PGA Tour: The Masters, Past (it), Present and Wannabe: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1).But first: Ian James Poulter, you beauty.
Can't believe I wrote that, but one helluva story, like him or loathe him, what a ten days for IJP. Sure he does some stupid things, sure he behaves like an ass sometimes, but what a moment in the spotlight for him last Sunday, a spotlight that he'd pretty much turned on himself. Very happy to know there'll be at least one Ferrari on Magnolia Drive.

2).Right, where was I? That's right, bottle of plonk, a list of runners and off we go. Only 87 will come under starter's orders on Thursday, about a dozen fewer than usual, so approximately 60% will make the cut. And, of those, you can take about 20 and know only a handful have an earthly of playing the weekend.
So let's eliminate these Past Champions from the list of possible winners - Picture of some of them here:
https://www.masters.com/en_US/index.html

Nah, some of them might win, but these won't:
Cabrera, Couples, Immelman, Zach, Langer, Lyle, Mize, O'Meara, Olazabal, Schwartzel, Scott, Singh, Weir, Willett, Woods, Woosie. Apart from the ceremonial attendees, none of Zach, Charl, Adam, Willett or Woods are playing well enough to win - got to get rid of them some time. (16)

3).Amateurs: Outahere!
Harry Ellis, Ghim, Lin, Niemann, Parzialle, Redman. No amateur has reached the top ten since the 1960's - that won't change. (6)

4).Rookies haven't won since Fuzzy Zoeller last ate collard greens. This lot won't either:
Cook, Bryan, Sharma, Miyazato, Kizzire, Frittelli, Kodaira, Li, Finau, Schauffele. Schauffele probably the wild card among them. (10)

5).Outside the owgr Top Fifty:
Walker, Kaymer, Horschel, Potter, Ryan Moore, DeChambeau, Wiesberger, Ikeda, Vegas, Henley, SiWoo Kim. Though Ryan Moore punches above his (growing) weight at Augusta and Henley is a putting genius. (11)

6).Some players are inside the owgr Top 50, but are not playing as well as they were last year - when they didn't win, so why should they this year?
Dufner, Pieters, Chappell, Fitzpatrick, Berger, Fisher, Grace, Oosthuizen, Hoffman, Molinari, Rafa C-B, Perez. These are ranked between 21st & 50th - Hate to lose Chappell on that list, and King Louis could win anywhere, anytime. And no-one would be surprised to see Hoffman play well. (12)

7).Only 32 left, and time to say farewell to Asia, South America, Australia, golfers born in England. Cheerio chaps:
Cam Smith, Aphibarnrat, Poults, Hatton, Leishman, Fleetwood, Casey, Day, Matsuyama. Could make a case, each way at least, for most of them - be really interested how Fleetwood goes; playing with Tiger will inspire or intimidate. (9)

8).Right-handers who haven't won a Major:
Reavie, Stanley, Hadwin, Steele, Cantlay, Woodland, Kisner, Reed, Kuchar, Noren, Stenson, Fowler, Rahm. I like Hadwin as much as any of them, and Kuchar has a great record at Augusta with four Top 8's in the last six years and is the leading career money-winner on Tour without a Major among the under 50's. Either he's due or he's overdue and his train has long gone. (13)

9).Ten lives left.
Webb Simpson has somehow survived so far but he's not going to win. And I can't believe that lightning will strike Bubba again. Dustin plays well here when he doesn't withdraw in mysterious circumstances but he's not last year's model - not yet anyway. Whilst Spieth is not putting like Spieth. And Sergio will have too many distractions, not to mention digesting his arroz caldoso de bogavante. (5)

10).And that leaves Brian Harman (my outsider du jour), a Georgia boy and a superb putter, Phil, Rory and the Justins, Rose and Thomas. I can't easily dismiss any of the five of them, but I'm still not convinced that Justin Thomas's game fits well here and something tells me Rory might want it all a bit too much (hope not though!).
Hopefully it'll be Justin Rose's time, he has a wonderful record of consistency in US Majors, finished 2nd, 10th, 2nd the last three years and seems to have been building towards a second Major. Perhaps from Phil, while I also/always like Louis Oosthuizen at Augusta.  

Can't remember a recent Masters when so many players seemed to have a realistic chance - hope the coverage will be as good as the golf promises to be.

