The Masters 2017

As Jim Nantz would say, "Hello, Friends", and here are some thoughts from The Grandstand on the 2017 Masters.....

• It is amazing how, more often than not, The Masters is able to produce tremendous sporting drama on a regular basis.  In 2017, the Toon-a-mint evolved into a final round shootout between Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia, and it was epic to be sure.
• It did come down to a two man battle in large part because Americans Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, playing in the next to last pairing, managed to totally soil the bed linens as they played terribly (a combined +7 on the day) and never challenged the final Rose-Garcia pairing.
• Spieth took himself completely out of contention early, going +3 on the front, and, just to make the cheese more binding, when he dunked another one into Rae's Creek on the Par 3 twelfth hole, the one that did him in last year. Despite winning the Masters at the age of 21 in 2015, there now have to be a lot of demons in his head concerning Augusta National.  He is young and very talented, but if you made the case that he will never win another Masters, I don't think that I would argue against the point.
• When it became apparent that the winner would come from the final group, I began to put my rooting interests behind Justin Rose, as I've never been a big fan of Garcia's.  Still, with the way both played all day yesterday, you knew that you were going to be happy for whichever guy won, and feel really bad for whichever guy came in  second.
• As they came to the tee on the 72nd hole, my comment to Marilyn was that "I hope one guys wins it with a birdie, as opposed to one guy losing it by making a bogie."  Rose said pretty much the same thing after he bogied the playoff hole when he said that he was glad Sergio made his putt for a birdie, because then he'd have really felt bad if his bogie had cost him the Masters.  
• Great sportsmanship by both Garcia and Rose throughout the day.

And then there was the CBS telecast....

• We all know that the Green Jackets control the media that covers The Masters in a way that that not even the Kremlin controlled Pravda back in the day, but, honestly now, could Jim Nantz get any more reverential and obsequious?  He tops himself every year.  I honestly think he was about to begin to weep when he opened the Green Jacket ceremony in Butler Cabin last night.
• CBS came on the air at 2:00 yesterday, and by about 2:20 I was already sick and tired of the "Can Sergio win on Seve's 60th birthday?" storyline.  It made Joe Buck's bromance with Kyle Schwarber during last year's World Series pale by comparison.
• On the plus side, the camera work and coverage was excellent.  Is there sport more suited for High Def television than golf, and is there place more suited for it than Augusta National?  OMG, I'm staring to sound like Jim Nantz.  Somebody stop me.
• I hope you all got to watch the one hour special that preceded the telecast about Arnold Palmer and his lifelong relationship with the Masters and Augusta National and that included Arnie's final recorded interview, one that Nantz conducted in the Butler Cabin during the 2016 Masters.  It was terrific show.

We close with a final salute to the 2017 Champion.  He certainly earned it.

The Jordan Spieth Pendulum Swings

At this time last summer, the world, or at least the golf world, was pretty much Jordan Spieth's oyster.  He had won both the Masters and US Open, was one errant drive on the 72nd hole away from winning the British Open, and he would go on to win the Tour Championship, the FedEx Cup, and $22 million in earnings.  All of this in the summer in which he celebrated his 22nd birthday.

In April, he held a five shot lead at the Masters with only five holes to play and we all know what happened: he gagged up that lead highlighted by a quad on the par three twelfth hole when he put not one, but two, shots in the water. He was bit short with reporters and his fans after that, but, hey, that was understandable, right?

What has followed since was a golf vacation that Spieth took with some of his fellow Tour pros (Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, and Smylie Kaufman) to the Bahamas to decompress that featured some of this type of frat-boy, animal-house hijinks on the golf course:

Yeah, yeah, they're still just twenty-something kids, but how would you have liked to save your money all year long to go on a dream golf vacation to some upscale golf resort in the Bahamas only to have found those guys playing in front of or right behind you?

