³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

Augusta, Wild Wing Café, about 2330 ET - The 73rd Masters, and my first, has drawn to a close and it felt right to dish out a few awards.

Favourite hole: The tee shot on 12 is fun but the green is too far away to connect with what's going on, so it has to be the short 16th. A beautiful hole with water, a treacherous green and patrons packed in tight. Honourable mention goes to the picturesque 10th, inviting a sumptuous raking drive with a touch of draw down the hill and around the corner.

Most surprising thing about the Masters: Some holes don't feel quite the same as you imagine them on TV, but that's to be expected. But I didn't realise it was quite as open in the middle, around the second and 7th greens and 8th tee. Also surprised that its location, off the non-descript America's-ville of Washington Road, didn't bother me more. Who cares what's outside?

Read the rest of this entry

Augusta National, Easter Sunday evening - Kenny Perry fought back the tears after seeing .

The 48-year-old Perry looked to have one arm in a Green Jacket with two holes to play but the Argentine proved once again that in sport you have to keep trying until you shake hands.

It's an apt motto, given that the man who coined it, Gary Player, retired from major championship golf at Augusta this week.

Read the rest of this entry

Augusta, practice putting green, Sunday afternoon - Putting is a funny old game.

As we all know, the just over there, just a few paces away in fact, with this metal club.

So, you work out in which direction you have to hit it, on its way, and you decide how hard you might need to hit it to get it there.

Then, when all that's done, there's not much else left to do. So you hit it.

Read the rest of this entry

Augusta, Easter Sunday - The Masters will welcome a brand new champion on Sunday unless one of the world's two best players can pull off the next best thing to a miracle.

No player has come back from more than eight shots adrift in the final round to win a Green Jacket - and Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are the highest-placed former champions at seven back. There are nine players above the illustrious duo on the leaderboard and seven alongside them at four under. But these two are the only past winners in sight, save for Vijay Singh at three under.

Read the rest of this entry

Augusta, photographers' lounge, Saturday morning - , and some jobs seem like the ultimate dream gig.

Take this guy. He's a photographer whose task it is to follow . All day. Every day.

Mmm, quite.

Read the rest of this entry

It was like robbing from the poor to give to the rich.

Masters leaders Chad Campbell and edged the pace to nine under after the second round to make it even harder for those struggling to stay in the tournament. But, for players in contention just a few strokes behind, it was a welcome relief that after reaching 11 under at one point.

The fear of the players on Thursday night was that the Augusta officials would toughen up the course after a benign first day. They didn't have to. A stiff breeze saw to that. But a host of players still made hay and put themselves into good positions for Saturday's 'moving day'.

Read the rest of this entry

Augusta, in among the seat forests, Friday - We all know the Masters is unique, but I didn't realise quite how unique until I learned about the seats.

Every morning, great plantations of green folding canvas chairs sprout up all over the course.

Patrons rush to , plant their seat and then go for a wander. Sometimes all day. It doesn't matter, though. It'll still be there when they get back. And their coat if they left it.

Read the rest of this entry

Augusta allowed herself to be ravished under a bright blue sky on Thursday but the perpetrators are expecting payback over the next few days.

Stung by , after the lengthening and tightening of the course, allied to several bouts of poor weather, the Green Jackets responded with a layout set-up for low scoring, with shorter tees, receptive greens and generous pin positions.

A hot, sunny day with little breeze also helped, and .

But with the test likely to be stiffened up, perhaps as early as Friday, Campbell's seven-under score will ring alarm bells among those who failed to fill their boots. The good times, it seems, may have been and gone.

Read the rest of this entry

Under the tree, Thursday lunchtime - Hanging out under the oak tree in front of the Augusta clubhouse is what the cool kids do so I adopted the old motto, even if you can beat them, go and join them anyway.

is the place where the media, the players, the stars, the hangers-on and anyone else with the right pass mix in an orgy of chat and mutual back-slapping.

It's a no-man's land where anyone is fair game to be approached for an interview. They don't have to agree, of course.

So I approached . And he kindly agreed.

Read the rest of this entry

THE HISTORY BOYS

They might have a combined age of 211 but the trio of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player is still a major crowd puller.

The threesome played together in Wednesday's par-three tournament and easily slipped back into their old Rat Pack routine.

Palmer was first on the tee and took a couple of tentative waggles as he sized up the 130-yard 1st.

"You hitting an iron?" fired Player in mock incredulity.

Read the rest of this entry

Tuesday lunchtime, Augusta media centre -

"Tiger, do you expect to win?"

"Always." He fixed the female journalist with that deadpan, fearsome stare. And then possibly sensing he'd overdone it, he broke into one of those big beamy smiles and shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry," he laughed.

But that's Woods through and through. He tells it how it is and doesn't complicate anything.

Read the rest of this entry

Monday, about 1630 local - And so it starts. Walking back up 18 I spied a massive scrum of people around the putting green, a forest of arms all clutching cameras aloft.

"Who's putting?" says one guy. Hmm, I wonder.

There's only one man in this place who would elicit that sort of reaction. Sure enough, once I wormed my way to the front, I saw none other than Ken Duke.

No, not really. It was obviously Tiger, but it gave an early sighter as to what we could be in for this week.

Read the rest of this entry