Some stuff happened

As JT mentioned earlier, the Masters happened this weekend. I watched a significant chunk of it. I would have watched more, but ESPN and CBS decided that showing Little House on the Prairie and some combination of Poker and Rodeo would be a wiser decision than showing the early parts of the Masters. Anyhow, I have thoughts:

• Trevor Immelman earned his victory. Golf, especially on a course like Augusta National, is about limiting mistakes and taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. Immelman was the only player that did that. Tiger put himself in a position to do better than he did based on his approach shots, but his poor Par-5 performance, coupled with a consistent misreading of putts, ultimately led to his undoing.
• On that same note, Tiger still finished second. If Tiger had not raised the bar so high, this would be a great finish. The media and fans nitpick at his performance because of these lofty expectations, and in truth he did not play "Tiger-esque" golf. But he finished 2nd out of 90+ people. Thats pretty solid.
• Everyone else, aside from Immelman and Tiger, seemed unable to put together 4 solid rounds of Golf. Defending champion Zach Johnson played very well on Thursday and Saturday, but collapsed on Friday and Sunday to put himself out of contention. Brandt Snedeker, Phil Michelson, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, and essentially every other player exhibited equal or greater levels of inconsistency.
• Gene Wojciechowski is an Assbag. Prior to Sunday, despite Tiger being down 7 and 6 strokes on Friday and Saturday, Gene claimed Tiger was still the favorite to win. His rationale for this was that the guys in front of Tiger were no names. Let's just have Tiger and Phil play by themselves every weekend, Gene. That way guys with name recognition have to win. What a poorly constructed argument, he should lose his press credentials. Moreover, after Immelman won, rather than giving him credit and eating his words, he said this:

" So South African Trevor Immelman won. Or maybe more accurately, he didn't lose."
Deserving Winner.

Really, Gene? The guy won the Masters, in fairly dominating fashion, you could at least give him credit for winning. It isn't like he was spotted the 6 strokes on Tiger before Sunday, he earned them. Just poor, Tiger-centric journalism. Tiger is great and a pleasure to watch, but Assbags like Gene make it difficult to support him.

• I know that Masters champs automatically qualify for every other Masters ever, but at a certain point I feel like it makes a mockery of the sport. Gary Player was a great golfer, but he is about 3 million years old, and has no chance of making the cut. It is like inviting Kareem Abdul- Jabbar to play for the Lakers in the NBA Championship, because he won it a while ago. It is nice that they honor the greats and all, but there should be a way to do it without having them actually play in the event and bring down the level of competition.
• The CBS coverage of the Masters is somewhat sickening. Jim Nantz gushing over the amount of tradition and beauty gets old really quickly. Sure it is a great Golf course and a prestigious tournament, but the way they talk about it, you'd think that Green Jacket had a Nobel Peace Prize in its pocket. It's a great tournament and quite prestigious, but a little bit of perspective, and a little less hyperbole, would be fantastic.
• Also annoying about the CBS coverage was Nick Faldo. It is just great that he played in the Master many times, but when I am watching Nick Watney sink an eagle, I really do not care what he did 20 years ago. Him and Billy Packer should hang out some time.
• An enjoyable tournament overall, although it would have been nice if it was closer. Immelman deserves a ton of credit for not allowing it to become interesting.
  

A Tradition Unlike Any Other

It's a pretty lazy Sunday here in Chapel Hill...what better to do than procrastinate and watch the Masters in HD.

Brandt Snedeker is doing his best Brett Favre impression. He's just out there having fun. He's also -9 and has a good chance to get his green jacket. He sank a nasty putt earlier this round. Like the commentators said, he's really tracking and reading the greens very well today.

Woods is still 6 back. Immelman isn't playing perfect golf this Sunday, but he's even today so the pressure is still on Tiger and the rest of the group. He has had some birdie opportunities but hasn't capitalized on them. His putting is letting him down even though hes -11. Immelman, if he continues his current performance, could be the only player to shoot below 70 all four days.

Snedeker just fell to -8. Flesch just dropped to -7 after missing a fairway and then hitting a tree trying to punch the ball out.

Paul Casey has fallen apart.

Shingo Katayama dresses like an idiot.

Golf is by no means the best sport to blog about. I'm going to get back to the HD experience. If you can, change the aspect setting from normal or stretch to zoom for the Masters. It looks ridiculous. You can pretty much count the blades of grass.

Go Tiger.

Update: In the end, Trevor Immelman deserved to win. A scratch golfer at just 12 years old, he had a bunch of nice saves out of bunkers and the rough, and he was far enough ahead to drop his tee shot into a water hazard without much consequence in the final round. Immelman two putted on his way to a Masters title (he had strokes to spare). He came back from cancer, albeit benign, and you could say he was the most consistent player this weekend. It was his tournament to lose - he's the new major champion. Plus his wife is pretty hot.

Although Tiger made a short run on the back 9, he still missed too many makeable putts. He played pretty poorly, but amazingly he finished 2nd. Still disappointing. It's hard not to pull for Tiger.

Brandt Snedeker maybe had too much fun out there, having his worst day of the tournament.

All in all it was an entertaining tournament, but it lacked the memorable race to the finish.