The second weekend of April is upon us and we are officially at the midpoint of the sneaky best stretch of sports for the year. The end of March through the first weekend of May is an onslaught of quality sporting entertainment - from March madness, to opening day baseball (I don't really watch but I do love the pageantry), to the biggest golf tournament of the year, then wrapping up with Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo boxing. Throw in a high quality UFC Card like 300 this Saturday and some offseason NFL buzz and we're cookin with gas. But for the purpose of this blog, let's focus on the little golf tournament that just teed off in Augusta, Georgia known as the Masters and have some fun looking at what's to come. Here are my top five story lines:
5) Akshay Bhatia - I have no idea who this guy really is, but I saw his swing and thought 'this dude will kill at Augusta.' He's a tall, lanky, rangey lefty and upon a quick Google search, I just saw he has six professional wins at the ripe old age of 22 - outstanding. He may need to talk to Producer Reese about his lifting routine, because weighing in at only 130 pounds (again according to Google) at over 6' tall is unacceptable (victim weight) but that could also help in his joint range of motion, of which he has a significant amount. Augusta National has a number of holes where left handed golfers who can hit the ball high with power (Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson) have a significant advantage since they can play a power fade/cut and get negative spin on the ball vs. a right handed golfer who would need to play a draw (think hole 13, guys like Bubba can go driver-wedge with that hard dog leg left). From 2003-2014, half (six) of the green jackets handed out were to left handed golfers when they make up a tiny percentage of the golf populous. Let's see what Akshay has in his first appearance!
4) The boys under the radar - the big names have gotten a lot of play coming into the week, from Scottie Scheffler, to Rory, to Brooks both going for their first green jacket, but I could see a couple of under the radar guys making runs this week, namely Jordan Spieth and Charl Schwartzel. Any particular reason why I like both of these guys this week? Not really - they've just both won here before and I feel like Jordan is due for a return to the top of the golf world after his meteoric rise in 2014-15. He doesn't necessarily have the explosive length/power that some of the other top guys have, but if he can get hot going into Saturday, this dude can putt with the best of em, and I'd take that over an extra 20 yards from the big bellied Spaniard John Rahm any day of the week (also very tough to repeat in anything). Charl Schwartzel just has a good name - and a steady swing, so I hope he plays well.
3) LIV guys - mostly Koepka: I still have no idea what happened with the supposed LIV-PGA merger that I and TI blogged back when Tavis was contributing to the site last year (RIP - we miss our guy), but there's clearly ongoing issues between the orgs. much to the delight of one Greg Norman. It would appear the champions dinner went off without a hitch on Monday night, but you know at the end of the tournament, there will be a graphic up somewhere of who scored best amongst LIV golfers, and with excellent talent on their roster and guys like Sergio, Patrick Reed, and Phil who know the course like few others, I expect a strong performance. Now we're getting word early this morning that Greg Norman has crashed the party like a normal gallery member?! It's fireworks in Augusta!
2) Scottie Scheffler's baby - The number 1 player in the world has a very pregnant wife who could very well go into labor during the tournament, to which he vowed to withdraw if that were the case. Koepka or Tiger would play through, but hey to each their own. Scottie is coming in hot and a betting favorite after winning the Player's four weeks back, and of course the 2022 champion. Dude is younger than me and seems like he's a 43 year old senior director at PwC with a solid investment portfolio - DOG on the course, an old school hoss type of build, loves talking about the lord, and loves hitting greens in regulation. Let's hope the child shows up next week and he gets to play a full tournament.
1) Tiger Woods - Who else could we be talking about other than the man in his late forties, the greatest golfer of them all, the man who knows every blade of grass at Augusta National, the founder of the Sunday Red brand, Eldrick himself. Tiger made headlines last week when it was no so unintentionally leaked that he was not having any sex in the lead up to this week, which for a man who appreciates the female race as much as this man must indeed come as no small feat. The man is locked in, but is that the best strategy for his personality/temperament?
Lots of fans encouraged by the no sex, which to many others I would say is a good thing, just not for this man, and the record shows it with some very simple stats:
Savage Tiger with a new Perkin's waitress girlfriend every other night from: 14 majors in 11 years (1997-2008), greatest golfer ever, could walk normally, was awesome.
Tiger trying to re-furbish his tarnished family man image: 1 major in 15 years (2009-2024), withdrawn from too many tournaments to count, sometimes struggles to walk, still awesome.
Tiger rejecting the opposite sex has a similar track record/reminds me a bit of when Manny Pacquiao found God around 2011/early 2012 - all well and good, but he eliminated any womanizing, gambling trips to Macau, rippin' cigs with his right hand man Buboy, etc. and then started losing fights and getting knocked out by a roided up Juan Manuel Marquez in December of that year. These top dogs need to just GO - that's who Tiger is at his core - golf android, and lover of Perkin's waitresses. As one present day supreme court justice might say - automatic (Kavanaugh voice).
Good for morale, good for sport, good for the world when Tiger is on the course. Pretty sure the only other start he had this year was his tournament at the Genesis in February at Riviera which I don't believe he made it through the second round. LA Open, Masters, and PGA Championship should be the only tournaments he plays going forward - maybe Bay Hill every other year, and maybe the Memorial once in a blue moon. US Open should be out unfortunately, as should the British - just not a realistic chance to properly contend on those style of courses at this point. But as he put it earlier this week - if it all comes together, the dude could still win one more at Augusta.
Should be a fun one, grab your Master's headband and make it a weekend!
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