Musings: Thoughts on the Greatest Week in Golf

I’m a little biased, I admit, but I think the Masters ranks with the greatest of all sports events. For incredible theater and intense, crushing pressure, the Final Four, World Series and Super Bowl have got nothing on Bobby Jones’ little get-together in the hills of eastern Georgia. Here are some random thoughts as Masters week dawns.

• Tiger Woods, who’s been absolutely on top of his game for about eight months now, is a prohibitive favorite to win his fifth green jacket in his 12th Masters start as a professional. Surprisingly, though, Woods is in a bit of a “drought,” winning only one of the last five Masters. All that does is provide a little extra motivation for Woods, who clearly has designs on a Grand Slam in 2008.

• For historical reference, Jack Nicklaus, the standard to whom Woods is compared, won his fifth Masters in his 15th professional start at Augusta.

• Johnson Wagner is the latest player to benefit from the Masters’ “win and you’re in” policy. Wagner’s dramatic win at the Shell Houston Open propels the largely unknown 28-year-old into his first Masters appearance. “I don’t care if I shoot 90 both days and miss the cut,” he said. “I’m so excited to be there, and it’s just a dream come true.” Wagner is one of 19 first-timers at Augusta this week.

• ESPN is giving golf fans a special treat by broadcasting this year’s par-3 contest on Wednesday. Along with it will come the obligatory 75 observations that the winner of the par-3 tournament has never won the Masters.

• The tournament fathers have basically left the course alone since last year. The key factor will be the conditions. Last year, the wind and the firmness of the course played havoc with the scores, giving us an over-par champion. This year, early forecasts call for rain, which should lengthen the already brutally long track but also give players some receptive greens. Unless the gales blow, don’t expect an over-par score to stand up this year.

• Click here for Athlon's hole-by-hole preview of Augusta National Golf Club

2008 Contenders

• Last year’s Masters saw Tiger Woods make some dubious history. For the first time, Woods played in the final pairing of a major and failed to win, and he failed to break par in any round. Chinks in the armor? Not quite. Starting with the 2007 WGC Bridgestone, Woods was off to the races. He’s won eight of his last 10 Tour starts, including the PGA Championship. By his own admission, Woods is playing the best golf of his storied career. Any list of favorites has to start and end with Eldrick.

• It’s an even year, so watch out for Phil Mickelson, who won the Masters in 2004 and 2006. He’s playing solid, confident golf this season and is pointing to this tournament as the culmination of his high-profile partnership with Butch Harmon and a year of tireless work on his game.

• Justin Rose is the answer to a good trivia question: he had the next-lowest cumulative score to Woods in the four major championships last year. Rose was in contention at Augusta in 2007 until a double bogey at the 17th hole and ended tied for fifth. Although he has yet to win on the PGA Tour, nobody would be surprised to see the Englishman win a major.

• Now that Padraig Harrington has broken through to win a major championship, why not another? The Irishman tied for seventh at Augusta last year and then went on to win the British Open in a playoff over Sergio Garcia.

• Rory Sabbatini emerged as a frequent challenger in 2007, and he led briefly during the final round of the Masters. He was one of only three players to break 70 on a difficult final day and ended up tied for second, two shots back. Sabbatini had missed the cut in three of his previous four Masters appearances.

• This will be a critical season in the career of Ernie Els as he establishes his legacy. It will interesting to see if he comes out firing at Augusta. His results so far this year have been a mixed bag; he won at the Honda, but has battled illness and inconsistent play. He wants this tournament badly, though.

• Back-to-back winners at Augusta are rare. Since 1965-66, when Jack Nicklaus went back-to-back, it’s only been done twice, by Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02). But don’t count out Zach Johnson. Johnson put the kibosh on the notion that short hitters can’t win the Masters, and his bulldog-tough performance showed that he could be a factor here for years to come.

• K.J. Choi finished a forgotten third at the 2004 Masters, where Woods and Chris DiMarco staged their memorable duel. It’s only a matter of time before Choi wins a major. 

