Champions
Past Their
Prime
Tomorrow three of the
greatest Masters Champions will get us started with their opening tee
shots. Unfortunately, they will open the
door for many past champions who are well past their primes and nowhere near
the legends they are. Most of the guys still
playing won The Masters in the 1980s.
Unfortunately, the three best players from that generation are not
playing for different reasons and the caliber of these guy definitely leaves a
lot to be desired.
Sandy Lyle- It is the 25th anniversary
since Sandy won his Masters so he has been interviewed more than normal this
week, which is great because he almost always has something crazy to say. This year he has arrived at Augusta certain
that he can win. While you have to
admire the confidence the fact that he finished dead last last year with an
average score of 82 makes you wonder how realistic his chances are. He is also launching a clothing line this
year, but as of my writing the particulars have not been released. Those of you who have always wanted to dress
like Sandy now have your wish.
Jose Maria Olazabal- Jose
almost killed a man yesterday in the practice round. As you can see he is quite bloodied. It is amazing how rarely the people seem to
be hurt when they get hit by the ball at golf tournaments. What is particularly surprising to me is how
few fans get hit at Pebble Beach pro am.
I was watching the Haney Project with Michael Phelps recently and the
fans were crowding around for his shots like do for the pros and he is
definitely not a pro at golf. He did go
swimming with Hank in the episode I watched and he was an excellent swimmer.
The Walrus- The Walrus
received the key Augusta from the mayor this week. During the ceremony he revealed that he loves
to come back to Augusta and play the member tees. A great way to spend the day, but not to get
ready for the tournament.
Ben Crenshaw- It is not a great sign for your chances when
all the results of a google search of your name indicates you played a practice
round with a 14 year old. 18 years ago
when Ben won his second green jacket he was past his prime so he is looking to
have two days of playing in The Masters and who can blame him for that.
Mark O’Meara- The biggest
news in O’Meara camp this year is he risked a scolding from Augusta National, by
breaking their no cell phones on the premises, to text his old pal Tiger Woods
after he won and Bay Hill. Tiger did not
reply. Why Mark told the media this I do
not know.
Ian Woosnam- I have almost
finished reading the relatively new Ken Follett book Winter of the World and
read Fall of Giants in the fall. Both
books are good, interesting and quick reads but a decent part of both books
takes place in Wales. It is probably not
normal for most readers, but I always think of Woosy when the setting moves
back to Wales.
Tom Watson- Tom is the last
guy in the field who won a Masters in the 1970s. This is not good news for his chances.
Larry Mize- I cant blame Larry
for playing each year, but he is barely playing the Champions Tour at this
point. I was hoping for Greg Norman’s
sanity he might retire after the 25th anniversary of his chip in.
Bernhard Langer- Bernhard
has probably had the best reaction to the anchoring ban when he said if he
causes him to stop having fun playing he will simply quit.
Bad Past
Champions
There are a few past
champions who aren’t really that old, but are just not good anymore. Very soon this category will just be called
the Mike Weir category.
Trevor Immelman- As hard as
it is to believe, as bad as he has been in other tournaments Trevor has not
missed the cut at Augusta National since 2006.
That said he was 13 over last year and only beat 2 people who made the
cut so don’t get your hopes too high Immelman fans. He is also coming into this tournament on a
very cold streak.
The Queer (Mike Weir)- It is almost impossible for me to
understand or explain how bad The Queer has been over the last two years, but I
will try. Mike Weir is the worst player
in this years Masters. I assume almost
if not all the people reading this preview have 0 world ranking points. This means you have the same amount as Mike. This essentially means he hasn’t finished in
the top 50 of a golf tournament in the last 2 years. In his last 40 tournaments, he has missed the
cut or withdrawn in 35 of the tournaments.
It has been a sad state of affairs for The Queer.
Also, this article is hysterical. Two careers that have gone downhill in the
last 10 years.
As we know, Augusta National loves to
invite their amateurs. It is always an
interesting race on Sunday to see who will win low am, but no amateur has done
much more than make the cut recently.
Michael Weaver- US Amateur runner up- No one in the tournament qualified in as
disappointing fashion as Miachel. He was
invited to the Masters as a result of his finish as the runner-up at the U.S.
Amateur. What made it so tough is he had
about a 3 footer to win the U.S. Amateur on th 36th hole of his
match with Steven Fox. He hit the putt
and with about one foot left it looked like it was going to go in the center of
the hole, but it hit something, hopped left and ultimately lipped out left. They then moved onto the famous first hole at
Cherry Hills and Michael made a mess of the hole and lost his match. It is not a bad consolation to be invited to
the Masters, but he was very close to the gold medal of U.S. Amateur Champion.
Steven Fox- The US Amateur
Champion- This is the guy who beat Michael Weaver. He is the 29th ranked amateur in
the world. If he had not won the amateur
he would not be ranked. Basically he got
hot for a week.
Tianlang Guan- The Asian
Amateur Champion- He is the youngest player to ever play in the Masters at 14
years old. It really is amazing he
qualified. He hits his driver 250 yards
according to a story I read. Tiger
mentioned he was hitting a lot of hybrids into the greens. If true, this is
going to be a rough first start to the Masters, but does that really
matter? Every pro has had a quote about
this guy this week and everyone seems impressed by his demeanor as much as
anything else. If you need more
information about this guy, simply google The Masters. I think about 60% of the article written this
week were written about him.
