The Masters Tournament 2020

[Revolution512 1487]

23 hours ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Oh I know that, but on this one I’m ok with dumbasses like that claiming the high ground while we saved, literally, a few hundred thousand lives.  

You do realize that works both ways right?

[ChiTownDoc 21139]

7 hours ago, Revolution512 said:

You do realize that works both ways right?

I’m 99% sure I understand more than you.  Are you an epidemiologist or an ID doc?  

[DCA_HORN 725]

The resources that are available to ANGC is pretty much limitless. This will be played.

[Incredulity 11644]

8 hours ago, Dewey said:

Be awesome if CBS aired the most memorable final rounds of the Masters,  just to give us something during the time in which the Masters would be on. 

I’d watch Thursday round replays if they would broadcast them.

 

[Jive Turkey 12593]

22 hours ago, Dewey said:

Be awesome if CBS aired the most memorable final rounds of the Masters,  just to give us something during the time in which the Masters would be on. 

that would be awesome.  show the entire broadcasts of the Sunday rounds when Jack won in 86 and Mize won in 87.  those would be my top 2.  i'm sure they'd show Tiger's win in 97 for the ratings, but that was uneventful.  gimme Ben's win in '95.

[Revolution512 1487]

1 hour ago, Jive Turkey said:

that would be awesome.  show the entire broadcasts of the Sunday rounds when Jack won in 86 and Mize won in 87.  those would be my top 2.  i'm sure they'd show Tiger's win in 97 for the ratings, but that was uneventful.  gimme Ben's win in '95.

Yikes, add 96 and tell Greg Norman to leave his tv off.

[Hate 20106]

Yeah, Norman might voluntarily get the corona if he had to watch those 3 in succession.

[Jive Turkey 12593]

1 hour ago, Revolution512 said:

Yikes, add 96 and tell Greg Norman to leave his tv off.

i didn't watch that round.  i thought it was such a lock that i studied instead (finals coming up).  i got home and heard the news.  absolutely shocked.  so i'd actually watch since i've never seen it.  i'm sure it's online somewhere, but i have never taken the time to look for it.

[Revolution512 1487]

He finished T-3rd in 1995 too

[Hate 20106]

i didn't watch that round.  i thought it was such a lock that i studied instead (finals coming up).  i got home and heard the news.  absolutely shocked.  so i'd actually watch since i've never seen it.  i'm sure it's online somewhere, but i have never taken the time to look for it.

It’s painful even if you hate Norman.

[Dewey 3286]

I've never seen the wheels fall off a golfer like that ever, he was completely defeated even before Faldo took the lead. Norman woke up that morning knowing he was going to lose. 

[tx 3 putt 76862]

Masters.com needs to upload every Masters tourney. Asap

 

[C-Man 27183]

On 3/16/2020 at 12:54 PM, Hate said:

It’s painful even if you hate Norman.

 

On 3/16/2020 at 5:00 PM, Dewey said:

I've never seen the wheels fall off a golfer like that ever, he was completely defeated even before Faldo took the lead. Norman woke up that morning knowing he was going to lose. 

The crazy thing is that I think the 6-shot lead was completely gone by the time they made the turn.

[C-Man 27183]

Looked it up and Norman led by 1 at the turn. Bogyed 9, 10 and 11 and then double-bogeyed 12. Made a couple of birdied and then doubled 16 to seal his fate.

I was really pulling for him that day. It was maybe the most painful thing I've ever seen.

[Pato del Muerto 52484]

23 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Looked it up and Norman led by 1 at the turn. Bogyed 9, 10 and 11 and then double-bogeyed 12. Made a couple of birdied and then doubled 16 to seal his fate.

I was really pulling for him that day. It was maybe the most painful thing I've ever seen.

Yeah. Van de velde did all of his bed shutting on one hole, and it was the 72nd. 
 

Norman had a 3 hour 18 hole marathon of “I don’t want to be here and the world is watching me fold like a lawn chair.”