The season has progressed, Spieth won a tournament in Texas a few weeks after the Masters debacle, but was never a factor in either the US or British Opens.  More to the point, he has been dropping some rather churlish comments in press conferences about how "unfair" it is that he is being held to such high standards in golf's major championships. Well, isn't that just too damn bad.

What young Jordan apparently fails to realize is that he himself set the standards by which he is judged by winning the Masters and the US Open last year.  Maybe it would be better if he HADN'T won those events, and then those mean and nasty reporters wouldn't be hounding him with mean and nasty questions like "What happened at Oakmont?" or "What happened at Troon?" or "How could you possibly rinse not one but TWO shots into Rae's Creek when they were getting ready to stitch your name into the lining of that second green jacket?"

Jordan Spieth is a terrific young golfer.  There is a lot to like abut him. He may well contend for and win the PGA Championship this weekend (five shots off the lead after the first round), and may win a raft of majors and a score of other Tour events over the next ten or twelve years.   Or he may not, who knows, but in the crucible since his meltdown at Augusta, Spieth is appearing to be just another typical young millionaire athlete which a highly inflated sense of entitlement who loves it when things go well, and pouts and whines when they do not.  The NFL, NBA, MLB, and the NCAA are full of those types, and why should the PGA Tour be any different?

There Is No "Next Tiger"

As all golf fans know, at the age of 21, Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters in record-breaking fashion.  At the age of 32, he won the 2008 US Open in an 18 hole playoff while, oh yeah, playing on a broken leg.  In that span of time, forty-six of golf's major championships were contested, and Woods won fourteen of them, or 30% of them.

Nobody would have predicted that that '08 Open would have been Woods' last major championship, and while I will "never say never" where Woods is concerned, it must be conceded that with each passing year that does appear to be the case. Also with each passing year, the clamor arises as to who will be the "next Tiger".  

Time for The Grandstander to open up a spreadsheet.

	Masters	US Open	British Open	PGA
2008			Padraig Harrington	Padraig Harrington
2009	Angel Cabrera	Lucas Glover	Stewart Cink	Yang Yong-eun
2010	Phil Mickelson	Graeme McDowell	Louis Oosthuizen	Martin Kaymar
2011	Charl Schwartzel	Rory McIlroy	Darren Clarke	Keegan Bradley
2012	Bubba Watson	Webb Simpson	Ernie Els	Rory McIlroy
2013	Adam Scott	Justin Rose	Phil Mickelson	Jason Duffner
2014	Bubba Watson	Martin Kaymar	Rory McIlroy	Rory McIlroy
2015	Jordan Spieth	Jordan Spieth	Zach Johnson	Jason Day
2016	Danny Willett	Dustin Johnson

As you can see, the chart above represents each of the twenty-eight Majors played since Woods' Open win in 2008.  There have been thirty-two of them that have been spread out among twenty-two different winning players.  Six of them - Padraig Harrington, Phil Mickelson, Martin Kaymar, Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson, and Jordan Spieth - have been multiple winners, with McIlroy winning four of them, and each of the others winning twice.

McIlroy was the first obvious Next Tiger candidate, winning four majors in the span of four years, but he hasn't won since, and when he has been in contention after three rounds, he has spit the bit and not been close, often fading dramatically, as he did in this past Masters. Jordan Spieth appears to be the next most obvious candidate.  He has won twice in the last six tries and has been in contention in five of them.  Others like Jason Day and Dustin Johnson appear to be on the verge of superstardom, Day, in fact, is already there.  All four of those guys are young enough to be factors in and winners of Majors for years to come, but do you really think that they will accomplish what Woods did over a twelve year span of competing in Majors?  Again, "never say never", but I certainly wouldn't bet on it.

Two of the names on the chart above, Ernie Els and Mickelson, won additional Majors outside of the time frame of the chart.  Phil won five of them, Ernie won four.  Mickelson is undoubtedly the single greatest "other" golfer of the Woods Era, and Els is certainly in that same discussion, but they finish far down the track from Tiger when the tally of Majors is viewed.  In fact, going back to a point made in the prior paragraph, I'd say it's a good chance that neither McIlroy nor Spieth will surpass Mickelson's career total of five majors.