Nathan Smith- The Mid Amateur
champion- Nathan is making his 4th appearance at The Masters. Nathan is the best amateur in the country who
probably wont turn pro someday. He has
not made the cut in his previous three attempts. Last time he was here he was shot 75-77 to
miss the cut so hopefully he will do better this time.
T.J. Vogel- US Publinks
champion- The USGA decided to get rid of
the publinks in 2014. T.J. will be one
of the lasts winners to get an exemption to The Masters. Unfortunately it looks bleak for him to have
a great week on the course. T.J. had
surgery in December and has not been having a good spring for the Florida
Gators since he returned with his best finish a T12. This is very bad news for T.J.’s hope to win
the low amateur honors.
Alan Dunbar- The British
Amateur Champion- He is another Northern Irishman who is only about a year
younger than the phenom Rory. He is
going to turn pro on Monday. When he
turns pro he has no status on any tour, so by Monday he is going to be on the
European mini tours. That is a very big
change for a guy sleeping in the Crows nest this week.
Cut
I made a few sub-categories for this
group, but almost all of these guys are struggling with their game these days.
Won a British
Open- Slowly Fading Into Retirement
This is a new category I created to
honor two guys who both won British Open in the last four years and seemed to
called it quits either intentionally or subconsciously.
Darren Clarke- I said it last year I will say it again,
Darren basically retired when he won the British Open two years ago. He will be outside the top 1,000 in world
rankings by the end of July. He and Stew
might be trying to get exemptions onto the Champions Tour early. I am pretty sure he just hangs out in Ireland
these days.
Stew Cink- Stew seems to feel so bad about beating Tom
Watson in the British he has decided to slowly get worse and worse until he is
forgotten completely. The other possible
explanation for this slump is he has become totally obsessed with twitter and
no longer has the focus to play 18 holes.
Actors Have
The Same Name
This was going to be a category with
both Adam Scott and Ben Curtis, but then I decided that Adam would probably
play well and moved him. So a tip of the
hat the Adam Scott the actor, keep up the good work.
Ben Curtis- You may recall back in the days of Dell being
the best computer company they had a spokesman who always said, “Dude, you’re
getting a dell.” He was very annoying
but effective apparently. Turns out that
guy was named Ben Curtis. If you really
have a good memory you may recall he got arrested for marijuana possession and
got fired. Surprisingly, his career has
not taken off since then. He has
recently been in the news because he is sure he can save the computer company
as it goes through this battle for control.
Clearly they have just been missing a good pitchman and Apple has
nothing to do with their failings.
Anyway, Ben Curtis the golfer seems to got hot about every one and a
half to two years. He was hot last
year and got a win so he is probably
cold for another year or so.
Potential
Steroid/HGH users whose case seems to have oddly gone away
I was also going to
make this a two person category but I wanted to put Tiger somewhere else. It is very strange to me that nothing ever
came of these two cases.
Vijay Singh- Now that Vijay is officially over 50 I think we
can safely say his best golf is behind him.
He was involved in one of the oddest stories of the year. I am sure many of you remember when Ray Lewis
was taking Deer Antler spray for his injuries that allowed him to come back for
the playoffs this year. It all came out
during the super bowl and since he was retiring there wasn’t much the NFL could
do (if they cared at all). During that
time, it also came out Vijay is a big proponent of deer antler spray even
pushing it other players. The deer
antler spray contained a banned substance so in theory Vijay should have been
banned for some time. However, he simply
withdrew from the tournament that week (The Phoenix Open) and then returned to
action shortly thereafter and refused to answer any questions. Luckily for the tour, none of their other
members that have nicknames of jungle cats have ever been involved in a potential
steroid scandal that mysteriously went away.
Note: Bob Charles was also a big proponent of deer antler
spray.
Special
Invites
The powers that be at Augusta have invited two special people to The
Masters this year.
Ryo Ishikawa- For the second year in a row Ryo received a
special invitation to The Masters. Augusta
National said they invited Ryo because they have made a commitment to promoting
the game of golf in Asia. Ryo is by far
the biggest star in Asia.
Coincidentally, there are a big money contracts the Masters has to show
the golf tournament in Japan that may be worth less if he wasn’t consistently
involved. Ryo is currently ranked 114th
in the world and is the third ranked Japanese player so one would think they
simply wanted a token Japanese golfer there were two better candidates.
Thaworn Wiratchant- My theory is this guy was the
beneficiary of Ryo and the Japanese TV contracts. Thawron is the all-time leader in wins on the
Asian tour which is a lot like Crash Davis leading the minors in home
runs. What he is most known for though
is his horrible looking golf swing. Here
is a link so you can see for yourself, but if you go to your local muni most of
the players you see will a better swing than Thaworn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k83QMw4TCto
The rest of
the group who is cut
Jamie Donaldson- The
37 year old Welshman is making his debut at The Masters this year and like many
of us here in the US, his practice has been interrupted by the weather. “We’ve had so
much snow here this year – twelve feet drifts at times – that I haven’t been
able to get out and practice much,' Donaldson told The Sun in London. Rather than be bothered by this or go
somewhere else to practice he started
preparing for the tournament by playing Augusta National on Tiger Woods golf on
X-Box. I have to admit, I have also
turned to the video game systems in the heart of a cold winter. It is something I highly recommend. You throw a few hot dogs on the grill when
you tee off and they are ready when you make the turn too. However, I did not find this helped my golf
game at all and can’t imagine it will help Jamie either.
