MATCHUPS for 1* each:
Rose(+120) over Clarke (Tournament) @ Olympic
Howell(-140) over Garcia (Tournament) @ Olympic
Love(-135) over Goosen @ 5dimes
Byrd(+100) over Mattiace (Tie loses) @ Bet365
GL
---------- ---------- ----------
Thomas Boswell (Washington Post):
SATURDAY (4/12/03):
"When you have star power like Tiger's, everything is theater, every failure merely a preamble to a more glorious redemption. For example, on his first hole of the (tournament), Woods made a bogey that may be remembered more than any other shot this day. He missed the green in regulation. He chipped horribly all the way across, and off, the other side of the green into a deep swale. His next pitch was worse, rolling back almost to his feet. If he pitched up and two-putted, as most would, he faced a triple bogey.
"I'd had so much practice pitching [on the hole already], I figured, 'I'll just pitch it in.' " So, on a shot almost identical to the one he'd just flubbed, Woods knocked the ball in the hole from 35 feet.
You can't gain charisma at the Woods or Jordan level by practice or pluck. You can't switch club makers or use a ball with hexagonal dimples and stumble into it. Star quality drips off you. It attaches itself to every mood. Woods wasn't just down in the dumps during the hideously slow six-hour first round; he was gloriously, magnificently down in the dumps. You saw him and said, "Look, Tiger is down in the dumps. Have you ever seen a genius so frustrated, an artist so off his feed? Won't it be something when, before this miserable day in a glorified Georgia hog pound is finished, he will do all sorts of wonderful things and end up pumping his fist?"
Most of all, it doesn't seem you can acquire what Woods has between his ears from a sports psychologist. The three players ranked behind him in the world all have them. Little good it did Erne Els or Davis Love III, who opened with 79 and 77, respectively.
How can you have star power -- or compete against it -- if everybody knows your inner secrets? Els discusses how his golf shrink helps him get rid of "a little man" who often sits on his shoulder and prompts him to take silly gambles or suddenly lose confidence. Phil Mickelson has unveiled his 117th "new mental attitude" this week, which appears to involve avoiding mention of Woods's name, whom he refers to repeatedly as "another individual." . . .
Here at the Masters, everybody listens to everybody and watches everybody else. Especially if that somebody is Tiger. Player after top player, even major champions, talks about how to "ignore him" or cope with him or "take your game to another level" to beat him.
Woods never talks about them, never watches their scores or cares what they think. Whether eight strokes behind or eight ahead, his eye is always on the prize. And so, our eyes are always on him."
SUNDAY (4/13/03):
"Many will look at this Masters leader board -- and at Woods's heroics in climbing from 42nd to fifth place with a third-round 66 -- and assume that Tiger's hard work is almost done.
That's not how golf works.
Woods has led or been tied for the lead in eight majors. His jaw-dropping leads were 10, nine, six, four and (twice) one shot. Twice, he was tied for the lead. He's won all eight of those majors, three of which were right here, including the past two.
Tiger has tried to come from behind in 16 other majors and he's 0 for 16. A couple of charges, similar to what he'll need here, have failed at the wire.
Woods has been so great so young that, often, he doesn't get full credit for what he accomplishes, as though, somehow, it was a breeze for him. On Sunday, fans should know that -- after playing 28 holes on Friday and 26 holes on Saturday, all while fighting allergies -- Tiger is trying to record many firsts in addition to being the first man to win three straight Masters.
Nobody has ever won a green jacket after a first round worse than 75. Woods started with 76. Nobody has ever won here after needing to make a putt on the 36th hole just to make the cut.
And nobody has ever come from more than eight shots behind after 36 holes. Woods was 11 shots out of the lead entering the third round.
Frankly, few have had a chance to win after playing such crummy golf for the first 36 holes. Woods missed three-foot putts and drove the ball all over Georgia. Yet, in his 66, he produced his best complete round of the season and said, "I just hit solid shot after solid shot."
With Woods, everything is assumed to be magically easy. That's disgracefully unfair. He's coming back from offseason knee surgery. He lost 10 pounds after a bout of food poisoning at Bay Hill last month. Or course, since he won by a ridiculous 11 shots, everybody acted like nothing happened. But it's hard to gain back 10 pounds when it was all muscle.