[Incredulity 11644]

I just discovered The Masters has a youtube channel that contains many final round broadcasts.

 

Fuckin  A.

[EMAWesome 101]

Now maybe it is nothing but rates for every hotel in Augusta are going through the roof in October.

https://www.golf.com/news/2020/03/18/augusta-hotel-prices-october-masters-speculation/amp/

[Dewey 3286]

Much thanks, 86 Masters starts off with no mention of Jack, not even players within striking distance.  Some dude referring to international players as foreigners and Gary Player telling him they are not foreigners, but good golfers from around the world. 

Cant Wait to see this unfold, I was kid when this went down, remember playing golf with my brother and friends, we checked in after 9 to see the leaderboard,  then had a front row seat in the clubhouse after our 18, people were going crazy. 

[Fudge Nuggets 19184]

On 3/16/2020 at 12:23 PM, Jive Turkey said:

i didn't watch that round.  i thought it was such a lock that i studied instead (finals coming up).  i got home and heard the news.  absolutely shocked.  so i'd actually watch since i've never seen it.  i'm sure it's online somewhere, but i have never taken the time to look for it.

 

[RegularSizedRudy 36]

How might an autumn Masters look, feel and play? Here’s what the experts think

Spoiler

Looking for a nice problem? Consider this: How will the course play if the Masters is held in October? How will the fellas adjust to Augusta National in autumn?

Anyone who has been to Augusta National in October knows how beautiful the course is. The course has few hardwoods, but in the fall, which comes early to Georgia, they stand out amid the many pines. The members like to talk about how fast and firm the course often plays when the club has its annual opening weekend in October. But stubborn facts suggest the course would actually play softer and longer than it does in April, as October gets more rain in Augusta than April does, on average and over the years. One thing the club cannot buy is the thing it craves: firm, fast conditions that make the course more playable for players.

And now we are in the weeds of golf, a lovely place to be. But let’s not lose the big picture here: something is afoot in Augusta. The club has been making inquiries with local schools, government officials, hotel managers and others to see how a first Masters-in-the-fall would play out. That’s just a starting point. The club’s contracts with ESPN and CBS would create other complications, way beyond the growing patterns of Bermuda grass in October.

Golf at Augusta in October has been in the news before, years ago. In October 1992, two Southern powerbrokers held an unexpected press conference at the club. The older of the two men was the club’s courtly chairman, Jack Stephens, from Little Rock. Beside him was a bespectacled Atlanta real-estate entrepreneur named Billy Payne. Payne wasn’t a member of Augusta National then. He later became the club’s chairman and last year was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. But in October of 1992 he was the head of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, where the Summer Games were played in 1996. The Payne-Stephens press conference was held on the lawn behind the club’s iconic clubhouse. They had a dream, for golf to return to the Olympics in 1996, with Augusta National as the venue.

The dream died quickly, a victim of political fallout regarding the club’s exclusionary membership practices. But when discussion of a Masters in October surfaced in recent days, the picture from that day suddenly came rushing back.

Had there been Olympic golf at Augusta National, the course would have had to be suitable for both men and women to play in a two-week period from late July to early August, during a sweltering stretch when Augusta National had always been closed. It showed how flexible Augusta National can be, when it chooses to be so.

Stephens asserted in ’92 that the club had the means to maintain its famously slick bentgrass greens in the summer. And that was before Augusta National had installed a SubAir system that controls the greens’ temperature and moisture.

As for the Bermuda grass on the rest of the course, which every fall is shaved and overseeded with the perennial rye grass upon which the Masters is staged, Stephens said it could be prepped for tournament play at any time of year. And grass-growing has only become a more scientific pursuit since then.

Augusta, then as now, leaves nothing to chance. Stephens, a key member of Bill Clinton’s kitchen cabinet, announced a three-year “experiment” to study how the greens would fare over the summer. That process involved observing local courses, including neighboring Augusta Country Club, which had (and has) bentgrass greens on a year-round basis.

Of the summer plan, Stephens later said, “We became convinced that we could have a golf course for at least a period of two weeks.”

That’s Augusta-speak for, “We got this!”

Now, as speculation builds that the club might be planning for a fall Masters, that adaptability, and that attitude, will be most useful.

No Masters round has been played later than April 15, but in these extraordinary times, an October Masters could become a reality. One of the most likely weeks for a rescheduled tournament would be Oct. 5-11, shortly before Augusta National’s regularly-scheduled reopening. It’s a seasonal club. Since opening in 1933, it has shut down for play from late May until mid-October or late October.

“A Masters in the fall, October time, I think it would be pretty cool,” Rory McIlroy said on Sirius XM/PGA Tour Radio last week. McIlroy, who enters this extended forced break as the No. 1 ranked player in the world, needs only the Masters to become the sixth winner of the career grand slam. “It would be a very different look than what you usually see at Augusta,” he said.

“The course is in the best shape from eyesight that you can imagine,” Carl Jackson said the other day. “It’s still just beautiful.” He would know. Jackson began caddying at Augusta National in 1958 when he was 11 and holds the record for carrying a bag in 54 Masters, including 39 years for Ben Crenshaw, with whom he won twice.

Jackson said the course is pristine when the club opens to members every October but that the weather that time of year can be less predictable.

“That jet stream is gonna be mighty important,” he said. “They’re going to be rolling the dice.”

The average monthly temperatures in Augusta are actually identical in April and October — 77 degrees, on average, in the  daytime. The first half of October is generally four to five degrees warmer than the comparable window in April. As for rain, you may associate the Masters with passing showers, and they come often. But collected weather data shows that April is typically the second driest month of the year in Augusta, while October ranks fourth, with about a half-inch more average annual accumulation.

October is also the tail end of Georgia’s hurricane season. When Hurricane Michael cut a devastating path across Georgia in 2018, it wreaked havoc on Augusta on Oct. 11, bringing high winds, heavy rain and power outages.

The outside threat of tropical storms aside, the wind is actually gentler in October than in April. That doesn’t mean it would be easier. Jackson said October winds usually blow out of the north, which is in the players’ faces on the first tee and from right to left in Amen Corner. Good luck playing that second shot into 11, with that pond on the left of the green. A north wind would also make the two back-nine par-5s play longer.

What about one of the course’s most famous qualities, the speed of its greens? Jackson, who has caddied in many of the opening jamborees held each October, said the club would have no trouble getting the bentgrass greens to Masters speed. “The Augusta greens are always fast,” he said. “I can’t speak to them ever getting them down to ‘tournament quick’ in October, but the greens are still perfect.”

The biggest adjustment for the players likely would be the grass on the rest of the course. Players are accustomed to playing rye grass at Augusta. In the fall, the surface would be a rye-Bermuda combo platter, with the Bermuda being more dominant. That can get in a player’s head.

“I’ve played Augusta in October and there was still plenty of Bermuda within the over seeded rye,” Luke Donald, who has had three top-10 finishes at Augusta, tweeted recently. “In September would be pretty much all Bermuda fairways, so would definitely play differently.”

Reading grain — that is, the way the grass blades bend — is a fine art at Augusta National. It’s why great chippers, like Billy Casper, Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, have played the course so well. Bermuda would be even grainer than rye. Tight lies, especially around the greens, would be even more challenging.

There has been some speculation that you could have a Masters in September, after the Tour Championship, which is scheduled for late August at East Lake in Atlanta, Bobby Jones’s boyhood course, two hours by car from Augusta. If the club tried to conduct the Masters then, the grounds crew would be challenged to complete its rye overseeing, even for a club with Augusta National’s resources. A mid-October date, however, would give the club superintendent, Brad Owen, wiggle room to have the course ready to play more like it does in April.

