MASTERS: Thursday Notes

Witness to (the opposite of) greatness: Usually I'm boasting of having witnessed Tiger Woods' amazing shots, but today I was right there to see what may have been his worst this year (that's me in the green hat next to the guy in yellow). After pulling his tee shot left in the pine straw on Chinese Fir (#14), Tiger considered going high over some pines before getting talked out of it by Stevie. Instead Tiger went low and tried to hook it around the pines. The result was a thin-top that came out slow and only went about a hundred yards. It was the only time this year where I felt like yes, I could have hit a better shot than that.

I'll let it slide, especially since he sunk his chip on Firethorn (#15) for eagle. That one I don't think I could have improved on.

Tiger's Round: An even par 72 was just okay. A 70 or 69 was totally within reach, but he couldn't take advantage of #2 and #3, two holes where an up-and-down from just in front of both greens would have netted him 2 birdies.

Course Conditions: Augusta National couldn't have played much easier than it did today. No wind, sunny... But when the course is 7500 yards, "easy" is sort of an unfair label no matter what the weather's like.

Fantasy Golf: Come on, everyone picked Brian Bateman in their Masters pool, right?