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2011 Masters

Edgy DC Apr 10 2011 01:30 PM

I was at brunch today talking with somebody and I spied Masters golf action behind her head. Murder to watch Tiger sink a putt and do sad subdued fist pump as if to say, "Yeah, I did it, and everybody hates me anyway."

Edgy DC Apr 10 2011 01:38 PM Re: 2011 Masters

McIroy looks like a happy but awkward jocky teenage girl.

TheOldMole Apr 10 2011 01:38 PM Re: 2011 Masters

Tiger only one stroke down now.

Frayed Knot Apr 10 2011 01:52 PM Re: 2011 Masters

The best start was from So African Charles Schwartzel who drained a loooong bump and run on #1 for a birdie and then dunked one from the fairway on #3 for an eagle. Combine that with an early bogey from McElroy (I'm often tempted to type McEvoy) and the North Irishman's 4-stroke lead was gone by the time he was finishing his 2nd hole.

Frayed Knot Apr 10 2011 03:08 PM Re: 2011 Masters

McElroy falling apart like he's a member of the NYM pen Takes a triple-bogey 7 on the 10th

Frayed Knot Apr 10 2011 03:16 PM Re: 2011 Masters

That triple dropped McElroy from a first-place tie to 7th. A five-way tie now at the top which includes Tiger. The biggest difference in Tiger is that he's just not [u:2wly2xlq]putting[/u:2wly2xlq] the way he used to. Just missed a(nother) 3-footer, this one to take the outright lead. Tiger's biggest problem now is that he's played all the Par-Fives while most of the others up top have one or both of those still in front of them.

Frayed Knot Apr 10 2011 05:32 PM Re: 2011 Masters

Didn't quite go down to the bloody last putt but the entire back nine was a traffic jam of about nine different guys from six continents. Schwartzel wound up with birdies on each of 15, 16, 17 & 18 to win by two strokes. McElroy, meanwhile, didn't just wreck his car on the back nine he wiped out 25 traffic cones, slid down an embankment, hit two bridge abutments, and then rolled 4 or 5 times. 8 over on a six hole stretch (holes 10-15) as he hit trees, landed in water, and three-putted from 4 feet.

metirish Apr 10 2011 05:40 PM Re: 2011 Masters

McIlroy "character building,I hope".

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Apr 10 2011 07:28 PM Re: 2011 Masters

I never saw the post-18th interview with Van De Velde after that British Open. After seeing Raftery ask McIlroy about "what went wrong," I imagine I now have.

Frayed Knot Apr 10 2011 07:57 PM Re: 2011 Masters

At least with Van de Velde the cause of his downfall was obvious; it was all one bad hole caused by a horrendously stupid decision to take a high-risk approach on the 72nd hole while sitting on a 3-shot lead. He was like Mickelson on steroids that day. McElroy's train wreck was a whole series of horrid shots covering nearly half a round which tends to point solely to the 'Choke' word a la Norman when he blew a 6-shot lead at the same course all in the first nine holes. At least this dude is young enough where it hopefully won't spoil what everyone thinks is going to be a great career. Of course Tiger when he was six months younger than McElroy is now blew away the field in a similar situation.

Edgy DC Apr 10 2011 09:07 PM Re: 2011 Masters

Yeah, but Tiger was one of a kind. Makes some sense that his long game comes back first. You can club effectively when angry. Putting takes detachment.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Apr 10 2011 09:31 PM Re: 2011 Masters

Somebody oughta check Schwartzel's backyard for bodies, then-- holy hell was that a short game.

Centerfield Apr 11 2011 01:25 PM Re: 2011 Masters

Kept getting confused every time they mentioned Jason Day.

Frayed Knot Apr 11 2011 04:49 PM Re: 2011 Masters

Centerfield wrote: Kept getting confused every time they mentioned Jason Day. Or was it your mind fogging up whenever they were showing his wife on camera? Makes some sense that his long game comes back first. You can club effectively when angry. Putting takes detachment. Putting's a funny thing. You'd think it would be something that would diminish slower/less with age as compared to the power needed for drives and long irons, but it often seems to go first and one of the things analysts kept saying when Annika Sorenstam played that one week on the men's circuit is that it wasn't just the length, that the female pros simply don't putt as well as the men. A decline in putting absolutely curtailed the primes (even if not the entire careers) of Tom Watson & Johnny Miller (and I'm sure others as well) as both succumbed to the "yips" long before the rest of their game diminished with age.

metirish Apr 11 2011 08:16 PM Re: 2011 Masters

What looked like a lay up four or five years ago is now looking unlikely with each passing year , four behind Nicklaus and with a great young crop of players coming on and with seemingly every other major being won by relative unknown players it is hard to see Woods catching never mind passing Jack.

