It's Here!

The field, which almost saw a late addition in J.B. Holmes, is set.

Coverage on this site will utilize Cover-It-Live's Live Blogging interactive software of the Par-3 contest coverage Wednesday and the four rounds of tournament play. It looks like they've added some neat features, including Twitter capability that will make it easy to get news updates as we watch, especially now that The Masters is on Twitter.)

So please come back, come often, bring a little attitude and be ready to share your innermost Masters thoughts with the world. (You can also check in via a mobile device.)

I also hope to feature the traditional clippings breakdown of must read items each day, but it depends on how much work and how little golf the on-site scribes decide to enage in Monday-Wednesday. (Now that the economy isn't so hot and Internet operations have been improved, I'm hoping for more early week items to help us make our pool picks get in the mood for Thursday.)

Either way, I can't imagine the Masters' stars aligning any better.

• Nearly every top player is on their game, including Phil Mickelson, whose little hiccup in Houston is rightly brushed off by the SI Golf Group in this week's encyclopedic breakdown of the week's events.

• A couple of old geezers played nicely in Houston and it's easy to imagine a scenario where Greg Norman and Fred Couples contend.

• We get to see Chris Evert in a caddie suit for Wednesday's Par-3. If watching her every move helps cut down on overcoverage of the Romper Room disaster we saw last year, I'm for it.

• Three teenagers are playing impressive golf in their debut events, and Johnny Miller even thinks Danny Lee could win. But Johnny also could probably find grain on Augusta's greens, so...I like Rory McIlroy to be low teenager.

• Padraig Harrington is going for this third straight major and thanks to all of the other great storylines or other factors, we haven't been beaten to death with Paddy Slam talk. 

• A positive weather forecast for the tournament days. However, the practice rounds sound cold and windy, which Stewart Cink noted on Twitter will not bode well for the fans hoping to see players: "Very windy weather Mon-Tues means curtailed practice rounds by many players. You can get into bad habits playing in cold wind."

• Golf Channel sounds like they are really stepping up their always-top notch pre and post round coverage, so this year they may actually have more people covering the event on site than in the Orlando studio.

• We get to listen as the CBS and ESPN guys try tell to us that the course design is functioning beautifully, putting them in the same category as the Golf Digest Panel or Rex Hoggard, who confuses rankings with popularity contests. Jim Herre in this week's SI chat says the nets have been reminded not to say anything that might upset Hootie Johnson. Who knew that notorious tough guy who stood down Martha Burke and sidelined those harmless past champions could have his feelings so easily hurt?

As for a table setter, check out Doug Ferguson's breezy report about Sunday activities at ANGC, including which former champ took a cart for his round.

Comments

[Four-putt]

Great line about Johnny finding grain on Augusta's greens, Geoff.

(Of course we all know Bentgrass does not have grain. Except Mr. Miller.)

[Hawkeye]

Johnny: "When I played we had to take the grain in account, which meant that downhill putts could be about 45 on the stimpmeter...and I shot 65-66 on the weekend in ´75".

[Ludell Hogwaller]

I don't think Johnny is saying "grain". He's actually trying to say "green" and sound Southern.

[Average Golfer]

"Quite a lot of grain in those greens that most players are missing, huh Rog, huh Dottie?"

[baked]

no grain at augusta national? then why is an uphill putt on number 10 faster than a downhill putt? same for a uphill left-side-to-right-side putt on 17. brush a driver head over the putting surface and tell me there's no grain.

hate to admit this (i really do), but i'm with johnny

[Dum spero spiro]

Ogilvy and Casey, too.

Nice to see Paul get over that hump, finally.

[Nathan]

Geoff: I know you're bothered about the rankings but this is bordering on an obsession. Take it easy, man. It's just golf.
And say what you will about Johnny Miller but he's head and shoulders better than any other announcer in the game.

[Ponte Green]

Johnny isn't the problem in NBC, it's Dan Hicks, who is an idiot. Dan insists on overtalking with an eager, excited persistence of a puppy about to pee on the carpet. Any talking that Johnny does is a public service meant to limit Dan from his banal, factoid-laden idiocy. Sometimes in his zeal to protect the public, Johnny says dumb things.

[thusgone]

no johnny this week boys. instead, we get the bathetic boozy word stylings of jim nantz, a sports announcer like no other when it comes to lily-gilding.

i'm surprised the msm has missed the chance to analyze how the course will play under the layers of nostalgic marzipan and candy floss strewn about by nantz & co.

god i mis pat summerall!

[RM]

Augusta used to have bermuda greens. They changed to bent some time in the 70's, so I believe that Johnny was correct. And I can assure you that grain is a major issue in putting bermuda greens in the south.

[Geoff]

baked,
The greens at Augusta are cut at 1/8th to 1/16th of an inch. There is no grain. There's hardly grass!

[baked]

then why does a team of groundsmen try to brush it out with push brooms?

[dsl]

thusgone - that's just awesome. I've been struggling for years to explain why Nantz makes my stomach turn. As much as I look forward to this event, it's always overshadowed by Nantzy boy's smarmy schtick. It seems that Jimmy loves very few things in life - the sound of his voice, ANGC, his vocal inflections, the colour green, his vocal pacing and his big fancy house (see his add in this month's golf digest). He might love that dog too, but it might just be part of the classy lily white decor.

[dfoster]

Even when the were bermuda, they were overseeded so heavily that grain would have been minimal. And if they do use brooms (usually they are an attachment on the mower) its to lay the grass down after it has been cut. The cutting action tends to stand the blades up.

[OWGR Fan]

Ray Floyd should have had his driver from that dumb Lexus commercial driving his golf cart.