A Tradition Like No Other

Cue the schmaltzy music, cue the hushed reverential tones of Jim Nantz, cue the absence of Gary McCord, cue the Green Jackets, who still think it's 1934 in America.  (Clifford Roberts is no doubt still spinning like a lathe over the fact that Condalisa Rice is a Member at Augusta National.)

It's time for The Masters!

I kid the reverence that surrounds this Tournament every year, and the self-important Green Jackets that rule over every element surrounding it, but I will be watching this weekend, as I do every year, and I count my three visits to Augusta National in 2002, 2008, and 2010, as among the highlights of my sports watching/attending life, so if that makes me a hypocrite, so be it.

Actually, this year's Masters will be dominated, not so much by who is there, than by the absence of a certain figure.  And this figure has been a dominant force in Masters for years and years, and while that figure's absence probably will not diminish this year's event, it surely will alter the event in ways not quite imaginable.

I am speaking, of course, of the Eisenhower Tree.

This huge land mark of a pine tree that sat on the left side of the fairway some 210 yards from the 17th tee for time immemorial, was lost this past winter to severe ice storms that hit Augusta.  It has played havoc with many a shot from many a golfing legend over the years, and it will be interesting to see how the overall scoring on #17 (sorry, but I can't tell you which flower this hole is named for) will be compared to Masters past.  And, surely, CBS and toon-a-mint officials will provide us with such stats.

There is probably no more difficult prediction in all of sports that to predict the winner of any given golf tournament.  I will go out on a limb and say that Tiger Woods will not win this year's Masters .  I will say this.  The 2014 green jacket will go to an American, and it will go to either Dustin Johnson or Jason Duffner.  So, there's my prediction.

Enjoy the Masters, A Tradition Like No Other.  Remember, no running and no unseemly cheering while watching.