Have a word Kwini, we’ve seen almost every shot of Fleetwood’s last three or four so they clearly have the footage.

Not too bad from Tiger in the end

NedB-H wrote:Have a word Kwini, we’ve seen almost every shot of Fleetwood’s last three or four so they clearly have the footage.

Haven't shown a shot, or even mentioned his three birds. Were sure to add that he bogeyed the last tho'.

I like watching Adam Hadwin play, wonderful putter too.

This is our annual reminder from CBS that Verne Lundquist's career should have been dead and buried when he stiffed Ben Wright 20-odd years ago.

Great golf in the Hoffman, Hadwin, Reed group!

We must be getting different pictures Kwini.

Fleetwood looks like a tramp, maybe that's why.

Fleetwood looks like a tramp and Hedwig should have gone to specsavers. Thanks for the insight s_r are you actually watching the golf or becoming a fashion guru?

I'm known for my sartorial elegance Davie.

Tiger didn't birdie any of the par 5's, a 73 isn't too bad in that context.

Not on here you're not.

Well, I stand against adults wearing football shirts. That's got to be a step in the right direction.

Ominous putting Fromm Spieth so far!

Did I miss Sandy Lyle making the first eagle of the day?

They showed it on Sky Kwini!

Lucky Sergio didn't plump for Firethorn as his kids name.

Finau trying to copycat Torey 08, after he just popped the bone back in.

If only McIlroy could putt.

Totally agree about Rory, he should be - 5 with some of those irons so far.

Some eagle on the last from Ghim

What do people think of McGinley as a commentator?

McLaren wrote:Finau trying to copycat Torey 08, after he just popped the bone back in.

It seems a number of the pros question the veracity of the TP condition, Mac.

Only redeeming thought for Sergio after his 81 is that Curtis Strange opened with an 80 in 1985, shot 65, 68, 71 the rest of the way and arguably should have won before finishing T2 behind Bernhard. Would imagine a 67 will get him a Saturday tee-time and then who knows?

sirbenson wrote:What do people think of McGinley as a commentator?

not as bad as some, but a bit of an  Andy "state the obvious" Townsend to him.

Spieth is hitting the ball so well

Rosie getting back into it, keeps my bet alive anyway.

Brilliant from Spieth!

I'm sure we'll get the stats soon but most of the best scores have been from the "afternoon wave".

Forecasts here seem to be best guess at best, but conditions for Friday morning look to be more benign than those in the afternoon so perhaps Spieth, Rickie, Rosey & Rory have the better side of the draw?

Could be over before it's begun if Spieth posts a good score tomorrow. Wayward tee shot although he often gets rub of the green in terms of luck at Masters....

I was impressed with Rory's putter....too easy to focus on that but he made some clutch putts today..I'm more inclined to believe it was his approach in that has cost him easy birdie chances today following up great drives with poor irons/wedges in ...especially holes 7 through 11

Been a good first days play and even those who didn't click i.e. Tiger...Rose...have hung in and can get in it with good rounds tommorow

I never understand people saying Jordan Spieth gets all the luck......he is pure class

Spieth or the field?

Masters over?

This could turn into a boredanfest..

Yeh i didnt say or mean he is just lucky....just that at the masters he often seems to get that bit of luck required when one hits a bad shot. Now obviously he makes his own luck in many ways through his course management. Holes 10, 11 and 18 showed just how good he is...and why I firmly believe he will win more majors than McIlroy and likely surpass the masters wins record.

5 Geezers inside the cutline, including 3 geezers around the 60 yr old mark

Singh -1 (age 55)
Couples E (age 58)
Ollie +2 (age 52)
Sandy +2 (age 60)
Langer +2 (age 60)

According to Speith his round was about as good as it gets.

Lets hope it's all downhill from here on in.

Hope so, As good as he is, he's not an exciting player to watch.
Still, I'd rather he won than Woods.

Good round from McIlroy required today to put pressure on Rev Boredan.

5 birdies in a row in the back 9 at Augusta is not exciting?

I want an exciting tournament and hope its not a procession, but he us tgat good a player it could quite easily be over already. But remember 2016!

Still dont get the boredan thing. Seems ok to me.

Not really, it's the way he goes about it.
I know I always talk about Course Management being important, but he never seems to take any risks whatsoever. It's incredibly effective, but not very entertaining.

