TOUR Insider: Woods-Mickelson shootout unlikely
The rivalry between the game's top two players seldom surfaces in the majors, says Dave Shedloski. Also, he notes, the best putter doesn't always win, but handling the par 5s is absolutely crucial at ever-fresh Augusta.
By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- She is either a goddess or goblin, but she is most certainly always green. Augusta National Golf Club sings a siren song each spring that lulls the best golfers in the world into an amorous stupor. But everyone knows that there is a sinister side to Augusta National, one that is omnipresent yet not always so obvious.
How sinister no one will fully know until the first shot of the 73rd Masters is fired on Thursday morning. On Monday, the 7,445-yard layout was rather soft and docile even as the breeze danced through the pines and azaleas. Of course, the breeze may be dancing more briskly through the trees this year.
After several years of significant renovations, the tournament course is much the same as it was at the end of the 2006 edition won by Phil Mickelson. But something always changes here, and this year it is the spirits in the pines, pushing them out into the playing areas. This is no joke.
Seems that the club caretakers undertook a tree-pruning program in the off-season. They foraged through the foliage and chopped off limbs on the insides of the towering pines. The effect of such a move was to get the trees leaning, if ever so slightly, into the playing corridors. Accuracy off the tee became just a little more important.
"I was here last week and Stewart Cink pointed it out to me," said Steve Stricker, back at the Masters for the first time since 2002. "No. 13 [the par 5] is amazing. I think they had the big hitters in mind who might try to cut the corner because there is a big tree that is just shaved along one side and the tree is leaning into the corner."
It is those little touches that make the Masters ever fresh amid its traditions and continually bring new playing dynamics to the only major played annually on the same course.
Worth Knowing:
Don't bet on a showdown between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods this week. They may have won the last three Masters Tournaments -- Mickelson in 2006 and ?04, Woods in 2005 -- but their rivalry has rarely surfaced in a major championship. Only once have they finished 1-2 in a major, when Woods won the 2002 U.S. Open and Mickelson was second three strokes behind.
A common misconception is that the best putter usually wins the Masters -- or maybe it's that we always think of the best putter as the guy with the fewest putts. It's hard to argue that Mickelson and Woods haven't putted well in taking the last three titles, but what might be more notable is that they led the field in greens in regulation during their respective victories.
Par-5 performance seems to be a huge factor, too. Mickelson was 13 under par combined on the par 5s in '06. Woods, in beating Chris Dimarco in a playoff in '05, was 12 under par -- both best in the field that year.
Discounting the first Masters Tournament in 1934 -- which then wasn't even called the Masters, there have been only two players to win the Masters in their first attempt: Gene Sarazen and Fuzzy Zoeller. Eighteen men make their debuts this week, including U.S. Ryder Cup player J.J. Henry, who shot a 67 in a practice round at Augusta last week.
In more recent times there are three players who finished well in their Masters openers, who are in this week's field: Luke Donald (third in 2005), Rod Pampling (fifth in 2005) and Paul Casey (sixth in 2004).
Is Adam Scott, winner of the Shell Houston Open, a good pick this week? Well, no Aussie has won the Masters. And until last year, only seven men had won consecutive starts with the second of those being a major championship. Then in '06 Mickelson and Woods both pulled off the feat -- Mickelson at the BellSouth Classic and Masters, Woods at the Buick Open and PGA Championship. Interestingly, of the nine men, five pulled off the double at Augusta.
When Brett Wetterich finished second at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, he became the 50th different player worldwide to finish runner-up to Tiger Woods. Four have come at the Masters: Tom Kite, David Duval, Retief Goosen and DiMarco.
Sergio Garcia seeks his third straight top-10 finish of the '07 season at this week's Masters. He has not had three in a row since 2002 -- the year he finished in the top 10 in all four majors. His best Masters finish came in ?04, when he tied for fourth.
A recent two-hour instructional session with David Leadbetter may have put Darren Clarke back on track after a poor performance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Clarke, who was just two behind Mickelson going into the final round before a 77 dropped him to a 22nd place tie, says Leadbetter fixed a flaw in his setup and alignment. "Now I'm flushing the ball again," he told reporters.
Worst prediction of the week: Augusta native Charles Howell III will finish higher than he did a year ago. Howell, winner earlier this year of the Nissan Open, was last among players who completed 36 holes in the ?06 Masters with rounds of 84-80-164.
TI's power ranking for the Masters Tournament: 1. Tiger Woods, 2. Geoff Ogilvy, 3. Paul Casey, 4. Henrik Stenson, 5. Darren Clarke.