OK so I'm a day early. I went back to ESPN and reactivated the Skybox duffers group for this year. I'm using the same password as last year. I'll email it to you if for some strange reason you can't remember it. The set up is pretty simple. You pick 4 golfers and have a salary limit of $50. It'a best ball contest to the low score on each hole by you team counts. We're using the rule where YOU CAN CHANGE YOU TEAM EVERY DAY. THIS IS IMPORTANT IF SOME OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS DON'T MAKE THE CUT.
The Rabbit is out at the Masters...David Lynn is 5 under going into 16. Always somebody who gets out fast, they usally fade then next day. But he would have been a nice pick for your Masters Team, he was only worth 8$ (for reference the lowest you could pay was 7$ for Larry Mize, Ben Crenshaw and a couple of other guys.
OK so how many thought that Freddie Cupcakes would be at -5 one shot off the lead? And, who in their right mind would ever think that some 14 yr. old middle school student would be +1 after the first round? I love the Masters!
According the "Live at the Masters" tonight Phil played with 3 3 Woods... One that is less than 200cc for low spin off the tee, one for fairway with high spin and a "really small" one for hitting out of the 1st cut in the rough. And you thought playing with 2 drivers a couple of years ago was thinking outside the box! BTW I had Freddie on my fantasy team. He's done really well the last four or five years at the Masters esp on the 1st 2 days...runs out of gas on the weekends.
Tiger gets 2 shot penalty for illegal drop on 15 after his ball rolled into the creek after hitting the pin. Bad break for him for sure, but I wonder if it'd been anybody but Tiger would they have enforced the DQ rule for signing an incorrect scorecard.
On the golf channel almost all of the former players Faldo, Chamblee, and Flesh all unequivocally said Tiger should just DQ himself. His friend Notah bailed and said the rules committee made their decision and that's that. I'll be very surprised if Tiger tees off this afternoon. (BTW what a screw job that shot hitting the flagstick. It first cost him probably 2 strokes, then he's assessed another 2 penalty strokes,and he probably has to withdraw to save face in the locker room.)
ESPN is reporting that there is a fairly new rule which widens the interpretation of the drop rule. I don't see why he needs to resign to save face . If he can come back after this sequence of events it will only add to his lore. If he quits it comes off as a tantrum, I think. At the time, neither play by play announcer mentioned anything about it that I can recall. In fact. I seem to recall one mentioning that Tiger may choose to drop further back to give himself a little more room. Apparently they don't know the interpretation either. Bottom line for me.... I am not wasting two good weather days to watch Jason Day and Marc Leishman battle it out. I can catch the two minute highlights on SportsCenter at 11.
The drop back as far as you want rule applies if you use the point where the ball crossed the hazzard line. Since the ball bounced off the flag at an angle, that path would have brought him much further to the left. He employed the rehit the shot rule which requires him to hit it "as nearl as possible" from the spot of the prior shot. Interestingly, when the rules officials reviewed the tape (while Tiger was on the 18th hole) they ruled it a legal drop figuring I guess he was close enough. It wasn't until he mentioned he purposfully moved back on the drop that they had to revisit the drop and now rule it illegal. But because their earlier ruling allowed Woods to sign his scorecard without concern for the drop they were kind of stuck DQing him for signing an incorrect scorecard. I wonder if Nike will take out a new ad CHEATING CURES EVERYTHING!
You don't really think he was intentionally cheating, do you? Here is his official statement after the ruling...... "At hole #15, I took a drop that I thought was correct and in accordance with the rules," Woods wrote. "I was unaware at that time I had violated any rules. I didn't know I had taken an incorrect drop prior to signing my scorecard. Subsequently, I met with the Masters Committee Saturday morning... and was advised they had reviewed the incident prior to the completion of my round. Their initial determination... was that there was no violation, but they had additional concerns based on my post-round interview. After discussing the situation... with them this morning, I was assessed a two-shot penalty. I understand and accept the penalty and respect the Committees' decision."
I just don't get why they take calls from fans in the first place. Serously is there another sport that allows fans to insert themselves into the game?