The Masters

[Soulstation1]

where have you gone tiger woods?

tiger's only 9 shots behind, put a fork in him

i bet the house that phil flops today, there is a reason he ain't won a major

phil does look like he's lost some weight and his boobs are smaller

[Noj]

I'll be pullin' for Mickelson today. C'mon, he can't choke every time...can he?

[Dan Gould]

I'm with Noj. How can you not pull for an underdog like that?

And anyway, if Mickelson wins, maybe its an omen that this might be the year for a certain star-crossed MLB team. Or two!

[J.A.W.]

I'm with Noj. How can you not pull for an underdog like that?

Seconded!

[Soulstation1]

we shall see.................

[Matthew]

I'm with Noj. How can you not pull for an underdog like that?

And anyway, if Mickelson wins, maybe its an omen that this might be the year for a certain star-crossed MLB team. Or two!

Yeah, it would be nice if the Dodgers did win it all this year. That is who you meant, right?

[Soulstation1]

NO, i think he was talking about the tribe.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Woods made a big mistake by ditching his swing coach, Butch Harmon. He's been getting advise from Mark O'Meara...which is all fine & dandy except for the fact that O'Meara ain't Woods. The Wash Post had a piece yesterday about the computer generated analysis they've done of Woods swing...and how over time he's started to morph into an O'Meara. Not too swift. Suck it up and listen to Sally, Tiger......time to go phone Butch.

** As always, I'm pulling for Els.

With Help From O'Meara, Woods Gets off the Mark

By Sally Jenkins

Saturday, April 10, 2004; Page D01

AUGUSTA, Ga.

Swing theories abound when it comes to Tiger Woods. He's "off plane." He's "caught." He's "stuck." It's a tempo problem. He's too close to the ball. He hasn't won a major championship in two years, he can't drive it straight or find the greens the way he used to, and he's struggling to even contend in the Masters. What's the problem?

Maybe we should ask "Mark-O."

Woods's best friend on the PGA Tour, oddly enough, is 47-year-old Mark O'Meara, a very nice middle-aged player who has won exactly two majors to Woods's eight. Woods has Mark-O, as he calls him, on speed dial. He leans on him for advice on a variety of matters -- including, perhaps unfortunately, his golf swing.

It's been two years since Woods quit working with Butch Harmon, the teacher who helped him build the technical glory of a swing that led to his extraordinary run of eight major titles in seven years. Woods has said that he doesn't particularly need Harmon anymore; he understands his swing enough to correct himself. If he wants another pair of eyes on the driving range, he says, he can turn to his buddy O'Meara.

Now, this is sort of like the Ritz Carlton asking a Red Roof Inn for advice on hotels. If Tiger doesn't seem quite himself -- and he doesn't -- perhaps this is the reason. Rumor has it that Woods is not only accepting swing advice from O'Meara, but has begun to work with O'Meara's swing doctor, Hank Haney. According to another famed golf teacher, Jim McLean, writing in the April 9 issue of Golf World Magazine, Woods's backswing position has become "an almost carbon copy" of O'Meara's. Accompanying the article is a sequence of photographs comparing Woods's swing in 2000 versus 2004, in which it indeed appears to be noticeably altered.

"O'Meara has a precise way to swing the club up to the top of the backswing followed by a precise way to swing through to a signature finish," McLean writes. "Tiger began to change his swing noticeably in early 2002 often using the same swing drills as O'Meara. Photos show that Tiger's backswing position in 2003 and 2004 has evolved into an almost carbon copy of O'Meara's."

Is this why Woods's game seems somehow more ordinary than it used to? After two rounds at Augusta, Woods was at even par -- perfectly "viable," as he put it. And yet merely viable is somehow not what we've come to expect at the tournament he once won by a dozen strokes. In his opening round, he shot a whopping 40 on the front, and he hit just seven of 14 fairways. His second-round 69 was a slow climb back into contention, but he remains six shots off the lead.

"You have to take baby steps," Woods said. "Slow improvement. I got back to even, and that's viable."

The performance was entirely typical of Woods over the past year. Don't get me wrong -- about every third shot Woods hits is still better than most shots you'll ever see. But there is a troubling inability to gather momentum, a kind of halting, self-sabotaging quality to his game. It used to be that if Woods was at even after two rounds of a major, anything seemed possible. Now, Woods sounds almost grateful to have made the cut.

"I played really well," he said. "I'm still here. I made a few, missed a few."

The dilemma in assessing Woods is that even when he's not playing especially well, he can win -- he has four top-10 finishes and a match-play victory so far this year. But a statistical comparison of Woods this season with the Woods of 1999 and 2000 shows his game has clearly eroded. His driving accuracy has fallen from 71 percent to 61 percent. A player renowned for his recovery shots now makes par or better only a little more than half the time when he misses a green. He ranks 155th in scrambling, a category he used to lead the Tour in. He is nowhere to be found among the PGA's top 10 when it comes to scoring. In total driving, a category that combines accuracy plus distance, he ranked first for two consecutive years, but now ranks 22nd. He also led the Tour in greens in regulation for two straight years, and is now 62nd. In ball striking, which calculates total driving plus greens in regulation, he has fallen to 36th.