If Tiger wins on Sunday, completing what would be the greatest final-36-hole comeback in Masters history, please promise one thing. Just don't say, "Well, what did you expect?" . . .
The psychology of being behind Tiger and being ahead of him is utterly different. When Woods is ahead, pros think, "How can I catch him? He's better than me." But, with a lead, they think, "Sure, he's better. But my lead makes the match even. I've got a real chance."
For one day, ( even without a lead, could a Maggert, Weir) Singh, Olazabal, Mickelson or Toms, all going for broke, beat Tiger? Woods knows they could.
Ironically, nobody respects the difficulty of golf -- especially Sunday at a major -- more than Woods. No matter how confident he is, he never deludes himself that he doesn't need a little luck and a break here or there on those weeks -- like this one -- when his "A" game is far, far away. . . .
When Woods has the lead, he has two huge edges -- his superior ability and his superior mind. He knows when to be conservative, even if it costs him a shot off his lead. When he's behind, especially as the remaining holes dwindle, his strategic advantage disappears. He just has to fire at diabolical pin positions, just like everybody else, and hope or the best.
"I don't know if people really understand where they have put a lot of these flags," Woods said. "They are closer to the edges of the green and [to the] trouble than ever. . . . There is a price to pay if you do miss it only by a yard off. That's all it takes here. I hit a shot on number one that was one yard left of the flag and I ended up almost in the gallery. And that's what Augusta can do if you miss just one yard. That's all it takes."
That's why Tiger loves leads. And isn't so fond of the got-to-go-for-it tactics that turn him into just another gambler. Woods never fools with that last dastardly yard of a margin of error, if he can help it. He's no foolhardy Greg Norman who never learned his limits. But Sunday, he may have no choice."
---------- ---------- ----------
Here we go again, for what seems the umpteenth time, waiting to see if someone can figure out a way down the stretch to deny Tiger something when it is within his grasp and he wants it the most. For the good of the game, mind you, for the good of the game.
GL
Rose(+120) over Clarke (Tournament) @ Olympic
Howell(-140) over Garcia (Tournament) @ Olympic
Love(-135) over Goosen @ 5dimes
Byrd(+100) over Mattiace (Tie loses) @ Bet365
GL
---------- ---------- ----------
Thomas Boswell (Washington Post):
SATURDAY (4/12/03):
"When you have star power like Tiger's, everything is theater, every failure merely a preamble to a more glorious redemption. For example, on his first hole of the (tournament), Woods made a bogey that may be remembered more than any other shot this day. He missed the green in regulation. He chipped horribly all the way across, and off, the other side of the green into a deep swale. His next pitch was worse, rolling back almost to his feet. If he pitched up and two-putted, as most would, he faced a triple bogey.
"I'd had so much practice pitching [on the hole already], I figured, 'I'll just pitch it in.' " So, on a shot almost identical to the one he'd just flubbed, Woods knocked the ball in the hole from 35 feet.
You can't gain charisma at the Woods or Jordan level by practice or pluck. You can't switch club makers or use a ball with hexagonal dimples and stumble into it. Star quality drips off you. It attaches itself to every mood. Woods wasn't just down in the dumps during the hideously slow six-hour first round; he was gloriously, magnificently down in the dumps. You saw him and said, "Look, Tiger is down in the dumps. Have you ever seen a genius so frustrated, an artist so off his feed? Won't it be something when, before this miserable day in a glorified Georgia hog pound is finished, he will do all sorts of wonderful things and end up pumping his fist?"
Most of all, it doesn't seem you can acquire what Woods has between his ears from a sports psychologist. The three players ranked behind him in the world all have them. Little good it did Erne Els or Davis Love III, who opened with 79 and 77, respectively.
How can you have star power -- or compete against it -- if everybody knows your inner secrets? Els discusses how his golf shrink helps him get rid of "a little man" who often sits on his shoulder and prompts him to take silly gambles or suddenly lose confidence. Phil Mickelson has unveiled his 117th "new mental attitude" this week, which appears to involve avoiding mention of Woods's name, whom he refers to repeatedly as "another individual." . . .
