Inside The Ropes: Woods enters Masters as heavy favorite

Inside The Ropes: Woods enters Masters as heavy favorite










Tom LaMarre, The Sports Xchange April 8, 2013 2:20 AMThe SportsXchange


Bookies from Las Vegas to London have made Tiger Woods a prohibitive favorite to win the Masters this week.


Of course, Woods has had almost everything to do with it, winning three times already this season and six times in 20 PGA Tour events dating to the 2011 Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he broke a three-year-losing streak.

Perhaps the primary factors have been Woods, once again No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings, being the healthiest he has been in several years and getting a putting tip fromSteve Stricker before the WGC-Cadillac Championship.

"If I get healthy, I know I can play this game at a high level," Woods said of his mind-set the last few years. "I know I can be where I'm contending in every event, contending in major championships and being consistent day in and day out, if I got healthy. That was the first step in the process. Once I got there, then my game turned.

" ... The three events that I've won, I've putted well. Stricks helped me out there at Doral and got me into position where I felt like I was now putting like I did at Torrey (while winning the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year)."

This is the third season in which Woods has gone to Augusta National with three victories in hand, and it must be pointed out that when that happened in 2000, 2003 and 2008, he came away without the Green Jacket.

In 2000, he finished fifth, but then claimed the last three majors of the year in one of the greatest seasons of all-time.

In 2003, he tied for 15th while trying to become the first player to capture three consecutive Masters and came up empty-handed in the Grand Slam tournaments that year.

In 2008, he finished second behind Trevor Immelman, but two months later claimed his 14th major title in an epic 19-hole playoff against Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines, another course on which he has won eight times.

While he has won the Masters four times, Tiger hasn't done it since 2005, even though he finished no worse than sixth in six consecutive tries before tying for 40th last year.

Woods has won his last two tournaments ahead of the Masters, the Cadillac and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and the last time he did that, in 2001, Tiger was wearing green over his red shirt on Sunday night.

"Any time I can win prior to Augusta, it always feels good," Woods said after winning for the eighth time at Bay Hill last month to claim his 77th PGA Tour victory, five short of Sam Snead's record.

If and when Woods claims his 15th major title, the talk about him catching Jack Nicklaus at 18 will heat up again.

Not that it has every really died down, pro or con.

"I still think he'll break my record," Nicklaus said last month at the Honda Classic. "Tiger's talent, at 37 ... it's not that old. I won four after that. They were spread out. It wasn't that difficult.

"I don't think for Tiger to get four or five more, or six or seven, is that big a stretch."

Notah Begay, Woods' good friend and former Stanford teammate who is a commentator for the Golf Channel, said recently that Tiger is feeling so good that he is thinking more along the lines of 20 major titles.

And Woods himself told ESPN over the weekend that he doesn't want to finish with 18.

"I don't want four," he said in an interview with Mike Tirico. "More than that. Four gets me to 18. I don't want a tie."

That Woods is such an overwhelming favorite this week also has much to do with the fact that Rory McIlroy did not play well this season until finishing second last week in the Valero Texas Open after leaving Titleist for Nike, allowing Woods to take the No. 1 ranking from him.

That's made it easy to forget that McIlroy won the last major, the PGA Championship, by a record eight strokes in a Tiger-like performance last August at Kiawah Island to match Woods with two Grand Slam titles by the age of 23.

In addition, three-time Masters winner Phil Mickelson has run hot-and-cold this season, although Phil the Thrill always seems to find another gear simply by driving down Magnolia Lane.

Beyond that formidable threesome, defending champion Bubba Watson, who beat Louis Oosthuizen with a hook shot for the ages from the trees on the second playoff hole, leads a deep list of challengers.

Among those who have to be mentioned as contenders this week include the Fab Four of Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter, all trying to become the first Englishman to claim a major title since Nick Faldo won the Masters in 1996, thanks to Greg Norman's final-round collapse.

