Masters Preview 2014

The Masters Preview 2014

For all of us in the north it has been a very long winter waiting for spring.  Thankfully we have had our friends on the PGA tour to watch each week so we could see the sunshine on tv each week.  Based on the weekend forecast, it looks like even mother nature knows The Masters is here it is time for spring.  Tomorrow when Jack, Arnie and Gary get us started we are all in for a big treat.

The pre-tournament build-up has focused on a two things not at Augusta and a whole bunch of rookies.  The two things missing will certainly change the feel of things in different ways.  First, the Eisenhower pine was lost this winter due to a storm.  It appears that it will open up the left side of 17^th fairway.  Somewhere, Ike thrilled it finally happened.  Will it change the hole?  I do not know.  Second, as I am sure everyone knows, the jungle cat is recovering from back surgery somewhere on the planet. 

There are also a record setting (not counting 1934 when The Masters began) 24 players making their debut this year.  This new influx of talent is adding to the feeling that anyone can win this week.

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend of golf!

Past Champions

Most of these guys are well past their primes and just basking in the glow of a life changing week in years gone by.  Mike Weir and Trevor Immelman are just in a years long struggle.

Ben Crenshaw - This is the only major Gentle Ben will play in this year, but his most important involvement will come at the US Open when both the men and women play on Pinehurst #2 which he redesigned. 

There is an interesting article in the most recent Golf Magazine about Ben’s first Masters win 30 years ago and how it came shortly after he and his wife decided to get divorced. Famously, his second was shortly after his teacher Harvey Penick died.  Hopefully, he isn’t dealing with a tragic life event, but if he is he might be in contention to make the cut.

Bernhard Langer - Just three major champions preparing for the upcoming season together.

Sandy Lyle - Sandy made the cut at both the Masters and the British Open last year.  A somewhat surprising feat, now Sandy is thinking he can contend this week.  He just needs everything to go his way. 

More importantly, when I saw that Adam Scott was serving bugs ‘n’ pav for the champions dinner, I thought Sandy might have lost the title of worst Champions dinner ever.  For the Champions dinner in 1989 he served haggis.  It turns out that the bugs in this case are like lobsters in Australia.  Much like Fosters is Australian for beer. 

Jose Maria Olazabal - Jose is the youngest of these guys who really not trying to compete for the green jacket anymore. 

Ian Woosnam - “Stewart Cink, Tim Clark, Ian Woosnam, no – sorry, Woosie, didn’t mean that!”  This was a Rory describing all the people he thought could win this week.  I don’t think Woosy will be too upset since in a recent interview he said, if everyone else withdraws he has an excellent shot.  He is making his first appearance of the year at The Masters because of a bad back so even that wouldn’t be a sure thing.  He will be driving the band wagon for fellow Welshman Jamie Donaldson.

Vijay Singh - You have to respect that Vijay is continuing to play on the PGA tour rather than the easy living on the Champions tour.  However he isn’t having the success these days. 

The most interesting thing Vijay is doing in the world of golf is his lawsuit with the PGA tour.  You may recall this is related to his admitted use of deer antler spray, back when that was a big deal.  It sounds like the PGA tour continues to lose hearings to Vijay in this case and if they don’t settle might have to release some records related to drug testing they would probably prefer to keep private.  I am guessing before that happens Vijay will walk away with a nice payday.   

Larry Mize - Aside from the rookies, another large contingent of players (with some crossover) in this year’s Masters are the guys from or played their golf in Georgia.  Not long ago it was a big deal when Chucky three sticks and Vaughn Taylor were playing.  Now we have Larry (Georgia Tech, Augusta), Bubba (Georgia), Russell Henley (Georgia), Harris English (Georgia), Patrick Reed (Augusta State), Kuchar (Georgia Tech), Roberto Castro (Georgia Tech), Stew Cink (Georgia Tech), Chris Kirk (Georgia) and Boo Weekley.  Over 10% of the players are Georgians or alums from a Georgia college.

Mike Weir - The good news for the queer he has only missed one cut in a row.  The bad news is he has only made one cut in his last ten tournaments.  His game seems all but gone as he is ranked 692^nd in the world.  He can always take pride in the way he inspired a little known lefty named Phil to start winning majors.

Craig Stadler - There have been a lot of great father son duos in the game of golf, but the first two to play in the Masters at the same time will be the Stadlers.  The key is really to have the dad win the Masters so he can play forever and then all the son has to do is qualify.  That is obviously simple if the dad does the heavy lifting of actually winning.   

