Previous Blogs from David
David Barrett on writer Furman Bisher covering his 59th Masters.
David Barrett on how Trevor Immelman faces his big moment.
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7:55 pm
Trevor Immelman matched the highest final round ever shot by a winner with 75, which Arnold Palmer also did in 1962. But let's look at the bright side. Immelman's 10-under performance on the par fours set an Augusta National record. The previous best was 8-under by Tiger Woods in 2001. He was 3-under on the par fives and 5-over on the par threes.
Immelman's par-four showing was set up by great driving. He led the field in driving accuracy, hitting 48 of 56 fairways, and was fourth in driving distance. That helped him to tie for second in greens in regulation with 51 of 72.
The South African became the 10th player to win the Masters after holding at least a share of the lead after every round, but the first since Seve Ballesteros in 1980.
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7:45 pm
Tiger Woods "lost" four shots when he missed makeable birdie putts on 13, 15, and 16, and three-putted for bogey on 14. Imagine if two of those putts had fallen and Immelman had come to the last two holes with a one-stroke lead instead of three. It would have made his bunker shot on 17 and his approach shot from a divot on 18 a lot more interesting.
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7:25 pm
Trevor Immelman's three closest pursuers heading into the final round shot 77 (Brandt Snedeker), 78 (Steve Flesch), and 79 (Paul Casey). Casey had a 41 on the front nine and Flesch a 42 on the back (and still tied for fifth). As for Snedeker, he made an eagle and two birdies, but also a whopping nine bogeys. Granted, conditions were tough, but still, they could have done better than that!
Only four players broke par on the day, none in the last 11 pairings, and five matched it in the winds of the final round.
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6:50 pm
Trevor Immelman made a cardinal error on his tee shot into the water on the 16th hole. It wasn't so much the fact that he went left, though that was bad enough, but that he didn't take enough club to carry the water. If you hit the ball far enough, you'll carry the water even with a pulled shot. In fact, you'll be in the area where Tiger Woods was when he holed his famous chip in 2005.
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6:15 pm
They're making it too easy for Trevor Immelman. In a short span, Tiger Woods inexplicably left his approach way to the right and three-putted the 14th for a bogey, Steve Flesch had his first three-putt of the week to also bogey the 14th, and Brandt Snedeker hit second second shot into the water on the par-three 13th and made a bogey. Meanwhile, Immelman hit a great third shot on 13 and birdied to go five ahead.
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5:50 pm
Okay, we know Nick Faldo won three Masters. And I'll grant that his experiences help give him insights in his analysis. But how many times do Nick and his announcing buddies have to remind us of his victories?
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5:45 pm
In a key sequence over the course of about a minute, Trevor Immelman holed a 20-foot par putt on the 11th and Tiger Woods missed a five-footer for birdie on the 13th. In the more likely scenario of a Woods make and Immelman miss, Woods would have pulled within three strokes and Immelman would have been feeling some serious heat with seven holes to go.
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5:40 pm
Well, so much for Steve Flesch keeping himself in position to pose a serious challenge. He just hit it into the water on the par-three 12th and made a double bogey. Now it's pretty much up to Tiger Woods to make a charge to be able to steal a win if Trevor Immelman stumbles. If Woods doesn't make a move, Immelman won't even need a good back nine to win.
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5:01 pm
Could Steve Flesch actually win the Masters? With everyone else well on the way to eliminating themselves and Tiger Woods not making up ground, Flesch is actually the only player well-positioned to pick up the pieces if leader Trevor Immelman falters on the back nine. Flesch is holding very steady at even par on the round through 10 holes and 8-under for the tournament, two behind as Immelman makes the turn. The 40-year-old Flesch has never finished better than seventh in a major, that coming in the 2004 U.S. Open. As of this moment he's the only player even par for the day in the last four twosomes, the others are all over par.
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4:25 pm
Nobody is having more trouble than Paul Casey. A double bogey at the third, where he left it in a bunker, was followed by four straight bogeys as he plummeted from 8-under to 2-under. That included a one-stroke penalty at the sixth hole for the ball moving after he addressed it on a putt of six feet that would have been for birdie.
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3:30 pm
The leaders are having a hard time, with Trevor Immelman 1-over through three holes, Brandt Snedeker offsetting his eagle on 2 with a pair of bogeys through three holes, Tiger Woods and Paul Casey are both 1-over through four holes. It's not just the pressure. The wind is making it tough for everybody, as at the moment there are only four players in the field of 47 under par for the day. Two of them are finished, Miguel Angel Jimenez with a 68 to move all the way into the top 10 and Heath Slocum with a 69; the other two are players on the fringe contention looking to shoot themselves into it. Stewart Cink is 1-under through five holes to get to 5-under and Padraig Harrington 2-under through seven to get to 4-under. The lead is Immelman at 10-under.
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3:05 pm
Brandt Snedeker picked a good time to make his first Masters eagle in his second Augusta appearance. When his slick 25-foot putt found the bottom of the cup, he tied Immelman for the lead at 10-under.
