2015 Masters Preview
The Masters has arrived! Only time will tell who will be slipping on
the green jacket Sunday night, but we are in for a great 4 days of golf. I hope you enjoy the preview.
The Seniors
As we all know there are some
players this week who are mostly ceremonial, some that are hopelessly out of it
and some that still have some game but spend most of their time on the senior
tour.
“Gentle” Ben Crenshaw- This is it for Gentle Ben. After 43 appearances and two green jackets
Ben has decided to hang it up. I will
never forget his triumph in 1995 and the fall over victory celebration he had
after the final putt was holed. It was
an amazing tribute to his friend Harvey Penick.
Even the great Roger Federer hasn’t perfected the crumble on the floor
victory celebration like Ben did 22 years ago.
Considering the better of his two scores last year was an 83, I don’t
think anyone is going to be saying he left too soon.
Tom Watson- Tom is clearly an agent of
change. He guided our American Ryder Cup
to an embarrassing loss last fall, didn’t listen to another soul on how things
should be run and caused Phil to throw a hissy fit in order to force some changes
we need to make if the Ryder Cup will ever reside stateside again. You have to appreciate Tom’s ability to see
the forest from the trees. Sure he could
have tried to win the Ryder Cup, but would we have ended up with a committee
and Davis Love III as captain again?
Clearly the committee has proven their worth, the captain they have
chosen is proven. Unfortunately for the
committee, there isn’t a person from America who has captained our team to
three international victories in a very similar format to the Ryder Cup.
Ian Woosnam- In the last 13 years the
wee Welshman has made the cut at The Masters once. The lengthening of the course has not helped
people under 5’ 5”.
Jose Maria Olazabal- Does it feel like Jose
Maria is older than 49? He picked up his
second green jacket 16 years ago at 33.
A year younger than Bubba was when he picked up his first green jacket.
Why do the Spaniards in golf age at a more rapid rate? Assuming they don’t do crazy range stretching
like Miguel.
Sandy Lyle- Sandy had a fine year on
the golf course with a victory at the World Hickory Open. The World Hickory Open may not be as familiar
as the US Open, PGA, Open Championship or a pga stop that hasn’t changed sponsors
recently, but The World Hickory Open is more unique than any of those
events. Held in Scotland, the World
Hickory Open must be played with all clubs made prior to 1935. Sandy had a blistering 69 on the second and
final day of the competition to pull out a 3 shot victory. The trouble for Sandy is all the golfers this
week will be playing with clubs made in this century.
Fred Couples- This one hurts. As much as I hate to put Fred in the same
category as these washed up players, reality has to play some part in my
picks. Frederick is now 55 years old,
when even the best seem to hit a wall. He
has only played in four tournaments so far this year, with only a 3rd
place finish in January to write home about.
We can dream and pray that Fred has it together this week, but even that
will result in heartache. Many times
over the last ten years Fred has been in the hunt when the weekend began. Each time the tournament slowly slipped out
of his grasp. It usually starts with a
three putt caused by a very poor effort on a four footer coming nowhere close,
then a fanned shot leading the another bogey or double (especially on 12) a few
more bogeys coming in and he is out of it.
At that point we only have only Bloomin’ Boom Booms to help us cope.
Bernhard Langer- Weekend at Bernies is still
pretty fired up about the long putter rule.
He seems to be the golfer most upset about it publicly. I cant blame him there since he has putted
with a long wand for most of the last 25 years.
Fortunately, by the time the rule comes in, he will be 58 and living on
easy street somewhere in Florida, probably The Villages.
Mike “The Queer Weir- Just about two years ago,
The Queer was ranked 1,547th in the world. He has since climbed up to 361st. Of course, when you go that low anything good
that happens helps you move up a lot. Despite
about 5 years of results otherwise, Mike insists his game is in fine shape, but
he cant play correctly because his elbow is so hurt he cant straighten it
out. I don’t know if this is the reason
he cant play, or it is an excuse for why he cant play, but either way he cant
play. The queer is 44 years old this
year. So we should only have 25 or so
more years of him playing at The Masters.
Darren Clarke- Like many males in the
world, Darren has chosen to grow out a beard.
I take this as a sign of retirement from the day to day grind of
professional golf. Instead of being
concerned about himself, Darren is preparing to lead the Europeans against the
Americans in the 2016 Ryder Cup. Thus,
he has said what he wants to see happen at this year’s Masters is Rory winning
the career grand slam.
Larry Mize- Last summer, my wife and my
parents had the great pleasure of attending a wedding in Lexington,
Kentucky. The wedding happened to be the
weekend of the U.S. Open. Fortunately,
my dad’s car has the SiriusXM PGA Tour radio channel so we didn’t have to miss
a shot as we drove down. My dad and I thought this was a fantastic way to spend
three hours as we made our way down to the land of the bluegrass. By the time we hit Cincinnati even I thought
it might not be a great idea, as golf on the radio is pretty boring. Since I was driving I was getting worried
about falling asleep as we drove. Fortunately,
we made it safely to Lexington and saw the happy couple get married. Unfortuantely, a group in a similar situation
may not survive. SiriusXM has ramped up
how boring the coverage can be by putting Larry on the radio. Do not drive on Wednesday nights.
