[ArthurDent]

The Magnolias are in bloom, and it's that time of year again. After a 2 1/2 hour weather delay on the start, the traditional opening tee shots were made by Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, & Tom Watson.

Play is on, several folks at -3 at the moment including Bryson D, which is a promising start as he missed the cut last year. So who's the one(s) to to watch ? Will John Rahm repeat ? Will Rory put it all together ? Will Scottie continue his winning ways ? Hideki Matsuyama has been in the mix of late, will he repeat ? Lots of folks to keep an eye on, who are your pics to be at the top come Sun ?

As always you can stream coverage free at  https://www.masters.com/en_US/live/index.html . Several options of what portion of the course or players to watch. Looks to be a good one if the weather continues to cooperate. Front moved thru, still windy, forecast is favorable at the moment. No clue on what's been happening with the Liv players, so don't know what those guys have been doing in the ramp up to Augusta. Lots of very talented new young players on the PGA so a dark horse is possible, but Augusta is such an experienced based course it reduces their chances. 

So, "Be the ball", and enjoy the show.

[JDoyle]

Looking forward to it as always… it’s just such a great event.
My pick is for Wyndham Clark to be the one to slip on the green jacket.

[mcgsxr]

Here to cheer Rory on to try to complete the career grand slam.

[ArthurDent]

Here to cheer Rory on to try to complete the career grand slam.

    He didn't shoot himself out of it today, but left some on the table at 6 strokes behind. The wind is messing with everybody, and there were still a number of players who ran out of time to finish their first round. Coverage will start early with the left-overs. Tiger is -1 thru 13 holes, and looking as good overall as he has in a while at that point. Tough day for Fred Couples, it's obvious his back is really hurting, hopefully he'll be better tomorrow. He's got a lot of work to do to make the cut.

Bryson D. has the lead at -7, Scottie is 2nd at -6, with one at -5, &  four I think at -4. One or two of the -4 haven't completed their rounds. While forecast is dry at this point the winds are really whipping and mucking up everyone's accuracy. Jordan's not looking very good, Jason D is struggling, but hanging in so far. Will Z is one of the -4, so time will tell if he's recovered enough from his surgery to maintain on a very tough course in difficult conditions. Didn't see any of his play, so can't guess.

Looking forward to it as always… it’s just such a great event.
My pick is for Wyndham Clark to be the one to slip on the green jacket.

Wyndam is still in the hunt, I think he ended up -2, a lot of folks there & -1. He's been playing very good for a bit now, I think his chances may rely on how many times he's played the course. Sam Burns, Cam Smith, Matt Fitzpatrick, are all still hanging around. Given the forecast I think it's going to be a bumpy ride for all.

[Letitroll98]

Watching golf has been ruined for me by the LIV effort to destroy golf.  Supporting those people is impossible for me, I can't say more on the issue in these pages.  I'm boycotting PGA events, won't even watch on TV, but I did try to watch a few minutes of the Players and didn't recognize a single player so turned it off after 15 minutes.  But I decided I could watch the non PGA events like the Masters, the two Opens and the few televised amateur events.  But watching the Masters for me was like Doom scrolling on social media.  All I did was root for LIV players to screw up.  The Masters used to be a highlight of the year for me, I watched every day, all day.  I'll try again today, but I might end up listening to some music instead, or pop over to the movie theater across the street (sort of) and see Civil War.  Very sad event for me.

[BobM]

Was there on Monday and I got me a Gnome too!

[rollo]

  The Masters for me is the pinnacle venue of the game. So much history and great play. Hard to watch Tiger struggle. The wind the first two days is making play much tougher. With faster greens today it will be something to watch.
   With all the woke nonsense in the other sports finally a wholesome thing to watch.

charles

[ArthurDent]

Was there on Monday and I got me a Gnome too!

           

  Well said charles. The wind was brutal today, something like 257 over par for the field. The leaders shot -1, even, & +1, Tiger shot even, after doubling 18 finishing his first round. A testament to his mental & physical toughness. He's at +1, cut was +6. As has been the case many times lately it looks like it's Scottie's to lose. Bryson didn't fold, and Max Homa is playing his best in a while. With 2 days left, and the weather forecast to be even better with winds lowering I'll forecast that anyone within 6 of the lead has a shot. This is subject to adjustment at end of play tomorrow.

  Can't argue with your feelings Let, it's a shame politics beyond golf has inserted itself into the existing politics within golf. I just block that stuff out as something I have no control over. I've played the game for 60+ years now, decently at times, mostly bogie range. The changes in how it's played, the equipment, the length of the courses, and distance the ball is being hit mystifies me. I get golfers are more athletes than they used to be. No one would accuse Billy Casper, Julius Boros, or Lee Trevino of being athletes in the sense players are now. The changes in ball & club tech are amazing as well. When I started the std distance for a 4 iron was considered 180 yds, today to see players hitting an 8 or 9 iron that far is not that unusual. Granted the universal change (decrease) in loft a few years back makes irons roughly a half club higher than what I still play today, but that doesn't explain that big a differential.

I did notice today the 4/5/6 hole coverage which was excellent yesterday was very out of focus & buffered a lot more than it has been. The Amen Corner didn't seem to have that problem, nor did 15/16. Side effect of the wind & the source of the signal feed ? Anyway, I'll be back in front of the tube with the laptop hooked up streaming again tomorrow. So get a good nights rest players, lots of golf left to play, and there's no place where a 6 shot swing is more possible than Augusta.