“It would be easy in the first week of September to put the (rye) seed down and by mid-October they’d have it down to playing height,” said Darren Davenport, who pitched in for five years on the Masters grounds crew, from 1995-99. He is the course superintendent at Bartram Trail in nearby Evans, Ga. “It would cost them a lot of money, but they’d do it.” You’ll never hear Augusta National officials say they can’t do something because it’s too expensive.

Because of the watering required to get the rye overseed ready, the players would likely find a lusher golf course than they do in April. Even with the club’s ability to suck some of the moisture out of the greens and landing areas, the 7,475-yard design would still play longer than normal, not the firm, fast course that anecdotal evidence suggests is the norm.

“It would be softer, there’s no doubt,” Davenport said. “But with the SubAir and everything, they can get it close.”

Considering the softness of the course, the humidity and the wind direction, Jackson said he’d expect to see the players hitting at least one if not two clubs more into many of the greens. “The ball is not gonna roll an extra 10 yards,” he said.

In other words, good news for Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and other bash brothers, if you’re looking to do some early wagering.

If a fall Masters should materialize, Jackson said he’d particularly look forward to seeing how the usually gettable par-5s would play. “They’d definitely be using more club unless they’re downwind,” he said.

How cool would that be, to see the likes of Rory and Tiger and Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas hitting long irons into those back-nine par-5s? Shades of Jack and Arnold.

Last year, when Mickelson won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February, he said the winter course would bear little resemblance to the course the gents would be playing in June, for the U.S. Open. He was correct. A Masters in October would be a whole different thing, too.

But how wonderful would it be, in this odd and difficult year, to have the tournament then, as a grand fall golf party? To have a Masters golf tournament, famous rite of spring, played smackdab in the middle of football season? To watch the players try to figure out different grasses, winds, colors, clubs?

What a lovely set of problems to consider.

 

[Hate 20106]

I'm not sure when this picture was taken, but it's of #12 sometime in the fall.

Edited March 23, 2020 by Hate

[C-Man 27183]

On 3/23/2020 at 4:07 PM, Hate said:

I'm not sure when this picture was taken, but it's of #12 sometime in the fall.

Too much pine straw in Rae's Creek.

[Incredulity 11644]

I want my Masters color from Azaleas.

[mdmost 42997]

Better than nothing

 

[DCA_HORN 725]

Cant get 86 as well? Whatever year tiger chipped in on 16?

[StruggleBus 3922]

51 minutes ago, DCA_HORN said:

Cant get 86 as well? Whatever year tiger chipped in on 16?

I think that was 2006ish

Edited April 3, 2020 by StruggleBus
2005

[tx 3 putt 76862]

1 hour ago, DCA_HORN said:

Cant get 86 as well?

its on youtube

[4th&Five 41506]

 

[mdmost 42997]

I hope they planted Encore Azaleas. 

[RockyMountainHighHorn 890]

Booked an Airbnb this morning. Why the hell not? Espn was talking about how there won’t be azaleas but the leaves will be changing and have a totally different look. Definitely not how I wanted to see the masters for the first time in person but at least I’ll hopefully be able to see I saw one of the most unique masters. 
 

also, did anyone ever get their hard tickets for the original tournament or did they not ship? 

Edited April 6, 2020 by RockyMountainHighHorn

[heso 2785]

4 minutes ago, RockyMountainHighHorn said:

Booked an Airbnb this morning. Why the hell not? Espn was talking about how there won’t be azaleas but the leaves will be changing and have a totally different look. Definitely not how I wanted to see the masters for the first time in person but at least I’ll hopefully be able to see I saw one of the most unique masters. 
 

also, did anyone ever get their hard tickets for the original tournament or did they not ship? 

They shipped, at least for the practice rounds. 

[Pom 14]

39 minutes ago, RockyMountainHighHorn said:

Booked an Airbnb this morning. Why the hell not? Espn was talking about how there won’t be azaleas but the leaves will be changing and have a totally different look. Definitely not how I wanted to see the masters for the first time in person but at least I’ll hopefully be able to see I saw one of the most unique masters. 
 

also, did anyone ever get their hard tickets for the original tournament or did they not ship? 