Vijay Singh- As you may recall back when
Ray Lewis miraculously recovered from a torn muscle recovering so quickly he
gave the credit to miracle healing power of Deer Antler Spray. As the world learned about Deer Antler spray
Vijay admitted he was a user. He was
suspended by the tour and then he sued them back. Well Vijay’s lawsuit has been creeping along
as lawsuits do, but it seems to have reached the deposition/discovery phase of
the event. It might lead us to the most
interesting word about the PGA Tour drug testing policy we have yet.
As
far as golf goes, Vijay’s game is the same as it has been for his whole
career. He is still a good ball striker
and a bad putter.
Mark O’Meara- Turn back the clock, Tiger
and Mark are best pals again. On Sunday
Mark said he hadn’t spoken to Tiger in a few years, but with the warm and
friendly Tiger he is back in the picture and we are back to living in
1998.
Trevor Immelman- The 579th ranked
golfer in the world hasn’t made a cut yet this year. As I was looking to see what he has been up
to I noticed he has put his house at Lake Nona for about $2M. My first thought was wow he must have to
scale back. Turns out he has bought a
house in Isleworth for $3M. Top level
pro golf is a lucrative profession.
Steve Stricker- Last year as he was
partially retired Stricker had a phenomenal year. In fact, he played so well it seemed like he
ended up playing more than he wanted. Unfortunately, like many retirees he had to
get back surgery at the end of 2014. So
this year he has really stepped up his retirement. He will be making his debut at Augusta. If
you have always been dreaming of seeing Steve Stricker at the Masters get up
now and start driving. This will more
than likely be the last time he plays at Augusta.
Amateurs
Gunn Yang- You have to like a name
like Gunn- Mr. Yang is a South Korean who matriculated to San Diego State. Last spring his golf coach at San Diego State
decided to pull his scholarship. In the
revisionist history of the coach, this was done to motivate Gunn, but what is
he going to say after he wins the US Am? Either way, the motivational tactic/dropping
paid off and Gunn is playing this week.
As a thank you to his coach, Gunn has taken a leave of absence from
college.
Antonio Murdaca- Antonio got into the
Masters by winning the Asia Pacific Amateur held at Royal Melbourne in
October. Antonio is another young, good
Australian golfer. In his preparation
for this week he has spent a lot of time on a plane. He flew to Augusta in the beginning of March
for a week. Flew to Australia where he
dominated in the South Australia amateur and then flew back to Augusta. Will all this flying around the globe
hurt? I cant see it helping.
Bradley Neil- The 19 year old hailing
from Blairgowrie and Rattray United Kingdam is the British Amateur
champion. In the 40 years since they
began playing, zero British Amateur champions have made the cut at Augusta.
Corey Conners- Mr. Conners was the
runner-up in the U.S. Amateur last year to earn his way into The Masters. He is a proud graduate of Kent State where he
got a degree in actuarial math this year. When he was a young man learning the game in
Canada, Corey met Moe Norman who gave him a driver and a piece of great advice
as Corey told him he needed to get to swimming practice. Moe told him, “There’s no money in
swimming. There’s no money in swimming. Golf’s where the money is.” You can even win Olympic medals in golf now
too.
Matias Dominguez- Hailing from Chile, Matias
will be playing at Augusta thanks to his victory in the Latin Amateur
Championship. He is also currently the
fourth best player on his college team, Texas Tech.
Scott Harvey- Scott, the reigning
mid-amateur champion, is probably the only player in the field who has a job
outside of golf. He resides in
Greensboro, NC where he works as property manager. I am sure his tenants will enjoy hearing
about his trip the Masters, but being around for the weekend will be a stretch.
Byron Meth- Byron attends Pacific
University where he learned the game from Michael Olowakandi. He is also the last ever champion of the US
Public Links. His last name is also
quite unfortunate coming on the heals of the end of Breaking Bad.
The Rookies
The guys who have played more
than one Masters, especially who are playing their 2nd or 3rd,
repeatedly say their first year they were in awe of the course and tournament
and they will be better in their next year.
Of course, it is easy to see this in hindsight that you were
overwhelmed. That said, I am sure some
of these guys are going to do well. Last
year Spieth was a rookie and he almost won.
Someday a rookie will at Augusta again, but it wont be this year.
Brian Harman- The first time I ever heard
of Brian Harman was at the 2005 Walker Cup.
He was the youngest Walker Cupper of all time. Now at the ripe old age of 28 he makes his
debut at the Masters. Unfortunately, he
comes into the event having missed four cuts in a row.
