian is awesome. There are very few people in the world that can pull off the clothes Ian wears, but I think most of the time he looks pretty good. However, I think all the goofy clothes, wearing all pink on the last day at the U.S. Open for example, makes people under estimate how good this guy is. He is a top 30 player in the world, and he just turned 30.

Justin Rose- Would I say it was the greatest idea ever to decide to go pro based on making a 50 yard shot on 18 at the British Open? No, but it seems to have worked out. I feel like, most of the guys I have in this group and a few others are all between 25-30 waiting to start winning, but none of them think they can beat Tiger, which they cant, but it is not a good mindset to have if you are going to be in the same tournaments. The only guys younger than Tiger who have won a major are Curtis and Ogilvie. Curtis had a great round, but was playing way out ahead of the leaders and the way that course was set up, easy front hard back, you had to make hay going out and try to hold on. He did and no one could hold on. Ogilvie’s win Tiger missed the cut, and we all know what Phil did. My point being tiger wasn’t really lurking for either of these two guys wins.

Fatty (Phil)- Where is toby Keith when you need him? What will Phil do next? It really is amazing to think only 9 months ago Phil was about to turn the golf world on its head and be going for the Mickelslam. Since that disaster, Phil has been all over the map. Mostly he has been down, but he should have won two weeks in a row about a month ago. Plus as I mentioned above he has taken to karate. One thing we know is he has probably played Augusta 60 times in the last month and he might be living with Dave Pelz and Rick Smith in the cart barn at Augusta. However, I don’t think Phil is playing well enough right now to win. He has been a non-factor too many times this year. One final thought, why couldn’t Phil play last week like he usually does? The tournament was in Houston instead of Atlanta, but on a private jet that has to be about 30 minutes further. Granted he would have lost a hour coming back, but was an hour and half really that important? The logic of Phil never ceases to amaze.


Top 10

10) Jim Furyk- I think Jim is officially going out of his way to be the worst looking guy on tour. He is second in the world rankings, plays every week, and finishes in the top 10 evey week so he is always on tv. Presumably he could get a good sponsor. Yet somehow, he wears button down short sleave shorts that say Exelon on them and wears a Srixon hat. If they are paying him to look like that he should be getting as much as Tiger is from Nike.

9) Angel Cabrera- Angel always seems to be lurking, much like the Ocean Reef lurker, at the Masters. Angel hits it a mile and really seems to like Augusta. Don’t be surprised to look up early Sunday and see Angel right there 2 off the lead.

8) Geoff Ogilvy- I really think Geoff is going to be a star. His first major was kind of a gift (totally a gift) but he has a ton of game. Unfortunately, he had to take off almost the whole summer last year because his wife had a child, but I think he will contend. He hits it long, has a very good short game, and putts it pretty well. Plus he doesn’t seem to get rattled too much. He is playing the first round with Boom Boom and The easy. It could be the most relaxed pairing of all time.

7) Lucas Glover- Lucas could very well be the best American under thirty. I really feel like the media saying that because based on achievment it is not close with Ben Curtis who owns a major. However, Lucas is only 26, 3 years younger than Ben (a central Ohio native), and he has a great game. He will be around for a while out there, and I think he will win more than one major.

The thing is with all these talented young guys is can any of them challenge Tiger, Phil or Vijay? They get criticised all the time for not winning majors, but there really isnt much they can do. Right now Tiger is winning two majors a year, Phil wins one, Vijay wins .5 (which of course is impossible), that leaves .5 majors for everyone else. There are 9 guys under 30 in the top 30 in the world rankings. At this pace half of them are not going to win any majors and the other half are only going to get 1 or 2. Of course Tiger wont win 2 every year for the next ten years, but I really think it is going to be a while before a lot of very good players get a chance to win a major.

6) Chuck Howell III- This guy has had a complete resurgence in his game, and a lot has been made of his new putting and improved putting. However, Chuck is still not a great putter. In the Hawaii tournament where he lost to Paul Goydos he missed a few shorts ones to blow it, at the Buick he three jacked the last green to give the tournament to Tiger, and when he won at Riviera Fatty gave him the tournament. Chuck is still a very good player, and maybe on the twentieth anniversary for Augusta native Larry Mize’s win, Chuck can pull one out as well.

5) Paychex (Jeff Sluman)- We know one thing for certain, when the tournament begins he will have the finest looking hat in the field. However, I think this might be the year for him to make a run at the jacket and for him to pick up that second major. Based on the stats, Paychex is going to have a tough time, but the most important thing is, he is crafty. I would say Paychex is kind of like Maggert was a couple of years when he was leading on Sunday. Doesn’t hit it real far, but he can get it in the hole when he is on and I think he will be. However, Paychex would be smart enough to jump out of the way if his own ball is going to hit him instead of just standing there like Maggert did.

