Instagram Roundup: An Early Masters Image, More Champions Dinner Never-Before-Seens, The ANA's Saki Drum Barrel Cracking, PXG Goes The Awkward Route

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It's not the first Masters because we know the 9th green was a lot more interesting in Dr. MacKenzie and Bobby Jones' version, but still a fun aerial from the good ole days:

Click here on the link if the embed is resisting, as it's more rarely seen Champions Dinner moments via the Masters Instagram account...

6 days until #themasters and an extraordinary gathering. #cominginapril

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The saki barrel has been broken, so the ANA Inspiration can begin. The honorary starters ceremony, this is not.

The #anainspiration has officially begun with the breaking of the saki barrel!

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Quite possibly the most awkward thing I've watched in years...if not ever.

Augusta National Cracking Down On Third Party Market, Invalidating Some Credentials

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Adam Schupak with a Golf.com exclusive on Augusta National's effort to crack down on ticket holders who have sold to third parties. They are being notified by letter that their $150 is to be credited and they can expect to no longer be attending the Masters.

As Schupak notes, this scenario means there may be unsuspecting buyers who show up at the Masters after having paid top dollar, only to find their tickets invalidated.

How are they spotting the offenders?

The tournament has long prohibited the reselling of its coveted single-day tickets and multi-day badges, but last year it added a new defense to catch offenders: color-coded strips on the bottom of the tickets that the tournament's ticket police can use as secret decoder rings of sorts to determine the original purchasers. Each of the colors in the six-color design represents a letter and five numbers that match the corresponding ticket number.

"Hooks and ladders: A Massachusetts firefighter will tee it up at the Masters"

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While we've been salivating at the potential for this year's Masters to give us a match up for the ages, of all ages, there is another fantastic story out there: U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion Matt Parziale.

Alan Shipnuck gives the Brockton, Mass. firefighter's story the deep dive treatment for Golf.com and it's a 

A half-dozen guys started talking at the same time, all in accents thicker than chowdah. They asked after Parziale's old man, Vic, who served 33 years in the same precinct before retiring last autumn as a captain. Inevitably, talk turned to Parziale's upcoming tournament schedule.
"I'm gonna try to get down there to watch," one guy said, "but I'm looking for a green blazer to wear so I can fit in." The room exploded in laughter.
Somewhere Bobby Jones must be smiling about the culture clash of a horde of Beantown back-drafters tromping along his gilded fairways. But it was Jones's abiding love for amateur golf that created a spot in the Masters for a guy like Parziale and his cinematic journey to Augusta.

Great Reads: Bob Goalby's My Shot, 1968 Masters Rebroadcast Analysis

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As the 50th anniversary of his Masters win arrives, Bob Goalby will be the understandable focus of some preview coverage. Sean Zak at Golf.com pulled up the recently uploaded YouTube posting of the 1968 broadcast and posted this item along with a podcast.

Also of note is a sensational Golf Digest My Shot with Guy Yocom, who somehow got a Goalby My Shot pitch by the millennial filtering (must have Bob's Amana flatbrim that fooled 'em).

I was heartened to read this from Goalby:

WE'RE AT THE 50-YEAR mark of that Masters, and history is being kinder to me. Young people especially don't know about the controversy because it was so long ago. To them, I'm just a Masters champion. They'll say, "That's so cool. What year did you win? Can you tell me about it?" And I tell them about how I shot 66 on Sunday, the overflowing parking lot and the letter Bobby Jones wrote me about my shot to the 15th. Time is allowing me to be at peace and to feel even more proud and satisfied.

Augusta As Seen By The Son Of Its First Superintendent

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Golf's Michael Bamberger interviewed Shurley Hammack, son of Augusta National's first superintendent, who was raised on the property until his father's death and a abrupt eviction by that always gentle Clifford Roberts.

Still, “Daddy had no love for Clifford Roberts,” Shurley said over the course of a three-hour inter-view in which he displayed a keen memory and exemplary Southern-tradition storytelling skills. “For the longest time I thought his name was Sumbitch Roberts, ’cause Mr. Roberts would come down from New York and Daddy would say, ‘Sumbitch Roberts coming to the club today.’ ”
Simpson was the superintendent (the club’s term) for the first nine Masters. The course closed for the war, and the tournament wasn’t played in 1943, ’44 or ’45. During that time Augusta National was used for cattle grazing, but just briefly. The herd ate not only the grass but also the azaleas, and the experiment was quickly shut down. 

Another revelation: Hammack's dad, Simpson, left holes in the greens when the club was closed for the summer, allowing Shurley and friends to still play the course. That will have the ghost of Mr. Roberts stirring...

Video: It's As If They Knew Eun-Hee Ji's KIA Ace Was Coming

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If you didn't hear about Eun-Hee Ji's KIA Classic final round, she hit all 18 greens and made a one at the par-3 14th en route to victory. (Beth Ann Nichols' Golfweek.com game story has the lowdown.)