Brooks Koepka- Officer Koepka has taken a
path from Florida State to the European minor league tour, to the PGA tour and
now finally here. He has won in all of
those places so far and a victory at The Masters someday would surprise no
one. Unfortunately, he is injured right
now. If it were not Masters week he
wouldn’t be playing. I expect big things
from him this year, but not this week.
Morgan Hoffman- Oklahoma State is a golf
factory that was built by a man named Mike Holder. A lot of the things that are now what most
tour pros do started at Oklahoma State.
These include exercising, dieting, avoiding the bars, not smiling or
showing emotion, taking it one shot at a time, sticking to the game plan,
aggressive swings to conservative lines,
and probably many other things
cause 75% of the golfers to be boring. I
have seen Morgan on tv a few times and witnessed him in action at US Open
qualifiers a few times so I feel I am very qualified to make this assessment,
Morgan is the manifestation of all this.
If you don’t know much about Morgan, imagine Hunter Mahan with a little
less personality.
Airnban Lahiri- Way back in the early days
of the previews there would be about 4 golfers who somehow were in the Masters
despite them playing almost all their golf in Asia. Fortunately, the powers that be, Hootie
Johnson, Billy Payne, Bill Gates, etc got a copy of this preview resolved most
of the issue. Unfortunately this guy has
been renting apartments all over asia racking up world ranking points. He is
currently the 34th ranked player in the world, mostly due to
dominating on the Asian tour this winter, but he also moved up 3 spots in the
world rankings after missing the cut at the Shell Houston Open this year. This isn’t Airbnb’s fault, he didn’t design
the World Rankings, but it needs to be pointed out. Hopefully Condi Rice will see this and get on
solving this problem.
Bernd Wiesberger- The final round of the PGA
last year might have been the most exciting round of golf last year. Bernd had the best seat in the house as he
got to play with Rory in the final group.
However, Bernd was a mere spectator as Rory, Rickie and Phil battled
down the stretch. The final hole was a
little confusing with Rory playing through Phil and Rickie and no one knew what
was happening. One thing I recall was
the PGA just giving Bernd a par on 18 and telling him to pick up so they could
crown Rory before the light ran out.
James Hahn- He won at Riviera to get in
this week, and then had a child a week later.
So he is having a great year.
Since the win/birth he has only played in one tournament where one of his
rounds was an 80.
Danny Willett- Danny attributes his good
play to learning to tame the chimp in his head.
Since this is a problem we could all have I checked it out and found he
was able to tame the pesky chimp by working with a gentlemen named Dr. Steve
Peters, who wrote a book called The Chimp Paradox.
Brendon Todd- Brendon was the college
roommate of Chris Kirk. Apparently they
are an odd couple type, with Chris Kirk being the Oscar and Brendon being the
Felix. For the younger readers, or the
readers who watched basketball, Oscar is the Matthew Perry of the new sitcom on
CBS.
Cameron Tringale- At this point in his career
Cameron is best known as Richard Fowler’s roommate, but he is making a name for
himself outside of the orange highlighter.
At last year’s Memorial Tournament Mr. Trinagale picked up random people
and drove them to their car. I can him a
lot of credit for this. If I had a
player pass I would be going nowhere near the traffic for laymen. He must like sitting at 4 way stops.
Seung-Yul Noh- Dr. Noh appears to be about
12 but he is actually 23. After turning
pro at 16 years old he has been making money on various tours. As a big fan of South Korea and the growing
number of South Koreans I may need to invest in Rosetta Stone for Korean. Unfortunately since that is not in the cards
anytime soon, I will continue to be unable to read the tweets from Dr.
Noh.
Robery Streb- One thing you don’t see
much these days are people calling themselves Bob. There are people who get called that but not
by choice. In an interview she did after
Robert won at The McGladrey Classic, Robert’s wife seemed to go out of her way
to call this character Robert. Are Bob’s
disappearing? See for yourself- This
graph shows the percentage of people named Bob in America. This is a concern.
Shane Lowry- Shane has been playing good
this year. He missed the cut at Bay Hill
but it seemed he was pleased about that so he could watch Ireland in the Rugby
championships.
Erik Compton- I am sure many of you know
the Eric Compton story, but for those of you who don’t it is truly
remarkable. I am certainly not the
writer to say it eloquently, but he is a guy everyone should be cheering for
this week and every week. If you don’t
know the story, stop reading this nonsense and read this story about Erik.
http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/erik-compton-151-his-third-heart-151-has-shown-more-mettle-anyone-game
Ben Martin- Ben is not technically a
rookie at the Masters. He played in the
2010 Masters after he was the runner-up in the 2009 US Amateur. He is a Clemson grad and seems like a good
Southern boy. He just got married to
girl from Winston-Salem whose father is the fourth generation first and middle
name Christopher Columbus.
Mikko Ilonen- Rhymes with Me-So, like the
soup- Like our friend Ben Martin, Mikko made his debut in the Masters as a
result of good play as an amateur. He
was one of the 40 British Amateur Champions to miss the cut at Augusta. But on the strength of defeating Steely
Stenson in the World Match Play Championship, not to be confused with the
Aceenture Match Play Championship, he finished 2014 as the 47th
ranked golfer in the world and he is back to Augusta. He has since dropped to 62nd so he
needs to get it going or it will be another long 14 year wait.
???
The Feline- Tiger Woods- We could probably write a
preview twice as long to discuss the feline, and I am sure you can find that
online. But two thoughts- when he was been
sitting out for the last two months I kept forgetting that he wasn’t sitting
out because he was hurt, but because he was terrible at golf and couldn’t
chip. It seems impossible that he had to
sit out for two months because he couldn’t chip the ball onto the green, but
that is where he was. The second thing,
he has returned this week and is all smiles, hugs and sunshine. He has rekindled his friendship with Mark
O’Meara, is playing the par 3 contest, and is not being the total jerk we have
come to love. It makes me ask so many
questions but especially, has he been in therapy? Is he on anti-depressants? I don’t see this week going well, but I doubt
even Tiger knows.
Injured
Kevin Stadler- Kevin hasn’t played since
the tour was in Hawaii, which was back in January for those of you unfamiliar
with the schedule. There seems to be no
news on whether or not he is recovered, but he has a tee time so I am guessing
he is going to give it a go.
Marc Leishman- Unfortunately, Marc’s wife
is sick with what sounds like a fairly serious case of pneumonia. It sounds like he wont play, but hopefully he
will because his wife gets better.
Update:
Leishman has withdrawn, in case you were wondering where he went.
Victor Dubuisson- After making his splash
last year with his hands of gold, it is Victor’s shoulder making the news this
year. He has only played in three tournaments
so far this year and withdrew from the last one at Doral. Victor has the kind of game that could help
him win at Augusta, but not this year.
Struggling/Poor
Track Record
There will
only be one winner and about 50 guys making the cut. We cant take everyone.
Geoff Ogilvy- If you don’t watch Buckeye
basketball you might not get this, but Ogilvy really reminds me of Marc
Loving. His attitude seems to tilt
somewhere on the line of mild disinterest to totally disinterested. He spends 90% of the time moping around,
playing poorly and then suddenly, out of nowhere something good will happen (or
Phil will double the last hole). Currently Geoff seems to be playing like the
post suspension Loving.
Graeme McDowell- I have a theory based on
current trends that eventually all we will do is sit around drink craft beer
and wear custom tee shirts with clever sayings on them. It recently occurred to me that we will also
be doing all of this while living in downtown Columbus.
Fortunately,
one of the choices of beer we will be able to drink has come from the kitchen
of Graeme McDowell with his new beer called GolfBeer. Right now they have Freddie Jacobson, Graeme
McDowell and Keegan Bradley flavors.
Camilo Villegas- Camilo had a win in
Greensboro to get in this week, but since then he has been back to his solid
but nothing special golf. I look for this to continue this week.
Padraig Harrington- I am a big fan of Paddy and
love his approach of tinkering, changing things and trying to improve. However, I don’t think it has helped him on
the golf course in the last 5 years.
However, he has a different way of looking and thinking about golf and
life. I recommend you check out all the
Feherty shows, but one in particular to see is Paddys. In his last 10 starts he has won twice and
finished outside of the top 50 the other 8 times.
Kevin “The Man of Streel”
Streelman-The
man of streel, the only Dukie in the field has been dancing up a storm this week
celebrating the big win national championship by the rent-a-players from
Duke. That said, the officiating in the
whole tournament was pretty awful. What
makes me the most upset with the officials is they make a ton of bad calls, but
they are so sure and cant be reasoned with at all. Where is the accountability? Also, why don’t the players complain about
them after the game? I know the nba
players and all coaches get fined, but what if some sophomore from Wisky just
went on a rant? Suspension? Anyway,Deal with it Bo.
Ben Crane- Ben seems to be the
resident tour comedian/guy to go to for viral videos. I am hoping he picks up Mr. Bubbly, Tiger,
for his next shoot.
John Senden- It has been a rough year so
far for John. He has played poorly and missed
a bunch of cuts, and finished 83rd, which is difficult to do in a
full field tournament.
Luke Donald- The former #1 seems to have
found his level at just about #50 in the world.
