2021 Masters Week

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
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Mar 24, 2008
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I cannot remember seeing the Augusta National greens so brown and baked out. They look like US Open greens right now; I wonder if this is really how the club wanted them to look. (I love it, of course, but it's still jarring.)
I wonder if they were if things they did to prepare the course for a November Masters had an impact on grass and maintenance scheduled for this year.
 

jercra

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Jul 31, 2006
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I cannot remember seeing the Augusta National greens so brown and baked out. They look like US Open greens right now; I wonder if this is really how the club wanted them to look. (I love it, of course, but it's still jarring.)
My thought was that it's in response to how easy it played in the fall as well in response to all of the "distance" talk. Almost like they want to prove they are still a great test of golf.
 

cshea

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Rose is -6 and is the only player on the course under par. What a heater.

Edit: Well Hatton just got to -1 with a birdie on 15.
 

Average Game James

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I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone look less excited to make an ace than Fleetwood. I get more jacked up making a 10 footer for bogey...
 

FL4WL3SS

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Rosey was +2 standing the the fairway on 8 and pulled his 2nd shot left, got a lucky kick right from the mounds off the green to within 10 feet for eagle and then never looked back. Crazy good last 10.5 holes.
 

FL4WL3SS

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Andy Brickley's potty mouth

ngruz25

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How can you even tell if Ancer clipped those five grains of sand with his club, or if Ancer's club passing over the sand created a bit of air pressure that knocked over the tiny pile of sand?

Seriously, golf can be so frustratingly dumb. I guarantee you the same thing will dozens, if not hundreds of times this week, and nobody will notice because there won't be an extreme zoom camera shot of the infraction.
 

FL4WL3SS

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You can see the little sand peak erode. But I agree, unless EVERY shot gets the same scrutiny, this is crap.
If I'm Ancer, I'm asking where the close up of all the other bunker shots from every other player is stored. When I get blank stares, I say you can speak to my lawyer. These guys aren't employed by the PGA and if every player in the field isn't getting the same treatment, I'm taking action.

You could image this costing someone a shot at a major, which is life changing and has huge financial consequences (winnings and endorsements). I can't believe this shit is still acceptable to the players.
 
I didn't see the incident with Ancer, but I did listen to the overnight No Laying Up podcast about Round 1 at the Masters, and they all seemed to say they thought it was obvious in the moment and were just waiting for the penalty to be handed down. Which is weird because I'd normally expect them to take the opposite side on an issue like this; I'd agree in looking at the video shown above that a penalty doesn't make a lot of sense, but maybe there was another view at the time?
 

voidfunkt

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I thought the USGA changed the rule regarding clipping the sand in your backswing?

WTF. I really do not get why the pros put up with this nonsense.
 

Average Reds

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here's a thread from the masters twitter account:

View: https://twitter.com/TheMasters/status/1380308450618540036


"The touching of the sand was deemed visible to the naked eye. Had this not been the case, the video evidence would have been disregarded and a penalty would not have been applied. "
"We used an extreme closeup of high-definition video to determine that the violation that no one saw was visible to the naked eye. Had we not seen this video and made that determination, we would have disregarded the video."

"Carry on."
 

Marceline

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I had bet on Ancer to have the top round 1 score among Latin Americans - that bet was paid out yesterday, then they took it back after the penalty ruling. What a terrible rule.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
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I thought the USGA changed the rule regarding clipping the sand in your backswing?

WTF. I really do not get why the pros put up with this nonsense.
Some allowance for touching the sand is OK, for example loose impediments can be removed without penalty, but the prohibition against touching the sand during a backswing remains:

https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules-hub/rules-modernization/major-changes/moving-or-touching-loose-impediments-or-sand-in-a-bunker.html

It's incredibly stupid when applied like this but the hardwired wannabe lawyer bullies at the USGA live for this kind of thing.
 

Average Reds

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Some allowance for touching the sand is OK, for example loose impediments can be removed without penalty, but the prohibition against touching the sand during a backswing remains:

https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules-hub/rules-modernization/major-changes/moving-or-touching-loose-impediments-or-sand-in-a-bunker.html

It's incredibly stupid when applied like this but the hardwired wannabe lawyer bullies at the USGA live for this kind of thing.
What makes this a special case is the impressive lack of self-awareness that made them issue that statement. It’s a masterpiece of Trumpian propaganda, and they are so clueless that they don’t even get it.

I’d also mention that this isn’t the USGA at work, though the description still applies. Meaning that, yes, the club uses the USGA rules, but for the Masters, Augusta National creates a unique group of officials from the USGA, R&A, PGA of America, PGA Tour and club members to apply the rules.

With that sort of rules committee, insufferable arrogance and incoherence should be expected.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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Featured groups for thosay. Meh on the morning ones. Understand and will enjoy the Rose one but feel like they could've picked a better 2nd group with players a little closer to Rose (not that anyone is particularly close).

9:36: Rose, Lowry, Kuchar
10:06: Mickelson, Fleetwood, Scheffler
1:48: Xander, Rahm, Rory
2:00: Reed, Berger, Casey
 

cshea

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I missed the Gary/Wayne Player thing from the opening tee shot ceremony yesterday. Apparently Players son Wayne, acting as Gary's caddie, was standing behind Lee Elder holding up a sleeve of balls over Elder's shoulder as an ambush marketing type of thing. Pretty disgraceful if you ask me.
 

johnmd20

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I missed the Gary/Wayne Player thing from the opening tee shot ceremony yesterday. Apparently Players son Wayne, acting as Gary's caddie, was standing behind Lee Elder holding up a sleeve of balls over Elder's shoulder as an ambush marketing type of thing. Pretty disgraceful if you ask me.
Player's own brother pounded on Wayne for this maneuver. And the golf ball company had to put out a statement. Yes, extremely disgraceful.

I think Gary Player and Jack both need to be retired on the first tee. And make it actual players, like Langher, Couples, etc who are actually playing. Watching Gary Player karate kick got old years ago. And Arnie is dead and Jack sucks. You can't celebrate Lee Elder and have Jack and Gary out there.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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Rose in some trouble on 1. Drove it right of the bunkers into the pine straw and had to pitch out sideways.He has what looks like 40-50 feet for par.