Besides a car for winning the event, she took home a KIA Sorrento for this shot. But it's the setup by Grant Boone, Judy Rankin and Jerry Foltz that adds to the spectacle of a surreal moment (and a rewarding sponsorship for KIA).

From Morning Drive's recap:

PGA Of America Gives Us A Decade To Ponder Why We're Playing Another Ryder Cup At Hazeltine National

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Let's forget that the PGA of America is bringing the Ryder Cup back to Hazeltine National just a dozen years after it last hosted, or that the course in question isn't particularly memorable, lovable or likely to be pursued by other organizations for a championship. The course was beautifully conditioned and in its defense, tainted by Team USA's dreadful Sunday singles placement of nearly all hole locations in the green centers.

According to the announcement...

Hazeltine -- site of the U.S. Ryder Cup Team’s 17-11 victory in 2016 -- will become the first American venue to host a second Ryder Cup. Four English courses have hosted multiple Ryder Cups: The Belfry (1985, ’89, ‘93, 2002); Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club (1961, ‘77); Royal Birkdale Golf Club (1965, ’69) and Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club (1933, ’37). 

So let's ask as we always do with these silly announcements: why lock in venues that aren't in demand so far down the line? What is the incentive? Because the news value tends to range from "who cares" to "I just hope to be alive in 2028", instead of, "boy I can't wait!"

Maybe the PGA of America just wanted to piggyback on the far more popular Gold Medal winning U.S. Men's Curling team, and for that, I can't blame them:

ShackHouse 58: Bubba Wins Match Play, Masters Odds And Houston Preview

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On this week's post-match play show we discuss the event, possible tweaks, and go through some pre-Masters scouting reports based on the week's play.

We also preview the Houston Open, which is facing an uncertain future and almost certainly is being played for the last time as a pre-Masters tournament.

The show's iTunes page.

The Art 19 option for listening but as you know by now I hope, the show is available wherever fine podcasts are streamed.

And as always, the show is brought to you by Callaway, makers of Rogues, Chrome Softs and the best internet golf talk show on the planet, Callaway Live.

This week's show features Sergio Garcia. A preview:

Tune in March 27th at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. EST to watch the full episode. Full episodes and highlights: http://cmp.callawaygolf.com/callawaylive/

 

 

Bubba Watson Now A Masters Favorite, Ryder Cup Shoo-In: Wins Match Play In Resounding Fashion

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Granted, favorite-to-win status means not a thing, but given where he was a year ago a second big win by Bubba Watson heading into the Masters is no small feat.

Oh, and he's just won the WGC Dell Match Play, which gives him wins at two prestigious events, including one played at the same format as the Ryder Cup. (Though as Rex Hoggard notes, it's still a mixed-bag record while Kisner's relationship with match play only has gotten stronger.)

Mike McCallister at PGATour.com with Bubba's amazing week and admissions that last year was a low point, though Watson still isn't specific about what exactly was the primary issue.

The Golf.com gang kick around this notion of Bubba as favorite and his resounding 7&6 win at Austin Country Club over a clearly-spent Kevin Kisner, who played a tough semi-final match against Alex Noren.

He had famous (and needing to shower) fans Sunday:

PGA Tour Entertainment's highlight package:

Pre-Masters Prep: Is This Golf Club Of Houston's Last Time Before The TPC San Antonio Takes Over?

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Gulp...The Forecaddie says Valero may be sorry if it gets the pre-Masters slot to the Valero Texas Open and the TPC San Antonio, a polar opposite of Augusta National architecturally.

I'd add that players can now just go to The Masters early and hang out at their very own tournament practice center, play some ANGC, eat some peach cobbler and pass on pitching backwards out of the cedars in San Antonio should the Valero becomes the pre-Masters stop.

Latest Fan Behavior Debacle: James Hahn Tweets, Then Deletes "My fault for not expecting the worst from fans."

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As you know, there are complete losers in this world and increasingly they are coming to golf tournaments to get attention, get drunk and to disrupt the play of great golfers. 

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The 2018 PGA Tour season has seen an uptick in a wide range of hooliganism, from sounds as players are preparing to hit a shot to personal attacks on player family members. 

Rory McIlroy suggested alcohol sales should be curbed.

The PGA Tour responded by touting policy of cutting off sales one hour before the end of competition, but neglected to highlight that alcohol sales start in the morning hours at outdoor venues.

The Commissioner, Jay Monahan, believes this is what happens when you add new fans and said golf is the same as other sports.

McIlroy disagreed. 

At the WGC Dell Match Play Sergio Garcia had a fan immediate ejected and James Hahn tweeted about efforts to disrupt his match, only to delete the Tweet and backtrack.

Mercifully Kevin Cunningham at Golf.com shares Hahn's original message and it's just the kind of thing that can't keep continuing to happen, new fans or not.

Hahn took to Twitter to claim that on the second-to-last hole of his match against Dufner, a "guy yell[ed] purposely on my back swing." The tweet was later deleted, but the full text read, "Fought hard today after a bad start. 2 down, 4 to go, guy yells purposely on my back swing. Whether we like it or not, this is where the game is going. My fault for not expecting the worst from fans. Just sucks to lose a match that way."

