Suddenly and without any warning, the spring season is in full bloom in the Redwood Empire. I played golf this past weekend in the Lake County Partners at Buckingham and the weather conditions were nothing short of just another typical late March weekend in Wisconsin. Yet here we are some seven days later and we”ve had warm weather days in the 70s and 80s. I guess spring is officially here.
The other reason that I know spring is here is because the Masters golf tournament commences Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. This will be the 75th edition of the year”s first major championship. Phil Mickelson is the defending champion. Other than those specific facts, the rest of my thoughts regarding this year”s Masters are left to total conjecture. There is no real dominant golfer going into next week”s tournament and it has been quite a while since the alpha males in American golf, namely Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk, have been anywhere near the winner”s circle.
The 2011 golfing season is just another version of 1969. Off the top of my head, 1969 was one of those years in the midst of the Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino era that featured other noted stars such as Billy Casper and Julius Boros. Back in ”69, Frank Beard was the leading money winner. George Archer won the Masters, his one and only major title. Orville Moody won the U.S. Open, not only his one major title, but also his single, solitary victory of his PGA Tour career. Tony Jacklin won the British Open and Raymond Floyd captured the PGA Championship. Jacklin would win the U.S. Open the following year and Floyd would pick up three more major titles, but their 1969 grand slam triumphs were the firsts of their careers.
Since Mickelson won his third Masters green jacket some 51 weeks ago, there has been a lot of anarchy atop the world golfing scene. Graeme McDowell won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Louis Oosthuizen took home the claret just at the British Open at St. Andrews. The best looking member of golf”s new breed, Martin Kaymer, won the PGA at Whistling Straits. Matt Kuchar was the PGA Tour”s 2010 leading money winner. Lee Westwood became the world”s No. 1-ranked golfer, even though he has never won a major championship. Jim Furyk was the 2010 Fed Ex Cup points champ. At this moment, the Fed Ex points leader and the PGA Tour”s leading money winner is Mark Wilson. It”s shades of Wayne Levi, who led the tour with four wins in 1990.
Sometimes the Masters” favorites are golfers who have had a rock-solid spring prior to the tournament. If that”s the case, then the long list of potential Masters” suitors include Jonathan Byrd, Mark Wilson, Jhonattan Vegas, Bubba Watson, D.A. Points, Aaron Baddeley, Johnson Wagner, Luke Donald, Rory Sabbatini, Michael Bradley, Nick Watney, Gary Woodland and Martin Laird. All of the aforementioned have one thing in common, namely winning a tour event this year.
So let”s not kid ourselves. With the stars perfectly aligned, Bubba Watson or Nick Watney could conceivably win the Masters. The other 11 have no chance. What we”re looking at is a 2011 Masters champ who hasn”t won a PGA Tour event in the last six months. That”s not necessarily an improbable event as evidenced by Mickelson”s win last year at Augusta National. Among the big-name regulars on the PGA Tour, it isn”t too far-fetched to think that Dustin Johnson or Matt Kuchar or Hunter Mahan or Bill Haas could don the green jacket at the conclusion of play next Sunday. All of the members of that foursome have game and are capable of having a super week in breaking through to win their first major title.
It”s also not all that far-fetched to believe that the over-the-hill threesome of Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh might be able to put it all together for 72 holes to win at Augusta National, a place all three have had past success. And to be perfectly blunt, only Singh is showing signs of wear and tear as he just turned 48 years of age. Then again, Mickelson has been merely mediocre so far this year and Woods can”t figure out how to swing that club consistently during the course of four rounds of tournament golf without a swing coach to tweak him.
Perhaps we need to look across the pond to pick a suitable Masters favorite. Ernie Els, Louis Oosthuizen, Martin Kaymer and Paul Casey have won European PGA Tour events this year. Kaymer is the world”s latest No. 1-ranked golfer and Casey is ranked seventh. Els has had several near misses at Augusta National. There”s also Rory McIlroy out there who just missed the playoff at the PGA Championship last August and who is going to break through and win multiple majors prior to the end of his career.
When all is said and done, the 2011 Masters champ will need to be an accurate long ball knocker as well as have his putting touch at its best to deal with the undulations and speedy breaks on Augusta”s treacherous greens. So, not only do you have to drive the ball long and accurately as well as be a deft putter, but also your iron and wedge game has to be profound enough to give you a fair amount of uphill birdie putts. While there is no clear-cut favorite entering this year”s Masters, one must realize that this is the grand slam event that has crowned Zack Johnson, Trevor Immelman and Angel Cabrera as its winner from 2007 through 2009. Which brings us back full circle to the good old days of 1967 through 1969 when the Masters champs were Gay Brewer, Bob Goalby and George Archer.
The 75th annual Masters tournament tees off Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. It”s a wide-open field of golfers with talent but not necessarily brilliant golfing resumes. Then again, it”s also a field of young and dynamic long-hitting linksters who could very well have their breakthrough moment in professional golf. The only two things I”m dead certain of is that the Masters will provide dramatic and riveting golf theatre, especially during the final nine on Sunday afternoon, and that the first two shots struck at the 2011 Masters will be launched by this year”s honorary starters, namely six-time Masters champ Jack Nicklaus and four-time green jacket winner Arnold Palmer. It should all make for a great start to the major championship season.