Thomas Bjorn- Thomas has not played a round since the
opening round of the match play tournament.
I was unable to determine if there was some news about an injury that
sprung up this year. In my search, I did
see that he withdrew from a tournament last year with a back injury he suffered
on a flight from London to Arizona. I
found this amusing given his history with flight attendants.
Hiroyuki Fujita- This guy totally dominates the Japanese tour
and somehow slipped into the top 50 in the world in order to qualify. I considered just going back to previous
previews and copy and pasting my rant about guys who dominate the Japanese tour
and make it into the top 50, but clearly I did not. It baffles me that a guy who is on at best a
second tier tour can score enough world ranking points to get this high. It is like if a guy dominated the Web.com
tour, chose not to go to the PGA Tour, but somehow ended up in The Masters.
Tim Clark- The scrappy South American continues his recovery
after his elbow surgery in 2011.
However, by the time he comes back fully he may not be able to putt
anymore if his long putter remains banned.
It will be sad if his putter gets banned because I have always enjoyed
that fact that he had a club almost as tall as him in the bag.
George Coetzee- Like many before and many after George started
his college career in America and had a little bit too much fun in the first
semester. He did himself no favors by
attending San Diego State either.
Fortunately, it was what he needed.
He returned home to South Africa, devoted himself to the game and now
makes his triumphant return stateside to play in The Masters.
The Big Easy- After The Masters Ernie has announced he is
going to switch from his belly putter back to his regular putter because of the
ban of anchored clubs. It is an odd move
since he clearly thinks the belly putter is better for him or he wouldn’t use
it this week. The ban doesn’t even start
until January 1, 2016 and Ernie will be 46 at that time. Why not use the club you think is best for
the next two and a half years? It makes
no sense Big Easy.
Brian Gay- Brian came out of nowhere to win the Bill Clinton
Humana Challenge and he just as quickly has gone back to nowhere. He has never made the cut at the Masters so I
see little hope for a breakout this week.
Lucas Glover- He has recovered from his paddle board injury and
he gotten re-married but his golf game is nowhere near where it was in
2009-2011. He has shaved and started to
dress nicely though so maybe there is some hope he can return to the form that
won him the U.S. Open.
John Huh- This is my dad’s favorite player. He likes to say Huh over and over again when
he comes on tv. If you ask him a
question when Huh is on the leaderboard, no matter what question it is, he
responds with, “HUH?” This has not made
me a big Huh fan. Fortunately, he hasn’t
been having as good a year this year as he did last year.
Fredrik Jacobson- I have been a fan of Fredrik over the years. I always enjoyed his amazing short game and
terrible long game. This slight fandom
caused me great concern this year during The Northern Trust Open at Riviera. Fredrik missed short putts on 17 and 18 to
lose the tournament. These were the kind
he never misses. I am worried that such
a unique player may have come to the end of his run. He has rebounded to some extent though so
maybe it was just a bad day.
Paul Lawrie- Paul had an amazing 2012, but 2013 has started
off much worse for him. I read a couple
interviews with him because I had very little to write about him as he seems to
be a pretty boring guy. From what I
read, he is outraged that people harass him on twitter, but he then responds to
them which only leads to more harassment.
He then gets more outraged.
Marc Leishman- Marc says his favorite sport is cricket. Given
how slow that sport is golf must seem like a game of basketball for him. I did see the top play on sportscenter this
morning was a cricket guy making a diving catch. An omen for Mark?
John Merrick- Usually the Northern Trust Open is one of my
favorite tournaments of the year. This
is mostly because it is one of Boom Boom’s favorite and best courses. He would get his name on the leaderboard
causing me to get my Fred pictures out of the basement get ready for the
season. Unfortunately, that was not the
case this year and we were left to watch a playoff between Merrick and Charlie
Beljan. Charlie basically didn’t finish
the devilish 10th at Riviera.
Since then Merricks best finish in 4 starts was a T45.
Francesco Molinari- Francesco is one of the most consistent
players in the world. I don’t have much
else to say about him. I follow him on
twitter and the only thing he tweets about is practicing golf so it might be
all he does.
Ryan Moore- Coming off two straight missed cuts the self
proclaimed hipster of golf is not coming in at his top form. One would think wearing a short that allowed
more stretching would help him, but he is content with the tie and the little
painters hat.
Kevin Na- I don’t know why but Kevin has not played since the
Puerto Rico Open, which was played in February.
I assume this was the result of an injury, and not as one hopes the
result of a suspension due to slow play.
However, I also learned he grew up on the out skirts on Rancho Cucomoungo
so it is possible he has gotten mixed up with Adam, Blake and Ders and has gone
into the call center business.
John Peterson- John correctly pointed out he is the first player
to ever play in The Masters who was exclusively on the
web.com/nationwide/Nike/Hogan tour. He
qualified by finished 4th at the US Open last year where he had a
very legitimate chance to win until he double bogeyed the par 5 16th.
He is best known for putting his putter cover in his back pocket while he
putts. One thing I can assure you from
following him on twitter, nobody loves the city of Baton Rouge more than John.
