2015 Masters Discussion Thread

[Rick Martin]

Yep: fantasy, is right: pretty hypocritical, a bunch of lounge lizards, still mad that a black guy kicked their butts for years: he's, still, pretty darned good, Tiger:)

where did race come in on all of this?

[luu5]

The competition in '97 also wasn't as strong as it was in '15. For crying out loud, an old Tom Kite was runner-up. So yes, it appears it was more dominant, but I think side-by-side, the performances were very similar.

Tom Kite was not that old in '97, only 3 years older than Phil at the moment. Other than that, I do not comment.

[Rynrem]

After the celebration with family, Jordan's dad told him to go back out there and give the patrons a thank you round of applause. That's raising a youngin' up right...right there. Then, as he walked toward the scorers room, did you see his mom get a little chippy with him? I think she said, Jordan, come on you have to sign your scorecard"...or something to that effect. That just made me realize that he is only 21 and as mature as he seems, mamma still sees him as her little boy and feels she needs to be heavily involved in his life. Just 4 years ago he was still in High School...wow....congrats Jordan!

[RH31]

There's no fun in letting facts get in the way now, c'mon. BTW, did you know Tiger is the only golfer who has ever cursed on the golf course?

You forgot to mention he's the only club slamming turf digger too

[Ferguson]

The Masters was fantastic yet again. Just a wonderful venue for golf, corporate sponsors and warm hospitality. They really make visitors feel special.

[Patch]

One of the better Masters I have watched. Had everything a golf fan needed. Jordan Spieth did a great job over the 4 days, and will be a great representative of this major for the next 12 months.

[treebound]

Agreed, one tried to run away from the field and a few gave a good chase, almost anything could have happened in those final holes, especially when you saw a few of the places Spieth was hitting from. If it had been me on one of those shots I might have had a three branch ricochet followed up by a two tree trunk carrom to end up with a carded 8 on that hole, but somehow he got his ball past the branches and back into good position.

[CarlSpackler]

The Masters was fantastic yet again. Just a wonderful venue for golf, corporate sponsors and warm hospitality. They really make visitors feel special.

When I was there on Wednesday, I was amazed. I was expecting food prices to be outlandish, but the prices were more than reasonable. The bathrooms were constantly being cleaned by several volunteers and you were greeted warmly everywhere.

[saevel25]

Agreed, one tried to run away from the field and a few gave a good chase, almost anything could have happened in those final holes, especially when you saw a few of the places Spieth was hitting from.

I think this is were wisdom beyond his years really helped him out. When he got into trouble he didn't press the issue. He took the openings he got and got the ball back into play and use an amazing short game and putting to convert on some key pars saves.

His ball striking and putting were the keys to that victory. The guy hit 75% of the greens for the week, that is a very high percentage.

Rose hit 75% of the greens, but was only average on putting for the week.

Yea, if Rose or Rory putted better it would have been much tighter. Rory hit 74% of his greens, but putted poorly the final two rounds. He didn't take advantage of his better ball striking.

[nevets88]

[RussUK]

All in all a good tournament this year. Annoyed i forgot to put my bet on Speith!!

Some very good performances and also ammusing shots such as Tigers excellent drop kicked tee shot and the tee shot that ended up on the next fairway (makes me feel better!).

I think Augusta is a great leveller as the players you would expect to do well one year dont (Bubba is a good example).

Phil played very well so wouldnt put it passed him to complete the Grand Slam at the US open.

[newtogolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nevets88

I agree, Spieth seems to have built a great all around game.  I'd say his biggest (which isn't that big) weakness seems to be distance.   If he can add another 10 - 20 yards off the tee he's going to be tough to beat.

I read an interesting article on him in the WSJ, the writer gave Spieth tons of props but said that the experts don't think he can win a US Open yet;

Quote:

Spieth’s game might be a few years away from contention on a U.S. Open layout, with its legendary punishing rough. Spieth ran away here hitting 70% of Augusta’s sprawling fairways, tied for 20th. He had his share of misses far wide onto the playable pine straw. Hit those same shots at the U.S. Open and you’ll be fighting just to get back onto the fairway.

In the same paper was an article about how much tougher competition is today because the gap has narrowed between the best and worst athletes.  In the example, the author cites baseball, but I believe the science (evolutionary biology) behind it would apply to all sports.  So in that sense, what Jordan did this weekend is as great or greater than Tigers round in '97.

Quote:

Take Ted Williams, who in 1941 became the last hitter in Major League Baseball to bat over .400 in a season. As observed by the late evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, the straightforward reason no one has matched Williams in the past 60 years is that all players in baseball have since become uniformly more skilled—including pitchers. As best practices in training and recruitment spread, everyone has gotten better, and the difference between the performance of the worst player and the best one has narrowed. In statistical terms, as the performance of players has increased, the variance in their batting averages has shrunk, year after year.

[iacas]

So in that sense, what Jordan did this weekend is as great or greater than Tigers round in '97.

Why? By the final score? The fact that the gap was not 12 still speaks to that as well. The course played soft all week.

[Mr. Desmond]

You forgot to mention he's the only club slamming turf digger too

And he's the only golfer where tree roots jump out of the ground to applaud his shots ... that one jumped a bit early yesterday.

Apparently, wrist injuries are fairly common among golfers, whether it is roots or otherwise. I would see a couple on the Senior Tour wrapping their wrists before playing.

[CarlSpackler]

I think this is were wisdom beyond his years really helped him out. When he got into trouble he didn't press the issue. He took the openings he got and got the ball back into play and use an amazing short game and putting to convert on some key pars saves.

His ball striking and putting were the keys to that victory. The guy hit 75% of the greens for the week, that is a very high percentage.

Rose hit 75% of the greens, but was only average on putting for the week.

Yea, if Rose or Rory putted better it would have been much tighter. Rory hit 74% of his greens, but putted poorly the final two rounds. He didn't take advantage of his better ball striking.

Augusta is one of those courses where hitting a green doesn't guarantee a par. Part of the difference is that Speith's 75% left him below the hole more often. His short game is outstanding, but it has to be given his lack of distance (relatively). If he could gain 20 yards with his driver, he would be scary good as if he isn't already. I thought Rose was going to make a game of it, but just stagnated. If Rory would have done better on Thursday - Friday, he would have been right there. Speith just played great and consistent all week. He did make mistakes, but he quickly recovered. I stinks that he didn't par 18 and finish -19.

[saevel25]

Augusta is one of those courses where hitting a green doesn't guarantee a par. Part of the difference is that Speith's 75% left him below the hole more often. His short game is outstanding, but it has to be given his lack of distance (relatively). If he could gain 20 yards with his driver, he would be scary good as if he isn't already. I thought Rose was going to make a game of it, but just stagnated. If Rory would have done better on Thursday - Friday, he would have been right there. Speith just played great and consistent all week. He did make mistakes, but he quickly recovered. I stinks that he didn't par 18 and finish -19.

He's not going to gain 20 yards. He looks in good shape. I would not mess with his swing. I think he might be able to gain 5-10 more yards. I doubt he will be a player who consistently threatens 300 yards.

[nevets88]

[CarlSpackler]

He's not going to gain 20 yards. He looks in good shape. I would not mess with his swing. I think he might be able to gain 5-10 more yards. I doubt he will be a player who consistently threatens 300 yards.

I wouldn't mess with it either. I can certainly relate to needing a solid short game to compensate for lack of distance. I'm just saying that if he could get it out there a bit farther...