Also on what is not actually a short list are Oosthuizen, Stricker, Ernie Els, Dustin Johnson, Keegan Bradley, Charl Schwartzel, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar, Steve Stricker, Webb Simpson, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell, Hunter Mahan and Brandt Snedeker, the best player anywhere for the first two months of the season until being slowed by a rib injury.

The field is so deep that we probably missed a few.

"Obviously, (Woods has) got to be the favorite going in there," 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir said recently. "He's shown signs of (the Woods of old), especially his short game. That's the aspect of your game you have to have around there. I don't care how good you hit the ball, you have to putt well there.

"It's such an open tournament now, there's so many great players in the world, and the separation between everybody is so close. Even though, as well as Tiger's played this year, I think he knows that there are so many players with power now."

For those inclined to make a wager, the prudent play would seem to be not to bet the house on Woods, but not to bet against him, either.





COMING UP

PGA TOUR: The 77th Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., Thursday through Sunday.

TV: Thursday and Friday, 3-7:30 p.m. EDT on ESPN; Saturday, 3-7 p.m. EDT on CBS, and Sunday, 2-7 p.m. EDT on CBS.

LAST YEAR: Bubba Watson hit a brilliant 40-yard hook shot off the pine straw in the right trees to within 12 feet of the flag to set up a par on the second playoff hole and defeat Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa. Watson got into the playoff by carding four consecutive birdies through No. 16 while closing with a 4-under-par 68. Ooosthuizen took the lead with an electrifying double-eagle 2 on the second hole, holing out a 4-iron shot from 253 yards on his way to a final-round 69 that included birdies on the 13th and 15th holes. It was the fourth double eagle in 76-year history of the Masters, and Louie was trying to join Gene Sarazen (1935 Masters) as the only players to claim a men's major title with the help of an albatross in the final round. Oosthuizen, who captured the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews, hit his approach short on the second extra hole, chipped poorly and missed his 10-foot putt for par.



CHAMPIONS TOUR: Greater Gwinnett Championship at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Ga., April 19-21.

TV: Friday, 12:30-2:30 p.m. EDT; Saturday and Sunday, 3-6 p.m. EDT, on the Golf Channel each day.

LAST YEAR: Inaugural event.



LPGA TOUR: LPGA Lotte Championship at Ko Olina Golf Club in Kapolei, Oahu, Hawaii, April 17-20.

TV: Thursday, 6:30-11 p.m. EDT, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 6:30-9:30 p.m. EDT, on the Golf Channel each day.

LAST YEAR: Ai Miyazato of Japan captured the inaugural event last year by shooting 7-under-par 65 in the second round and on her way to a four-stroke victory over Azahara Munoz of Spain and Meena Lee of South Korea. The 27-year-old Miyazato claimed her eighth title on the LPGA Tour after winning 15 times on the Japan Ladies PGA Tour and added the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship later in the year, giving her 25 career victories. Miyazato took a three-stroke lead into the final round, but Lee caught her with a birdie on the 15th hole. Playing in the final group, Miyazato regained the lead with a 20-foot birdie putt from the fringe at No. 15, saved par from 15 feet on No. 16 and rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on No. 17 while closing with a one-under-par 70. Lee hit her approach on the final hole into a greenside bunker and three-putted from 30 feet for a double-bogey 6 and also shot 70.

Golf notebook: New college golf award named after Annika Sorenstam

Golf notebook: New college golf award named after Annika Sorenstam










Tom LaMarre, The Sports Xchange April 8, 2013 2:21 AMThe SportsXchange


The Haskins Commission and the Annika Foundation announced that the top player in NCAA Division I women's golf will receive the Annika Award beginning next year.


The new award is named for Annika Sorenstam, who was an All-American at the University of Arizona before going on to an LPGA Tour career that put her in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

"I'm thrilled to be able to have my name on this," Sorenstam said.

Winners of the Annika Award will receive an exemption into the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first LPGA Tour major of the season.

