Your Preview to A Masters Preview
Well maybe it doesn’t, smart guy, but the fine admins at Boston Sports Buzz have green-lighted my “golf guy” idea and I’m here to take full advantage. I am The Mayor (or, in blogform, TheMayor), and I’m here to bring you rants, news, and whatever else I can think of relating to the golf world. FedEx Cup standings? You betcha. Ryder Cup preview? I’m your man. Gratuitous Natalie Gulbis photos? Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. Champions and Nationwide tour information? Eh, if I have time.
But for today, let’s talk Masters, taking place April 10-13.
Ah yes, cue the CBS theme music. Let that gentle piano wash over you like the sweet rays of an early
But back to that leaderboard you just envisioned. Did you see it? Here’s an approximation of how it will read on Sunday afternoon:
Tiger Woods -8 Jerry Kelly -1 Phil Mickelson E Paul Casey +2 Justin Rose +4
I’m gonna lay it on the line right now: there is no freaking way Tiger is losing this tournament. Have you seen what this man has done on the course lately? He’s playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. He’s sinking battleships, torpedoing carriers, and locating destroyers before anyone else can even say “B-8.” He’s passing Go while they’re landing on his hotel. What does any of that mean, exactly? It means he’s as unstoppable as one can be on the Tour.
Tiger’s won his last four PGA events, but make that six if you count Dubai and the Target World Challenge, and hell, make that seven if you want to count Bay Hill this weekend (though he's seven back at the time of this posting), where he’s won four times (although not since 2003). The last time he didn’t win was a runner-up to Mickelson at Deutsche Bank. Here’s a guy who was down three with five holes to play during the third round of the Accenture and wound up winning 1-up after going birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle, par down the stretch. The man is LOCKED IN. That’s why I don’t see anyone even coming close this year to touching him at
We’ll do a much more in-depth preview of The Masters in late March-early April, but for now, just a few random things to touch on:
- Stewart Cink is playing well this year (three top-tens, #5 in FedEx points), but he blew a four-shot lead on Sunday at the PODS Championship and lost by two to Sean O’Hair. And when you consider Cink’s 8&7 loss to Tiger in the finals of the Accenture, you begin to wonder about his ability to perform in the clutch. “I've got some soul-searching to do,” Cink says…
- Impressive top-ten by Lee Janzen, of all people, at the PODS this week. I didn’t even think he was on tour anymore, and turns out, I was right: “Janzen has been mired in a slump so bad that he lost his PGA Tour card two years ago, hasn't finished in the top 125 on the money list the last three years and now is having to rely on sponsor exemptions…” – Golf.com
- With Mickelson looking like he dropped about 15-20 pounds in the off-season, Jeff Quinney’s grip on the “Tour’s Biggest Rack” title has never been stronger…
The Mayor is a contributing writer to Boston Sports Buzz.
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