The point, if there is one, is that it is extremely hard to win a professional golf tournament.  You have to be better than over 140 other players over a four day period of time.  You have no team mates to block for you, get on base in front of you, or to set you up and feed you that ball or the puck. Sometimes you might get lucky, like Yang Yong-eun did back in 2009 (I mean, do you remember that he won the PGA that year, and have you ever heard of him since?), and there are some other One Hit Wonders that come along (Lucas Glover, Keegan Bradley)  It is real crucible out there, and with each passing year of Tiger not winning, his accomplishments in that twelve year span become more and more remarkable.

My conclusion - there is no "next Tiger", and if there is, I will be a very, very old man when I see him (and I'm old now!).

One final point for this little bar room argument.  Jack Nicklaus won 18 majors beginning with the 1962 US Open and ending with the 1986 Masters.  That was a total of 92 Majors during that span.  Jack's winning percentage was 20%, compared to Tiger's 30%.  If you tell me that Nicklaus was the greatest golfer of all time, I won't argue with you, and I would probably agree with you, but if you tell me that he was more dominant that Woods during their times on Golf's main stage, I might argue with you, although I would also grant you that Nicklaus nineteen second place finishes in Majors are a huge point in Jack's favor.

Just a little something to think over as we await the The Open Championship next month.

Punks and Jerks

Just when I was about to put aside my feelings about Bryce Harper and accept him as perhaps the best player in baseball, which he may very well be, and look upon him as the new Face Of The Game, he pulls a stunt like he did this weekend by barking at an umpire and earning himself a well-deserved one game suspension.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with him bitching over a strike call and getting tossed from a game.  Happens to everyone.  I do have a problem with him coming on to the field at the end of the game to celebrate a walk-off win and then seeking out and barking out an obscenity to the umpire.

Harper is the kind of player (Pete Rose, Tom Brady, Hines Ward) that you love if he plays for your team and intensely dislike if he plays for the Other Guys.  If he played for the Pirates, I would probably be defending him, but he doesn't, so to me, he's nothing but a spoiled brat punk, and if MLB wants HIM to become the Face Of The Game, they better think again.

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The Players Championship tees off today in Ponte Vedre, always a fun event to watch.  It is doubly in the news because this will be the first event in which Jordan Spieth will compete since his fourth round back nine meltdown at Augusta.  It has been well reported that Spieth spent a portion of his time after the Masters "recovering" while on a golf vacation in the Bahamas with fellow pros Rickie Fowler, Smylie Kaufman, and Justin Thomas.

It was reported that this foursome played at times while shirtless and not wearing shoes, and while it was not reported, I am willing to bet that large quantities of beer were involved.  Now, it you were on vacation and playing top dollar greens fees at a high end golf resort and encountered a group of twenty-somethings on the course acting out like this, you would no doubt report them to the marshals or pro shop and really really hope that they would be thrown off of the course.

Now, I am not ready to equate Jordan Spieth and his pals with Bryce Harper, but I wonder what people like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus would have to say about this, and Tiger Woods has been pilloried for far less egregious on course behavior (and, yeah, I know Woods cheated on his wife; this isn't about that.).  Yes, Spieth and his buddies are still just kids, and are as entitled to let their hair down as much as anyone, but  they are also kids making multi-millions of dollars playing tournament golf.  They should be held to a higher standard than the guys from Animal House.

Sunday at The Masters, Post-Game

As I said this morning, I wore a butt-groove in the couch this afternoon and into the evening watching the final round of The Masters, and it certainly did not disappoint.  My Jason Day prediction of this morning was sure wrong, but there was drama a-plenty, and the long held cliche of "The Masters never really begins until the second nine on Sunday" was truer than ever this year.