Here at the Masters, everybody listens to everybody and watches everybody else. Especially if that somebody is Tiger. Player after top player, even major champions, talks about how to "ignore him" or cope with him or "take your game to another level" to beat him.
Woods never talks about them, never watches their scores or cares what they think. Whether eight strokes behind or eight ahead, his eye is always on the prize. And so, our eyes are always on him."
SUNDAY (4/13/03):
"Many will look at this Masters leader board -- and at Woods's heroics in climbing from 42nd to fifth place with a third-round 66 -- and assume that Tiger's hard work is almost done.
That's not how golf works.
Woods has led or been tied for the lead in eight majors. His jaw-dropping leads were 10, nine, six, four and (twice) one shot. Twice, he was tied for the lead. He's won all eight of those majors, three of which were right here, including the past two.
Tiger has tried to come from behind in 16 other majors and he's 0 for 16. A couple of charges, similar to what he'll need here, have failed at the wire.
Woods has been so great so young that, often, he doesn't get full credit for what he accomplishes, as though, somehow, it was a breeze for him. On Sunday, fans should know that -- after playing 28 holes on Friday and 26 holes on Saturday, all while fighting allergies -- Tiger is trying to record many firsts in addition to being the first man to win three straight Masters.
Nobody has ever won a green jacket after a first round worse than 75. Woods started with 76. Nobody has ever won here after needing to make a putt on the 36th hole just to make the cut.
And nobody has ever come from more than eight shots behind after 36 holes. Woods was 11 shots out of the lead entering the third round.
Frankly, few have had a chance to win after playing such crummy golf for the first 36 holes. Woods missed three-foot putts and drove the ball all over Georgia. Yet, in his 66, he produced his best complete round of the season and said, "I just hit solid shot after solid shot."
With Woods, everything is assumed to be magically easy. That's disgracefully unfair. He's coming back from offseason knee surgery. He lost 10 pounds after a bout of food poisoning at Bay Hill last month. Or course, since he won by a ridiculous 11 shots, everybody acted like nothing happened. But it's hard to gain back 10 pounds when it was all muscle.
If Tiger wins on Sunday, completing what would be the greatest final-36-hole comeback in Masters history, please promise one thing. Just don't say, "Well, what did you expect?" . . .
The psychology of being behind Tiger and being ahead of him is utterly different. When Woods is ahead, pros think, "How can I catch him? He's better than me." But, with a lead, they think, "Sure, he's better. But my lead makes the match even. I've got a real chance."
For one day, ( even without a lead, could a Maggert, Weir) Singh, Olazabal, Mickelson or Toms, all going for broke, beat Tiger? Woods knows they could.
Ironically, nobody respects the difficulty of golf -- especially Sunday at a major -- more than Woods. No matter how confident he is, he never deludes himself that he doesn't need a little luck and a break here or there on those weeks -- like this one -- when his "A" game is far, far away. . . .
When Woods has the lead, he has two huge edges -- his superior ability and his superior mind. He knows when to be conservative, even if it costs him a shot off his lead. When he's behind, especially as the remaining holes dwindle, his strategic advantage disappears. He just has to fire at diabolical pin positions, just like everybody else, and hope or the best.
"I don't know if people really understand where they have put a lot of these flags," Woods said. "They are closer to the edges of the green and [to the] trouble than ever. . . . There is a price to pay if you do miss it only by a yard off. That's all it takes here. I hit a shot on number one that was one yard left of the flag and I ended up almost in the gallery. And that's what Augusta can do if you miss just one yard. That's all it takes."
That's why Tiger loves leads. And isn't so fond of the got-to-go-for-it tactics that turn him into just another gambler. Woods never fools with that last dastardly yard of a margin of error, if he can help it. He's no foolhardy Greg Norman who never learned his limits. But Sunday, he may have no choice."
---------- ---------- ----------
Here we go again, for what seems the umpteenth time, waiting to see if someone can figure out a way down the stretch to deny Tiger something when it is within his grasp and he wants it the most. For the good of the game, mind you, for the good of the game.
GL