IT hasn’t been a great year for Luke so far. He has missed the cut in three of the seven tournaments
he has played in, finished outside the top 50 in 3 and finished 7th
at the Honda Classic. However, even the
7th is a bit misleading. He
hit a tee shot on a hole and got the result that can only happen in
Florida. It hit a house that was about 5
yards from the edge of the course and then bounced back into the fairway. http://www.pga.com/news/golf-buzz/video-luke-donalds-tee-shot-hits-house-finds-fairway
Keegan Bradley- As you may have heard if
you have been watching the news recently Tom Brady went to the Bahamas and
jumped off a cliff. He was okay and put
the video on spacebook for all the world to see. Patriots fans flipped out. What was slightly less known but much more
important was a basketball game was played in the Bahamas with His Airness
himself, Tom Brady, Keegan Bradley and three random people. Why this happened I have no idea, but it
did. See for yourself: https://instagram.com/p/0yasCKg0GH/ I don’t remember reading
about Jack playing hoops with the Big O just before the Masters in the 60s, but
maybe he did.
Thomas Bjørn- If you have been following
the golf landscape the last 15 years you have seen that the World Golf
Championships have been a big boon for the top 50 or so golfers in the
world. Four times a year they hold these
no cut events. The winner gets a very
large check, but that happens at every tournament. The big difference is for the players who
usually would get cut. They also pick up
a nice big check. Thomas really took
this perk to the extreme this year at Doral.
He showed up, played 8 holes at 3 over, hit his tee shot in the water on
the ninth hole and walked off the course.
He then stopped at the pro shop and picked up a check for $42K thanks to
his last place finish and called it a day.
Ian Poultry- Mr. Poultry reminds me of
the famous San Diego Chicken. There is a
lot of clucking around, foolish gimmicks, fancy cars, spikey haircuts, but in
the end he is merely a sideshow.
Charl Schwartzel- Last year Charl fooled me
because he was having a lot of high finishea prior to the Masters. This year I have learned. Charl has been playing quite well in his
native continent Africa. He has also
played decent in the nearby continent called Europe. Where he hasn’t played well is in
America. Sadly for Charl, barring a surprising
last minute change this golf tournament will be held in the greatest country in
the world.
Jason Dufner- I was expecting a big
comeback year for the Duff, but it hasn’t started out particularly well and now
we have this divorce situation. There
has been a lot of sympathy on the internet for Dufner because his wife Amanda
was/is better looking than him, by far.
But fear not internet, if Dufner is interested in finding another good
looking lady he will have no trouble because even after the $2.5M payment to
Amanda he is rich and he is famous. Further, there will be more golfers with good
looking wives and girlfriends to be seen on the internet..
Joost Luiten- Joost has a phenomenal new
website where you can find all the news you could ever want on Joost. Even better you can subscribe to get the
Joost newsletter. I don’t think I am a
big enough Joost fan to sign up for this, but I am sure his close friends and
family enjoy the updates.
However,
I have a Fred Couples google alert set up and I get an email almost every day
with the goings on of Freddie. It is
fantastic.
Ernie Els- The Big Easy has hopes of a
break through this year, but his putting has always been the problem here and
it isn’t getting better with age.
Sergio Garcia- In hindsight, picking the
Canary last year was a mistake. Not a
mistake I will make this year or any other year.
Cashing
Checks
The top 50 and ties will be
around for the weekend. This will end up
being close to 2/3rd of the field
“The Resort”-Sang-Moon Bae- Not since Larry Nelson have
we had military service play such a large part in a golfers life as it has for
the resort so far this year. The resort
has been summoned to South Korea to serve for two years in the military, as all
South Korean men must do to fight off the Northern Koreans from hacking any of
their movie studios. The Resort did not
report as he was supposed to and was charged with violating the law. Strangely, if he doesn’t get this resolved,
he will be unable to play in the President’s Cup this year in South Korea.
Hunter Mahan- Move over John Madden,
Hunter is the new spokesman for Ace Hardware.
Hunter will be promoting the new in store pick up program. Tell me if you have ever used a service like
this, you can check online and if the item you want is in stock you can drive
to the store and pick it up. Brilliant.
Justin Rose- Rose is just Rose. He has been playing quite poorly this year
but has finished inside the top 25 the last four years at Augusta.
Branden Grace- Nobody in the field has
moved up the World Rankings farther this year than Branden this year. He has a win in Africa and Qatar this year
and another win at the very end of 2014.
Branden is a streaky player so this bodes well for his chances this
week.
“The Jerk” Zach Johnson- My old friend the jerk. In researching to see what jerky behavior
this guy was up to I read two articles at the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The Jerk clearly had my ip address and wanted
to mess with me because I had to complete two questions to read these
articles. The first one was, “Would you
like an app that matches your hat and your shirt?” and the second one was “Do
you pursue photography as a hobby?” I
told him I would want that app and I am an avid photographer.
Sadly
I learned today that the Jerk’s fortunes may have taken a turn for the
positive. He has switched back to his
old trusty see more putter and is thinking of making another run for the green
jacket.
Ryan Palmer- Ryan Palmer is confident he
can win this week thanks the added distance he has picked up thanks to dropping
weight lifting from his work out routine.
I shudder to think how short I would hit it if I started lifting
weights.
