83rd Masters at beautiful Augusta National.....it's Springtime!!

[regaleagle]

Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player will be teeing off early today to start off Golf's traditional Major of Majors. These two won't be around too many more years, so let's enjoy this opening while we can. This year's Masters has only 87 players in the field......considerably smaller than the normal 156-man field in most tournaments. And quite a few of those are former champions and a few amateurs that qualified for this event. So only 29 threesomes in the pairings for this grandest of stages of major tournament golf this week. The beauty of the venue and the time of the year makes this watch even more surreal and worth the watch. No telling who will emerge on the leaderboard on Sunday with a good chance of winning, but Tiger Woods has his game very competitive and is without a doubt a favorite this week because no golfer in this field is better on this track. Phil Michelson tends to do well on this course also, but Rory McIlroy is playing the best of anybody and seems to have his game hitting on all cylinders. Justin Rose of England should contend as should Justin Thomas. Speith has lost his accuracy off the tee......and if his putting continues to haunt him he cannot make up the difference. There are many others......take your pick. It's drama on a grand scale and the replays are shown each night in their entirety of that day's round on the Golf Channel. I love golf......Freddie Couples is playing and he's 59 this year. What other sport(professional or otherwise) is this possible in, Huh? It's a lifetime game of you against the course and elements of nature......worthy opponents and in a wonderful environment that is very healthy. Today's equipment is just unbelievable......and the competition on the Tour is too!!

[regaleagle]

I picked up my Dad's golf clubs at the tender age of 8 yrs old in 1962.....the woods were real woods and the irons were heavy MacGregor Tourneys he won in the Robstown tournament in preceding years. I batted left handed in Little League, but I'm a righty with everything else. But even to this day......I putt from the left side even though I golf from the right. Took some lessons at age 10 at Beeville Country Club with the pro Stanley Wright......that was really the start of this lifetime love affair with this sport that is closest and dearest to my heart. I played football, was an excellent baseball player, and very good golfer......but only golf remains(bowled competitively in my younger years) as a sport I can still compete and play thru the year. I've learned to really enjoy the journey and have played many, many, many different courses and destinations in my travels. I really could not even put a valid number on how many different courses in the USA and abroad.....enough for a lifetime for sure. Not many on the West Coast, but from Billings Montana down to Phoenix and all the way across the rest of the continental USA there have been so many exciting teetimes and rounds. No reason to ever join a country club.....variety is the spice of this game. Even just around the Metroplex and our great state of Texas......there are just innumerable courses to play from far out West Texas all the way to the Piney Woods of East Texas and from Muenster at the Red River to McAllen, Mission, and Brownsville at the southern tip. How many in Texas alone.......I cannot begin to count them all. Older classic courses steeped in history and newer designed courses for today's game with the improvements made in this game over the past 5 decades since I first picked up my Dad's MacGregor Tourney 8 iron and began grooving a swing with Stanley Wright back at the Beeville Country Club. It's been the trip of a lifetime and I'm not done yet!

[regaleagle]

It's Saturday and moving day at the Masters. You will either move up or move down on the leaderboard for a shot at tomorrow's final round for positioning and payout. For some, Saturday could mean a share of the lead or moving within an outside shot of playing for the title tomorrow against the leaders after today's round is finalized. For most of the others.....it's positioning for the final round and trying not to drop too many strokes to the field. Can't really blame anything on the weather.....looks like the conditions at Augusta are near perfect on this Saturday. Just about everybody on the course is having problems making those short tricky fast putts. If your ball ends up on the "wrong side" of the hole.....you will be lucky to make even a 3-footer. Tiger just missed one too, and he's having a really good round so far today.....one off the lead at 8 under right now. I would say whoever does the best on the putting green today will be the ones shooting the lowest scores today.....gotta make them short ones.

[regaleagle]

The slopes of these greens is the deal.....and where your ball ends up AFTER hitting the green. So sometimes you aim way away from the pin just so you are allowing for the slopes to take it closer. Sometimes you can "gamble" and go for it and it will end up good, but if you miss your target area just a little it could turn out worse for you. What could be a safe two-putt par can turn into a three-putt bogey very easily. Course knowledge and experience with these greens helps quite a bit on this course......but players that are just very accomplished with the flat stick do better here against the field than they may do against the field in other tournaments......that's a testament to how tough and tricky these greens can be.

[regaleagle]

Positioning off the tee for your next shot to the green becomes important just because of the greens. There's not hardly any wind today to worry about.....so it's basically just being able to hit it where you want and hope what you wanted is the right diagnosis for that hole. You have to remember they change the pin positions each day.....so the holes play differently each day depending on the location of the pin on the green.....it can change the way you play the hole, and definitely your approach shot to the hole.....so maybe even your drive in the fairway also to get the right approach angle to the pin.

[regaleagle]

The avid golfer gets more out of watching these pros go at it than those that don't play golf or those that are not as accomplished and knowlegeable about the game.....just like in some of the other sports.....except that golf has lots of rules and lots of variables because of course conditions, the elements, and Mother Nature......not counting all the other things that can happen on any given swing of the golf club. It's really a very difficult sport to play and be consistently decent at.....LOL. IF you are fortunate enough to play regularly OR maybe you have not only the time but also the finances to afford a good coach that will work with you over a period of time......you can become a decent golfer and really enjoy your rounds. It's a very challenging game, but if you can make pars, a few birdies every now and then, and keep the big scores off your card....then it becomes fun!! I've hit two holes-in-one in my entire lifetime of countless rounds(close and even hit the pin many times, but those don't count, LOL). What does count is not cheating on the course.....it forces you to become a better golfer and develop better self-discipline and respect for the game. Then when you do score a good round or a good 9 holes......you can know you achieved it against the course the way it was intended.....it was real!!