Tom Watson - Captain America.  I hope Tom is just scouting out his players for the Ryder Cup team.  Fortunately, he has decided if the back is okay the feline will be in Scotland.  So he needs to decide which other three players to invite.  There are a lot of good young players to scout this week.   

Mark O'Meara - Mark is having a good year on the Champions tour.  The most noteworthy news story I could find about him recently are the fact that he and Tiger are not as close as they use to be.  And by that he means, they don’t really speak to each other and aren’t friends anymore.  According to Mark he sends texts to Tiger about how life is and a week later Tiger responds with a weather report.   

The Amateurs

This is a talented group of amateurs, but aren’t they all. 

Matthew Fitzpatrick - Despite the fact that he looks like his about 14, Matt is a college drop out touring amateur.  After a summer that included a low amateur finish at the British Open and the US Amateur title, the young amateur spent one semester at Northwestern.  Much like the Wildcat football team, he decided to only participate in the first half of the year and became a “touring amateur” in January.  He has set his goal for the year to be the low amateur at all three majors.  He said he doesn’t have a plan after that, but I think it is safe to say he will be turning pro the day after the British Open ends.

Chang-woo Lee - Chang-Woo is probably the best amateur playing this year.  He won the Asia Pacific Amateur last year to earn his spot into Augusta.  Since then he won a tournament on the Korean tour and tied for second with Rory in another one. 

Oliver Goss - The US Amateur runner up, by way of Australia is one of two Tennessee Volunteers amateurs in this event.  Oliver found his way to Knoxville from Australia. 

Michael McCoy – Michael got into the Masters by winning the US Mid-Am which usually produces the worst player in the field.  Michael is the only person in the field who has a job that isn’t playing golf.  He is an insurance salesman from Iowa.  He is also old enough to play on the senior tour at 51.  Given these two facts, I don’t like his chances very much but he should be an inspiration to all of us. 

Garrick Porteous - Apparently the coach of Tennessee does a nice job of recruiting foreigners.  Garrick is an Englishman but went to Tennessee in Knoxville.  He got into the Masters by winning the British Amateur.   He will likely turn pro Friday after the cut, but it could be Sunday.  Either way, this is his last event as an amateur. 

Jordan Niebrugge - Jordan will become the 14^th person from Wisconsin to tee it up at Augusta.   Jordan somehow escaped from Andy North’s grasp and he attends Oklahoma State University.  Hopefully he can someday get into the Badger basketball watching parties Andy and Steve Sticker have.  The Oklahoma State golf alumni is strong, but Andy got Stircker to abandon the Illini.  He can convert Jordan too.

Trunk Slamming

The cut at the Masters is now the top 50 and ties and anyone within 10 shots of the lead.  Last year this ended up being 61 people.  There are 97 players in this year’s tournament.  I put 11 in the past champions category and there are 6 amateurs.  Some of the people from that group will make the weekend but not many.  So only about 20 other golfers will end up missing the cut. 

Sang-Moon Bae –The Resort- The resort is making only his second start at The Masters, and based on his current form it might be his last. Bae is currently last of players in the Masters (and also the PGA Tour) in greens in regulation.  He will need to get a lot worked out on the range this week to get the iron game worked out.

Steven Bowditch - Steven completely came out of nowhere two weeks ago to win and earn his spot in The Masters.  He then played in Houston last week so he was just seeing Augusta for the first time Monday.  Almost all of the day was rained out Monday, so yesterday was the first time Steven played Augusta National.  Even though there are a lot of rookies playing at the Masters this year, none of them have less experience at Augusta then Bowditch.  This is not good for his chances.

Kevin Stadler - Kevin won the Phoenix Open defeating Bubba Watson is what might have been the worst putting duel of the year.  Kevin was missing 5 footers on every other hole for birdie, but fortunately for him Bubba was missing them for par.  Apparently, Kevin is almost unable to putt without a long putter.  He has been practicing putting left handed because he is so bad and his long putter will be illegal next year.  Unfortunately, the ban on the long putter might very well be end of any future father son pairing for the Stadlers in years forward.  The fact that Kevin is pretty shaky with his long wand will make it a short weekend for him. 

Lucas Glover - This is more than likely we will be seeing Lucas playing at Augusta in a while as his exemption from the US Open victory expires after this tournament.  Last year it looked like he might be turning a corner but his game has regressed back to lousy.  At least he had some happiness when the Buckeyes made Sammy Watkins look like Jerry Rice and Randy Moss combined.

Kevin Streelman - Kevin is dealing with a problem many of you have experienced, parenthood.  He is certainly not the first person whose golf game was hurt by raising a child.  The bad thing for him is it is his job. 