Kevin Na- For a guy who doesn’t do
much to draw attention to himself and is a pretty good player Kevin seems to
have an interesting thing going on a lot of the time. One year it was the 16 he made, another it
his inability to swing the golf club within 5 minutes of standing over it. This year it is his ugly shirts, which he
himself described as a magic eye type of thing.
I clouldnt tell you they really work, because I have never seen what you
are supposed to see in one of those things.
The key to the
universe is somewhere in there (Getty Images)
Webb Simpson- For some reason, Webb and
the Jungle Cat are the only two golfers I follow on twitter. Of course Tiger never tweets, but sometimes
one of his lackeys sends out a tweet.
Maybe Hugs Tiger will also tweet.
Anyway, Webb does tweet some and based on this here is my guess of his
priorities: 1) God 2) Family 3) Drinking Coffee 4) Playing golf with his
friends 5) Professional golf.
Thongchai Jaidee- Earlier this year,
Thongchai hit a drive that was measured at 410 yards. He said it was about 90 yards further than he
expected it to be. It reminds me of when
I was on the middle school golf team.
One day we were having practice at Gahanna Municipal with two
groups. The first group had four golfers
and the second group had 3 players and one of our coaches. When the second group came in saying that our
coach had hit a 400 yard drive. The
coach was a very nice woman, she was my 5th grade social studies
teacher and later became the librarian. This
caused a lot of debate amongst group 1 and group 2, because it is impossible
that she actually hit it 400 yards, but group 2 insisted she had. The debate was never resolved and I am pretty
sure she always thought she had it that far.
Lee Westwood- One fascinating thing about
The Masters is most of the players think they have the answer, but all the
theories are conflicting. Most of these theories are espoused from players that
haven’t won before and the theory matches how they have been playing recently. This is the case with Lee this week. He hasn’t been playing very well coming into
the week, thus he has been saying form makes no difference and it is all about
who knows and plays the course well.
Either way, Lee will keep up his tradition of wearing his sharp UPS golf
shirt sans green jacket on Sunday.
Chris Kirk- Making his second
appearance at the Masters he is a member of the big Georgia contingency playing
this week. As I mentioned earlier, Chris
and Brendon Todd were roommates at Georgia and formed an Odd Couple dynamic,
with Chris being the carefree one. On PGA Tour most of the players have a
profile with some of their favorite things listed. My guess is Chris forgot to fill his out and
just recapped his prior day. Chris lists
his favorite book as The Broker and other things he likes as Roger Federer and
lasagna. I assume the day before he filled out the survey he read The Broker,
watched some tennis and had lasagna for dinner.
I haven’t read The Broker, but I agree those other two things are
excellent.
Russell Henley- What do you know, another
Georgian. Russell arrived at Augusta but
his golf clubs didn’t thanks to his good friends at United. As a result he had a day of rest. For most of us, this is the equivalent of our
computer being lost or broken at work.
One thing that is usually entertaining is when the internet goes down at
work for a little bit. Everyone quickly
realizes their capacity to get much work done without the internet is limited
and suddenly it is, LUNCH TIME!
Charley Hoffman- One year I was at the
Memorial and I was watching my dad keep score. I got into talking to a nice couple who was
also watching and they told me they were Charley’s aunt and uncle and they
lived in Marion, Ohio. I have always
cheered more for Charley for this reason.
Speaking
of Marion, for Buckeye fans, on elevenwarriors.com every day they have the
Skull Session to get you up to speed on all the Buckeye news of the day. It is usually written by a gentlemen named DJ
Byrnes who is a Marion native.
Matt Every- One thing that seems to
have become a thing this year with golfers, or they are discussing now, is
their trainers. It is not a big surprise
they all have trainers, but what has surprised me this year is how many have
two trainers now. One trainer is for
home and one trainer is for the road. I
don’t know which trainer gets more credit for the win at Bay Hill, but I know
Matt got to shake Arnie’s hand.
Paul Casey- The former number 3 is back
in the top 50 in the world. He is
playing very well this year. However,
back when he was a top 5 in the world player he didn’t play great at Augusta
and I don’t see that changing this week.
Brandt Snedeker- To me Brandt has the most
possibilities to what could happen this week.
He could get hot with the flat stick and win the whole tournament or he
could shoot 77-78 and be on his way back to Nashville Friday afternoon.
Billy Horschel- Winning $13.5M in a three
week plan is life changing, even for these guys. It was looking like the post Fed Ex Cup
hangover might have set in for this year, but suddenly a 3rd place
last week and he is looking like he might be ready to go for 2015. However, as Billy himself admits the worst
part of his game is his short game. That
is not great for him this week.
Stephen Gallacher- If not for his 81 on
Saturday last year at Stephen might have been in the hunt. So assuming he has realized that breaking 80
all of the days is a key to contending he should be right in the thick of
things.
Adam Scott- The broomstick is
back! Making its final trip around
Augusta (until rules change again) the broomstick just might save Adam’s
season. Since they announced long
putters we going to be outlawed Scott was an easy pick for who it would affect
the most. So far that seems to be the
case. Adam has been getting worse weekly
with the short putter he has been using.
