Masters 2011: Somebody Give Rory a Hug

I’m not alone in this, right? Don’t you just want to give this kid a hug? He just dominated the first three days of play, only to close out the Masters by hitting an 80 on Sunday. That meant he went from winning $1.44 million to $128,000… that’s a $1.31 million dollar kick in the nuts. Reminded me of the time I was in 4th grade at a track meet. Mt Sac Relays. I’d never run the 400 before, I was a sprinter, 100 and 200 only. Coach threw me in for this race because some other kid was hurt. Gun fires and I take off like a damn gazelle. At the turn, I’m in first by about 20 feet. Down the back straight away, I’m just pulling away from fools. Race in the bag. Yeah, right around yard 300 I’m guessing, my legs went to jello and just stopped working, I looked over my shoulder and still had a big lead. Sprinting as fast as I could, the home stretch looked as if I was standing still and these kids were Carl friggin’ Lewis. Who knew that 4th graders knew how to pace themselves? I finished dead last. I feel ya, Rory… I feel ya.Big props to Charl Schwartzel though…the South African stallion for winning the 2011 Masters. He ousted a ton of contenders down the stretch, including Adam Scott, Jason Day, Geoff Ogilvy, Luke Donald and… that one guy, oh yeah, Tigah Tigah Tigah Tiger Woods, ya’ll. Yeah, I know Tiger didn’t pull out the win, but once you knew that Rory McIlroy was out of it, raise your hand if you weren’t pulling for Tiger. C’mon… raaaaise it. I tried to lie to myself and say I wasn’t pulling for him… but I was. Golf is just better when Tiger Woods is winning. I think it’s safe to say we did catch a glimpse of the new Tiger… ready to start draining putts and taking names. Let’s go ahead and put him on our list of golfers to watch for the remainder of 2011. Here he was after draining an eagle on 8… yep, that’s the Tiger I remember.If I’m on my golf game, I’m hitting under 100…barely. I’ve never hit in the 80’s. Yet, a couple times a year, I keep coming back. Why? What makes golf great is feeling like you can hang with the pro’s. I remember watching Tiger play the Buick at Torrey Pines when I was in college. The next week I went out there and birdied a hole that he had hit par on. Immediately puffed up my chest and had that ‘how you like me now?‘ look on my face. I also remember holing out with a 7 iron from 190 yards in front of my father in law…for an eagle… said he’d never seen anything like it. When I pick up the links, those are the moments I remember… not the dozen triple bogeys I average every 18 holes. That is what makes these guys professionals. Consistency. Because let’s be honest…If I shot an 80 on Sunday and pulled in over $100 grand in a day, like Rory did…am I sulking about an epic collapse? Hell no. I’m riding around my putter like a horse… screaming for joy, and buying every person within a city block a shot of tequila. All the while, Lee Trevino staring at me in disgust… just beside himself, at a loss for words.-bp

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