| Up & Down |
| Phil Mickelson Lefty shot a brilliant 31 on the final nine to knock King Kong off his back and prove that the new Phil is for real. |
Tiger Woods What's the difference between determined and stubborn? Determined is letting Butch Harmon rebuild your swing after the '97 Masters. Stubborn is not calling him now. |
| TV viewers For the second year in a row we got to watch the first nine as well as the second, and we got it all without commercials. |
TV viewers CBS blew Mickelson's big finish, cutting to the crowd before his approach at 18 came to a stop, showing the winning putt from an odd angle and almost completely missing his hug with Amy. |
| Arnold Palmer Arnie was pure class, as usual, during his 50th and final Masters, even shedding a few tears after his last lap. |
Jack Nicklaus His postcut gripe about never playing Augusta again made it look as if he was trying to steal Arnie's thunder on the King's big day. |
| Back nine on Sunday Despite all the course changes and high scores in earlier rounds, at least half a dozen players mounted serious charges on the final holes. |
First-round leaders Justin Rose and Darren Clarke lit it up on Thursday, but Clarke missed the cut and Rose's third-round 81 squashed his chances. |
| Casey Wittenberg His classy even-par 288 silenced critics and made him low amateur and 13th overall -- good for an invite to next year's Masters -- while topping two guys who beat him last summer. |
Nick Flanagan, Gary Wolstenholme The reigning U.S. and British Amateur champions, respectively, fell flat, missing the cut and spoiling their chances for invitations to return next year. |
| Sergio García It took him a while to get started, but for nine holes on Sunday he was once again the most exciting player under age 25 in the world. |
Sergio García His petulant post-Masters comments about a lack of press were laughable. He hasn't won in two years yet still gets more ink than most guys on Tour. |
| Shaun Micheel Playing in his first ever Masters, he continued to defy predictions of his demise, shooting a two-over 290 to become the only one of last year's major winners to play on the weekend. |
Mike Weir Call the Mounties. The little lefty from Canada had his dream of winning back-to-back green jackets stolen when he missed the cut. |
| John and Sherrie She pleaded guilty but stayed out of jail, and although he missed the cut, he made an admirable run and hinted that he may, at last, become a consistent force on the PGA Tour. |
Hootie and Martha One year later there is no clear winner or loser, though the issue has not gone away and history is sure to wed the unhappy couple forever. |
|
|
|
.
Heard on the Range
| Trust Me |
| Phil Mickelson's stirring win was the second-best Masters ever, coming in just ahead of Jack Nicklaus's victory in 1986 at age 46 but behind Tiger Woods's epochal romp in '97. |
|
|
|
Jay Haas Jr., caddying for his dad during last Saturday's third round of the Masters, got a bloody nose on the front nine that wouldn't stop bleeding. By the end of the round the 23-year-old's jumpsuit was covered in blood.... Ian Poulter, the fashionable 28-year-old Englishman, wanted to set the record straight about a rumor that Masters officials prevented him from dying his hair green for the tournament. "That's not factual," said Poulter, who wore pink for his Thursday round. "I have too much respect for my hair and the club." ... Poulter's countryman, 26-year-old Paul Casey, stayed loose before rounds by cranking the Bee Gees and The Cult as he rolled down Magnolia Lane. At one point he and his wife pounded on the dash so hard that they broke the CD player.... When John Daly's drive at the 7th hole on Thursday hit Donald Blincoe on the head and bounced back onto the fairway, Blincoe, who's from the self-proclaimed bourbon capital of the world (Bardstown, Ky.), got this advice from a grateful Daly: "Go get yourself a whiskey or something." ... South Carolina football coach Lou Holtz was spotted in the clubhouse in his green jacket. Asked about his Augusta membership, Holtz joked, "We try to keep it a secret." ... Kevin Hall, a senior at Ohio State, last week became the first deaf player to win a major college tournament, taking the Marshall Invitational in Huntingdon, W.Va. -- J.G., Farrell Evans
Issue date: April 19, 2004
