Our Masters Countdown continues with ten days until Arnie, Jack and Gary start the proceedings with that memorable ceremonial tee shot.
There is only one more spot available in The Masters field and that is for the winner of this week’s Shell Houston Open, if that player hasn’t already qualified.
Four players can relax now as they have earned their places in the field with their finish within the top fifty of the Official World Golf Rankings. Paul Casey, Brendan Grace, Anirban Lahiri and Bernd Weisberger will all be making their way to Augusta National and good for them.
We still aren’t sure if Tiger Woods will be there but as Ron Green Jr. of Global Golf Post says this Masters isn’t about Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson for that matter.
From Green’s perspective it’s “about Rory McIlroy chasing the career Grand Slam…it’s about Bubba Watson…It’s about Dustin Johnson…It’s about Jordan Spieth….and it’s about Adam Scott.”
Green is right: unless the Golf Gods tap Tiger or Phil on their shoulder there will be no Miracle at The Masters for them.
To fill the time between now and that first tee shot I have two suggestions, the first one being an absolutely great read about the 1975 Masters.
Capps covers each of the main participants (and more) and gives us a clear picture of their lives up to and including that climatic week at Augusta National.
Even without the play by play of the tournament his book is well worth the time as the back-story on Nicklaus, Miller and Weiskoph is entertaining enough.
We all know Jack’s admiration for Bobby Jones and how his father Charlie had passed that on to him. And after Jones had watched Nicklaus play it was mutual, consider this from Capps: “Later that summer, it was on to the U.S Amateur (for Jack) at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs where Nicklaus drew none other than Robert T. Jones III (Bobby’s son) in his opening match. According to his son, once his father had discovered who he was playing, he changed his mind about coming out to Colorado to watch is offspring play only one match.” Bobby was right: Nicklaus cleaned the young Jones’ clock 7 & 6.
Capps tells us that Johnny Miller used a vintage set of clubs during his heyday and they were over twenty five years old. His irons were “Tommy Armour 915-T stainless steel irons made around the time of the second World War. …His 4-wood was an ivory-inserted Tommy Armour pre-World War II mode. His 3-wood was a 1948 Tommy Armour shallow faced. And his driver was a 1955 Tommy Armour Velocitized with 10.5 degrees of loft.”
Tom Weiskoph was supposed to be the next Jack Nicklaus, being from Ohio and following Nicklaus to Ohio State Weiskoph had all the talent but there were too many distractions he found along the way. One of the biggest reasons Weiskoph didn’t realize his massive potential was the man himself. “The frustrations with trying to make everything perfect, trying to be in control, trying to live up to his expectations and to those of others, boiled to the surface later in his career while drinking at a bar one evening. Sitting with Roger Maltbie and others, Weiskopf turned to them and stated: ‘I’m so sick of this. When I play golf, I’m trying to paint a beautiful portrait, and all these other guys are scribbling.’ It spawned another nickname that night: Rembrandt.”
Another way to keep yourself busy is to hit the MMO Golf website and get yourself some authentic Masters gear. The fine folks at MMO Golf do all the hard work getting to Augusta and offering us a ton of Masters stuff. It is our home for all things Masters and Augusta National and you don’t have to fork over major cash for a Masters ticket.
Remember, Masters merchandize is only sold on site at Augusta for that one week but MMO Golf makes it easy for us to kind of live the dream and revel in all things Masters. Click here and get that credit card ready. It’s our ticket to The Masters.
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