The Haskins Commission has presented the Haskins Award to the top male college golfer for 41 years. That award honors the memory of Fred Haskins, a teaching pro devoted to amateur golf.

In addition, Sorenstam announced plans to team with Golfweek magazine and host a women's college tournament that will begin play next year in the Orlando, Fla., area, where she lives.

"College golf meant a lot to me and helped get my career going in the right direction, and my foundation provides playing opportunities globally to juniors who are passionate about the game," said the most famous and accomplished Swedish golfer.

"Therefore, creating a first-class invitational tournament for the best women's teams to kick off the college golf season is a natural progression."

Sorenstam won seven titles while at Arizona, including the NCAA championship as a freshman in 1991, when she shared NCAA Player of the Year honors with Kelly Robbins of Tulsa.

--Teen sensation Lydia Ko was playing in her first Kraft Nabisco Championship last week, so perhaps her family figured she needed a little extra protection to deal with the crowds.

So the Ko family hired a new caddie, Patrick Boyd, who is a residential and commercial security expert for his family's security company, Boyd and Associations of Los Angeles.

"He told me he is the best caddie," the 15-year-old Ko joked.

Actually, Boyd caddied on the LPGA, PGA and Korean tours before joining the family security business.

Boyd was hired by the Ko family through Bobea Park, family friend and a former LPGA Tour pro for whom Boyd once caddied. Park knows the Ko family.

"She's got a fantastic attitude and she's so comfortable," Boyd said. "This is a big event; this is the Kraft Nabisco, a major. It doesn't even faze her. She is so comfortable being here."

Ko, the top-ranked amateur in the world, last year became the youngest golfer to win a professional event when she captured the Women's New South Wales Open, and later in the year became the youngest to win an LPGA Tour event when she claimed the Women's CN Canadian Open title.

She finished in a tie for 25th in the Kraft Nabisco.

--Hideki Matsuyama, the top-ranked amateur in Japan, won't be playing in the Masters for the third consecutive time this week, but the next time he makes it to Augusta National it will be as a professional.

The 21-year-old Matsuyama announced that he will make his professional debut on April 18-21 in the Token Homemate Cup, a Japan Golf Tour event, at Token Tado Country Club in Nagoya.

"I had many top-10 finishes last year in professional competitions, and this gave me the confidence that I can make it," said Matsuyama, who captured the Asian Amateur Championship 2010 and 2011.

"I want to become a player who can win around the world."

Matsuyama tied for 27th to earn low amateur honors in the 2011 Masters and returned last year to finish in a tie for 54th.

In 2011, he became the third amateur to win on the Japan Golf Tour when he captured the Taiheiyo Masters.

Even though he will miss the Masters, Matsuyama will play in his third major this year, the 142nd Open Championship at Muirfeld, Scotland, in July having earned a spot in the field in Asian qualifying last month.

--Marcel Siem of Germany thought for a while that his victory in the Troph'ee Hassan II on the European Tour two weeks ago might get him into the Masters for the first time.

Instead, he had to settle for a consolation prize, a sponsors exemption into the Valero Texas Open last week, which gave him one more longshot chance to make it to Augusta National this year.

"It's been my dream since I was a kid, so if that comes true it will be unbelievable," Siem said after winning in Morocco. "It would be wonderful to play the Masters.

"I just want to be on that ground. I'm not going to cry, but it would be very emotional. I remember as a kid watching Bernhard Langer (also of Germany) winning it. I also loved Greg Norman and remember how unlucky he was there."

Siem, who was No. 72 in the World Golf Rankings before his third victory on the European Tour, was projected at 49th after winning, with the top 50 earning spots in the first major of the year.

However, he had to wait until the Shell Houston Open finished several hours later in the United States to see if he would hold a spot in the top 50.