Boo Weekley - It is good to have Boo back into the Masters.  It will probably be a short trip though.  Boo might have put on the best ball striking round of the year, as well as the worst putting round of the year in the last round of Colonial last year.  It would have made Hogan very proud.  On the back nine he was routinely hitting it inside 10 feet only to badly miss the putt.  This is pretty consistent with his game.

Y.E. Yang - I hate to say it but this is likely to be the last Masters the yang-a-tang will play in because like Lucas Glover his exemption from his surprising major victory in 2009.  Unfortunately, the yang-a-tang’s golf game has gone the same way the drink I invented for him has, which is downhill.

If you don’t know or can’t remember, the Yang-a-Tang recipe is vodka (to your choosing), Tang, and a dash of soy sauce.  I believe Mouton is serving a variation of it, but I am not certain of that.

D.A. Points - D.A. has spent most of the year either missing cuts or finishing about 60^th.  However, at Pebble Beach he got DQ’d to spice up his poor showings.  During a long wait on a tee he got a ball his instructor had given him and put it under his arm pit and mimicked a swing.  This was a rules violation and it was discovered after he had signed his scorecard.  That was that.  Interestingly, he was paired with Condoleeza Rice and their pro-am team was allowed to continue to play, even though he was not in the tournament.  They ended up missing the cut though, probably because D.A. wasn’t playing very well.

Roberto Castro - According to his profile, Roberto’s dream foursome would be himself, Tiger and Bobby Jones and John Lennon.  Sounds like three interesting people, but the mechanics of all of them playing golf would be chaos (assuming Bobby and John are alive).  You have two of the all time greats, a PGA tour player and a musician who I have never heard of golfing despite reading a lot about the Beatles.  Tiger, Bobby and Roberto are shooting par or better, meanwhile John is everywhere.  This is never fun for anyone, but especially I can see Tiger getting annoyed.  I don’t know what age all these people in the foursome would be, but more than likely Yoko is caddying for John so that’s another element of weirdness that Bobby especially would not be able to handle.  Best case scenario you can talk John into picking up and singing a few songs. 

On second thought, I think John could beat Tiger.  Look at that swing. 

K.J. Choi – The Tank- The Tank just keeps rolling along, but he isn’t playing very well so far this year.  He has spent some time tutoring Chang-Woo this week too.

Scott Stallings - The big man that wears little shirts is coming off three straight missed cuts.  However, he won in San Diego earlier this year.  I am chalking that up to a hot week and guessing the three missed cuts are closer to reality.

Louis Oosthuizen - Louis has been battling a back injury for last year.  Based on his latest results it is hard to think he is healthy.  The year he lost in a playoff at Augusta to Bubba he had won at Houston the week before.  This year he missed the cut.  I based my prediction on this set of facts.

Stewart Cink - Stew hasn’t played good golf since he beat Tom Watson to win the British in 2009.  However, he did make some news this year with a ridiculous head tan line in Hawaii earlier this year.    

Darren Clarke - “The putting is driving me to distraction,” Clarke confessed before exhaling on a cigarette. “If I was yipping them or doing something like that, I’d go to the long putter but I’m not. My green reading has been very, very poor.”  This is very bad news for his hopes.  It is also a little confusing how this becomes a common problem for a world class golfer.

John Huh - Huh? Is Huh still around?  Barely.  Huh is really struggling so far this year.  He finished 11^th last year which is why he got invited back.

Brendon de Jonge – Brendon is a Virginia Tech alum and the Buckeyes will be clashing with them next year.  I recently saw Ohio State is paying VT $350K to come to Columbus.  I found this strange because OSU is going down there next year, and VT will then pay OSU.  Why not just call it a wash? 

Ken Duke - Ken won for the first time last June at the age of 44.  He has been on just about every tour there is and it was great to see him win after 187 starts before the win.  He did qualify for The Masters one other time in 2009 and he finished 35^th that time.  It was cool when he won in Hartford, but The Masters does not have journeymen pros win.    

Derek Ernst - Derek won in Charlotte last May in his rookie year.  He was probably the most surprising winner on tour last year.  He was the fourth alternate to get in and won.  Since then he hasn’t done much, missing 19 of 27 cuts.

Billy Horschel - Last year when the Masters was played, Billy was probably the hottest player in the world.  In the four tournaments surrounding The Masters, two on each side, he finished 2^nd, 3^rd, 9^th and 1^st.   He wasn’t qualified for the Masters so he didn’t play.  This year thanks to that good play last year he is qualified, but isn’t playing nearly as well.  This year, his last four tournaments are missed cut, 50^th, 43^rd and missed cut. 

