The 2010 Masters Golf Tournament is now in the record books. Phil Mickelson”s triumph over a star-studded leaderboard was a combination of great and daring golf, pure sports entertainment, and a pseudo-morality play all rolled into one. The 2010 Masters was a most memorable event and is one of those tourneys that will be looked upon some 20, 30 and 40 years from now in glowing terms.
Augusta National still has the most treacherous greens in golf. Alister Mackenzie”s greens have stood up to the test of time over the past 75 years. In fact, regardless of all the lengthening that the course has experienced during the past 12 years, the only thing that is keeping the Masters from having a champion post a score of 25-under-par is the diabolical nature of the greens.
When you consider that Mickelson went driver-6-iron on the 495-yard par-5 13th hole or that the majority of the field was hitting 8-iron on the 170-yard par-3 16th hole, it seems apparent that the greencoats are far removed from the days when Arnold Palmer went driver-1-iron to set up a tap-in eagle on the 500-yard par-5 15th hole at the 1964 Masters. Golf club and golf ball technology are still ahead of the curve.
However, the greens are a different story. You can get a good indication of Augusta National”s greens by playing the Meadow Club in Marin or Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz, both Mackenzie masterpieces in Northern California. While the putting surfaces are quite large by tour standards, they really are three or four small greens that flow into one. Even a 10-foot putt from the wrong angle can spell doom. A good case in point was Mickelson”s lagged 6-footer at the 13th on Sunday. He went for the safe two-putt birdie, thereby taking the three-put par out of play.
The Masters win was Mickelson”s third and fourth major victory overall. Four grand slam titles start to put you in the conversation with the all-time greats of the game. When you consider the post-Tom Watson-Seve Ballesteros-Nick Faldo era of professional golf, there is Tiger Woods with 14 professional majors. Mickelson is next with four wins, one more than the major titles accumulated by Nick Price, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington. Put another way, when you start equaling the amount of career majors of Raymond Floyd, you can be sure than you are viewed as one tough customer on golf”s center stage.
Speaking of Nick Faldo, it is a very different man in the television booth these days from the hard-nosed competitor of the 1980s and 1990s who won six majors. Faldo, the commentator, is knowledgeable and humorous, a true pleasure for golf fans. Faldo, the golfer, was self-centered, curt and generally disliked, especially with the press back home in England. He went to great lengths to enhance his career, had few if any friends, and treated everyone from fellow competitors to wives to swing instructors as disposable items. It”s obvious that he”ll never be an impact player on the Senior Tour because he could only perform at golf”s highest level when he was distant and aloof. The new Faldo is witty and charming and it doesn”t correlate into what it took for him to be the game”s top player.
Speaking of the game”s top player, it was impressive that a very rusty Tiger Woods was still able to compete at golf”s highest level and be a factor at a major championship following a five-month layoff. I never envisioned that Woods would finish in the top four while struggling with his swing and showing uncustomary impatience, most evidenced by his three-putt from 5 feet on the 14th hole on Sunday.
Personality-wise, it was the same old Tiger. Woods” resolve to be more fan friendly and less intense lasted all of two rounds. By Saturday, the tempestuous and potty-mouthed Tiger had returned. He also showed a complete lack of grace during his post-tournament interview and missed a golden opportunity to congratulate Mickelson following completion of play.
Woods” return to golf at the Masters was all about his quest to accumulate more major titles than Jack Nicklaus. Someday he just might. Yet the folklore of modern golf is that while Nicklaus was the game”s best ever, he was also highly regarded for his character, his class and his high level of sportsmanship. Woods will never be regarded in a similar light because of his self-centeredness. In the end, Woods won”t be seen as the Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron of his sport, but instead as its Barry Bonds.
On the local level, I am sorry to report that Lake County golf lost two of its more colorful characters within the last month. Battling illness over the last few years, Buckingham golf professional Jim West passed away in mid-March. The Texas-born West was a rabbit on the PGA Tour of the 1960s, played the California senior mini-tours and served as the teaching pro at Hidden Valley Lake and Buckingham. One of golf”s all-time good guys, West had lots of friends and zero enemies. He was gregarious, funny and a pure delight to be around.
In late March, Vince Tringali died at age 81. An avid amateur golfer on the Lake County scene, Tringali was a lineman on the “Unbeaten, Untied, and Uninvited” 1951 University of San Francisco football team. He played alongside Ollie Matson, Bob St. Clair, Ed Brown and Gino Marchetti and was friends with the school”s SID, a very young Pete Rozelle. Tringali was the legendary coach at St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco during the 1960s when he coached Dan Fouts. Tringali was a good-natured mentor to the most recent generation of top-notch junior golfers, including Nick Schaefer and Hipolito Perez Jr. If you took a peek into the golf bag of Liz Berry, the only girl on the Kelseyville High School boys” team, you”d find a set of Wilson Fat Shaft irons, a gift from Tringali.
Rest in peace Jim and Vince. Thanks for the joy, the happiness and the memories. I know the gang at heaven”s Triple Bogey Saloon are glad you”ve joined up with them.