Henrik Stenson of Sweden tied for second in Houston and vaulted 11 spots to No. 42, and Russell Henley closed with a 4-under-par 68 finish in a tie for 45th that left in at No. 50, 0.3 points ahead of Siem.

Henley, a rookie on the PGA Tour, already had qualified for the Masters by winning the Sony Open in Hawaii earlier in the season.

That left Siem with the slim chance to win in San Antonio to qualify for the Masters, and after making the long flight from Morocco, he stumbled to a 4-over-par 76 in the first round of TPC.

However, Siem made a strong run from there by shooting 67-69-69, and was within one stroke of the lead before a triple-bogey 7 on the 12th hole of the final round and he wound up in a tie for 10th.

--Asia is the fastest growing golf market in the world and Jeev Milkha Singh of India believes that growth is being stunted by the feud between the two primary golf tours in the region.

For the second time this year, the rival tours went head-to-head two weeks ago, when Scott Hend of Australia captured the Asian Tour's inaugural Chiangmai Golf Classic in Thailand, while Choi Ho-sung of South Korea won the Indonesia PGA Championship on the OneAsia circuit.

"I just hope that compromise takes place for the betterment of the game in the region," said Singh, who twice has finished the season as the No. 1-ranked golfer in Asia and last week was No. 111 in the World Golf Rankings.

"Because Asia is the market, I just feel that this is where golf is going to grow and get really big. Asian Tour has been there for so many years. OneAsia just started. So the loyalty obviously stays with the Asian Tour. Asian Tour has given us a lot.

"Our job as players is to go out and make the most of it by playing."

Despite his loyalties to the Asian Tour, on which he has claimed six victories, Singh said he hoped both sides would work toward a truce.

The 41-year-old Singh has claimed 21 titles in his professional career, including four on the European Tour, has played in 13 majors and posted his best finish by tying for ninth in the 2008 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills.

Singh attended Abilene Christian University in Texas and captured the NCAA Division II individual title in 1993.

--Phil Mickelson had two drivers in his bag when he won the 2006 Masters and has done the same at other times in his career, but this is a first for Jim Furyk.

Furyk used two drivers, the 9.5-degree and 10.5-degree versions of the Callaway RAZR Fit driver, in the first round of the Valero Texas Open last week and plans to take both to Augusta National.

"At my length, there are a few holes that pose an issue for me at Augusta," said Furyk, who claimed his only major championship in the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields.

"There are a few drives that have always been a thorn in my side at that course, and in the back of my mind I've always been trying to figure out a way."

Furyk used the 9.5-degree driver only once in round one at TPC San Antonio, and "hit it awful," as it went way left. But that doesn't mean he has given up on the club.

Because he also was struggling on the range with the club, Furyk said he would "retool" the 9.5-degree club on the range and reevaluate. He said he definitely will have both clubs in his bag for practice rounds this week at Augusta before making a final decision about whether he will use both in the tournament.

"Right now, I'm not sure that I'm flying it that much further," said Furyk, who tied for third in San Antonio. "But when the 9.5 hits, it's got a lot more chase. The goal would be, if I could carry it farther, that would be good for Augusta."

Furyk said he could potentially use the 9.5-degree driver on the third hole at Augusta to cover the bunkers if the hole location is in the back; on the eighth, to go for the green in two if it is playing downwind; at the ninth, to give him more chase down the hill; at the 14th, to possibly get over the hill in the fairway, and at No. 15, to give himself a chance to reach the green in two.

And, most notably, the par-4 17th, which has always given him trouble.

"I hit that (Eisenhower) tree at least twice every year," Furyk said. "Right now I want to find something that I can airmail that thing with."

With two drivers in his bag, Furyk would play with three wedges rather than his customary four, because he usually doesn't hit as many wedge shots at Augusta.