Matt Every – So far in his career Matt has tended to learn things the hard way.  His caddie saved him at Bay Hill, but will he be able to do it every time he needs to at Augusta?  I am envisioning a shot out of the trees into the water on 13, or trying to drive 3, screwing up and then totally unraveling.  As he has done with many things so far in his career, he will have to learn how to play Augusta the hard way.

Trevor Immelman - The I Man got sent down the minor leagues last fall after another bad year on the PGA tour and was at risk of losing his PGA tour card.  While there he won the prestigious Hotel Fitness Championship to secure his card for this year.  He was also the only Masters champion in the field, but winning on any tour is tough.  I am sure he isn’t happy with his game, but Mike Weir is playing so bad that he is distracting most from noticing I Man’s struggles since his victory.  Since his big win at the Hotel Fitness Championship he has missed 9 of 16 cuts and will be right back there if he doesn’t turn it around.

Stephen Gallacher - There is something about hosting a Ryder Cup or a Presidents Cup ti inspire people from that country to make the team.  It appears Gallacher is a guy who is working hard to make the Ryder Cup this year.  If he were to win here would pretty much be a lock to make the team.

Weekend Warriors

As mentioned above, the top 50 and ties will make it to the weekend and anyone within 10 shots of the lead. 

Branden Grace - Branden is a really good player from South Africa.  He got a terrible tee time though.  It probably wont be as distracting as playing with John Lennon would be, but he is playing with what might be the two worst players in the field, Mike McCoy and Larry Mize. 

Peter Hanson - Peter was in the leader going into the final round two years ago.  He got passed by Louis and Bubba but ended up finishing 3^rd.  So far this year he has been playing poorly so I don’t expect that to happen again. 

Thongchai Jaidee - Thongchai makes his return to Augusta after two previous trips to Augusta.  In both 2006 and 2010 he failed to make the cut, but he is coming having played well at Doral.  If he makes the cut he will be the first person from Thailand to make the cut at the Masters. 

Miguel Angel Jimenez - The Mechanic has enjoyed success during round 1 of the Masters many times.  In fact, according to thesportinglife.com he is the favorite to be leading after day one.  If you can find that bet with your local bookie it might be the way to go.

Martin Kaymer - Marty changed his whole swing so he could play better at Augusta.  At the time he decided to make the change he was ranked #1 in the world, but had never made the cut at Augusta.  Now almost three years later he is ranked #63, but has made the cut the last two years at Augusta. 

Chris Kirk - I was reading a roundtable of former champions and this is the guy Arnold Palmer picked.  Arnold has won four times so he has probably been right on predicting the winner four times more than I have.

On a side note, do we really need a three night television event to relive Arnie’s career on The Golf Channel? I understand he helped start it but that might even seem like overkill to him.  I saw a three minute clip about a tournament he didn’t win. 

Joost Luiten – You may remember Joost from the 2012 PGA.  In the first round he was running away with the tournament at 8 under with 4 to play. People were talking 59, but he ended up bogeying the last four holes that day.  Eventually, Joost fell back to 21^st but not before introducing the golfing public to such a great name and one that would fit in perfectly in NHL.

David Lynn - David Lynn seems like a screwball English comedian.  A much less funny, golfer version of the Ricky Gervais/Steven Merchant duo.  I hope he can keep playing well so I can continue to research him each year.  He has an amusing twitter feed as well https://twitter.com/DaveLynndawg

Hideki Matsuyama - Ryo is the bashful prince, but Hideki is the best young player from Japan.  He is long and straight off the tee and has a really good short game.  His iron game is a little off at times, but he is really good.  I predict he will be the first Japanese golfer to win a Masters.

Francesco Molinari - Moliari brothers are only one this year.  I follow Francesco on twitter and he seems like a super guy, but doesn’t do a whole lot.  He is either golfing, skiing and watching soccer.  He is coming off a fifth place finish at Bay Hill in his last tournament.

Thorbjørn Olesen - Since he came stateside in late January, Thorbjorn has not been very good.  He has missed three cuts and lost in the first round of the match play tournament.  Between him and Thomas Bjorn, the Danish will remain without a green jacket for another year.

Ian Poulter – Poultry- A year ago the build up to the Masters was focused on Tiger, but after that there was a fair amount of discussion about the English invasion.  With Poultry, Rose, Westwood and Luke Donald all with good odds.  This year we are hearing all we hear is Aussie, Aussie Aussie.  Naturally, an Englishman will probably win. Regarding Poultry, he is just not a good enough ball striker or long enough to compete with most of his contemporaries at the beefed up Augusta.  Add to that he isn’t playing good and you have a recipe for a cut. 