[Letitroll98]

"If there's nay wind, there's nay golf".  The old Scottish pronouncement was never more true than yesterday at Augusta.  Players in the middle of the fairway hitting 3 iron to lay up on 15 was illustrative of the impact.  I did turn it off to go see a movie in the middle of the round, but made it back home to see the final relevant group finish up from 15 onward.  I thought Tiger played fine, especially since he had to play so many extra holes.  In his condition making the cut is a victory, a record 24 straight cuts made at Augusta.  In many ways he's playing better than ever now that he's forced to stop ridiculously overswinging, I've never seen him hit so many fairways.  However I hope he retires after this tournament, he's no longer a complete person physically.

[rollo]

   Just hope the wind dies down a bit today. Normal not excessive.
charles

[Letitroll98]

Scotty Sheffler wins by a significant margin, pretty much in control for the whole tournament.

PGA players filled the top five spots as noted by Verne Lundquist in his nearly final statement in a Masters broadcast.  Obviously a dig at LIV golf that all other announcers were obviously forbidden to mention.  CBS , The Masters, and the PGA all sticking their head in the sand to avoid the very public controversy.  Verne said screw you, I'm out.  For this tournament anyway it seems the 54 hole no competition format of LIV golf has made the players soft for real competition.  Whether that holds true will be seen as the majors roll by this year.

Top amateur spot was taken by our own Pittsburgh native (Mt Lebanon) young man Neal Shipley.  Qualifying as the runner up in last year's US Amateur and playing with (and soundly beating) Tiger Woods.

Finally Tiger finished dead last at #60, sixteen over shooting 84 the last day.  Please, please Mr Woods, take this opportunity to retire from competitive play.  You could see that he was very gracious to the young amateur and took his drubbing in good stride.  But he had no business playing professional golf.  I'm fine with him playing a farewell tournament at the place of his greatest triumphs making the cut for a record 24 straight times, but now it's time to take a bow and check out.

[mcgsxr]

In the last 4-5 years I have stopped watching men's golf outside the Majors.  I will more often tune into an LPGA event on Saturday or Sunday for 60-120 minutes, but my days of watching a lot of golf are over - not just because of the whole LIV drama, but its just less interesting to me overall.

The Masters was interesting - sad to see Rory not get it done another year.  A little boring to see Scottie S win.

Was really cool to see the kid that came in 2nd.  He had a great day other than that water ball on 11, but collected himself well and showcased a great game.

[rollo]

  Am I the only one that thought that Scotty subbed John at jacket ceremony ? Did not shake Johns hand. That is not the tradition of Golf. Tradition should prevail over anything in Golf.

charles

[Letitroll98]

  Am I the only one that thought that Scotty subbed John at jacket ceremony ? Did not shake Johns hand. That is not the tradition of Golf. Tradition should prevail over anything in Golf.

charles

Agreed on the snub, but I couldn't tell who subbed who.  I thought it was Rahm dissing Sheffler, but it happened quick and I was a little shocked, so I'm not at all sure that it wasn't the other way around like you saw it.  But certainly they didn't exchange the usual warm handshake.  Looking back Rahm didn't seem happy to be there at all during the interview.

[ArthurDent]

Well the wind laid down, the course dried and firmed, and reading the greens was as usual the key to the championship. Congrats to Scottie on his second green jacket, and his focus on the last 9 holes. Pretty obvious why he's still #1 in the world rankings. Kudos to Ludvig Aberg, his first trip to Augusta, and at 24 he's well on his way to premier status on the tour following a stellar amateur career. Congrats to Neal Shipley for his winning the Amateur prize, a very well played tournament on his part. The bonus was he got to play with Tiger on his last round. A lot of folks had a shot at winning, but they all stumbled at one point or another, some big, some multiple small slips. Lots of good players missed lots of putts, in places where had they or their caddies been watching the Masters feeds in the morning they shouldn't have.

Rory's close, but still missing iron shots when he shouldn't, not giving himself good chances to sink putts. As to Tiger, Vijay, Freddie, they love the game, they love the course, they earned the right to play. If they're not worried about appearances, and can make the cut, more power to them. Since I only watch the Broadcast coverage at the very end I don't know what was shown and commented on by the CBS announcers. The 4/5/6, Amen corner, & 15/16 coverage provides so much more detail of those holes, and you can watch how every player handles them. I miss a lot of highlights, but no commercials, and little to no time filling commentary. Simply hole relevant chatter. Props to all who finished under par this year, with the wind the 1st two days it was easy to get too far behind to make up much ground. Even without the wind some subtle changes to the greens made weekend play very difficult. Other than Tom Kim's 66 on Sunday -4 was the lowest round for the field both days.

I skiiped the jacket presentation. We more mature folks get cranky if we don't get our afternoon naps.    From the ole innerweb it appears it could have been either way or both with regards to the 'snub'. Rahm had apparently complained about the playing conditions early on, too windy, sand on the greens, & such. There may have been some real or perceived cold shoulders from the tour players towards John due to his move to LIV. Only they know, and agree it was not in keeping with the spirit of the game whatever the source/reason.

Till next year when hopefully we'll all be back here once more, hit 'em straight and relax it is after all only a game. Thanks for posting your thoughts gentlemen.