Frayed Knot Apr 11 2011 09:19 PM Re: 2011 Masters

metirish wrote: What looked like a lay up four or five years ago is now looking unlikely with each passing year , four behind Nicklaus and with a great young crop of players coming on and with seemingly every other major being won by relative unknown players it is hard to see Woods catching never mind passing Jack. Yup. After years of waiting for a strong #2 to challenge Tiger that never happened -- Duval flamed out, Vijay was too old, Els got hurt, Phil is too erratic, Sergio simply suxx (in a relative sense), and many of the young bucks who had more commercials by the time they were 23 y/o than tournaments won (Aaron Baddeley et al) just never got going -- what it looks like now is that a whole crop of young'uns might be capable of challenging him en masse even if no single one ever wins a bushel of majors on his own. Tiger is now 35 with 4 knee surgeries (including one reconstructive one) plus a messy divorce/tabloid scandal under his belt and still needs more than majors starting now than any other active golfer has in his whole career (I think only only Mickelson, Ernie & Harrington have as many as three) in order to reach what once seemed pre-ordained.

Edgy DC Apr 11 2011 09:46 PM Re: 2011 Masters

It's hard to say. He may find a new focus as the heavy that he couldn't maintain as the face. He may someday wake up and find that the burden of maintaining the image he knew was a lie was a burden he carried through 18 holes and now that his douchebaggery is out of the closet, so to speak, he doesn't have to fear its revelation any more. Maybe. On the other hand, maybe he adored being a hero to tens of millions, idol that parents pointed to, symbol for the future of our browning country, and beloved husband and father, and hates every day living with the knowledge that he willfully gambled that life away and ultimately destroyed it. And sees the reflection of his hateful horny insatiable jockstrap id in every golf ball, and is disappointed with every morning he wakes up alive. And he can never golf the same way again with that guilt walking the fareway beside him and visible in the eyes of everyone in the gallery. Maybe.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Apr 11 2011 09:56 PM Re: 2011 Masters

Edgy DC wrote: It's hard to say. He may find a new focus as the heavy that he couldn't maintain as the face. He may someday wake up and find that the burden of maintaining the image he knew was a lie was a burden he carried through 18 holes and now that his douchebaggery is out of the closet, so to speak, he doesn't have to fear its revelation any more. Maybe. On the other hand, maybe he adored being a hero to tens of millions, idol that parents pointed to, symbol for the future of our browning country, and beloved husband and father, and hates every day living with the knowledge that he willfully gambled that life away and ultimately destroyed it. And sees the reflection of his hateful horny insatiable jockstrap id in every golf ball, and is disappointed with every morning he wakes up alive. And he can never golf the same way again with that guilt walking the fareway beside him and visible in the eyes of everyone in the gallery. Maybe. Damn.

Centerfield Apr 12 2011 10:48 AM Re: 2011 Masters

I wonder if we'll look back on that eagle putt and see that it was Tiger's last stand. If he makes that, he takes the lead outright while the leader is plowing cones as FK said. I really think he wins it at that point. Instead, he taps in for the birdie, then walks away and doesn't really seriously challenge again. (Yes, he was tied for the lead, but as FK said, he was out of Par 5's.) If he won on Sunday, there would be articles about how he's back and will catch Jack this year. Now, we don't know.

Frayed Knot Apr 12 2011 11:20 AM Re: 2011 Masters

That missed eagle putt on 15 that CF cites plus his three-putt which lead to bogey on the par 3 12th were what did him in. And, yeah, if he takes the lead outright maybe those young turks, seeing that name atop the leaderboard, start to get a bit tighter under the collar and, even with the two par 5s in front of them, don't go so birdie happy coming in - we'll never know. But he did miss those (where pre crash-and-burn and surgery he almost certainly doesn't) while just about everyone - not just Schwartzel - except for the relative oldsters Tiger & Cabrera (plus of course McElroy) were making everything in sight on the back nine. Or, put another way, Tiger actually shot his best Sunday at Augusta ever, a 5-under 67 which put him at 10-under for the tourney. That's a good enough score to win many years but not only didn't he win but didn't finish in the top three. What's marked the Tiger era to date is that when he played well, he won, and when he didn't play well, he still sometimes won. But this may be the first time where he played well in a major but the smallest of slip-ups opened the door for somebody (several somebodies in this case) to actually take one from him by playing better when it counted rather than winning because Tiger had an off week and you were simply the best non-Tiger standing at the end.