• Watch for one or more of these wily veterans to make an appearance on the weekend leaderboard: Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Retief Goosen, Scott Verplank, Mike Weir.

Athlon’s Pick

Woods is as determined and focused as he’s ever been. Clearly, Augusta National sets up perfectly for his game. He hasn’t shied away from talk of a Grand Slam. The planets are aligning. Watch out.

Masters Memories

Although a lengthened and toughened course has penalized the risk-takers, the back nine on Sunday at the Masters still provides some of sports’ greatest drama. I’ve looked back over 30 years of Masters-watching and come up with my own top 7 Masters Moments.

7. Player’s Charge, 1978. A still-trim, still-feisty Gary Player goes wild on Sunday, shooting a 64 and erasing a seven-shot deficit to win by one. Player finishes well ahead of the leaders and has to wait in the clubhouse for them all to falter.

6. Norman’s Collapse, 1996. Star-crossed Greg Norman truly earns his crown as the king of Masters heartbreak. He squanders a six-shot lead over Nick Faldo, shooting a 78 to Faldo’s 67 and losing by five. It’s Faldo’s third green jacket.

5. Couples Defies Gravity, 1992. Nursing a slim lead on Sunday, Fred Couples comes to the diabolical par-3 12th, the scene of so many disasters, and narrowly averts one himself when his mis-clubbed tee shot somehow clings to the bank instead of trickling down into Rae’s Creek. Couples goes on to beat Ray Floyd for his only major.

4. Larry Mize, 1987. Playing a few miles from his home, the quiet, unassuming Mize hits the shot heard round the golf world, holing an impossible 140-foot pitch shot on the second playoff hole to deny Greg Norman a green jacket.

3. One for the Swoosh, 2005. The moment will always be etched in our memories — the ball hanging tantalizingly on the edge of the cup, the Nike logo momentarily freeze-framed on our television screens before the ball tumbles into the cup, unleashing an awkward golfer high-five moment between Tiger Woods and caddie Steve Williams that detracted only slightly from the moment. To answer your question, Verne Lundquist — no, in our lives, we’ve never seen anything like it.

2. Lefty’s Leap into History, 2004. Sporting a bemused grin, as though he’s actually enjoying the proceedings, Phil Mickelson gets the major monkey off his back, following up an opening-round 72 with three straight 69s to hold off a charging Ernie Els. His clinching putt on 18 and subsequent leap for joy is one of golf’s great cathartic moments.

1. Jack’s Back. It’s 1986, and Jack Nicklaus is little more than a footnote to the proceedings at Augusta. Heading into the final round, Jack is four shots back and still below everyone’s radar. But something strange happens on this day, something that will make grown men like Jim Nantz and Ken Venturi weep openly. Jack birdies 9, 10 and 11 to creep up the leader board and unleash echoes throughout Amen Corner. A bogey at 12 calms the frenzy, but he gets it back with a birdie at 13. Then, an eagle putt at 15, a near hole-in-one at 16 and a birdie at 17 set off roars that more befit a football stadium than this venerable setting. Nicklaus’ 65 puts him at 9-under, and his competitors, seemingly shaken by this turn-back-the-clock day at Augusta National, stumble home one-by-one. Jack needs only 33 strokes to complete the final 10 holes of the greatest Masters of them all.

Lady Tiger

Remember those Tiger Woods-Annika Sorenstam comparisons? Lorena Ochoa is rendering those obsolete. Ochoa, the new gold standard in the women’s game, has designs on a Grand Slam of her own. She won the season’s first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, in typically dominating fashion, beating Sorenstam and Suzann Pettersen by five strokes and becoming the first LPGA player since Sorenstam in 2005 to win consecutive majors. Ochoa has won three of her four starts this year, has shot under par in 14 of her 15 rounds, and is averaging a full stroke per round lower than Sorenstam, her nearest competitor. I’d call that Tiger-esque.

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