Carl Pettersson- Carl’s game is just about the opposite of
what is traditionally considered what you need to win here. He is hits a big cut shot and is an okay
putter. I don’t think the cut hurts him
too much. Jack played a cut and I am
about 95% sure Tiger will be this week too.
However, the broom stick putter could be causing him some trouble on the
slick greens. Whatever the case he
hasn’t made a cut at Augusta since 2007 when he finished T52.
Scott Piercey- Scott will be playing with Tiger and Luke the
first two days of the tournament, which will likely not help his debut at
Augusta. He is coming off a career year
last year but so far this year hasn’t been as good. The most interesting thing about his golf
game is he uses a baseball grip to play.
Not since the glory days of Bob Estes has this unconventional grip seen
success on the tour.
D.A. Points- I have to admit, when D.A. and Bill Murray took
home the crown at Pebble two years ago I thought it was a great story, but I
also thought it would probably be D.A.’s only win. At the time I am sure the Points fans had
high hopes but even they had to be surprised when he won in Houston two weeks
ago. He has played 11 tournaments this
year, missed 7 cuts, finished 53rd of lower 3 times and won
once. It truly was a Cinderella story
for him to win two weeks ago.
Ted Potter Jr.- I am sure if you spent any time at all
reading this you are aware of how Bubba swung last year to hit that shot from
the woods on 10 in what turned out to be the last hole of the tournament. You may recall he really exaggerated his
follow through at the end. You will
likely be surprised to learn that Ted Potter Jr.’s follow through is more
pronounced than that on every shot. This
picture below is a normal follow through.
The more I have looked at pictures of his follow through the more amazed
I am. I don’t know how he doesn’t have
horrible back pain.
John Senden- “If he weren't playing golf, he would be "working
on the sheep and cattle station owned by the in-laws." Do we need to know any more than that about
this guy?
Kevin Streelman- I always figured he was going to be this
generations Joe Ogilvie, but maybe he is going to be a better player than
Joe. Anyway, the man of streel played
great down the stretch at Innisbrook where he won in March.
Michael Thompson- This is an amazing website that pretty much
has any information you will ever need about Michael Thompson’s golf game. http://www.thompsontide.com/ The most interesting thing I learned on there
is that Michael has been practicing his autograph on hard to write on surfaces
such as balls and gloves. Does he just
take a bucket home from the range and sign?
Only an Eagle scout would do that.
David Toms- Toms is a guy you almost never think about but
every year he cashes a million dollars or more, has a few high finishes and is
worried about a LSU game during one tournament.
Y.E. Yang- The yangatang has been suffering for the weight of
expectations that came along with his remarkable victory over Tiger in the PGA
in 2009. I hope my creation of the yang-a-tang
drink did not add to the weight on his shoulders. In an effort to help him return to form I
have decided not to make the yang-a-tang this year. Instead I am turning my attention to what I
hope is the first ever successful Golden Bear.
Top 44 and Ties
Player I am
amused by when in contention
What can I say, I love Angel
Angel Cabrera- There is no reason to think Angel Cabrera can
win this week, but there was no reason to think he would win the two majors he
has won. Form coming into an event does
not make any difference to Angel. He
could shoot a million but if he is strutting around Sunday sucking down heaters
in hopes to slip into his second green jacket I won’t be shocked either. He is a true throw back to a different time.
The Rest
Dustin Johnson- I have lost hope in DJ ever being more than a
side show. You may recall he missed last
years Masters because he hurt his back lifting a jet ski. That is just an idiotic way to cause yourself
to miss a major. This year started off
some promising. He won his first
tournament of the year in Hawaii with his new girlfriend, Wayne Gretzky’s
daughter, alongside. He then played in
every pro am under the sun with Wayne and he game got worse and worse until he
finished 4th in Houston. If
he manages to get himself into contention I assume there will some sort of
idiotic meltdown like a left handed chip or a lay up out of bounds.
Bo Van Pelt- Bo’s wife is apparently an excellent seller of Monavie
products. Monavie is a multi-level
marketing business model that sells stuff to make fruit and vegetable
smoothies. It seems really strange to me
that she is involved in this stuff given the fact that her husband makes over
$2M a year. Why get involved in some
sort of a pyramid scheme?
Nick Watney- Like Rory, Watney’s biggest move of the off
season was to switch from Titliest to Nike.
So far it has helped neither player.
Lee Westwood- He has
moved to America to prepare better for the majors. Colin Montgomery has declared this his last
year to win a major. Will the pressure
be too much for Lee? I think he will put
too much pressure on himself this week and struggle on the weekend. I will say though, I really enjoyed his
appearance on Feherty on The Golf Channel.
It is and excellent show.
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano- I wont lie to you, I was very
tempted to just take this guy out of the preview. Ineviably he would have been leading at some
point on day one because I think every year I have done this preview I have
accidentally missed someone and they have taken the lead. Sorry Gonzo.
It was almost you.
Bob Garrigus- Bob has used the biggest range of putters of
anyone I have seen. He went from a 27
inch putter to a 47 inch putter. The 27
inch putter looked like he was screwing around and the 47 inch putter might be
banned soon. It is a lose lose for him
on the greens.
Peter Hanson- I will be the first to admit, I was late to get
on the Peter Hanson train, but this guy is good. He was the leader after 54 holes last
year. He stumbled early but held to
together to finish in 3rd place.
He won twice down the stretch last year including holding Rory off down
the stretch of the BMW. He probably has
the roundest face of any player in the event as well.