Received badges in early March. 

[4th&Five 41506]

 

[markstanco 12570]

Cant get 86 as well? Whatever year tiger chipped in on 16?

The last time I watched the 86 masters I was in a cabin on the left of 10 tee box at augusta national.

Maybe I have told that story a time or 15?

[Jive Turkey 12593]

Ask and ye shall receive. 

 

[StruggleBus 3922]

16 hours ago, 4th&Five said:

 

Maybe I just have a hard on for the Masters but that looks fucking awesome

[Hate 20106]

I hope they get to go through with it. It won’t be the same, but it will still be pretty damn cool.

[StruggleBus 3922]

14 minutes ago, Hate said:

I hope they get to go through with it. It won’t be the same, but it will still be pretty damn cool.

Dude I'd settle for playing the US Open at Hancock in Austin at this point

[4th&Five 41506]

 

[Wally Fairway 5539]

The way 2020 is going, I expect there to be snow in November at Augusta

[tx 3 putt 76862]

if they're letting in patrons, I'm going try to get out there for a practice round. history making

 

also it'll serve as a test run for a women's pro tournament in the fall 

Edited April 8, 2020 by tx 3 putt

[Hate 20106]

19 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

The way 2020 is going, I expect there to be snow in November at Augusta

Yellowstone is going to blow to finish us all off.

[Jive Turkey 12593]

Jim Nantz looked like a kid in 1986 in the 16th tower.

[mdmost 42997]

2012 Masters is on ESPN now. At least on the ESPN app. I need to see the course again. 

[Post Oak 20204]

Sorry for the long post [not sure how to spoiler] but this is a copy of Joe Posnanski writing about Tiger and time for The Athletic

Joe is maybe the best sportswriter in America..

It's worth your time but it'll make you miss the Masters

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

 

Today was supposed to be the first day of the Masters. Ah. I so love Thursdays at Augusta. So much hope. So much joy. If there is one hopeful thing I can say about all this, it has been a reminder to not take for granted all those wonderful little things about sports and life.

Because time has little meaning while we’re in isolation, it seems almost impossible to believe that it was only a year ago that Tiger Woods won the Masters on that crazy final day. That feels like 40 years ago. But it was indeed a year ago. And when it happened, I was lost in reverie, and I went from the television set straight to my computer and wrote this piece, which appeared originally on my blog.

---

People still look past me. It baffles me that still happens after all these years. Yes, I know I am petite and pretty and, if you will allow a modicum of immodesty, I ooze with Southern charm. If I were in Hollywood, I am sure I would be Doris Day. I apologize if that’s an old reference. I am old. I fear that I have not kept up with the times.

People sense my friendliness. That is good. I am friendly. I welcome everyone. My bridge is always open. I optimistically set the table for two every time.

But I am not to be underestimated.

My name is Golden Bell. I am the 12th hole at Augusta National.

I am 155 yards long, and I am surrounded by azaleas and sand and water and trees. I am less a golf hole and more a vacation spot. My likeness hangs in offices and living rooms around the world. I look as innocuous and dreamy as a postcard from Hawaii.

But I am to be taken seriously. The winds swirl unpredictably around me. They say I was built on an American Indian burial ground. I do not talk about my past. But I can tell you that I have broken many hearts.

I broke Arnold Palmer’s heart. That was in ’59, I guess. I revered Arnie, and over time he came to revere me, but he was still young then, full of spirit and too much certainty. He led when he arrived at my door. He promptly hit his ball into the water and made triple bogey and lost the Masters. I felt heartsick for him. But I am not easy.

Time after time in the years since then, they have come to me with a sparkle of glory and a touch of arrogance reflecting in their eyes, and they have looked beyond me, to opportunities that await, to a dream they have had had since they were children, to a jacket that they long to wear. And they have then walked off my green broken. I have crushed so many hopes. Seve Ballesteros. Gary Player. Greg Norman. Jordan Spieth. I cannot remember them all.