With the long putter he will be good, will he bring the Kiwi back too?
Jim Furyk- As I was having dinner with
my wife this evening I asked her who she thought was going to win this
week. She asked me how Jim was doing
this year. My response was he is having a
normal year. So I suspect he will have a
good solid finish this week. I just hope
for the viewers and Jim’s sake he is just going along solidly and doesn’t
arrive at his decent finish by contending and then blowing it. There is only so much of that putting routine
we can take.
Dating
Tip: For you single guys out there, a little Jim Furyk talk over dinner is a
real winner
Rickie Fowler- Rick Fowler is not off the
hottest start on tour. So far in his
career he has been excellent in Ryder Cup years and not so excellent in
non-Ryder Cup years. However, he was
great in majors last year so I am guessing some of that mojo will carry over to
this week.
Martin Kaymer- Marty did all amateur
golfers a big favor during his US Open romp last year at Pinehurst. As you may have noticed pro golfers love to
chip when they are around the greens.
This may be the best thing to do some of the time, but at least half the
time it seems they would be better off putting.
This is really true with most amateurs.
Personally I love to putt from off the green, primarily because my
chipping can be a little shaky. Marty made this play cool by putting from
everywhere at Pinehurst. Now when I do
this at home I can say I am copying the great Marty K and not trying to avoid a
bladed shot across the green. I cant
remember if Tiger played in the US Open last year, but hopefully he caught wind
of this plan.
Jamie Donaldson- As an American and thus a
fan of the US Ryder Cup team Jamie Donaldson is the kind of guy you learn to
hate for that week because an unknown like him is cleaning the clocks of Tiger
and Phil. That was the case with Donaldson last year as once again the
Europeans won. Outside of Ryder Cup play
he is a very good golfer but his greatest glory will probably always be in the
Ryder Cup.
Gary Woodland- Last year Gary had a 30 on
the front nine and the looked like he might challenge the famous 63. It didn’t happen. This year he has a new swing coach for the 4th
time in four trips to Augusta. The first
switch seemed to cause a lot of problems, but the next two haven’t been too
much of a problem.
Bill Haas- Wild Billy has had an
interesting start to the year. A few
middling finishes, a top 7, a victory and a new child. This new child is what
is causing me to discount his chances.
He has only played once since the second baby was born and he missed the
cut last week. Based on Billy and James
Hahn, the key to the pga tour is to get your wife pregnant. You will probably win the week for the baby
is born and then sit out for two months.
Jonas Blixt- Jonas finished 2nd
last year in his debut. This year has
been ugly, so will Jonas be a guy who is awesome at Augusta or will he play to
his current form. I am banking on his
being good at Augusta.
Top 16
16)
Jimmy Walker- I am sold as Jimmy
Walker being one of the superstars of American golf, but I am still baffled
that at 36 he has gone from a relative unknown player to one of the 10 best
players in the world. Unfortunately, he
has to deal with the sideshow of Tiger the first two days which will hurt him. This is usually a problem because of the
crowd, but new age Tiger could lend some other problems, he could be blading
chips, he could walk off the course at any point with any ailment or he could
be a chatty Kathy out there.
15)
Hideki Matsuyama- 95% of the action
I have seen of Hideki has been at Muirfield Village. Since he won the Memorial last year this is
probably a skewed sample, but both during the President Cup and The Memorial he
hit some great shots. This guy is going
to win a lot, but not this week.
14)
Louis Oosthuizen- Louis has started
a brand called Louis57, under which he operates a winery, a junior academy, a
foundation, a restaurant and a golf course design business. It is called Louis57 because Louis shot a 15
under 57 on a course in South Africa. I
was looking to buy some of the wine, but it is not easy to get it shipped
outside of South Africa. If Louis wins
this week, I expect the brand might be heading to stores soon.
13)
Ryan Moore- Ryan seems to enjoy
being outside the mainstream of the golf world.
One year he was playing scratch golf irons, another year(s?) he was
wearing a tie. This year he is playing
without an equipment sponsor but is once again playing with irons no one has
ever heard of. The irons he is playing
with are called Parsons XTreme Golf, which is a company owned by the founder of
GoDaddy. So expect some interesting
commercials from this company.
12)
Miguel Angel Jimenez- The man has
become one with his workout routine.
This vine I just couldn’t stop watching. http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/miguel-angel-jimenez-famously-warms-masters
11)
Phil Mickelson- Phil, Phil, Phil
what to do with you? At Glory’s Last
Shot Phil came out of nowhere and it looked like he was going to win there for
a little bit. It was not to be as Rory
was too good, but it was a reminder that when Phil is on he is as good as
anyone in the world. This year his game
has been so so, and his putting shaky but he has three green jackets in his
closet and has pulled off some of the most incredible shots at Augusta. So in conclusion, Phil has become Angel
Cabrera.