When Jordan Spieth birdied the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th holes to take a five shot lead, his second consecutive Masters victory seemed a forgone conclusion, right?  Bogies on ten and eleven seemed to be a slight hiccup, but then the famous 12th hole at Augusta reared its head.

You know what happened.  Not one, but two shots into Rae's Creek, and quadruple bogey 7, combined with Englishman Danny Willett's bogey-free five under 67, and Willett is the new Masters Champ, so congratulations Danny Willett!  Watching Spieth implode like that was excruciating to watch, but it certainly was dramatic sporting theater.

It will be interesting to see how Spieth responds to this.  He's extremely talented, and he's only 22 years old, so most likely he will shake this off and excel, but even Nick Faldo said that this has to scar him to some degree or another.

In the meantime, the coronation of the "Next Tiger" has been postponed indefinitely.

Sunday at the Masters, Pre-Game

(Okay, before I begin, I need to address what I wrote yesterday, which was that in the final pairing of the third round, Rory McIlroy would post a better score than Jordan Spieth.  Didn't happen.  Spieth went +1 and McIlroy went +5 yesterday.  Don't ever say that I brush my bad calls under the rug.)

Here's your leader board as we await the beginning of the Final Round of The Masters:

-3 Jordan Spieth

-2 Smylie Kaufman

-1 Bernhard Langer, Hideki Matsuyama

E Jason Day, Dustin Johnson

+1 Lee Westwood, Soren Kjeldsen, Brandt Snedeker

+2 Daniel Berger, Rory McIlroy

I only went that deep on the leader board in order to show Rory McIlroy.  His +5 yesterday puts him five strokes off the lead, not an impossible lead to overcome, but he would also have to jump over ten golfers to win.  McIlroy's quest for the career Grand Slam will have to wait until 2017.

The high scores are a function of the winds that laced Augusta National over the last three days, and for me, at least, that has reduced the enjoyment of the tournament this year.  I like seeing guys making birdies at The Masters, having eagle chances on thirteen and fifteen, and going low.  I don't enjoy seeing best players in the world struggling to make par.  However, forecasts call for calmer conditions today, so that could make today a lot of fun to watch.  I plan on wearing a groove in the couch today from 2:00 until the ceremony in Butler Cabin, as I am sure many of you will.  

I believe that the winner will come from among the six players currently at even par or better:

 Jordan Spieth - I got home from Mass last night with Spieth at -5 and enjoying a four shot lead after sixteen holes.  Had he parred out, I would say that today was a forgone conclusion, but he went bogey, double bogey on 17 and 18, and now it's all up for grabs.  Of course, if the winds die down as predicted, he could shoot a 64 or 65 and slam the door on everyone else.  Still, how Spieth bounces back from that terrible finish yesterday will tell us an awful lot about how he plays the game between his ears.

Smylie Kaufman - Okay, raise your hand if you had heard of Smylie Kaufman before this week?  Oh, you folks with your hands raised?  I don't believe you.  I found this brief story on the 24 year old Kaufman this morning...

http://www.nj.com/golf/index.ssf/2016/04/masters_2016_who_is_smylie_kau.html

...and honestly, how can you not root for this kid?

Bernhard Langer - The presence of the 58 year old Langer in this group is an even bigger surprise than that of young Mr. Kaufman, and a third green jacket for Langer would be one heck of a story, but I don't see it happening.  Plus, and nothing against Langer, who by all accounts is a great guy, I don't want to see anyone supplanting Jack Nicklaus as the oldest Masters Champion.

Hideki Matsuyama - All three of his Masters rounds have been par or better.  No one else can make that claim.

Jason Day - The world's Number One ranked player was one of only five players under par yesterday.  I see him making a run at the lead today.

Dustin Johnson - As long as I have been writing this Blog, I have been predicting Majors wins for Johnson, and he always seems to fold on Sundays.  Maybe this will be his time.

