2022 Masters Day 1 The tournament leader after day 1, Sungjae Im, carried his 'owner', Andy, to the first day top spot and $22.05 already. Andy's 353 beat second place Sobo who had 357, narrowly edging Ikey with 358 and Al with 359. Bringing up the rear are my team, tied with Mags, both at 368. The course once again looked spectacular. Despite the heavy rains, the players did not torch the course with super low scores as Justin Thomas did at Medinah in Chicago 2 years ago at the BMW. I was not shocked to see Rory miss so many putts. Spieth also struggled with the flat stick. Depending on the winds tomorrow, scores could go either super low (minimal winds) or very high with stronger winds I like the chances of both Cam Smith and Scottie Scheffler, but with a bunched leaderboard, anyone with 10 shots has a chance. Please add commentary if you would like. Oh, by the way, Tiger played. If you were watching while he played, you may have thought he was the only player on the course. but I digress. Is everyone watching the coverage on Masters.com? You can click on any player on any hole and see each shot. Amazing technology. You've got to see this if you haven't' found it already!!! My Friday recap may not come out until Saturday AM. Enjoy the TV coverage. Hans Very impressive to see Cameron Smith come back from the double bogey on #1 to play the next 16 holes in an amazing -8… Only to put up a bookend double bogey on #18. Pretty amazing. Brooks K look like he was ready to do some damage, -2 at the turn with the eye of the Tiger. No pun intended. Shocking to see him play the back 9 in 5 over par, 41. Greg Norman only shot 40 during his meltdown on the back 9 against Nick Faldo. Rory failed to get out of the gate yet again. A few birdies on number 13 and number 15 could have at least gotten them in underpar. He needs a big day tomorrow if he wants to compete. Scottie played very well as the new number one player in golf. The former number one, Rahm, looked mediocre at best. Which was a lot better than his other sourpuss buddy, Justin Thomas. I know that Tiger stole 80% of the TV time, but pretty shocking that they did not show a single swing of Justin Thomas. I usually have no use for Sungjae Im… And I have far less when he is leading this tournament and he is on Andy's team! Andy: I can live with Scottie winning his 4th event of the year and his first major… But please, not Im! Albert THAT’S funny! I see what you did there…. Forget our little pool: Jordan! Make a putt!!!! Andy I'm glad you appreciated that. I was thinking of putting a parenthetical "H" in front of "Im", but I figured that a bunch of Notre Dame graduates would get the pun without it. Albert Day 2 Scottie Scheffler put on a show this afternoon. He proved he is deserving of his #1 ranking. A 5 shot lead heading into the weekend. Very Impressive. Also impressive were the 2nd day scores of the Happy Hookers. Andy's boys edged out Gabes' Foreskins by 1 shot! Going into the weekend, the Hookers have a commanding 8 shot lead over Ikey's Heroes, 4 over the Foreskins and 8 over Al's Dimpled Balls and Sobo's Pinseekers. The cut line said good bye to 13 players (actually 12 and one WD) Favorites such as Spieth, Koepka, DeChambeau, Schauffele, and Woodland are on their way home. Gabes' Foreskins were hurt the most, with only 3 still playing. Fox's Red Foxes, on the other hand, have all 6 playing the weekend. Jack, good news and bad news. Good news: Stewart Cink made a hole in one! Bad news, he missed the cut and is on his way to Hilton Head to defend his title from 2021. Tiger Woods gritted through a tough round and is still standing. His face was strained walking up the 18th. He's got to be in alot of pain.... Did I say yesterday that I liked Scheffler to win it all? And did I back that hunch up with a side bet? yes. And finally, I was rooting for Adam Scott to make the 8 foot putt on 18 to make the cut on the number. He is a good guy, despite being on the Red Foxes. Enjoy the action tomorrow, Once again, i would appreciate any and all comments on today's action. Hans Great write up Hans. I will add a few comments. How about Brooks K? Over the first 2 days, he played the front 9 in aggregate -2. Pretty darn good. But he played the back 9… Pretty benign and gettable from number 13 to the clubhouse… And in aggregate 80, +8. He was 3 over par and inside the cut line heading into the back 9 yesterday, even par would have gotten him into the weekend. Gabes, normally I would revel in your pain. But I had selected Brooks in a Calcutta pool; his missing the cut will cost me and my partner upwards of $100. He blows! On the flipside, what a gutsy performance from Billy H. He limped through the front 9 and found himself +6 as he made the turn. But unlike Brooks, he sucked it up and shot -3 on the back, making the cut and playing the weekend. Why do I care? Billy is on Andy's team, and as you all know Andy is my archenemy. The Joker to my Batman… Lex Luthor to my Superman. But Billy H was also a Calcutta selection of mine. Had he flamed out, I and my partner stood to lose $10 for EACH of the 11 competitive selections that were drafted in his Flite. So in addition to my Dimpled Balls, I will be rooting for Rory, Bubba, and Billy H. As for Andy's team… Yesterday I said that