Paddy- Nobody does
things less conventionally than Paddy.
He kind of reminds me of the crazy neighbor down the street who is
always working on a wacky invention in his garage. You are about 98% sure that what he is doing
is insane, but the 2% that he might make some earth shattering keeps you
curious. Aside from the fact that he is
without a doubt the worst dresser on tour, he always has a new way of thinking
about things. This year his big new
thing to try has been wearing glasses when he played. Obviously this is a somewhat common thing to
do but rarely is a person certain it will improve his game like Paddy. He also has gone through about ten pairs
because something was wrong with them.
Note: My knowledge of crazy neighbors comes from sitcoms and
imagining what it would be like to live next to Arthur Spooner.
Russell Henley- He won his first tournament on tour so I
suppose he could win his first Masters.
This is a name you want to get to know because he will be around for
awhile. He won three times on the
Nationwide/web.com tour, once when he was an amateur and was the #1 amateur
when he turned pro.
Rickie Fowler- At some point Rickie is going to stop dressing
like an orange highlighter but it may be too late for a generation of golfers
and a strangely high number of middle aged men to stop emulating him. That said, he is a really good golfer and has
a lot of top 10s. He misses a high
number of short putts though which will ultimately ruin his chances at slipping
on the green jacket this year. Along
with the golf gods not allowing it with his all orange outfit.
Wild Billy Haas- Billy is having a good year with 5 top
10s. He has also had the lead in both of
his last two tournaments but has faltered in the final round. He will put his name in the mix early, but no
one has ever accused him of being Aroldis Chapman when it comes to closing a
golf tournament. There is always a lot
of nail biting by Bill when he gets near the lead.
The Belgian Bomber- Nicolas Coalsaerts- If you are headed
down to Augusta this weekend don’t call Nicolas “The muscles from Brussels.” He respects his elders and knows that
nickname belongs to Jean Claude Van Damn.
However, the Belgian Bomber, could be a contender this week. He is making his debut, but last week, somewhere down in Florida he ran
into Jack Nicklaus Jr. and asked him some advice. While Jack(ie) was on the bag during Jack’s
heroic victory in 1986 he wisely deferred the question to his dad. Jack and the bomber had a nice long
conversation about what was needed to happen this week for him to contend. He has the length and a roadmap. There will be guys less prepared.
Jason Dufner- The golf
boys have tried to make golf go viral it could not be done until Jason visited
a school for a charity event and was seen “Dufnering”. He said the photo represents how he acts most
of the time, which based on watching him play is very true. The other thing about it, he is very good. I could see him in a similar pose Sunday
night wearing a green jacket.
Thobjorn Olesen- A lot has been made about a young superstar
changing his equipment to Nike this off season, but Thorbjorn has not been hurt
at all. It could be because he switched from
Srixon to Nike. The 23 year old Dane
seems to be taking the baton from Thomas Bjorn.
I am sure the Danish golf fans are very pleased.
Matteo Manassero- It is wonderful to have Matteo back in
action in The Masters this year. He is
now 19 so he is old news compared to the 14 year old but he remains a 19 year
old inside the 50 in the world. That is very impressive. My biggest concern for him this week is his
pairing. He got paired with Ben Crenshaw
and the 14 year old, so his playing partners could both literally be shooting
85 which will make it very difficult to concentrate.
Richard Sterne- He was once considered to be part of a trio
with his fellow countrymen Louis and Charl.
Obviously those two have moved ahead of him in the race, but not because
of something Richard could control. He
missed almost all of 2010 and 2011 with a back injury. He started slowly on his comeback in 2012 but
he has come alive recently and could be moving back into that class of player
with his fellow countrymen. I don’t
think this is his year, but I suspect he will be in the running next year.
Brandt Snedeker- There are a lot of arguments that can made
about who is the best putter in the world, but I am throwing my weight behind
Brandt. He was the hottest player in the
world for the first month of the PGA Tour season. Unfortunately, he had some sort of weird rib
injury and now seems to be struggling with his game. It is amazing how taking a few weeks off can
totally change the way a guy is playing.
I haven’t lost hope for him. He
has played well here before, he can putt the lights out, and the bama bangs
gain him 1 shot per round on any course south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Louis Oosthuizen- As we have watched the basketball
tournament the last two weeks how many times have we seen the Bryce Drew shot
between the CBS promotions and the weird commercial where an astronaut is
involved at the end (the same play is used in both)? How
annoying would that be if you were on the Ole Miss team that gave up the
shot? I suggest Louis call those guys
because he is going to see that Bubba shot a million times for the rest of his
life. They should make a support group for
the losers in sporting events that the
highlights are shown over and over. They
could get the Cowboys from the Dwight Clark catch game, the Bengals of the John
Taylor game, Jack Nicklaus I suppose could get involved for the chip in by
Watson in the 82 Open, The Shark for the Larry Mize chip, Craig Ehlo and Bryon
Russell, and on and on we could go.
K.J. Choi- Like most of you, I was watching some of the
Kraft Nabisco action last weekend and much to my surprise the woman leading it
was a South Korean. She said her parents
were going to come and watch her if she finished the second round at 8 under
but she ended up at 7 under so they stayed in Seoul. I found this to be particularly strange since
their northern mad man is threatening to take down the entire country. Anyway, K.J. has continued to play at the
same level for about 15 years and has held off Yangatang, Sang Moon Bae and the
LPGA to keep his crown as best South Korean golfer and best Korean golfer if
you are as skeptical of Kim Jong Il’s scorecard as I am. Let’s
just hope he can continue to hold it.
