Post - Masters Highs / Lows

[Svenska]

The 2nd year on the spin that it's been a fairly unexciting Masters. Last year was slightly more closely fought but it turned in to an easy back 9 for Bubba and left me a bit deflated. This year it wasn't like Augusta at all. The course seemed like a breeze for a lot of players, not once did I see a player have a putt that ended up off the green which you usually see a lot without fail. The brutality of the greens and meticulous placement of tee shots is what Augusta has always been about but it seemed like it had been set up for a birdie fest and most of the time that gets boring very quickly.

It was good to see Tiger at least compete, his round on Saturday was superb and I hope he stays fit and provides a good challenge to the young pretenders. Golf right now is for some reason not very enthralling, I hope it gets better in the US & British Opens this summer. Last summers was a good showing at Hoylake and let's hope the home of golf gives us an even better Open.

 

[Imurg]

An example of the greens holding too much is Tiger's pitch into the 11th (day 1?)
Any normal Masters 11th green would have seen the ball in the pond. But it pitched and grabbed.
From where Tiger was ha should have had no chance of a par putt let alone a par....

 

[rksquire]

Just reading through this and the various comments, do you think the Augusta Committee deliberately set the course up slower / softer to suit target golf... possibly wanting the story of grand slam winner?

 

[Jimaroid]

Highs
Spieth's victory. He made history, achieving your first major through a wire-to-wire victory is a big deal anywhere. To do it at Augusta means his name is something we'll never be able to forget. I've enjoyed watching Spieth since he broke through on the PGA Tour, he's contended a lot but I doubted he could win this year because it's such a difficult thing to do and it's statistically very rare for anyone to achieve a victory like that. He proved a lot of people wrong and become a new great of the game.

Rory's comeback. From almost cut to 3rd place is some going. Really wanted him to get that career slam but seeing him pull back like he did was a great performance in itself.

Lows
The course setup. Not to detract from Spieth's victory (everyone else had the same conditions to play against) but the course just didn't seem to have the same old bite to it. Dare I say it, but watching players eagle so many par 5's almost became a boring formality.

 

[williamalex1]

High - Rose & Casey doing well, and especially cashing in my bookies slip with Spieth's name on it.

Low - ???. It's golf. What's not to like?




If that's your high, you either have low expectations or a poor typing finger

I had 1st 4th 6th and 13th places from my pick of 10 players 2 from each section , with a different magazine.

 

[Paul77]

I felt the 3rd round was more exciting to watch. The last round wasn't anything to get excited about. No one made a move or was Speith just so much better? After watching Tiger for years I felt quite sad at watching him just go from one rough to another. Just not the same person.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

After watching Tiger for years I felt quite sad at watching him just go from one rough to another. Just not the same person.

My son never saw Tiger at his peak so he has not seen with his own eyes how good he was. On Sunday he went to bed as Tiger was in the trees, again, at the 11th with the alarming stat that he had not hit a single fairway so far in his round. If Augusta had even the slightest element of rough or OOB then his final round score would have been alarming. As it was he was allowed to be so awful off the tee as there was no real penalty. The only redeeming point I could give my son was to imagine how good the rest of his game is that he can drive like this and still not have a complete car crash of a card.

 

[Paul77]

My son never saw Tiger at his peak so he has not seen with his own eyes how good he was. On Sunday he went to bed as Tiger was in the trees, again, at the 11th with the alarming stat that he had not hit a single fairway so far in his round. If Augusta had even the slightest element of rough or OOB then his final round score would have been alarming. As it was he was allowed to be so awful off the tee as there was no real penalty. The only redeeming point I could give my son was to imagine how good the rest of his game is that he can drive like this and still not have a complete car crash of a card.

I too was bigging Tiger up to my good lady, when I saw him wearing the trademark Red top. Everyone knew that when Tiger wore the Red top he was going to take names. After the round she asked why Tiger was so rubbish. I had no reply but to hook up some old vids on Youtube. I think he's been out of it for a while so hopefully on to something good.

 

[Smiffy]

I personally enjoyed it more this year.
Sure, the greens were softer and holding shots a lot better but the players still had to put it in the right place.
My money was on Garcia, and there was one par 3 (I think it was the 6th) where he hit what initially looked a superb shot. When it hit the green I thought "birdie". But it started crawling back and ended up rolling off the green and resulted in a bogie.
Thing is, when Augusta is running slick, it gets a lot of complaints that it can be totally unfair.

 

[Steve Bamford]

With the amount of rain Augusta took in the build up to the tournament how where they ever going to get it "Augusta fast." They may have the best course team and under green sub air systems, but they aren't miracle workers. I think Spieth would have been in the mix whatever, not so sure about soft course expert Lefty though?

 

[Tongo]

With the amount of rain Augusta took in the build up to the tournament how where they ever going to get it "Augusta fast." They may have the best course team and under green sub air systems, but they aren't miracle workers. I think Spieth would have been in the mix whatever, not so sure about soft course expert Lefty though?

Muirfield, Open Championship 2013?

 

[Dan2501]

Apparently a pundit in the US has stated that Spieth won't be able to hang with Rory long-term because of Rory's superior distance. It made me curious, so I decided to look up the stats from the tournament, and they make for some interesting reading. Rory's average drive was 297, Jordan's was 282.62, so about a 14 yard difference. Not a lot really, Spieth's putting however was the biggest difference between the two, and the area of Rory's game that needs the most improvement. Spieth hit 1 more green than Rory over the week, but made 10 more birdies. There's your difference.

Remarkably, Poulter hit 5 more greens than anyone else over the week, yet only made 20 birdies, compared with Spieth's 28. Is he still using buttpoint? If so, not a great advert for it.

 

[StrangelyBrown]

I watched most of it, but it wasn't really particularly compelling viewing...

High point - Not sure really, maybe Gentle Ben's last round or Jack's hole in one, or Camillo Villegas' two holes in one... there wasn't really anything in the tournament, golf wise, that made me sit up and go "wow, that was amazing".

Low point - It reminded me that I've had bronchitis for 3 weeks and that I haven't played any golf since the middle of March.