PREDICTION:  I see Jason Day, in the third to last pairing putting on a big surge and pressuring Spieth.   If the conditions are mild, wind-wise, I see low scores from Spieth, Day, and Johnson.  In the end, regardless of weather conditions, I call for a win for.....

JASON DAY.

As always, watch, but don't bet.

The Masters: The Battle is Joined

Well, you want drama at The Masters every year, and you couldn't have ordered it up any better than what Round Three will serve up this afternoon.  Defending Champ and World #2 Jordan Spieth at -4 and World #3 Looking for the Career Grand Slam Rory McIlroy at -3 in the final pairing.  Oh, and don't count out World #1 Jason Day just yet.  He is currently T-15 at +1. He is capable of shooting a 68 or 69 in these conditions, and if he does, that will put him right in the thick of it.

The weather conditions, i.e, the wind, at Augusta National has really affected scoring through the first two rounds, and I believe that those conditions will continue to prevail today.  I watched a lot of the second round yesterday, and based upon the demeanor of the two players yesterday, I will offer the following prediction: At the end of round three this evening, McIlroy will be ahead of Spieth on the leader board.  That doesn't necessarily mean that Rory will lead the tournament, just that he will shoot a better round than Spieth today.

Should be fun to watch!

The Open Championship

I don't know about all of you, but I find myself really fired up for the Open Championship okay, the British Open, that begins this Thursday.

Credit for this, obviously goes to Jordan Spieth and the fact that he has won both the Masters and US Open this year and now has a chance to do something that has never been done - winning the modern Grand Slam in the same calendar year.  The fact that he played in the low level John Deere Classic this weekend, and won it, only intensifies the hype.  Also, I heard today that he will be paired with none other than Dustin Johnson in the first two rounds of the Open.  Those Brits know how to stage drama, don't they?

Also, the Open will be played on the Old Course at St. Andrews, the birth place of golf.  I love watching the Open when it is played there.  I hope it will be cold, windy, and overcast.

Spieth will be the favorite this week, especially since the injured Rory McIlroy will not be there, and you have to root for him.  However, one of the hardest single things to do in pro sports has to be winning any given golf tournament.  And one of the hardest things to predict is the winner of any given golf tournament, so I am going to wait until after the first round is played before offering my pick.  Yeah, it's kind of a chicken-scratch way to do it, but My Blog, My Rules!

Two other story lines to follow beside Spieth's quest for the Slam.

One is Dustin Johnson.  He has it in him to win one of these Majors, but how will that 72nd hole meltdown at the US Open effect him?

The other is Tiger Woods.  Yes, I know that Woods' days as the pre-eminent  golfer of all time are over, but an appearance by Woods in any tournament will always be a story, just as appearances by a washed up Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus were always stories whenever they played.  Call me crazy, but I still think that Tiger Woods will win again on the PGA Tour, and maybe even win another Major.  He knows St. Andrews.  He has won at St. Andrews, so give him a puncher's chance to be in contention for the lead on the weekend, and if he is in contention, you never know what might happen.  It's probably more likely that he will miss the cut, but I would never count him out.

Play well, gentlemen.

Catching Up - Spieth, Pirates, and Warriors

The finish of the US Open at Chambers Bay yesterday certainly was one for the ages.  A four way tie to begin the fourth round, Dustin Johnson (my predicted winner) holds the lead for most of front nine, Rory McIlroy makes a charge and folds, Louis Oosthuizen makes six birdies on the back nine and is tied for the lead in the club house, Jordan Spieth takes a three shot lead with a spectacular birdie putt on sixteen, gives the lead away with a double on seventeen, makes another great birdie on eighteen, only to see Johnson birdie seventeen and have a putt for an eagle to win on eighteen, and a for-sure two putt birdie to force a playoff.  Amazingly, heartbreakingly, Johnson misses a two footer for birdie, and Spieth wins.

What is the fallout from this Open?