4) A Scott- Just won the Shell Houston Open despite giving his ball a rinse on the last hole. Based on last years Masters this is an excellent sign. However, A Scott, very much like Chuck Howell, has all the looks of a great player. It just seems like Scott always tenses up on the greens when the pressure is highest. I am not sure if it is because he looks like a fancy boy wearing Burberry shirts and his incredible collection of argyle sweaters, or the fact that Greg Norman is more than likely his hero in golf, but Adam just doesn’t get it done on Sundays in majors.

3) Carl Petterson- Last year on Sunday of the Memorial as I was suffering from a case of Bogey Inn fever, Mr. Stieg was hooting and hollering for either Zach Johnson or Brett Wetterich, but Carl stepped in and won. Carl and I are basically neighbors now since we both live in Raleigh so I am sure he will be ready. I know if I were in the Masters, I would be ready.

2) Tiger Woods- Honestly, it takes great restraint on my part not to pick Tiger to win. The guy is the best to ever pick up a club. There really is no rational for not picking Tiger, but I am going to go with two reasons he wont win. 1) Karma- at Doral he laid up on a par four. It was the smart thing to do and the 18th at Doral is impossible (just look at my scores in my one tournament played there) but he is Tiger Woods. That is a David Simms move, not Tiger (or roy McAvoy) 2) Tiger always plays the first round of a major like he is afraid to make birdies, and it always causes him to fall behind, especially if he makes in a few bogies. It seems to be best for him to make a real early bogey so he gets upset. Plus, he cant win every major can he?

1) Vijay Singh- Around Christmas time I was laying around my apartment flipping through the channels when I came across a celebrity parent-child featuring pros and their kids. As an experienced parent-child player, as well as defending Muirfield Village parent-child champs, I felt maybe I could catch a glimpse of the Nicklaus team to do a little early scouting to see if my dad and I have a chance this year. However, my attention was quickly diverted when I saw little Vijay and Vijay on the putting green. Suddenly, I jumped out of my chair when I saw that Vijay’s putter was taller than little Vijay. I grabbed my phone and called the driver of the Vijay bandwagon, Mr. Kenny Riddell, to tell him that Vijay is using the long putter again. After blowing a number of tournaments using the conventional putter last year, Vijay was BACK! I made a prediction, which I posted on the prediction board that Vijay would win 8 times this year. Quietly, very quietly, Vijay is proving me correct. He and Tiger are the only guys on tour this year with multiple wins, and Vijay seems ready to put on his second green jacket.

In addition, I learned this week that Vijay’s name means Victorious Lion. What a great name for him. How has this not been brought up before to compete with Tiger?

From 1958-1966 the winners were Palmer, Art Wall jr., Palmer, Player, Palmer, Nicklaus, Palmer, Nicklaus, Nicklaus. Amazing, but I think we are in a similar stetch right now. From 2000-2006 the winners have been Vijay, Tiger, Tiger, Queer, Fatty, Tiger, Fatty. Part of this is because the course is so long it eliminates a lot of guys, but I think Vijay adds to this run and continues his legacy as a poor man’s Gary Player.





Additional Notes

- It is hard to believe Hootie is not going to be there for the jacket ceremony this year. I am really hoping the new guy calls it The Masters “too-na-mint.” In honor of Hootie, I share an email Kenny sent me this morning.

Rerporter: Hootie, how long can Augusta National and its members put on this golf tournament without the aid of sponsors or commercials?

Hootie: INDEFINITELY

Hootie you will be missed.


- Knock on wood, but the weather is supposed to be great, a little chilly, but no rain. It might be the first time in a few years we get to watch as much golf as we are supposed to be able to see. Can’t wait to see it.

- Maybe my favorite development for the viewers this year is Faldo taking over at CBS golf. Lanny was not a good announcer because he mumbled a lot and made no sense. Faldo is awesome. He is smart funny and by far the best player that has ever gone up in the booth. Plus, he is a three time winner at Augusta. There are very few people who have won three times at Augusta, and one of them is going to be calling the shots from the booth. Hopefully he will be wearing that green jacket.

- Finally, I have spoken to both Kenny and Duffey and they hav ensured me they are going into the lab known as Duffey’s apartment to concoct some new drinks, including “The Golden Bear” which will be ready by The Memorial. There will also be the Bloomin’ Boom Boom and The Butler Cabin.