Tiger Wins the Masters…again.

Years ago, watching golf was generally a boring affair. But watching Tiger in the final round of a major is anything but. Tiger’s rounds at Augusta were sprinkled with shots that looked both brilliant at some points and like a weekend hacker at others. The difference, of course, is that Tiger Woods can recover on a high percentage of those occasions and make it look easy. Case in point: his shot on the sixteenth hole will be replayed for years to come. Here’s why: It’s the last round of the Masters, and Tiger is just a one stroke ahead of Chris DeMarco on hole number 16. Tiger’s second shot landed him in a bunker, and the shot out of the bunker put him in the fringe…easily twenty yards from the hole. The green on that hole had punished players for the entire tournament. Drop a ball close to the hole and it would reward with a favorable roll. However, miss the small window of opportunity and your ball rolls downhill and away, far enough to bring out a wedge! Tiger sizes up the hole, and pitches about 15 yards away and above the hole. The ball proceeded to roll down toward the cup, slowed, stopped at the lip, hesitated, thought about it for a second, and seeming said, “What the hell!” before finally dropping in for a birdie. In short, it was arguably one of the most amazing shots of the day—not counting Mike Weir’s whole in one, of course. Only by winning the tournament would the shot retain its proper significance. And given the statistics run by CBS—Tiger is 54-0 when leading in the final round of a tournament—there was no way Tiger would lose. Chris DeMarco sure made it interesting, though. He had several opportunities to “put it away,” but the Golf Gods kept messing with him. Just another walk in the park for Tiger. Another Green jacket. Number four, in fact. Nice job, Mr. Woods. Nice job, indeed.

Peace,
+THINKER