10 Things I Think

by Jeff Skinner

1.  Year after year Arnold Palmer proves he’s still the man.  Good to hear that Arnie was released from the hospital after a precautionary stay overnight due to some blood pressure issues.  We missed him on the eighteenth green on Sunday.

2.  I’ve had a hard time watching Ernie Els the past few weeks come excruciatingly close to earning his way into The Masters.  If it has been that tough for me I can’t imagine how The Big Easy feels.  Here’s hoping he wins the Shell Houston Open or the Masters Committee finally gives him a last minute reprieve.

3.  Yani Tseng just keeps winning and winning.  Here’s a question:  Who would you put your mortgage money on?  Yani to win the Kraft Nabisco or Tiger to win The Masters?  Yani looks unstoppable.

4.  It was kind of amazing to see the best golfer over the last two years (Yani) and the best golfer of this generation (Tiger) both win Sunday.  It could be a brilliant season for both of them.

5.  Not a bad weekend for Joe LaCava: he totes the bag for his current man and wins with Tiger at Bay Hill and his old bag, Fred Couples takes the Champions Tour event.  Joey carries some good mojo along with that bag.

6.  If you thought Tiger was getting too much hype before Bay Hill you haven’t seen nothing yet.  Tiger, The Masters, Hank’s book and The Tiger/Rory/Phil rivalry will dominate any golf discussion for awhile to come.

7.  Thank God NBC continues to show the FedEx Cup points standing.  As soon as Tiger won at Bay Hill my first thought was “where does Tiger stand in the FedEx Cup points race?”  NBC was on the spot with the tote board, enough already.

8.  I don’t know what came to pass for Larry Dorman to leave the New York Times but  the Times loss is our gain.  The Times is a great read but its commitment to golf was lukewarm at best.  With Dorman at his new home of PGA Tour.com we get more Dorman on a regular basis.  That surely is a good thing.

9.  Hank Haney is busy making the rounds promoting his book The Big Miss and he has been everywhere lately.  Hank has always seemed like an insightful and thorough instructor but he may have crossed the line here.  During his time with Tiger he called Tiger his friend.  Somehow I don’t think writing an insider’s tale of your relationship is what a friend does.

10.  The countdown to The Masters is almost as exciting as the tournament itself.  And this weekend I kicked off my countdown with the Masters Journal.  It’s the “Official Program of The Masters Tournament” and the best nine bucks you’ll spend on golf this year.  Barnes and Noble has them along with other book stores or click here for the link to Masters.com.