• Spieth now holds the first two legs of golf's Grand Slam.  This hasn't happened since 2002.  The hype leading to the British Open next month at St. Andrews for Spieth and his Grand Slam chances will be incredible.
• No doubt about it, Jordan Spieth is now THE pre-eminent golfer in America, if not the world, and he doesn't turn 22 until after the British Open.
• He is the youngest winner of the US Open since 1923, when an amateur of some note named Bob Jones won it.
• For Johnson, it was a heartbreaking defeat.  As much as I like Spieth, as Johnson stood over that birdie putt, I said to Marilyn, "I hope he makes it because no one should have to live with what will happen if he misses."  He has had close calls in Majors before, but this one is going to be a hard one to overcome mentally.  I hope that he does and gets his Major sooner rather than later.

I am going to forgo commenting on the Chambers Bay golf course and the TV coverage by Fox Sports.  Enough has been said about those two things already.

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The disastrous weekend in Washington DC for the Pirates takes away a bit of the luster from what has been a pretty special streak for the Pirates.  Prior to that Nats series, the Bucs had won eight in a row and, I believe, twenty-one of their prior twenty-six games, and had been doing it with pitching that was nothing short of spectacular.  While you hated seeing them get swept, perhaps what happened this week was inevitable.  As well as the Pirates had been playing, that's how poorly the Nats, a good team, had been doing, so some "market corrections" were due.  Next on the docket are three games with the division rival Reds, a team that the Pirates have had trouble beating.  Win two of three against them, and spirits will be lifted, no doubt.

By the way, I am stunned, although maybe I shouldn't be, at the over the top coverage of the Jose Tabata's HBP that broke up Max Scherzer's perfect game on Saturday with two outs in the ninth.  You'd have thought Tabata was responsible for snatching the Lindbergh Baby.  That is the ESPN-24 Hour Media culture in which we live, I suppose, but really...

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A final comment on the NBA Playoffs that concluded last week with the Golden State Warriors defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games.  (I believe that I had that, although I did say it would go the full seven.)  The Warriors are deserving champions, and Steph Curry and Finals MVP Andre Iguodala were phenomenal in the Series, so Congratulations and Hail to the Champion Warriors.

Congratulations also to LeBron James who, essentially, dragged the injury riddled Cavs through six games in this series.  When he was doing TV announcing back in the '70s, I once remember the great Bill Russell saying that "Injuries are a much a part of this game as free throws."  He was right, of course, and the Cavs chances were severely hurt when Kevin Love went down early in the Playoffs, and whatever chances they had left were pretty much submarined when Kyrie Irving went down and out after the first game of the Finals.  What was left was a team consisting of LeBron James and four guys named Joe.  Minus James, that Cleveland team that took the court against the Warriors after Irving's injury was one that would have trouble winning 35 games in an NBA season.

The Future of Golf, or Post-Masters Reflections

Four days after the conclusion of an amazing Masters Tournament, it's time to reflect upon just what took place and what it might mean.

First off, the wire-to-wire win for 21 year old Jordan Spieth prompted this great cover and tag line to appear in the mail box today:

Clever take on the book about Michael Jordan, and a statement that the "Spieth Era Begins Now".

First the tournament itself.  Spieth's performance was nothing short of, sorry about this, Masterful.  Only the fifth wire-to-wire win in the history of the Masters, and a tie for the all-time low score.  On Saturday, he stood up to the challenges and charges of the biggest names in the sport (McIlroy, Mickelson, and Woods), and on Sunday, every time someone looked like he would challenge him, Spieth answered with a birdie, an amazing up-and-down, or a clutch par, all leading to this moment.

Does this mean that a "Jordan Spieth Era" is now upon us?  

Well, how do you define an "Era"?  Is Spieth the next Tiger Woods?  Sorry, but no, or at least no one should be ready to declare so at this point.  Does it mean that Spieth can be a dominant player on the PGA Tour for the next 10-15 years?  It is quite possible that Spieth could indeed be just that, although, I do not think that we shall ever see anyone dominate professional golf the way that Woods did in the period from 1997-2008.  The probability of such dominance is infinitesimal, if for no other reason than this guy:

Rory McIlroy is only 25 years old and already has four majors to his credit.  And if McIlroy will prevent Spieth from being the "next Tiger", then Spieth, in turn, could prevent McIlroy from being the "next Tiger" as well.

