Verizon Heritage
I like my spring Masters. It was a strange place to see spectators covered with blankets. The flowers were outside and the birds were singing, but I felt cold looking at it. Exxon Mobile got lucky with the unseasonably cold weather — look, there’s no global warming. The Big Blue commercials were fantastic: I couldn’t get enough of Sam Elliott, the unknown from The Big Lebowsky, doing the voice of the beautiful shots of Augusta to the tune of Yo-Yo Ma. that ad I don’t even know what it was about. The red box at the end was too abstract; I was already in a trance. Wait, I thought, is this more than just a nice video? I don’t understand. Maybe if I buy IBM I can also have a nice red box, and Yo-Yo Ma will come, and I can ask Sam Elliott to say ‘the guy’ and ‘sarsaparilla’ on demand, over and over again. Impressive! How do I buy IBM? What is IBM? I’m sure whatever it is I’ll like it.
Golf also happened. I’m not sure if the tough conditions and high scores for most of the tournament made the viewing any more interesting than the calmer scoring conditions on Sunday afternoon. Tiger would not have made a short eagle at No. 13 at any other time during the tournament. On the other side of dramatic parity, eventual winner Joaquin Phoenix — I mean Zach Johnson — wouldn’t have bogeyed No. 16 on Friday if the field hadn’t been playing so hard. His tee shot almost went in. About half an inch was responsible for a four-stroke swing on a famous par 3.
What is more interesting, a hole massacred or a hole conquered? It’s the same for everyone, of course. Would you rather see a baseball game with more offense, more home runs, or a close pitching duel where sluggers scratch par, move runners, sacrifice, etc.? That’s playoff baseball, the best, in my opinion, and the way the game should be played.
That kind of approach of doing the small things, eliminating offense when you can but staying in the game at all costs (for baseball, that would be the importance of pitching and defense), was exhibited by Johnson, whose approach to par-5s —slept with all of them all week—was tactical, smart and indicated that he was aware of himself and what he could do to win. Tiger’s approach at last year’s British Open was similar in that he came out with the irons off the tee, played back, played it safe, that is, and won.
A big surprise was seeing Retief Goosen take a long iron off the tee at No. 13. He was coming off the bogey at No. 12 and had lost the lead. By this time on Sunday, the wind had died down considerably and bowling was more accessible. Tiger would have gone for the green in two regardless of the more benign change in the weather on Sunday, but Goossen failed to recognize that the back nine after No. 12 represented an opportunity to make some birdies, which is exactly what Johnson did. Goose missed some putts that could have turned things around, yes, but that decision on the No. 13 tee seemed to indicate he didn’t recognize the moment.
A Mickelson notes: He’s in a no-win situation until he wins his next major, which could come at the British Open, where he’s had the least success of the four majors. He is that fickle. I think suggestions that Winged Foot’s last hole is still in his head relative to his performance last week are misplaced. Many of the top players made a mess in Augusta, like Ernie Els, who missed the cut. Mickelson tripled the first, true, but the first was carnage on Sunday. Bogey was a good score. There’s no way the pressure and the demons of him got him there. If he killed the last one with a head start, that would be one thing. In any case, I still feel calmer, I have a kind of zen experience watching it now because I’m not choosing it. I hope he wins again, but he could lead the table in the majors this year and I wouldn’t pick him. At some point, Pamela and Tommy had to separate to survive.
All in all, sometimes I liked this version of The Masters and not so much other times. I like the fight for par, but at the same time something was missing. A pitching matchup in October is well served by a ninth-inning clutch explosion to the harvest moon. Yet it was still Christmas, this Masters, a gift, mostly free entertainment. But it was as if the tried and true Johnny Mathis album was replaced by a new album, a good album, but something was missing.
Last week: Needed Goose to win 25-1 outright for a good week. He covered heads-up play, 8-15 over Arron Oberholser, 1 unit, for $533.33 — half a unit.
At this week’s Verizon Heritage in Hilton Head, take Jim Furyk (10-1), 1/6 Drive – You could say a grinder like gentleman Jim would rather the test go like last week and not in the relatively Benign links course this week. But you could also say that he is in the mix wherever he plays and that if he has struggled with his putter this year and still managed a T13, he is going to make hay. He finished second at Harbortown the last two years.
Take Trevor Immelman (33-1), 1/6 of the unit, for example: The guy can play, he’s not a rookie of the year. Three top 10 finishes this year and a hard-earned T55 last week.
Take Vaughn Taylor (33-1), 1/6 drive: I saw enough last week. He won’t have the same gallery support this week, but he won’t have the pressure either. T10 at home was no aberration: he finished third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and T27 at the Shell Houston Open in the two weeks leading up to the Masters.
