Thoughts from the Masters last week

Man, I was really disappointed at how the Masters turned out this year. Tiger never really could get it going in any of the first 3 rounds.

See highlights below. At the beginning of the final round on Sunday, it seemed like it might be one of the greatest final rounds in history. Phil Mickelson shot a 6-under 30 on the front nine and came back from -4, 7 shots back, to within one of the lead. His front nine included a wonderful shot on #7 where he had to hook his approach and almost holed out for eagle (about 4:20 on the video).



But it came apart for Phil when he splashed his tee shot on #12. After Tiger and Phil were out of it, I was then rooting for Keny Perry to win and become the oldest major champion ever. But, holding a two shot lead after his birdie on 16, he bogeyed 17 and 18 to fall into the playoff with Cabrera and Campbell. So Cabrera ended up surviving, sucking less than the others to win. He was probably the one guy I was least rooting for to win. Wasn't as bad as Phil and Monty's collapse at the '06 US Open, but a similar let-down.

I guess Tiger's knee is feeling OK

In a post a couple of months ago (link here), I included an imbedded clip (second clip) showing Tiger Woods making a long birdie on the last hole of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill to win over Bart Bryant by a single shot. It was a dramatic shot, complete with full on Tiger hat-slamming celebration mode.

Well, last night Tiger showed he has fully returned and is ready to once again pwn the rest of the golf world. At Bay Hill to defend his title, he started the final round trailing Shawn O'Hair by 5 shots. He did not finish that way.

Tied with O'Hair at -4 coming the the last hole, in fading light due to an earlier rain delay, he needed to make a 15-16 ft putt to avoid having to come back the next day for a playoff. See below for the results. Click on the little "HD" in lower right to see it in HD.