What does excite the imaginations of golf nerds everywhere is the possibility of Spieth-McIlroy duels over the next dozen years or so that will be reminiscent of earlier days when Arnold Palmer battled Jack Nicklaus, and Nicklaus battled guys like Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, and Greg Norman.  It is a measure of Woods' total dominance during his time that there never was a real challenger to him, not even Phil Mickelson.  The idea of Spieth and McIlroy going head to head on Sundays at Augusta, Oakmont, St. Andrews and other such places over the next decade to so is wonderful to think about.

Oh, and we should also keep one other thing in mind.  Spieth could end up being a one hit wonder like Trevor Immelman, Lucas Glover, Andy North, or one of the many other golfers who have managed to win one major, and little else.  It certainly doesn't appear likely that Spieth will fall into that category, as he has already won several times on Tour and performed well in a Ryder Cup competition, but you never know.  It will be interesting to look back at the ledger at the conclusion of this Tour and Majors season and re-evaluate the possibilities.

Of course, you can't make any evaluation of the State of Golf without talking about these guys:

Phil Mickelson had a terrific Masters.  His score of fourteen under par would have won the Masters 70 of the 78 times in its history.  It appears that he has something left in the tank, at least at Augusta, and it would have been interesting to see how Spieth would have held up had he been paired with Mickelson instead of Justin Rose on Sunday.  One of those intriguing "what ifs" that makes sports so much fun to follow.  However, Phil is now 44 years old.  It's hard to win anywhere on tour at that age, much less a Major, which makes his performance at Augusta all the more remarkable.

As for Tiger Woods, he is 39 and he managed to shoot eight under par over the second and third rounds of the Masters. He also was two over par over rounds one and four.  The fact that he scraped by in one over on Sunday, when he could never find a fairway off the tee, is amazing.  He could overcome such erratic driving at Augusta, but if he drives like that at a course set up for the US Open, he won't make the cut.

The key points in the above two paragraphs are the ages of the two golfers.  In all sports, and especially tournament golf, Father Time beats all comers.  I don't doubt that Mickelson and Woods all again win tournaments here and there on the PGA Tour.  Woods may even possibly still be able to dig down and win a Major one more time, but at this point it's a long shot.  This takes nothing away from what they have been, which is two of the greatest golfers of all time (and in Woods' case, he is in the argument for THE greatest golfer of all time).  It will still be fun to see them play and watch them on TV, but I am afraid that their Days of Dominance are over.

The US Open will be played in Oregon this June, which means prime time telecasts here in the east.  You know that Fox, which is televising the Open this year, has to be licking its chops in hopes of young guns like McIlroy and Spieth going at it at Chambers Bay.  Bring it on!!

Remember, The Masters Doesn't Really Begin Until the Back Nine on Sunday

As I see it, four people have a shot at taking the green jacket tomorrow: Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Phil Mickelson, and Charlie Hoffman. Those are the four with a legitimate shot at winning, and, really, I believe that it will come down to the final grouping of Spieth and Rose. 

I don't think that 44 year old Phil can hang in again, and I can't see Hoffman holding up either. Rose has won a Major - the US Open a few years back -  and knows what it takes to do so, and Spieth should have learned how to withstand final round pressure from last year. After Hoffman, the next five golfers are ten shots out of the lead. If any of them comes from that far behind to win it will be almost miraculous. 

I am going to predict a win for Spieth, mainly because I have him as one of my golfers in the MOASP Fantasy Pool, but it will be a close win over Rose. It's not going to be the runaway that many thought it might become after the second round. It should be, dare I say it, a Barn Burner! 

You heard it here first, and remember, as always, watch, but don't bet.