I wouldn't mind seeing Scottie win the Masters but please, not Im. Who knew that my words could be so powerful? Im struggles with a 74 and Scottie sizzles with the 67. So let me say this before they tear off today: here's hoping that Billy H is his only golfer to break par today and that DJ and Corey Connors shoot matching 66's! :-) Enjoy moving day at the Masters. Let's hope that Scottie comes down to earth and we have a tight leaderboard for the final round Albert Great write up, indeed, Hans. And Al, yours here isn’t too shabby either. But I would especially like to thank you both for NOT mentioning that, despite my team’s early success, Charl Schwartzel (-3) is hanging out in the bag room where I left him…. Andy Day 3 Wow, a very interesting finish on Saturday leading up to what should be a fantastic day on Sunday. Scottie survived a terrible drive on 18 to somehow make a bogie, leaving him only 3 ahead of Mr Mullet. Our pool results mirrored the event somewhat. Andy's Hookers remained in the lead after 3 rounds, but only by 2 shots over Ikey's Hookers. There was only 1 score in the 60's, with Cam Smith shooting 68. Conditions were very difficult. The flags were blowing all day, leading to the high scores. Topping our pool for day 3 were the Red Foxes in first, and Al's Dimpled Balls in second. Either of their teams could finish in the top 2 and three of the current top 4 teams will, in my expectation, take home the pool cash. Best shot of the day? Schwartzel's hole out for eagle on #10! Very impressive. Worst shot? too many to count. Before writing this report, I saw a headline that Woods shot his worst score ever at the Masters. No shit. Expectations for him are way to high given what he has been through. I was surprised by his poor putting, but that 46 year old just cannot compete at the highest level in his condition against world class players half his age. Hopefully CBS will focus coverage on the final group tomorrow, unless someone ahead of them gets hot.. Tiger is a nice story and gets ratings, but enough is enough. Hans Day 4 The 4 putt on 18 did not cost the Happy Hookers top prize for the first major of 2022. Congrats to Andy. A wire to wire victory! He has Scottie Scheffler, primarily, along with decent play by his initials guys, Im and Na. I think we'll be talking about Scheffler winning for a while. There may be jockeying for last place to get 1st draft pick in 2023 to select Scheffler. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Red Foxes, riding McIlroy's 64 on Sunday took top honors for the day, with the Hookers in 2nd. Not coincidentally, overall winners were 1 Hookers 2 Red Foxes 3 Hagen's Heroes yes, Ikey's boys picked up a sweet 67 by Collin Morikawa on Sunday, and Smith didn't screw up too much.... Congrats to the winners. As for Sunday play, i saw a fair amount and had the following observations - - MO-mentum was very much in play. Smith had it early with birdies on 1 and 2, and Scottie getting it back with the chip in on #3. That hole may be the key to the day, more than #12. - on #12, Smith was just coming off of a great birdie on 11 - a very difficult hole, only to hit his worst shot of the tournament, at exactly the wrong time. Many have done this before him, but in this case, misery does not like company. - there were ALOT of tee balls hit into the trees. And more often than not, the pros found a way to escape with little of no damage. - overall the scores were WAAY better today, due primarily to the weather. - did you see how softly so many of the putts were hit because the greens were like table tops they were soooo fast. I watched Tiger and Rahm on the Masters Live broadcast for most of their rounds. And I have to say that I am very impressed with how Tiger performed. He has been through hell and back with this latest injury and not only made the weekend, admirably competed. Yes, he gets alot of network coverage. And as a 24 year participant in the Masters and 5 time winner, he has earned it. We will likely not see him in a tour event for many weeks if not months. Nevertheless, it was good to see him in the field. So, thats a wrap on the 1st major. Next is the US Open in Boston. We'll cover that in June. Hans Hans Hans, Great job and great write up. In addition to this pool, I had gambling action on Cameron Smith. And as Hans pointed out, when he birdied the first 2 holes to pull within one, I thought that we were going to have a great masters with this year's 2 best players. Man, did that turn around in a heartbeat on #3, Scotty hits his approach first and is short, going down into the valley. Smith has a 70 yard shot… An opportunity to put the hammer down. But he makes the same mistake! Incredibly, Scotty chips it in for birdie and Smith failed to get up and down. Instantly, the lead was back to 3 and it might as well have been 13. Kudos to Rory for charging up the leaderboard on Sunday with the sizzling 64, shockingly finishing 2nd after being a nonfactor after the first 2 rounds. But he still needs a green jacket for the career grand slam. Maybe next year. Albert Winners Andy Sobo Gabes Fox Al Ikey Day 1 22.05 9.45 Day 2 22.05 9.45 Day 3 22.05 9.45 Day 4 9.45 22.05 Final Total 53.55 9.45 9.45 44.10 9.45 0.00 113.4 47.25 28.35 166.95 9.45 9.45 91.35 9.45 28.35