There are 5 different stories from the Masters, day 1. Full disclosure, I didn’t watch until about 5:45 until completion, however, I did keep up with scores and saw highlights.
I am going to do these stories in order of how much they get me going.
5. Course conditions: As a golfer, the thought of putting on spikes and carrying a bag 18 holes at Augusta is literally the type of dream you wish for every night before you to go to sleep. As a matter of fact, I am going to wish for that exact dream every night, b/c in dreams it feels real, and that reality will never happen in my life, it just won’t. Augusta is Fenway, Wrigley, Arrowhead, Lambeau, Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden and the Coliseum combined into 1. It is a living history museum of Golf, and it is so perfect I can barely stand to look at it. I feel like I’ll turn to stone.
But the real story of the conditions is how easy the course looked to the players. There were a ton of Eagles, Tiger had 2 for the first time ever in 1 round of the Masters. Some insane putts were made, the drives looked like they were getting closer to the pin than usual, which leads me to believe the tees were up and I think that they even said that this morning on Mike & Mike, which I heard briefly before they launched into 47 straight minutes of commercials.
I love how a tournament gets progressively harder, every day, harder and harder.
4. KJ Choi: I don’t have much to say about him, he isn’t really even that good in Major Tournaments, but yesterday he looked awesome. This is the kind of guy who can avoid essentially 100% of the media attention, and move along briskly. Again, he is #2 on the board after Round 1, but he looked good and looked confident. I can see him lurking, but what do I know?
3. Freddy: He is only 50 years old. I have to keep reminding myself of that. He looks like he is in great shape, he walks like he has a real swagger, he wears no socks, he is the definition of cool. He practiced with Tiger, and I don’t know if you heard his statements, but he talks about Tiger reverentially, but he was quick to point out that he hits like Tiger – which isn’t 100% true but I think Couples is believing it.
He is dominating the Champions Tour – there is something to be said about dominating a lower field in order to keep yourself fresh. Fred Couples is the 2007 New England Patriots – he is ripping apart the Champions Tour purely to prepare himself for this big game, in Augusta.
I am pulling for him real hard. I hate thinking this way after Round 1, but a final grouping of Couples, Woods and Watson is the kind of sporting event that will shut down my brain. I don’t think I can compute that.
2. Tiger: What a spectacle. What a horrible conundrum it is to have loved this man before he became a walking porn shoot. I don’t know what to do with him. I cannot imagine being in the crowd and cheering LOUDER for him – as if he accomplished something else, or went through something he didn’t bring on himself.
I swear to God, if I was in PR for a person, or someone’s agent, and if they told me success and notoriety was their #1 priority, I would go out and there and have them do something horrible. Coming back up the mountain after falling off of it is a great career move.
1. Watson: It is way too premature to make any assumptions, and I know that things are only going to get harder for this guy, but the guts he showed in Turnberry at the ’09 British Open don’t seem to be fading. Everything about this guy is magical – his smile, the teary-eyed appreciation he has for the game. In a time when coverage is dominated by Tiger, it is literally beautiful to see how Watson handles himself and handles the game.
His “aw shucks” approach is such a façade – or at the very least it is his only defense mechanism to what must be an overwhelming sense of “what the hell am I doing out here?!” that he is battling through. Everything, every single thing, was against him in Turnberry and he was betrayed by a fantastic approach shot on the 18th hole – a shot too good that flew the green and ultimately put him in a position to, dare I say, choke…which he sorta did.
You have to love how he is sponsored by Adams Golf – the Golf Warehouse brand of the Century…you have to love that he is acting like he doesn’t have a competitive streak or competitive nature. I can’t stop daydreaming about what the time since Turnberry has been like.
It reminds me of The Natural – like he expected his career to be over a few years ago and was sorta going through the motions, but late-career success got him refocused and he started to eat a bit better, swing a bit harder, work a little more on success. Everyone around him was probably thinking, “you’re 60, this stuff isn’t real, your success at Turnberry was a fluke.” And maybe they are right, but the fact that, yet again, he put together a fantastic round, for anyone, at any age, at one of the World’s most difficult courses – that means something to me as a sports fan, and a fan of the Good Guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment