The best week of the Golf year. I like the USOpen, the Open and the FedEx Cup finals at East Lake. But they all take a back seat to Augusta. Hard to imagine who will win, Dustin is the obvious favorite, but does the course set up well for him? Clearly it sets up well for Jordan Spieth and I do think Phil and Bubba being lefty's if they are on it really sets up well for them. I won't be surprised if Rory wins it this year. He seems to be healthy and playing pretty well, if he is focused he can win it. Will there be another Danny Willett? who knows, but it's possible. Dustin is on such a good run, I just don't think he can keep it up and win his 4th straight, that would be ignoring the aw of averages. I hope the weather holds for the tourney, I think there is rain in the forecast. The views I saw on the golf channel show it to be as beautiful as ever. Mainly I hope that they can get through the tourney with no controversies like Lexi Thompson faced at that ANA last weekend. Which btw to me was a travesty that they went ahead and assessed her that 4 shot penalty. First I think they should not accept calls, emails, texts about potential rules violations and they should definitely not accept them for something that happened 24 hours earlier. It would have taken just some common sense to say, yes she moved the ball about 1/4 inch or so on a 1 foot putt and gained no advantage so the round is done and that's that. But then to compound that they gave her 2 more strokes because she reported an incorrect score. That was an even greater travesty. Sure they hid behind the "rules" and justified it. But when researching the "rules' I found that in 1957 Bobby Locke won the British Open but later a newsreel showed that he moved his mark at the request of a playing partner and failed to move it back. He won by 3 strokes. The R&A actually used some common sense after debating if for a week and decided he had gained no advantage and he'd already been awarded the trophy and that was that. Common Sense over "The Rules" One good thing is that the new proposed rules would not have allowed what had happened to Lexi. My pick to win it. Jordan gets back on track!
What a crock. She marked, lined up her ball, then picked up the mark. Yeah a blowup of the replay shows that the ball and mark were at slightly different positions before and after...very slightly. The rule says you mark, lift, and replace. Science says it is absolutely impossible to replace the ball in the exact same spot. Especially if you reorient it to line the putt up. What a crock. These idiots are trying to ruin a great game. And don't get me started on my opinion of one of the best golfers in the world wanting to mark and line up a one foot putt. Yeah, I know..."follow your routine"...but it seems stupid to me.
Dustin Johnson fell down some stairs at his rental home in Augusta and hurt his back. Still hopes to play on Thursday.
The only time I play Draft Kings fantasy games is during the 4 majors. So I have 6 entries and 2 have DJ in them. Do I keep him or find subs?
Good news is that no 7 iron was found at the scene and there are no reports of Dustin hanging out at Waffle House :twisted:
Looks like you'd better be able to control the flight of your ball today with this wind. Who can do that will likely be in contention.
Or at least keep the damage to a minimum. The rain may tame the greens a little so try to avoid big mistakes in the wind. Par is a good score today. You can't win it today but you can lose it.
oh my....Jordan takes a quad on #15 after a bogey on #14...now is dead last went from -1 to +4...ouch.
Great comeback from Spieth. I wonder what the highest score on a hole was ever recorded by the winner of a tournament. Saw a stat yesterday...can't remember the exact names and numbers... But it was something like over the last four years Spieth is -29 at the Masters. The next four were the usual suspects (like Rory, Jason, Dustin, etc) but the nearest one was something like -14. He has played in the final pairing the last three years. Only missed it this year due to that quad on 15. If he can stay focused and keep from having another blowup hole...he'd be my pick even starting two back.
Very compelling Eurogolf. Who guessed that Kooch would be the low American? Got to give Sergio a lot of credit. His approach shots on the last 6 holes he played were spot on. That eagle on 15 was a classic.
I am happy for Sergio. He has waited a long time for this achievement! Critical errors on both players on the last three holes in regulation. Sergio was not to be denied in the playoff hole.
What a great Masters Week. Drama the whole final round, then the improbable win of Sergio. I thought for sure after Jordan's round on Sat that he would run the field down from behind. I thought Sergio for sure would not be able to finish as he has in so many majors where he was in the hunt. Last time he was that close was that British Open he choked away. How about Freddie Couples, was tournament for him. he was not really ever likely to win it, but before he ran out of gas on the back nine yesterday he was headed for a great round and a top 10 finish...at 57. I thought when Hoffman hit the ball in the creek on that par 3 and lost the lead, that was it for him. I figured he'd probably start to press a little and it'd just slip away from him. I'm sure he feels bad how he had it and let it go, but still a very good Masters run for him.