He followed the first tweet with a correction that stated, "I respect and love all golf fans but I can expect bad behavior from them. And I'm not blaming the fan for losing the match. Just disappointed I lost the deciding hole in that fashion."

Fines department strikes again!

As Eamon Lynch writes in this week's Golfweek, the PGA Tour's stance on this matter is crumbling in the face of basic logic.

This isn’t a referendum on growing the game or about tweedy killjoys debating alcohol sales policies. It ought to be a simple solution for the Tour: Welcome all fans, let them enjoy a drink, but broom the jerks immediately. All it requires is extra security deployed around the high-profile players who attract the beer-goggle boors.

No genuine golf fans will be driven away by such an approach.

Here's a nice reminder of how people act in spite of an alcohol sales cut off at 4 pm and fear of ejection:

8 days until #themasters and patrons’ roars filling the air #cominginapril

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Proposal: WGC Dell Match Play Proceeds To Help Save Muny

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Year three of the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play is in the books and while there is still quibbling over the format, this is very much a PGA Tour success story combining course, sponsor and operations to make a tricky venue work. 

As I explain in this Golfweek item with news on the future, the Austin vibe that has been embraced by this event should extend in the tournament's charitable giving.

Having attended the Save Muny party Friday night, it's apparent that the sense of community in Austin would embrace a one or two-year donation of charitable proceeds to saving Lions Municipal. This is not to suggest the tournament's current beneficiaries aren't find charities, but given how many golf courses are under siege in the United States and how consistently the Five Families have passed at opportunities to help them survive as genuine "grow the game" facilities, wouldn't it be fun to see Muny saved by tourney proceeds?

Charity is at the heart of the PGA Tour!

Here's a good background story on the proposal and pleas from Ben Crenshaw.

Some images from Friday night's fundraiser hosted by the good folks at Criquet Shirts.

Day or night, same message. #savemuny

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WGC Dell Match Play Final Four: Kisner, Noren, Thomas, Bubba

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Given the possible nightmare scenarios that were brewing, the final four of the 2018 WGC Dell Match Play look sensational on paper.

Given that all four are intriguing Masters contenders for different reasons, and I'm not sure a Tiger-less Dell Match Play could set up much better.

Sunday Morning Semifinal Matches:

(13) Alex Noren vs. (32) Kevin Kisner

(2) Justin Thomas vs. (35) Bubba Watson

Alex Noren is Sunday's most intriguing possibility, as a signature win at the Dell would vault him up most Masters lists and make those of us who might, or might have placed a small deposit on his prospects back in the 90-1 days. 

Check out these comments from Johnny and Gary Koch during today's telecast:

Johnny Miller – “I don’t think he has any weaknesses that I can see… He’s sort of got it all – good distance, good iron player and good putter.”

Gary Koch – “There are only two players on the PGA TOUR this year that rank in the top-20 in strokes gained putting and strokes gained tee-to-green. Noren is one of them.”

Aiken's Kevin Kisner is always a fascinating story this time of year given his hometown and his continued love of match play, which was exposed at last year's highly-successful Presidents Cup debut. 

And I don't need to tell you that Bubba Watson and Justin Thomas are two Masters favorites facing off.  As Rex Hoggard notes,

Sunday's TV Times (ET):

Semifinals                                                                              10 a.m.-2 p.m.            Golf Channel
Championship and Consolation Matches                              3-7 p.m.                      NBC

Saturday's highlights from PGA Tour Entertainment:

SUBSCRIBE to PGA TOUR now: http://pgat.us/vBxcZSh In the In the Round of 16 and Quarterfinals of the 2018 World Golf Championships - Dell Technologies Match Play, Justin Thomas scorches through the competition to become the favorite heading into the final day.

Poulter Understandably Fuming After Thinking He Was In Masters Following Quarterfinal Win

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In defense of the number-crunchers, they are working with Official World Golf Ranking algorithms to figure out if Ian Poulter would qualify for The Masters upon graduating to the WGC Dell Match Play quarterfinals. Theoretically, reaching the quarters would have put him in the World top 50 Monday morning and therefore earn a Masters invite based on the top 50 world cut off of March 25.

However, guessing OWGR shifts is dicey business at best. That's why most weeks folks always suggest a "likely" rankings landing spot for a player. Add the match play dynamics and calculations could easily be wrong. 

Nonetheless, you can imagine Ian Poulter's frustration after asking and being told he was in the Masters after his 2&1 win over Louis Oosthuizen.

From Keith Jackson's Sky Sports story:

"I guess I should never listen to other people," said Poulter. "You finish a round of golf and the press and everybody are telling you you're in the Masters, and then you get a text message 10 minutes before you tee off to correct everybody, to say 'oh, we've made a mistake, actually, no, that was wrong, you're not in.'"

Poulter lost to Kevin Kisner 8&6 after finding out the math was wrong and he needed to win that match for a Masters berth.

His Tweet to the people...