Jim Furyk- Jim had always been a pretty reliable finisher
when he got his nose out in front. Then
last year he was blowing leads every chance he got. Coincidentally, he started to be endorsed by
5 Hour Energy last year. I have really
thought about this and wondered, is it because he would have run out of
energy? If he took it before he started
warming up it is probably close to 6 hours before he finishes. In that case you can’t blame the drink If he took it right before he teed off it
should have been enough though. Could he
take a second one at the turn or would that be too much energy? He should definitely talk to Clint Bowyer the
next time they make a commercial about this.
Zach Johnson- The Jerk- The Jerk has not been having a good
year so far this year with only one finish in the top 20. Lets hope it stays that way.
Martin Kaymer- The young German is coming out of a slump that
seemed to be caused by his attempts to change his swing for The Masters. After deciding his old swing was better in
general he abandoned the changes he was making.
So he is back to the old swing he was trying to change to do better at
Augusta. I don’t think he will do better
now than before he made these changes.
Jason Day- Since he turned pro the story on Jason Day has
remained the same. He is incredibly
talented but his results do not correlate to his ability. In 2011 it looked like he may have reached
where he needed to be after he climbed into the top 10 in the world. A down 2012 once again left Day fans around
the globe scratching their head. Jason
now thinks he has found the answer.
After cycling through a few sports psychologists he found a machine that
measures which part of his brain he is using.
He says if he is using his right brain he is focused. He can’t use the machine during the
tournament so he has to train his brain during the practice round. I don’t know if it is the machine but his
results so far this year have been much better than they were last year. If he wins this week look for the golf
channel to have a full day of infomercials about brain machines.
Luke Donald- Luke seems to be playing worse than he was a
year ago, but he is also playing with less pressure. Will the fact that he is no longer being
criticized for being ranked #1 without having won a major lighten the burden
enough for him to slip up the leader board?
It is hard to say, last time Luke played in America he finished in a tie
for 4th. He then flew all the
way across the globe to Malaysia (undoubtedly for a large appearance fee) where
he missed the cut for the first time ever on the European tour. I forecast an outing that got him ranked #1
in the first place, a solid finish but not a win.
Martin Laird- It is easy to forget about Martin Laird and
then he goes out like he did last Sunday and reminds you he can take it very
low. But he very rarely has two great
weeks in a row.
Webb Simpson- A lot of people on the internet seemed upset
that Webb switched from polo to izod as his clothing sponsor. I also found it strange, but to me the shirts
look pretty much the same so why not? Obviously he is getting paid. I myself have purchased some Izod shirt in
the last year because they are about half the price of a polo shirt where I was
shopping. So we both have more money by
going Izod instead of Polo (probably about the same amount too). Webb has not played as well since he returned
from paternity leave last August, but he can putt and he and his caddie will
make smart decisions so don’t rule him out.
David
Lynn- This guy is awesome. He is a true
journeyman pro making just his third start in a major after turning pro in
1995. He has started to play much better
over the last year and half and got into the PGA Championship. While Rory was running away with his 8 shot
victory David Lynn was quietly shooting back to back 68s on the weekend to
finish in second place. This earned him
an exemption to the Masters and a spot on the PGA Tour. He has basically been hanging out in America
with his caddie all year playing on the tour.
The highlight being a round he had with Tiger. His description:
"It was my first time playing with him. More
importantly it was his first time with me [laughs]. He was approachable,
chatting about football, stuff like that.
"I was asking him if he liked his Premiership
football. He said not really, they're always diving all over the place. I said,
I suppose you are into your rounders are you? Define rounders, he said. That
wooden bat and that ball, I said. I used to play that when I was 10 at school.
Thought I'd have a bit of craic with him. Like anybody, if you get him on the
right day, he is fine."
Hunter Mahan- Mahan has continued his solid play for another
year. He probably doesn’t have the short
game to dominate like a person who hits it as good as he does. One thing that I have noticed the announcers
do every time he is on tv is discuss his how hard he has worked on his chipping
since he hit the chili dip in the Ryder Cup in 2011. Then he hits a chip, which is usually not
that great and the fact that he doesn’t chili dip it they use as proof that he
has gotten better even though if he really chili dipped every chip before that he
would not be a pro golfer.
Top 16
As always the top 16 and ties will be invited back to next
year’s Masters
16) Sergio Garcia- It seems every year there is a golfer that
is coming off the resolution of a tax case.
This year that golfer is Sergio.
I cant even imagine how difficult it must be to keep track of all these
guys appearances and sources of income.
Technically, Sergio lost his case, but it sounds like it was a big blow
to the IRS. Sounds like golfers and
athletes will now owe less in taxes from their endorsements. Anyway, Sergio is mostly back from his lows
in 2010 and 2011. His biggest problem
seems to be mental. You may recall last
year he declared he was not good enough to win a major. Who am I to disagree?
15) Branden Grace- There wasn’t a hotter player in the world
outside of Rory McIlroy last year than Branden.