John Senden - John regularly leads the tour in greens in regulation.  The fact that you might not have heard of him probably tells you all you need to know about his short game and putting specifically.  However, he won two weeks ago and made the cut last year. 

Harris English - If you are a Davis Love fan, this is your new guy.  A four time all-American at Georgia, tall, long, really good and a resident of Sea Island.  He is making his first start here at Augusta, but a lot of people like his chances. 

Jamie Donaldson - We had Victor come out of nowhere at the WGC match play and Jamie could be the one to do it at Augusta.  He finished 3^rd at Doral and is making his second start at The Masters so he should have a better feel for things.  On top of that, once Woosy misses the cut he will be there to coach him along.

Gary Woodland - From his PGATour profile “Favorite TV show is "Two and a Half Men." Favorite movie is "Gladiator." Favorite food is steak.” That is a man right there.  He is back with a new team (coach, caddie, putting instructor, water boy, general lackey, etc) for the third time in as many years, and this current one has Gary back on the right path.  His biggest hindrance has always been his short game, but he says it is improved.  We will see how much. 

Jim Furyk - I have only been to one major in my life.  Jim won it.  Despite this overwhelming evidence that I caused him to win, he has never invited me to attend another one.  I will let you know if he calls me, but as of now I am planning to stay home.  Look for Jim to either have a comfortable top 20 finish, or another devastating second place finish. 

Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano - Other than the fact that he is a good golfer from Spain I don’t know much about Gonzo.  So I googled him to find some information about him so I could write 3-4 sentences about him.  After my search I was offered some images and some other stuff.  This is pretty consistent with how google works if you are reading this from 1999.  In the little image previews I saw some pictures of him holding a trophy standing next to what I thought was a model.  Then I noticed he was kissing her.  Turns out it was his wife.  It is amazing what being rich and famous can do for a guy.

Marc Leishman - He played with Adam Scott in the final round last year en route to a 4^th place finish.  The sweet swinging Australian hung in there last year after leading after the first round. 

Luke Donald - Remember when Luke was #1 in the world?  Seems like a long time ago, but it was only about 20 months ago.  He is currently in the midst of a swing change so I wouldn’t expect a turn around this week.

Nick Watney - His wife had a baby a month ago, which prompted him to withdraw from Doral.  Since then he hasn’t played in any tournaments.  I cant imagine he has been playing a lot of golf either. If I could figure out whether his wife and new born are with him at Augusta or not I would feel better about predicting his fate but I am guessing he is coming in rusty.

Ernie Els – It would be awesome to see The Big Easy win a green jacket, but I just don’t see it this year.  As he has aged his putter got a little shaky, but the belly putter really helped him.  However, in order to be in compliance with the ban next year when it takes affect, Els is putting with a normal putter.  This will not help at Augusta.

 

Thomas Bjørn – One thing that has always bummed me out about Bjorn is the fact that his last name translates to bear in Danish.  I was bummed because he does lumber around like a bear.  However, there cant be another golfer with his nickname involve the bear animal.  There is the golden bear and that is it.

Matt Jones – I watched Matt play on Sunday at The Memorial last year.  I was very impressed.  He was playing with Bill Haas and Justin Rose.  Bill and Matt were chatting the whole time and playing as fast as they could.  Justin was playing so slow the other two were rolling their eyes at him as he stood over his ball.  Two weeks later Justin won the US Open.  This wont be Matt’s only Masters.

Steve Stricker - This will be only his fourth start of the year, including last week.  Instead of golf he has started to attend many Wisconsin Badger basketball games with his pal Andy North.  Last weekend he flew from Houston to Dallas to see the Badgers lose to Kentucky.  He has said this week he is rusty, which makes sense given his lack of play, but he has to have been inspired by the antics of Frank Kaminsky.

Webb Simpson - Izod has picked out a line of clothes this year for Webb and released them online, like every other clothes sponsor.  During The Masters he will be in red white and blue every round.  This is going to look sharp.  A couple years ago I started to try to work as much red, white and blue into my golf clothes as I could and it has really paid off.  You know you look sharp and match.  I highly recommend this move.

Jonas Blixt - Jonas is probably best known for dressing like Ricky Fowler on a day when he was paired with him.  He is also know for two wins, but is coming off two straight missed cuts. Or maybe he is known for his cool name.  Either way, he is making his debut at Augusta. 