Tiger Woods vs. Jack Nicklaus: 'The Golden Bear' Still the Best

Tiger Woods vs. Jack Nicklaus: 'The Golden Bear' Still the Best
But a Masters Win for a Surging Tiger Could Tip the Balance











Mark McLaughlin April 8, 2013 12:02 PM




COMMENTARY | We're just days away from the Masters and the resumption of Tiger Woods' historic chase of Jack Nicklaus and his 18 major championships.




As I wrote earlier this week, Tiger looks primed to capture his first green jacket since 2005. A win would reignite the greatest ever debate, so let's take a look at where they stand today.

Nicklaus played against better competition

Don't get me wrong, there is much more overall talent in the global game today and Tiger has mostly owned that competition. But the Golden Bear won his majors in classic duels with a higher quality group of peers spanning two generations: Gary Player (nine majors), Arnold Palmer (seven) and Lee Trevino (six) in the 1960s and early 1970s, and then Tom Watson (eight majors) in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Other than a rare Sunday showdown with Phil Mickelson at Bethpage Black at the 2002 U.S. Open, Tiger out-dueled the likes of Bob May and Chris DiMarco in his few major victories that were close. It's not Tiger's fault that he peaked with Greg Norman and Nick Faldo on the downside of their careers and with David Duval burning out too soon, but he didn't have to beat the same caliber of players as Nicklaus did.

Tiger has been more dominant

Nicklaus took 25 seasons to accrue 73 PGA Tour victories. Tiger passed Jack last year in his 16th full season and with 77 wins; he's closing on Sam Snead's all-time record of 82. At his current pace, Tiger will post more than 100 victories.

And Woods has been without peer from the moment he turned pro. He took down veteran Davis Love III in a playoff to claim his first PGA Tour victory in 1996 and has never looked back. He won his first major, the 1997 Masters, by 12 strokes and the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15 strokes. That second win ushered in the Tiger Slam, where he won four straight majors over the course of two calendar years.

Nicklaus could win from behind

Probably the most famous comeback in the modern game was Jack's final-round 65 to win the 1986 Masters. The Golden Bear lit up the back nine at Augusta National to fell a veritable who's who of the game, including Norman, Tom Kite and Seve Ballesteros. That win came 11 years after he came from two shots behind at Augusta to vanquish Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller.

Nicklaus won seven of his 18 majors coming from behind, which for golf fans creates more drama and entertainment than seeing Tiger suffocate the field. Even in his losses, especially against Watson at Turnberry in 1977 and Pebble Beach in 1982, Jack made things memorable.

Tiger has done more for the game

This one could go either way as Nicklaus, between his course design work, Ryder Cup and President's Cup captaincy, hosting the Memorial Tournament, and all the charity work he has done in Ohio and Florida, has been a wonderful asset to golf.

But Tiger has changed the demographics of the sport. He made golf cool, caused prize money to balloon, and has attracted the largest galleries ever to watch the game. The First Tee, which he was instrumental in creating, has transformed the lives of thousands of kids through golf. He also attaches his name and charitable giving might to two tournaments annually: the AT&T National and the Chevron World Challenge.

Nicklaus has better kept golf in perspective

Tiger's single-minded pursuit of winning is not entirely his fault; he was trained from an early age by father Earl Woods to be the terminator of golf. I've rarely, if ever, heard Tiger say he plays golf because it's fun. That attitude has rubbed some in the game the wrong way.

At the end of the day, golf is still just a game. The sport was vitally important to Nicklaus; it was his livelihood that supported a family. But he never let it get in the way of that family. In fact, he's expanded his social circle through the game, having grown close to Palmer, Miller, Player and Watson.

I believe Nicklaus possessed more natural talent than Tiger, but that Woods maintains a more powerful on-course aura. Jack stepped up in the heat of battle while Tiger has been more consistently excellent. It's a near dead heat, but, for now, I've got to go with the Golden Bear.

Mark McLaughlin has reported on the PGA Tour for the New York Post, FoxSports.com, Greensboro News & Record, and Burlington (N.C.) Times-News. He is a past member of the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association. Follow him on Twitter @markmacduke.