It was his first year on the European Tour and he won 4 times. He started off well again this year in
Europe. However, the last five
tournaments he has played have all been in America and his fate has been
decidedly worse. This will be his first
time playing in The Masters as well.
14) Graeme McDowell- Graeme is not known for his high risk
plays on the course, but this year on the course he is entering into two very
high risk activities. He is getting
married and opening restaurant this year.
The marriage sounds pretty good.
The restaurant he is opening sounds like a terrible concept to me. It is going to be a nice sports bar combined
with a high end restaurant right outside the gates of Lake Nona. Graeme is so cool and confident that after I
read Graeme’s explanation of how it would work I was ready to buy into it. His golf has been good this year. It might be because he knows he needs some
extra cash for this year.
13) Phil- I will never count Phil out at Augusta. No matter what his current form, he is
awesome at Augusta National. His putting
situation is the reason I don’t think he will win this week. He has been using the claw most of the year,
but now he has switched to a fat grip and using going to use a conventional
grip. He is also using a strong three
wood instead of a driver this week. This
is the same guy who won The Masters with two drivers in his bag a few years ago. This is all part of what Phil does these days
and it may work out great or it may be a colossal failure. Phil has so much talent he could come out and
blitz the field like he did in Phoenix, but I think the putter will keep him
from his fourth jacket.
12) Charl Schwartzel- I really like to write something of
interest about him, but all he seems to be doing is playing good. Obviously, having won this tournament two
years ago you have to like Charl’s chances.
He is also up to 15th in the world after an incredible
stretch he had at the end of last year where he finished T3, 2, 1, 1, 2, T3 in
a very symmetrical six tournament run.
11) Bubba- The defending champ has
done just about everything except play golf this year. Some of his non golf, but golf related
activities are dumb (his golf boys song) and some seem pretty cool (his hover
craft). He also took a few months off to
take care of his new child he and his wife adopted last spring. When he has played he has been pretty good
and with his length, ability to curve the ball, and imagination he could be
just our 4th repeat winner.
10) Keegan Bradley- Keegan is the most interesting case with
the anchoring ban. I say this because
everyone I have talked to tells me Webb will be okay, and we have seen a lot of
the other guys who are using anchored putters are not good putters so I assume
they will stink again once the ban starts.
On the other hand, I have never heard anything about or seen Keegan putt
without his anchored putter. Do we think
he will still be good? He is so goofy
with all his antics, one eye green reading, spitting, stalking the course that
I hope it just adds another layer of chaos to him on the course. I guess we will see in a few years.
9) Steve Sticker- If you ever watch
a golf tournament and Stricker is playing you will hear about how great a
putter he is. This is mostly true. It is not true when the pressure is on him. This was never more evident than at last
year’s Ryder Cup. You may recall coming
into Sunday the Americans had a large lead and seemed all but certain to
win. Through no fault of Steve’s the
Americans blew the lead and it came down to the final two matches. Stricker was playing Marty Kaymer and Tiger
was taking on Francesco Molinari. The
Americans needed a 1.5 points to win the cup and both matches were square with
2 holes remaining. As an American and
golf fan I was counting on Tiger pulling off some of his old magic as long as
Stricker could just pull out a half in his match. Things were looking good after his tee shot
on 17. Marty put his shot on the green
but nowhere near the hole. Steve hit
his, it landed near the cup but rolled over the green into the fringe. Kaymer putted first and ended up about 4 feet
past the hole. Stricker then decided to
chip his ball, leaving his best club in the bag. He
bladed his chip a little bit and it rolled about 4 feet by and was just a
little further away than Marty’s. No
problem for the worlds greatest putter right? Wrong. He missed his putt right and Marty made
his. Stricker now needed to win 18 or
the cup would stay across the ocean.
After the second shots by both men it was looking very bleak. Stricker had about 40 footer and Kaymer about
35 feet. One doesn’t really expect the
putt to be made in these situations but you would think given the desperation
of the situation it would come very close.
Stricker took his time getting the line and eventually he got ready to
hit the putt. He appeared to be aiming
way left of where he needed to hit the putt, but I just figured he knew more
than I did since I was at home on my couch.
He hit his putt it rolled and rolled and eventually ended up about 10
feet left of the hole. It was one of the
worst putts I have ever seen given the circumstances. The cup was lost. Sticker is now semi-retired he claims but he
is playing really well.
I tried to find a picture of his putt on 18 but the
photographers were probably unable to get the ball and the hole in the same
picture. This is a picture of his putt
on the 17th.
8) Ian Poulter- Speaking of the Ryder Cup, I have a theory
about why Ian is so much better at match play than he is in stroke play. I should say first, he is not bad at stroke
play since he is ranked in the top 15 in the world and almost all the
tournaments are stroke play. But, if all
of the tournaments were match play he would probably be rivaling Nicklaus. Here is my theory. By far the best part of his game is his
putting. His ball striking is average at
best and he doesn’t hit the ball very far.
This usually hinders him in stroke play events on the big long courses
most PGA tour events are held and more and more on the Euro Tour. However, in the match play events (Ryder Cup
and WGC) the course is set up to encourage birdies and make it more exciting
for the fans. It is no big deal if they
shoot lights out because they aren’t keeping score. However, this set up allows Ian to reach the
greens much more easily than he usually does and then use his putter to
dominate the events. Another theory
being pushed by his coach about why he is so good in these one on one
encounters is, “he has ba**s the size of France.”