Matteo Manassero - Matteo is not yet 21, but he is making his third start at The Masters this week.  Augusta is a tough course for him because he doesn’t hit the ball particularly far, but a lot of shots can be saved on the green where he excels.  He is also a really good competitor if he gets into contention. 

Jason Dufner - There is a lot I like about Dufner.  He has a great swing, he has an amusing demeanor on the course and it is great the way he has embraced dufnering.  The ball striking, and especially the driving display he put on at the PGA was amazing.  On the other hand, his putting was down right scary.  I have never seen a guy look so nervous and hit one foot putts softer.  He was dying in putts that in your weekend game you might call a gimme.  That worked out great at Southern Hills, but that is a recipe for disaster at Augusta. 

Russell Henley - From what I can gather, this picture pretty much sums up Russell Henley.  He likes golf, playing Guitar and Georgia football.  I heard him playing guitar on the golf channel and I can confirm he is really good at golf.

Keegan Bradley - Keegan hasn’t been as good as you would expect in the Masters.  There is no reason he should struggle at Augusta.  The most noteworthy thing he has going on for The Masters is the fact that he is wearing golf shoes modeled off the Jordans XI, also known as the Concords. 

As I was trying to type this I realized how out of it I am.  I had no idea if I should call the shoes Air Jordans, just plain old Jordans, are they known as Concords?  Anyway, if you happen to hear about a hole change involving basketball, Keegan is in good shape.

Lee Westwood - Lee Westwood comes in playing poorly but full of confidence.  Sounds about right. 

Dustin Johnson - Dustin is embroiled in controversy once again because his fiancé, Paulina Gretzky, is on the cover of Golf Digest.  This got a group of LPGA players upset.  I believe they are upset because they didn’t put Tiger, Phil or Adam Scott on the cover again this month, but it could be that they put an attractive woman on the cover.  In fact I think it was related to the attractive woman situation.  With this controversy in mind, I was at the bookstore this weekend and had a discouraging revelation, all the people on the covers of all the magazines are better looking than me.  Now I am upset about the whole industry not just Golf Digest.  Why are only good looking people on the cover of magazines? 

Anyway, Dustin has the game, but he wont win.  Even if he is close he will do something like try to chip left handed or get an absurd penalty stroke.   

Jimmy Walker – Jimmy’s play this year has been dy-no-mite.  But his finish at Pebble Beach, where he nearly blew a huge lead on the back nine has cooled him off.  Since that tournament, which was his second win in three tournaments and third of the season.  Since then he has played in 5 tournaments with his best finish being a tie for 16^th.  You cant blame the guy for not being hot all the time, he has basically clinched a spot on the Ryder Cup team.  But he cant blame me for doubting his chances for the green jacket.

Within Shouting Distance

These guys will be guys to keep your eye on at some point this weekend

Zach Johnson – The Jerk- The jerk is playing well and is suddenly in a lot of commercials.  If living well is the best revenge and he is really getting me back.  We should all hope to avoid a boring Masters won by a man laying up.  I get shaky just thinking about it.

Graeme McDowell - Graeme is playing really well.  He is leading the tour in putting so far this year.  He is routinely near the lead on the weekend so far this year.  He hasn’t had very much success at Augusta to this point.

More importantly, his restaurant, which I discussed last year seems to be off and running.  It is averaging a solid if not spectacular 3.5 stars on Yelp and a 72% on Urban Spoon.  For what I can gather from the reviews, they struggled with service in the beginning and their food is more bar food than gourmet.

Justin Rose - Rosie as they call him is coming in under the radar a little bit mainly because he hasn’t played very much.  After his win at the US Open he played well the second half of last year and this year when he has played.  He likes his chances as well, as he says, “this is my time.”

Rickie Fowler - Rick Fowler is on the upswing.  To this point, he has been a lot more steak than sizzle.  To his credit, some might have been content with having every 10-15 year old  and some lost 45 year olds at a tournament dress like him, but Rick was not.  He has set out on a path of improvement, mostly by hiring the best coach in the world Butch Harmon.  He finished 6^th last week in Houston and is rumored to have made 9 birdies and an eagle yesterday in his practice round Tuesday.   

Bill Haas - Bill is getting better each year.  He has progressively won more and more prestigious tournaments.  It seems he has to get into the mix mess up, learn from it and then win the next time.  There is no reason he couldn’t win The Masters, but if he follows that pattern he will have to get into the mix first.  Hopefully he will skip that step and just pull it off this year.

Hunter Mahan - Sometimes you watch Hunter and you just wonder how it the world he doesn’t win every week.  He hits it so straight, so long and pure every time.  Then you see him miss hit one and you remember that he can chip, and his putting is merely decent and very mechanical.  It hasn’t received as much coverage as one of his colleagues, but he is also nursing a sore back.  He wont win the Masters because he doesn’t have much of a short game.  Check back in on him at the other majors, although Pinehurst is no walk in the park for a lousy chipper.

Ryan Moore - Moore has never missed the cut at Augusta and is coming in playing better than any time before, not counting the year he played as an amateur.  He has gotten himself into shape thanks to a cross fit routine, which will help him on the hilly course.  Is he going to start living up to his promise when he turned pro?    

Charl Schwartzel - For those of you note getting up on the weekends and watching the European tour, here are the shenanigans you are missing.  Considering where the ball was I am not really sure how it wasn’t out of bounds.  It appears he is on a neighborhood road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLZfp9qpLsQ

Anyway, Charl is really good and has done it before. 

Top 16

The top 16 get an invitation back next year

16) Brandt Snedeker - Twice he has been in the final group on Sunday, and he has averaged 76 in those final rounds.  So far this year he has putted poorly by his standards.  He played well at Bay Hill though and might be rounding into form. 

15) Bubba Watson- If a pro shoots in the 80s there is about a 90% he is going to withdraw.  When Bubba shot 83 at Bay Hill, partly caused by getting an 11 on one hole, it was no surprise he withdrew.  Can you imagine how hard it would have been to suck it up and play a round at Bay Hill on Friday morning?  Knowing he is going to withdraw he has ample time to think of a reason.  The reason he gave, allergies.  What a ridiculous reason to give.  Just go with the tried and true stiff back.  Dustin Johnson shot 80 last Friday, went with a stiff back, admitted his back was fine but just a hair tight and no one cared. 

All this said, Bubba has played really well this year.  He should have won in Phoenix, did win at Riviera and finished second at Doral.  Assuming his allergies are fine he could be putting on his second green jacket Sunday night. 

14)  Adam Scott – He gave away Bay Hill because his putter let him down.  He will never be a great putter but he made some clutch putts last year.  Only three guys have repeated at Augusta though.  Can he be the fourth?  I look for him to start strong but fade as the week goes along. 

13)  Graham DeLaet - Of all the guys I saw during the rain soaked Presidents Cup, I was most impressed with Graham.  He chipped in on 18 twice to keep the matches close enough to make it interesting.  He has played well so far this year but making his debut at Augusta will be tough.

Also, I know a lot of people who will read this were there with me, but I would recommend staying home to watch if the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup to your town. There is a lot of looking at empty holes.

12) Rory McIlroy - Rory is probably the most talented player in the world.  What he was doing last year I do not know, but people are jumping the gun a little bit saying he is back.  He is showing signs of his brilliance in most tournaments, but he is also struggling through rounds too.  Last week his final round 65 was combined with a 70, 71 and a 74.  His good rounds are great so he just needs to pair it with three good ones and he will be right there.  Right now he is pairing a great round with two average rounds and a bad one. 

11)  Angel Cabrera - Last year I wrote

“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.” 

There is no reason to change what I wrote last year.  He comes in having missed 4 of 6 cuts and his only recent success coming when he finished T5 at the 108 VISO open de Arentina, which was won by the immortal Marcelo Rozo.  But, if he is in the mix Sunday who is counting him out?

Go Duck!

10) Jordan Spieth - Jordan will turn 21 on July 27^th.  So far in his career, just about a season and a half he has earned $5.7M.  It seems like he is right up there every week and I expect him to be again this week.    

9)  Patrick Reed - Patrick is getting a lot of guff about his declaration that he considers himself a top five player in the world.  Keep in mind he said this right before he won at Doral against the best field of the year.  It was his third win in a year.  Based on what I can tell he rubs his peers the wrong way because he tells them he is going to beat them, and then he does.  There is another really popular player known as FIGJAM (F I’m Good Just Ask Me) so I don’t think this behavior is new.  I am glad to have this guy in the mix ruffling a few feathers.  It only makes the tour more interesting. 

8)  Fred Couples - Boom Boom will be aiming for his 5^th top 15 finish in a row this year.  He has played well so far on The Champions tour, although no season would be complete without an injured back scare.  This season his longtime clothing manufacturer Ashworth has decided to honor his 1992 Masters victory with a shirt.  I highly recommend picking up this shirt which can be found at www.ashworthgolf.com.  Mine is on the way.  Let’s hope he scoop up his second green jacket.

