Augusta

I spent yesterday watching golf. (Thank you USA Network and the Powers That Be at Augusta National for televising the completion of the 3rd round yesterday morning.) Augusta National is one of the most spectacular places on earth. Forget how beautiful it looks on TV (particularly in high definition!), but when you have actually been there you realize it is close to a perfect golf course. Most importantly, because of its length, lack of rough, and extremely difficult greens, it rewards the best players in the world, so every year, the top few players are at the top of the leaderboard, and this year was no exception.

Now, I'm no Mickelson fan (note my snide remark about him last week), but he played some great golf yesterday. To see Phil play an error free round on a Sunday at a major was an amazing turn of events. He appears in worse shape than usual (Mrs. Bartender asked if he had a breast enlargement), but his game is as good as it has ever been. He also had the perfect partner yesterday in Couples, a guy as easy going as Phil.

And Phil has now solidified his position as the second best player in the world. We still need, however, what the entire golf world wants--a Sunday battle in a major with Tiger. He has only had one such battle (not in a major) last year at Doral and, of course, Tiger won. Until Phil beats Tiger head to head (or at least when Tiger is pressuring him, as he did not yesterday), I will not believe that Phil could handle that pressure. Perhaps they will finally create a reprise of the '77 British Open (for those non-golf afficionados--Watson and Nicklaus lapped the field with Watson beating Jack by a stroke). Certainly the networks are praying for it.

Looking forward to Winged Foot in 2 months.