It happens every year.

On this Sunday, the hopers and dreamers began arriving much earlier in the day than I expected. They don’t usually show up until the late afternoon, as the sun falls behind the magnolia and juniper trees, but this Sunday they started marching up in groups of three in the morning. I believe the threat of bad weather brought them out early.

The names change. The faces don’t. In the early afternoon, a powerful man named Brooks Koepka showed up. There is no doubt in my mind that Brooks has the strength to hit a golf ball miles over me. But I watched instead as he hit the ball without confidence. Without belief. I could tell instantly that his shot would land short and roll back into the water. I tried to stop it. I always try to stop it. But there is not much I can do. Once, I recall, I was able to stop the golf ball for a friendly sort named Fred Couples. But ever since then the groundskeepers have kept my grass shorter to prevent such charity from happening again.

No, there was nothing I could do to save Koepka’s ball.

The same was true for Ian Poulter’s golf ball. Poulter is English, from what I can tell, and he also hit a high, equivocal shot that bounced well short and rolled back into Rae’s Creek. Later, the same thing happened to a tall fellow named Tony Finau. Each time the ball dropped into the creek, I saw the ripples and heard the groans that have always tormented me.

I am haunted by waters.

Then the next group, the last group, came up. A man with a musical name, Francesco Molinari, walked to the tee. What a name. I have grown to love beautiful names — Ian Baker-Finch, José María Olazábal, Jimmy Demaret.

And standing next to him, there was an older golfer wearing red. He had a familiar face, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

---

There are, from my vantage point, only a few who have ever turned this place inside out. Arnie was one of those; he was so captivating and fetching and affable. The fans at Augusta loved him dearly, fervently; they even called themselves “Arnie’s Army.” I often thought of myself as a member of Arnie’s Army.

There was Jack Nicklaus. I will not lie, he was my favorite. I don’t know if the fans loved Jack with quite the zeal and warmth that they loved Arnie, but I know they admired him. He was admirable. He kept his head. He never beat himself. He played the right shot again and again.

And Jack always made me feel seen. I’ve heard that he called me the toughest little hole in the world. That is the most meaningful thing anyone has ever said about me. I have been called beautiful so often that it has lost its meaning. But tough! Yes! It’s true, I am tough. Jack used to say that he always aimed for the same spot — to that safe space of land between my front and back bunkers — even if it meant aiming away from the flag.

Jack didn’t just admire me. He respected me.

There were others, too, men who inspired ear-shattering roars, Sam and Tom and Seve and Phil and so on.

But Tiger Woods is different from all of them.

I remember when he first came to Augusta. He was only an amateur then, a teenager, but full of unimaginable promise and talent and skill. (I heard that Jack predicted Tiger would win as many green jackets as he and Arnie had won combined. That, by my count, would be 10.) I’m told that when they asked Tiger what he hoped to accomplish his first time around at the hallowed Masters, he said, without hesitation: Win.

It was a brazen and presumptuous thing for a young man to say — the correct answer apparently being something to the effect of “I’m just happy to be here” — and I am sure some of the older men harrumphed and grumbled. But modesty didn’t fit Tiger or his talents. He came to conquer, and when he was 21, he did. He thundered through this golf course like no one ever had before. When he was done, records were shattered, imaginations were detonated, and I overheard people say that they would need to change Augusta National just to accommodate Tiger’s prodigious abilities.

They did change Augusta National considerably, lengthening some holes, adding contours and rises in various places, reworking various parts of the course. But they did not change me — if you will allow me to speak immodestly again, I am timeless — and they did not prevent Tiger Woods from winning again and again. He won four times before he turned 30.

The roars for Tiger were unlike those even for Arnie and Jack. I think that’s because Tiger wasn’t loved like Arnie, and he wasn’t lionized like Jack. No, there was something else about him, something more aspirational. I am not sure I can describe it — I am no poet, I am the subject of poetry — but as I understand it, Tiger took the crowd to a place where golf had never gone. He was less a golfer and more an astronaut. He hit shots no one had ever hit. He saw possibilities where others saw tree branches and double bogeys. He brought order to a disorderly game.

