Golf: SPOX-Par-10 at the Masters in Augusta: With Patrick Reed the HSV would be second!

Patrick Reed wins the first major title of his career at the Masters in Augusta. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson push frustration, Sergio Garcia experiences the bitterest title defence of all time and Jordan Spieth hates stupid branches. The SPOX-Par-10 for the first major of the year.

Let’s start with the defending champion and the bitterest title defence of all time. Sergio Garcia putted a good putt on day one on hole 15. Problem? The putt was to 13! To the Octuple-Bogey! Octuple-Bogey, how that sounds. The Spaniard hit the ball five times in a row, so five times he hit it on the green, but five times he rolled back and got wet. I can’t stand it.

Worst score ever at 15 in Augusta. Worst opening round (81) of a defending champion ever. It’s just bad. But hey, after that round, Mrs. Angela and daughter Azalea were waiting for Garcia, he can get over it.

And the next time we play a 13, we can think about it. And if we should putt in the bunker, we can also think of Bubba Watson. He managed this trick on Sunday at the 2nd Stark, Bubba!

Whoever saw Phil Mickelson in the interviews after his rounds saw a very frustrated man. A very frustrated man, whose head was like this: “Yes, fuck me, I fuckin’ play golf! How I don’t want to play here when I’m cucumbering in 40th!”

But actually everything was done. Mickelson was in incredible shape in the first months of the year, he had won a big tournament in Mexico, he had to be one of the top favourites for Augusta. But after a solid start it went downhill on day 2 (79) and at the latest when he lay on day 3 at the 1 in the forest and once even hit an air hole, everything was too late.

A 67 in the final round brought Lefty up to 36th place, but he won’t be happy about it anymore. Mickelson knows that he no longer has so many chances at his age, that was a completely wasted week.

The next frustrated one after Mickelson was Woods, Tiger. What shall we do with this performance of Tiger? Somehow they expected more, he looked so good after his last comeback, but on the other hand we must not forget that six months ago he didn’t even know if he could play golf again. That’s how devastating his physical condition was.

Now, fortunately, this is no longer an issue at all and we are talking about golfing problems. That his iron game in Augusta was suddenly a complete catastrophe out of nowhere. He cut out outstanding drives and did not hit the green with the praise wedge, it was partly inexplicable.

And if Tiger’s putter had obeyed Day 4, a 69 would easily have been 65 or 64. No question, 32nd place does not interest Tiger the bean, but he also knows that it is a process until he will win tournaments again. And he will win tournaments again, ladies and gentlemen. That’s a guarantee.

Final round, 16th hole, you can expect that there will be an ace. This year it was Charley Hoffman who provided one of the scenes of the week with the 12th Hole-in-One in the last 16 final rounds and then completely freaked out. His iron 6 almost landed in the bunker, but so it became the 1 and Hoffman moved up to rank 12.

Not completely unimportant, because the Top 12 are automatically qualified for the next Masters tournament again.

The irony of Hoffman’s ace? His flight partner was Tony Finau on Sunday. Finau of all people, you might say. It was Finau who managed a hole-in-one at the par 3 contest on Wednesday.

He too rejoiced afterwards, well, intensively, dislocating his left ankle. Just to push the joint back in place seconds later. It’s a hell of a scene.

Whether Finau would be able to tee was suddenly completely unclear. But in the meantime he was and still is in the lead in lap 1. Such stories are only written by football, um, golf. Finau couldn’t maintain his level all week, but thanks to six birdies in a row on Sunday’s Back Nine, he still finished 10th. Clearly, Tony Finau has a great future ahead of him and is certainly a potential major champion.

10-6: Garcia’s 13 and the frustration of Phil and Tiger

5-1: The Stupid Branch and the Triumph of Captain America