The joke on the PGA Tour is that O'Meara should be nominated for Ryder Cup captain -- of the European team. Can't you hear Woods's fellow players in the locker room?

"Hey Marko. Tell him to change his grip while you're at it."

"Hey Marko. Can you get him to change his stance, too?"

But O'Meara is not the one to blame. Woods is now 28, no longer a prodigy but an established champion who is, or should be, in charge of his own game. Maybe what he's experiencing are a few inevitable growing pains -- he's emancipated himself from his parents, as well as Harmon, he's engaged to be married to Elin Nordegren, and claims to be more content and relaxed than he's ever been. Maybe he wants to make his own mistakes. Maybe he has more distractions. Maybe, as McLean says in Golf World, "even the best players get off track and get confused about golf." Maybe he is weary of the constant pressure and scrutiny, and deconstructions of his backswing. Maybe he did himself no favors by being so extravagantly successful so young, and he's entitled to an ordinary lull in his career.

But ordinariness is not what we expect of Woods, and it's never been what he expected of himself. Woods has steadfastly refused to admit there is any major problem in his game or to even utter the word "slump." Maybe Woods will suddenly drive the ball straight and shoot a low number here. But if he doesn't pick up the pace, it will be his seventh straight major without a victory. At some point, there has to be a reckoning -- even if it's a private one.

Edited April 11, 2004 by Son-of-a-Weizen

[Soulstation1]

phil bogeys 3 out of the first 6 holes

[J.A.W.]

HE WON!

[J.A.W.]

[BERIGAN]

Els???

That's great! Next the Cubbies, or the Red Sox!

[Eric]

have to admit I always thought he was a bit of a head case - but 31 on the back with 5 birdies, including 18 and slamming the door on Els ... that kicked ass!!!

Eric

[sheldonm]

Have you seen her, she would have me whipped also !

[Soulstation1]

congrats to phil

i was wrong

maybe they are giving tiger $$$$$ under the table to let these other golfers win

ss1

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

I couldn't believe those two eagles on 16.

[Jim R]

I was very happy to see Mickelson get the monkey off his back... FINALLY. It was especially great the way he caught and passed Els with all those birds down the stretch. Only the 4th person to win it with a birdie on #18. Beats the hell out of going to extra holes and having somebody lose it by hitting into a water hazard or into a deep thicket or something.

Those consecutive aces were indeed special as well. Only 7 in the history of the tournament, and they get not only two in one round, but ten minutes apart!?

It was also cool to see Langer in the hunt for a 3rd green jacket at age 46 (he would have been only the second player - besides Nicklaus- to win in three different decades).

[Dave James]

That my friends was golf as good as it gets. IMO the best Masters ever if not the best golf tournament ever. You'd have to have ice water running in your veins not to enjoy that Mickenson moment on 18. Talk about getting the monkey off your back. And enough of this talk about how with Tiger struggling that Mickelson's win is somehow tainted. Sure it would have been great to see him outduel Tiger mano a mano, but who cares? This is a great win for Phil, no if's, no and's and no but's.

Up over and out.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Those consecutive aces were indeed special as well. Only 7 in the history of the tournament, and they get not only two in one round, but ten minutes apart!?

Exciting stuff. I also thought it was great when Choi holed it from the fairway on 11. On top of that, the guys goes and shoots a 30 on the front nine on Fri!! I think I heard a commentator say that he used to have to drive 3 hours to a course on which to practise. That's some commitment..good for him!

[Dan Gould]

No doubt, it was nice to see Phil win it the way he did, seemingly starting to choke and watch an established winner of Majors surge in front. And he didn't win cause Els gave it back-Phil executed, on one of the biggest stages, so good for him.

Seems like a good place for a golf joke, I'll probably do this poorly, but anyway:

Jesus and Moses are playing golf. They come to a hole with a huge water hazard in front. Most players lay up short and then hit a short iron to the green, but Jesus thinks he can clear the water with his driver.

First swing: splash, right in the middle of the water hazard. So Jesus is so disappointed and so sure he can hit the shot, he asks Moses to part the water so he can go retrieve his ball. Moses agrees, Jesus gets the ball, comes back for his second try.

Splash.

He asks Moses to part the water again, Moses doesn't want to. Jesus tells Moses, "Look, I was with Nicklaus when he made this shot at Pebble Beach-I can do it!"

So Moses parts the water again, and once again, Jesus puts the ball right back in the water hazard.

This time, Moses refuses to part the water, so Jesus walks out on the water hazard to get his ball, and by this time, the next foursome has caught up and one of them asks Moses, "Who does he think he is? Jesus Christ?"

Moses says, "No-Jack Nicklaus."

[connoisseur series500]

That was a very exciting Master's tournament.

Els played to win, but Mickelson scorched the back 9.

Lots of great shots by others inbetween.

That was as good as golf gets.

[Soulstation1]

where the hell is tiger's pops?????????????????????????

he can't be too happy with whats goin on....................

it seems like tiger has lost his focus

tiger still pulled in $100,000 for the us open

ss1

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Sadly, he appears to have gone the way of the cicada. Perhaps he'll be back in 17 years time when he's just about Fred Funk's age and hammer his way to a 5th place finish like Fred?