7)  Victor Dubuisson - Mains d’or- It is so nice to have a Frenchman back into golf.  Even though most golf fans, myself included, had never heard of the guy until he was making dazzling saves out of the cacti in Arizona, he is a really good player.  He is long and has a really good short game.  The short game brilliance is why I have stolen former Red’s shortstop Juan Castro’s nickname manos de oro (hands of golf), and translated it into French.  It is also just great to have a Frenchmen in the game.  With all due respect to Gregory Havret, not since Jean Van de Velde have the French been real active in world of golf.  It allows everyone to work on their French accents, make pepe le pew jokes and during the British Open have croissants for breakfast. 

6)  Tim Clark - There is a lot of discussion about the value of experience with so many rookies playing.  I am wondering if some of it is the guys who have experience trying to psych out some of the rookies.  I am sure there are some important things only experience can teach someone, but if you play good you play good.  That said, there is no doubt some guys play better on some courses than others.  A guy like Marty Kaymer may never play well at Augusta.  A guy like Tim Clark seems to play well at Augusta no matter how he comes into it. 

5)  Henrik Stenson - The man of steel was on fire last spring and fall.  He moved from 30^th in the world to 3^rd, won the Fed Ex Cup and the Race to Dubai with a run starting in the Scottish Open (the week before the British Open) to the Thailand Golf Chmapionship, over the course of 23 weeks when his finishes were 3^rd, 2^nd, 2^nd, 3^rd, 43^rd, 1^st, 33^rd, 1^st, 34^th, 31^st, 7^th, 1^st, 4^th, and 2^nd.  The streak earned him somewhere around $25M.  Understandably, the man of steel has started 2014 a little slow, but he got fifth at Bay Hill.  His game sets up well for Augusta too.  He is really long and really good. 

4)  Phil Mickelson - You have to love Phil and his “concerns” about his game being that he hasn’t won yet this year.  He has said numerous times this year that the parts of his game are all good but he hasn’t put them together.  If he gets them together this week he will win by five.  If he doesn’t he will contend.  Nobody knows the course better and no one will enjoy playing it more. 

3)  Matt Kuchar - On paper Kuchar is playing the best of anyone. He has been in the mix the last two weeks.  I have theory that if a guy is playing good he will stay in the mix to win until he wins and then drop off.  So I suspect he will be right in the thick of it again this weekend.  However, back to back bad finishes down the stretch scare me enough to wonder if he will be able to close the deal down the stretch.  

2)  Jason Day - Now that the Aussie curse is over will Jason be the next “wizard of Oz”?  If his wrist was fully healthy there is no doubt he would be the favorite.  He has been in the hunt two of the last three years.  But, is his wrist healthy?  He hasn’t played in a tournament since he won the match play tournament in late February.  I hope the hometown favorite can do it, but the combination of rust and an injured wrist makes me think the green jacket will belong to another Sunday night.

1) Sergio Garcia -The Canary- Is it finally time for the oft tortured Garcia to win a major?  I say yes.  He could have won a couple majors by now, but he hasn’t either because he got beat or he beat himself.  Sergio has always had all the game to win anywhere except he completely lost control of his putter.  Now, thanks to the claw grip, his putter seems reliable enough for him to succeed.  He has played consistently well over the course of the last year and his last ten finishes are 11^th, 4^th, 2^nd, 1^st, 19^th, 1^st, 9^th, 8^th, 16^th, and 3^rd.  More than anything, I think Sergio thinks he can win.  He wont be holding press conferences saying he cant win a major, his long time nemesis Tiger won’t be there, and he is showing a resiliency recently that we haven’t seen before.

The Canary will look good in green.

2013 Masters Preview

Finally the Masters is here and hopefully spring has arrived in the north as well.  The champions have had their dinner, the par 3 tournament is going on as I type this and the legends of the game are getting their last range balls in before they tee off tomorrow.  When we last left Augusta Bubba had defeated Louis after an incredible day of golf that included double eagles, hooking wedges and a man in white walking away with the green jacket.  We will see tomorrow what is in store for us this weekend.    

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 25^th 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 25^th 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.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/5/mike-weir-len-mattiace-look-back-on-2003-masters-p/

The Amateurs

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 36^th 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.

Here is a video of the putt he had to win. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OpMvQngvDU

Steven Fox- The US Amateur Champion- This is the guy who beat Michael Weaver.  He is the 29^th 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 4^th 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 114^th 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 10^th 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 4^th at the US Open last year where he had a very legitimate chance to win until he double bogeyed the par 5 16^th. 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 53^rd 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 4^th 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 3^rd 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 4^th.  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 15^th 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 4^th 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 17^th.

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 3^rd 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 15^th hole.  Suddenly he bogeyed the 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th 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 4^th 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.