The magic of Augusta

[IrishGolfer]

I can't wait for it to start tomorrow. It seems like it is always the official start to the golfing season every year. The course, the tradition, the spectacle, the players, the excitement, all culminate in my favourite major of the year. I hope it is a terrific tourney, exciting and down to the last putt on the 72nd green. I hope that Amen Corner plays its role, a bit of a breeze and it will play havoc at the 12th. We will see eagles at 13 and 15 and hole in ones at the 16th on Sunday, where the pin is normally cut. We will see magic and heartache.

The forecast looks good for the week. The players are raving about the set-up. The course will look great on 3-D HD TV. Every spike mark will look like a rock!

But who will come out on top? Lefty with massive and fearless hitting? A resurgence from Tiger? A European? Or perhaps a rookie bursting out from the pack?

I am going for G-Mac this year. It's an emotional pick, but hey, he's from my corner of the World, so why not? Roll on Augusta, may your magic sparkle again!

 

[VtDivot]

Easily my favorite major. Will be "working" from home on Thursday

It's hard not to take Phil this week. He's my pick

 

[SiberianDVM]

This has been such a wonderful week. I took one of my few vacation weeks so I could do some work around the house, play some golf, watch the Masters in HD, get caught up on grocery shopping, etc.

Well, the storm that blew through Monday night knocked out my electricity, along with about 100,000 other people. The difference is: 30 hours later I still don't have power and I have yet to even see a Georgia Power truck. The rumor is that everthing on Washington Road got highest priority. Really? Who would have guessed?

All of the groceries that I just bought Sunday and put in the refrigerator are now ruined. My golf course was closed for a while to clean up storm damage, then the wind came up, so I haven't gottten to play golf. With no electricity I can't run any power tools, so my kitchen sits half gutted. Needless to say, the TV doesn't work either.

The battery on this laptop is about dead, so, adios, and ef Augusta National,

 

[wirehair]

Hi Guys:

I'm looking forward to watching.

Doc, too bad about the bad stuff, guess it's good that I couldn't make the trip, we'd have had to act all European and drink warm beer.

 

[eclark53520]

Generator, Doc. You need one.

 

[twogreen]

It's all that and more. I was lucky enough to attend in '04 and '05. Unfortunately, I haven't attended in recent years. HDTV allows one to follow the play more closely; but it will never match the magical feeling of watching the drama of Amen Corner while sitting in the bleachers eating a Pimento Cheese sandwich.

 

[SiberianDVM]

37 hours and counting with no power and no sign of a repair crew. Still 6000 plus homes in the area without power. All from a fricking thunderstorm. Imagine if we had a tsunami? Ef Georgia Power, too.

 

[warbirdlover]

Super first day. Rory tore up the course and Tiger and Phil didn't mess themselves up. And how about the two Korean guys Choi and Yang? I watched a preview with Andy North calling who is going to contend and he was basically right on target. He said Kaymer wouldn't make the cut again because he hits the wrong shot shape for Augusta and he was right. The coverage is amazing also, channels for amen corner and others for other holes on the course. Just excellent.

Doc,

Come on up here and watch it.

 

[xamilo]

Great first day indeed! Lots and lots of players under par with huge chances. Rory killed it, but as always, we should expect a 76 round tomorrow after his awesome round. He always does the same, but it would be great to have an European win the Masters this year!

Tiggy seems to finally start seeing off the radar in someway. I mean, he had the least coverage I've seen in ages (I ain't saying he didn't get any, but at least didn't get as much as always). For the first time the camera was more on Phil instead. Unless something weird happens, doesn't seem Tiger is going to be on top, he just isn't showing the game, specially today where the field was so good and so easy to birdie.

I can't wait for tomorrow for the second round!!!!

 

[IrishGolfer]

Lefty has some unbelieveable shots (Chip out from jungle in 13 and 2nd to 14 frome behind a tree to 10ft), so Augusta Gods seem to be similing on him. Agree on Rory, but would love to see him maintain it. Quiros and Woodland were killing it. They were 30-40 yards past Vegas, who can hit it! I have a hunch that Ogilivy will win this. He looked totally in control of his game. As always the course looked awesome. Expect pins to be tougher today and will be interesting to see what cut is. I expect even par??

 

[sssmokin]

It's a huge long shot, but I sure would like to see Fred Couples win again. It would make my year.

 

[IrishGolfer]

Yip, he's some kind of cool, that boy! Swing is as fluid as ever.

 

[IrishGolfer]

Lefty has some unbelieveable shots (Chip out from jungle in 13 and 2nd to 14 frome behind a tree to 10ft), so Augusta Gods seem to be similing on him. Agree on Rory, but would love to see him maintain it. Quiros and Woodland were killing it. They were 30-40 yards past Vegas, who can hit it! I have a hunch that Ogilivy will win this. He looked totally in control of his game. As always the course looked awesome. Expect pins to be tougher today and will be interesting to see what cut is. I expect even par??

Not surprisingly, Quiros led the driving distance statistics by nearly 10 yards in the first round, averaging 309.5 yards. AVERAGE!!

 

[xamilo]

Quiros was the biggest surprise in the day for sure. If he leaves it in the fairway we might have the weirdest winner ever! With his distance he's got 3 eagle shots every round! Thank God there aren't more par 5s or he would be 12 under already! I just hope he doesn't choke on pressure if near the top on the weekend.

And you're right IG, Ogilvy is going under the radar but playing with such tranquility he might give a surprise.

 

[IrishGolfer]

Quiros was the biggest surprise in the day for sure. If he leaves it in the fairway we might have the weirdest winner ever! With his distance he's got 3 eagle shots every round! Thank God there aren't more par 5s or he would be 12 under already! I just hope he doesn't choke on pressure if near the top on the weekend.

And you're right IG, Ogilvy is going under the radar but playing with such tranquility he might give a surprise.

Quiros has been playing well on European Tour for a few years now. He had a big win a few months ago. Down the stretch on the final day he was in the mix. He came to a par 3, I think it was 14th or 14th and aced it! Game, set and match. He is a mecurial player though, and seemed to ride his luck yesterday. I don't think he will be in the mix come Sunday. He will need a few more Masters under his belt first.