10)
Angel Cabrera- Speaking of, As he
has proven many times over the years, Angel playing well or poorly coming into
the week has no real bearing on what will happen during the tournament. He has missed the cut three weeks in a row
and he missed the cut last year. He is
also suffering from a personal problem as his son was in a bad car accident in
Argentina. For anyone else this would
cause me to conclude he was in trouble.
Angel though is a different guy and could turn all these negatives into
positives.
9)
Rory McIlroy- At this point picking
against Rory seems silly. He is the
worlds best player, has won the last two majors and seems invincible when he is
playing well. I don’t know why but he
hasn’t been playing well so far this year, and I am sure he will turn it around
soon, but he also wont win all the majors forever.
This
seems like a good time to mention that Rory’s ex-fiance was at the basketball
game with JJ Watt Monday night. WoWatt
8) Matt
Kuchar- From the time he first played at Augusta The Kuch has played well
at Augusta. The Kuch has finished in the
top 10 in each of the last three Masters.
He started this week off a little unconventionally by playing doubles
with Venus Williams against the Bryan Brothers.
He has a great history at Augusta and should be good to go after a short
drive over from Sea Island.
7)
Dustin Johnson- DJ has returned from
his roughly six month vacation and been on a tear. He has 4th, 2nd, 1st
and 6th in six tournaments.
While we are not sure exactly why he was away for 6 months, and he isn’t
sure exactly what his real estate holdings are in Myrtle Beach, he has
correctly pegged the point of the tournament.
Here is a snippet of an interview with Dustin this week from Golf Digest:
Q. And you still have
your home in Myrtle Beach; correct?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I don't know -- no, I
sold it, but I think I still kind of own it. I'm like an owner finance, I don't
know. You'd have to ask my accountant (laughter).
No worries. The Masters is not about
identifying the best accountant.
Unfortunately,
this statement is quite true. Maybe
someday the fine folks at Augusta will host a golf tournament for that purpose.
6)
Patrick Reed- Patrick has made hay
in Augusta before as a member of the Augusta State golf team. He has also been making hay this year on the
course. He hasn’t been making hay with
his former teammates but that shouldn’t hurt him this week. I would love to see him and Tiger play
together Sunday in their matching red shirts.
5) J.B. Holmes-
After his self proclaimed 6 year slump, J.B. is back in the groove. The biggest and most serious part of the
slump was a brain surgery that didn’t work out very well. Thankfully, he seems to recovered and playing
very good golf. He has two seconds and a
first so far this year.
4)
Bubba Watson- When you are twice as
disliked by your peers as Patrick Reed and Rory Sabatini you have really
managed to alienate a lot of people. I
dont know that you get on that list by care about being on it, but Bubba didn’t
make many of the past champions like him more with his champions dinner from
Tuesday night. I cant blame any of them
though. Bubba had the full range of the
Augusta National kitchen and could have served basically any thing he
wanted. He chose banquet food: caesar
salad, chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, confetti cake, and vanilla ice
cream. I am sure all the food was good,
but a little creativity could have gone a long way.
3)
Steely Stenson- Steely has been
playing quite well with two 4ths and a 2nd in his last three
tournaments. However, he went on spring
break and got the flu. As a result he
hasn’t been able to get out as much to see the course as he would like. He should be recovered by Sunday afternoon
though.
2)
Jordan Spieth- I joined a fantasy
golf league this year and Jordan is the star of my team and probably my
favorite player to watch week to week.
One of the reasons for this is because he is always in the top 10 so
they show him a lot on tv. He doesn’t do
anything particularly flashy but he probably has the best short game on
tour. The only thing that scares me as a
fan is his ball striking gets a little loose at times down the stretch of
tournaments. As a person cheering for him, if his ball is near the green I
immediately assume he is going to get up and down for par. If he is on the green I like his chances to
make the putt. If he is hitting a long
club I am scared the ball could go anywhere.
1) Jason Day- What you see above is the key to this years Masters
Tournament. As we all know, Jason has
made his home in Columbus and plays his golf over at Muirfield Village. As we also know, noted ice cream maker, golf
course designer and 6 time Masters champion also happens to be somewhat involved
at Muirfield Village.
You
see all kinds of veterans tutoring rookies about how to play at Augusta. Jason doesn’t need that, he knows how to play
it. He needs someone to push him over
the top. Who better than Jack? One of my favorite parts of the 1986 telecast
is when Jack is standing on 16th tee, and Jim Nantz asks Tom
Weiskopf what Jack is thinking right now.
Tom’s response is fantastic, he says, “If I knew the way Jack thought I
would have won this tournament.”
What
better way to learn the way Jack thinks than to share a coffee and doughnuts
ice cream over breakfast and talk about it.
Lets hope this is how Jason has been preparing.
The
foreign invasion is reeling under the Bear’s attack.
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