Anyway, that’s how I have heard it described.

Then, one day, something with Tiger Woods changed. One hears things, but I am not one to partake in rumors. All I knew was that Tiger no longer commanded the game the way he had. The crowds still shouted for him, but their cheers were less confident and more nervous. He grew older. He seemed to have a different swing every time I saw him. And some years, he did not show up at all.

I did not expect to see Tiger Woods compete again.

The seasons do not turn backward.

---

When Sunday’s final group approached, I glanced at the little walking leaderboard and saw that the Italian with the beautiful name, Francesco Molinari, had 13 red. And Tiger Woods had 11 red. The Masters was in the balance.

And I waited with hope.

Molinari hit first. He reached back with his club, and I offered a silent prayer for him like I do for every golfer. But as soon as he hit the ball, I could see that he had made the eternal mistake. He aimed toward my flag. And he lacked conviction. The ball fluttered in the wind, landed short, rolled back into the creek, and those agonizing groans came. I saw the crestfallen look on Molinari’s face. I have seen that look so many times. I never get used to it.

Then Tiger Woods stepped to the tee.

I looked at him closely. Was this really Tiger Woods, the bold and impertinent kid who believed that nothing was beyond his powers? He looked different. He moved more gingerly. His face was wider. His weather-worn visage suggested that he had seen things. I began to say my silent prayer for him … but then I stopped because I noticed something unusual, something I had not seen in, well, in a long time.

Deference.

He aimed his shot away from the flag.

Tiger hit it to that space between my front and back bunker. The ball landed and settled 40 feet from the hole, dry and safe. It was the shot that young golfers feel too proud and too strong to hit, the shot contenders refuse because they want more.

It was Jack Nicklaus’ shot. And now, it was Tiger Woods’ shot.

And I knew right then that Tiger would go on to win the Masters.

I could tell from the roars that he did go on to win. I settled in and just listened like I do every Masters Sunday. They were louder than any I have heard in more than 30 years. I have since heard that as he walked off the last hole, Tiger was seen hugging his children, who were not born when he won here the first time. And I heard he took a look up to the sky to think about his father, Earl, who passed away a dozen years ago.

I am not capable of tears. Or at least I didn’t think I was capable of tears.

If there’s one thing I have learned as a most famous golf hole, it is that time, like Rae’s Creek, rushes in one direction. You cannot expect it to stop for anything or anyone. And yet, I’ve been around Augusta long enough to know that every now and again, on special days, time can stop, or at least pause. On Sunday, it stopped for Tiger Woods. I think that means time stopped for all of the rest of us, too.

 

 

[Dewey 3286]

And then, "Tiger proofing" began and the guy adjusted his game again and again and again.  Really the key has always been his short game, but he does so much better at setting himself up than anyone off the tee. Last years win was a lot like Jack's in 86, he knew how to play the course better than anyone. When Sevie knocks in the water and Norman pushes it right on 18. Or the guys in front of Tiger feeding the pond on 12, both Jack and Tiger set themselves up beautifully and did so their entire careers.  

Miss sports, miss the Masters, rambling 

[Assman 1830]

I was lucky enough to be there last year for the final 2 rounds.  At the time, I thought there was no better moment in Masters history than watching Tiger come back from the dead to win #5.  However, this year has the potential to be a little more special.  Could you imagine Tiger winning #6 to tie Jack in the first ever Masters to be held in the Fall?  Epic shit. 

[HoffaJimmy 316]

On 4/2/2020 at 6:48 PM, DCA_HORN said:

Cant get 86 as well? Whatever year tiger chipped in on 16?

15 years ago today-

I don't remember that last angle or I have never seen it before. So awesome. 

 

[DCA_HORN 725]

I was sitting in front of the third tree at the :57 mark.

[Post Oak 20204]

Verne Lundquist was so good