7) Justin Rose- Rose has climbed to third in the world and
has had great success at Augusta over the years. Will this be the year he puts it all together? Maybe so but I am doubtful. He seems to be trending more along the lines
of Luke and Lee. I do think all of those
guys will win a major but I think their breakthroughs will be at the British or
PGA.
6) Freddie “Boom Boom” Couples- We can dream right? Fred said he felt like Augusta National is
his playgroud. It shows in the way he
plays. He hasn’t played a lot this year
but he has played pretty well on the champions tour. He is probably busy writing his hall of fame
speech. We already saw Rick Pitino win
the title the year he is going into the hall of fame, Fred might do the same. The nation will be behind him this week. Enjoy your Bloomin’ Boom Booms!
5) Henrik Steely Stenson- The man of steel was robbed of most
of his wealth by the Stanford Group in a Madoff type deal. Not real surprisingly, his golf game fell apart
at that time too. The man of Steel was
ranked as high as 230 in the world at the start of last year but he has worked
his way back into the top 50 and thus back to Augusta. On top of his return to form, he is also very
pleased to begin filling his coffers again.
4) Adam Scott- The career of Adam
Scott has proven to be quite a roller coaster and it looks like right now he is
once again on the down swing. A brief
history, Mr. Scott came onto the scene with a copy of Tiger’s swing (Butch
Harmon creation) and was regarded as the next great player. From 2004-2007 he won many tournaments around
the world and eventually climbed to 3rd in the world. From 2008-2010 he gradually fell in the world
rankings. Most of this was the result of
a very bulky putter. Then in 2011 he
re-emerged as a world class player with the assistance of his new best friend
the long putter, which he anchored to his chin.
His new putter had him in the lead of The Masters in 2011 with one hole
remaining, before Charl Schwartzel miraculously birdied the final 4 holes to
win the green jacket. This loss did not
hurt his positive momentum. After Tiger
fired Stevie Williams Adam picked him up and won the WGC at Firestone. This win pushed him back into the top 10 in
the world rankings. In 2012 Scott had a
back door top 10 in the Masters and seemed to be poised to be finally put his
name on the list of major champions and the Claret Jug last July. This is where things may have started to come
undone for Adam again. As I am sure many
of you remember Adam had a four shot lead with four holes to play. It looked like a walk in the park for him
until the 15th hole. Suddenly
he bogeyed the 15th, 16th, and 17th and needed
a par on 18 to merely force a playoff with Ernie Els. For some reason Scott hit a club that gave
him the perfect yardage to face of bunker and that is exactly where he ended
up. After a chip out sideways Scott was
left with a bogey and a second place finish.
It was a pretty horrific choke job.
While I am sure this was devastating to Scott the news that really set
his career back came from the USGA when they announced their anchoring
ban. There has been a lot of speculation
about how this will affect Webb and Keegan, but neither of those guys have
shown an inability to putt with a non-anchored putter like Adam has.
3) Rory McIlroy- Two things are certain, Rory is the most
talented player in golf these days and as a person making predictions I wish he
hadn’t played last week. After 4 months
of struggling due to either new clubs, the pressure of being #1, screwing
around more than he should as a rich 24 year old, just a plain old slump, or
wisdom teeth pain, the last three rounds of last week’s tournament looked like
vintage Rory (August 2012). I could see
Rory going three separate ways this week 1) He shoots two high numbers while
hitting it everywhere and misses the cut.
Proof that whatever is going wrong is getting better but isn’t there
yet. 2) He could shoot 64 every round
and break every record Augusta has. 3)
And this is what I think will happen, He will start off with about a 74,
recover with a 68 or 67, make a move on Saturday early and get within 3-4 shots
of the lead but make an untimely double bogey to fall back and then close with
about a 67 to move into the top 5.
2) Tiger- On paper he is the pick. I just don’t think he will win. For some reason he seems to start every
Masters with the objective of making a par on all 72 holes. This might work out okay in the US Open but
it gets him behind in the opening rounds at Augusta. The second reason I don’t like his chances is
his trouble hitting a draw. I don’t
really buy into the theory that the course is way easier with a draw but you
definitely need it on some shots. In
most of the rounds he has played this year he has hit very few draws which he
will definitely need and try to hit this week.
Finally, Tiger awful on the weekends last year in majors. He conceivably could have won three of them
but he blew it. All that said, Tiger
finished in 4th in both 2010 and 2011 so he knows how to play
Augusta, he could have won three majors last year so he is looking good. I have no doubt he will be in the hunt, but
he won’t be able to take down his old pal and the worlds best ping pong player
who is also a professional golfer.
1) Matt Kuchar-
When Kuchar played his first Masters in 1998 as the U.S. Amateur champion he
was just a smiley young kid playing with the defending champ (see photo below). He also seemed like the ideal sportsman in
the mind of Bobby Jones, at least as far as modern golfers go. Kuchar then turned pro and struggled for a
long time. He gradually worked his way
to being an elite player and now he is ready for his first major, where it has
to be at Augusta National. There is a
theory that for every ten wins a guy will win about one major. Kuchar has 8 and when he wins on Sunday he
will have 9. Bobby Jones will be smiling as Bubba slips
that green jacket over the yellow jackets shoulders on a warm Georgia Sunday
night.
Thanks for reading the preview my
friends. I hope everyone enjoys
The Masters.
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