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2:40 pm
Trevor Immelman and Brandt Snedeker both get off to shaky starts, neither having much chance at par after a poor tee shot by Immelman and poor approach by Snedeker. Since World War II, seven players have won the Masters after a bogey on the first hole of the final round, including Zach Johnson last year, and Nick Faldo won after a double bogey on the first hole in 1990.
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2:25 pm
Trevor Immelman and Brandt Snedeker tee off in the final twosome of the final round after also playing in the final twosome on Saturday. The last time that happened was in 2000, with Vijay Singh and David Duval.
Immelman and Snedeker both won the U.S. Public Links Championship, Immelman in 1998 and Snedeker in 2003. Nobody who won the Public Links has ever won the Masters.
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2:05 pm
Tiger Woods heads off in quest of a fifth green jacket. He'll have to make up six strokes, but there are only four players ahead of him. After Augusta Chronicle columnist Adam Van Brimmer said yesterday Woods' Grand Slam hopes were "finished" after two rounds, the Chronicle's main columnist, Scott Michaux, had this to say in this morning's paper, "For anybody who counted out Woods' stated quest for the Grand Slam before the weekend started, Saturday changed the dynamic considerably."
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1:30 pm
Trevor Immelman and Brandt Snedeker arrive on the practice range 55 minutes ahead of their scheduled tee time in the final twosome. With such a late tee time, better to get out and hit balls at a leisurely pace than to just sit around.
Immelman is wearing a black shirt, but he didn't go all black like his idol Gary Player. It's Snedeker who will be in all black, if he leaves his windshirt on.
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Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh head off in what would be a feature pairing if they were both a few shots closer to the lead. As it is, Mickelson is 2-under and Singh 1-under, nine and 10 strokes back. Still, the pairing is of some interest. The two had an acrimonious spat in the locker room here a few years ago when Singh wasn't happy about Mickelson, who was playing ahead of him, wearing long spikes. Don't expect a lot of talk between them today.
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12:10 pm
The wind is only light to moderate so far, but it's starting to pick up to the 15 mph range for several minutes at a time. It's supposed to blow between 20 and 23 mph between 2 and 6 o'clock, which will be an added element for the contenders to worry about.
Just as important is the direction of the wind, which is coming from the west. That's the toughest direction, because it makes the par-five 13th and 15th holes play upwind, making it unlikely players will be able to go for the green. That takes away a couple of scoring opportunities. It also makes the first hole play very tough, but it won't be quite as tough as last year under similar conditions. The tees have been moved up to the new extended area of the tee box added this year, making it play 15 or 20 yards shorter than its listed lenth of 455 and enabling most players to reach the top of the hill in the landing area.
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11:50 am
The players' locker room is a pretty quiet place on Sunday, with only 47 players left in the field and their tee times scattered over nearly four hours. Lee Westwood strides through wearing purple pants, having arrived an hour and 15 minutes ahead of his tee time. If his 54-hole total were better than 1-under 215, you might wonder how they would look with a green jacket, but as he is 10 strokes off the lead we won't have to worry about that.
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11:45 am
Every morning the staff of the Augusta Chronicle meets in the media dining area to go over the plans for the day. Today, though, they are meeting in style and eating lunch in the clubhouse grill room. They had better get their sustenance now; it's going to be a long day and evening.
The grill room is a fairly small space that is open to media and anyone with a clubhouse badge (there are a couple of other dining areas, too, including outside tables behind the clubhouse). Players used to eat there, too, but when it became too much of a congregating place for others, they got their own dining area in an expanded locker room.
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11:40 am
The large grandstands at the practice range are nearly filled, even though there are only three players on the range--and two of them are in an area on the right side that can barely be seen from the grandstand, blocked by a large tree. It makes you wonder why Jeev Singh and Stephen Ames didn't set up shop in the area in front of the stands. Don't they want to give the patrons something to watch?
With players going off in twosomes on the weekend, 10 minutes apart, there are seldom more than a handful of players on the range, but with not many players on the course yet this is one place to see some golfers. Another 100 or so spectators are in the stand overlooking the short-game practice area, watching Brian Bateman get ready for the fourth round.
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8:00 am
The gates open at Masters Sunday and one of the most unique scenes in sports spectating plays out. Hundreds of fans, having already passed through the security gate, have proceeded partway down the walkway entrance to a point where they are held until 8 o'clock. All are carrying green Masters folding chairs. When the clock strikes 8, they proceed to the course to set up their chair on their particular favorite hole.
Running, of course, is not allowed. This is Augusta, after all. But there's plenty of speed-walking going on, with only a scattered few disobeying the "No running!" commands of a legion of security guards. There is the suspicion that young legs are filling in for some older spectators or corporate types who will actually use the seats.
Within minutes most of the viewing spots on the 18th hole and the prime spots on other holes have been taken. Rows of chairs sit empty, marked with the spectators name. The first group does not even tee off for another two-and-a-half hours and will not reach the 18th green for more than six hours. After placing their seats, the spectators cool their heels for a while, either elsewhere on the course, or possibly even going home for breakfast before returning to the grounds and their "reserved" seat.
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