It's hard to put my finger on it, but his game just does nothing for me. Boring swing, just does most things routinely well, but without any flair or interest. Bit like Lineker, successful striker, but didn't really score any pearlers, know what I mean?

No

Re Speith

Nice bloke, good player but boring. Lacks charisma.

During Spieth's birdie blitz I had visions of 2015 when he had the green jacket sewn up by Friday tea time and we had to endure one of the least exciting Masters weekends ever.

And although I would never wish a bogey on any player his at 18th was kind of welcome. It was a good bogey though, his chip was sublime and dare I say, a bit exciting.

Overall I don't mind if he wins as long as there are a few with a chance come Sunday night

A bit early to hand Jordan his jacket. He's definitely a bit more flaky this year so we could see a dip. I don't mind him, when he's on he does everything very, very well, probably as good a putter as there is when he's on it.

4putt wrote:Re Speith

Nice bloke, good player but boring. Lacks charisma.

I really don't get this whole "Boredon" Spieth thing - not just picking on you 4putt there are a few of you!

We get complaints from people here about some of the more colourful characters on tour such as Poults, Blubba, Reed and even Tiger yet Spieth just seems to be a quiet, polite, unassuming character who gets on with business and plays fantastically well. I'm sure s_r's dislike is only because of his religious beliefs, though personally I've never heard him go on about them like others do.

Was Luke Donald ever thought of the same way? Quiet, unassuming, just gets on with it type. I don't ever recall people calling him boring

It should be another fine day in Augusta, warmer but forecast to be a bit breezier later.
Haven't seen a split of scoring for morning starters compared to p.m., but would think the afternoon guys from yesterday, who overall seemed to score better, will also have the better of it today. Favourable for the Spieth/Rory/Rosey/Phil wave.

Then very dodgy for Saturday and Saturday night, much cooler for Sunday.

The Donald comparison is a good one, Donald a prettier swing but Spieth can get the ball out a lot further. Spieths game is a bit like Howells when he was playing well, but on another level of doing everything well. He's clearly incredibly competitive as well, but manages to combine that with being a gracious loser.

Did anyone listen to him on the NLU podcast a while back, he came across pretty well. I don't know why he is thought of as boring, I see no difference between Spieth and Many of the players.

I dont want him to keep winning the Masters mind.

Also think Spieth comes across as a decent bloke. Perhaps we like sports people to suffer a healthy dose of adversity from time to time and Spieth has not really had that - he's had media attention since he was about 16 and just rides his wave.
Perhaps he'll continue to improve and become uber alles like Tont - he certainly seems more focused and single-minded than Day or Rory or DJ or even Phil.
Dunno, but we all like to see guys get knocked off their perch from time to time; perhaps that's why Tiger was never universally liked, but then he went and jumped off his perch. Can't see Spieth doing that somehow.

wiretapper wrote:During Spieth's birdie blitz I had visions of 2015 when he had the green jacket sewn up by Friday tea time and we had to endure one of the least exciting Masters weekends ever.

And although I would never wish a bogey on any player his at 18th was kind of welcome. It was a good bogey though, his chip was sublime and dare I say, a bit exciting.

Overall I don't mind if he wins as long as there are a few with a chance come Sunday night

I think this is pretty much spot on. 2015 was dull as anything; after all the expectation going into this Masters that would be a major letdown. If Spieth is going to win at least make him work for it in the Sunday, even if the shootout is Adam Hadwin and Haotong Li instead of Rory, Phil and Tiger.

Also think Kwini is on to something regarding "Boredan" being media-savvy beyond his years. He comes across in interviews as a perfectly pleasant 30 year old. Unfortunately he's only 24 and he's come across like that since he was 18, I think that's what winds people up a little.

Spieth is great for the game! Love his attitude!

https://twitter.com/TheMasters/status/982228709200486400

Leading score by the close of play on Day 2?

sirbenson wrote:https://twitter.com/TheMasters/status/982228709200486400

Tough pin on 15. I wonder if Sergio can make it in 13?

sirbenson wrote:Leading score by the close of play on Day 2?

-9. Which only Spieth is likely to achieve.
And which would also mean that only Top 50 and ties would make the cut - anyone banking on the 10-shot rule should pack their bags.