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Written by Bryan Spitzer
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Monday, 13 April 2009 |
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This past week marks so many things, for many of us it is the weekend where we begin our golf season or at least start putting on the carpet as we watch Saturday and Final Round coverage at the Masters. For the Tour, it’s the start of the Majors season and six straight months of world class golf with a major in each month thru August, if you count the TPC and perhaps for Tiger/Phil this is the beginning of a rivalry, a real beginning.
This year marks the year that the roars are back at Augusta National
and every player heard/felt it as they plotted around the course this
past weekend. On Sunday alone there were 27 birdies and one eagle among
the last two pairings (Campbell/Furyk), Cabrera,Perry) and
(Woods/Mickelson). A first timer, John Merrick who already has one 2nd
earlier this year (ATT Pebble Beach Pro-Am) fired a 66 on Sunday with a
stretch of four consecutive birdies at 13-16 while being one of 16
players to break 70 on the final day and Finish T6 with Woods, Flesch
and Stricker. This year the Tournament Committee is to be commended for
creating a flexible setup to allow for changes in Mother Nature,
scoring and letting the golf course play out as it should when it was
designed nearly three-quarters of a century ago. Players, who took
aggressive lines and played against the percentages were rewarded for
pulling off such a feat, as Mickelson did with pin-point precision when
he hooked his approach into the green on 7 to a couple feet with trees
directly in front of him and three front bunkers lurking had he mishit
the shot in any way. In the very same way Tiger Woods and Angel Cabrera
was justly punished for not pulling off their respective shots at the
72nd hole.
This was the week where a near 49 year old, Kenny Perry who
played beautifully up until the 17th hole on Sunday, fell victim to the
gravity of what winning the Masters is. He was unable to hold his two
shot lead after nearly holing out at 16 while a steady Major-tested
Cabrera proved his mettle in the way he hung in and persevered on the
first and second playoff holes, late Sunday evening. This week also
marks the final walks up 18 for two great Masters Champions and
ambassadors of golf in Fuzzy Zoeller and Gary Player, making this his
record holding 53rd appearance at Augusta.
For me, this year marks the week I got my Masters back, the tournament I’d grown so fondly of from the young age of 3 and was glued to every spring, as I saw Jack triumph in ’86, Faldo’s methodical and mechanical repeats, Normans many heartbreak none more vividly engrained as the near falter on 15 and his dismantling on 16 in ’96. Tiger’s sheer domination through power in ’97 as he went out on 40 on Thursday in the rain, and wet and came home on Sunday breaking the scoring record (-18) while nearly driving the crosswalk on most par’ 4’s. To this year, where the roars were deafening as Chad Campbell had a shot at the low round record as did Anthony Kim carding 11 birdies in his Friday round, along with a Double-bogey and two bogeys that kept him from posting a number completely unheard of at the Masters, 62 or even a 61. Where Tiger and Phil lit up Sunday afternoon with a combined (-9) going out and getting within one/two strokes of the lead at Amen Corner, all the while grinding away at a seven shot deficit. The fact that the possibility even existed for Woods/Mickelson to make a run on Sunday seven strokes back lets me know that my Masters is back.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 13 April 2009 )
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