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The Hot List Special Masters edition
Posted: Tuesday April 11, 2000 10:00 AM
Sports Illustrated's Alan Shipnuck takes a weekly look at who's hot and who's not in the golf world. HOT 1. Vijay Singh. Golf's most elegant mystery finally reveals himself -- one of the two or three best players in the game. 2. Ernie Els. Big Easy started the year saying his goal was to play better in the majors -- just like everyone else -- but he actually delivered. A couple more putts on Sunday and your new Masters champ is an oversized blond with a goofy grin and a swing that's the sweetest thing this side of Krispy Kreme. 3. Loren Roberts. Most sportswriters can outdrive the Boss of the Moss, but he scrambled like a madman and rekindled memories of the '94 U.S. Open. Wait a minute -- didn't he lose that one, too? 4. Gary Nicklaus's fiancée. O.K., so he lost the BellSouth two weeks ago. And, yes, he arrived in Augusta just in time to watch the Papa Bear get blown away on the weekend. At least life has its consolations. 5. Augusta National's reputation. The course, much like a Brentwood trophy wife, has always undergone it annual nips and tucks. The seductive curve of a fairway will be gently reshaped with a couple of new trees, say, or one of the impossibly firm, beautifully sculpted greens will be upgraded a size, to accommodate a new pin placement. This year it was as if this pretty lady showed up for her party with a ZZ Top-style beard. Rough everywhere; new, tougher sand; pushed back tees; and the same old greens means that the four year Tiger-proofing plan is now complete. NOT 1. Tradition. First comes the rough. Then not reshuffling the pairings for the second round. Then only one eagle on the back nine on Sunday for the entire field. What's next? The Buick Masters, at the TPC of Augusta? 2. David Duval. David, get out of bed. You can't lie there in the dark all day. C'mon, David, it's only the third year in a row you've lost the Masters. You need to stop lying there, moaning. David ... ? 3. My tootsies. Isn't the Masters supposed to be the start of spring? How to explain, then, the frostbite on my extremities? Clifford Roberts never would have allowed that kind of weather. 4. Phil Mickelson. What can I say about Lefty that hasn't already been said in this space? Uh, I liked his belt on Friday. The onetime boy wonder turns 30 on the first day of the U.S. Open. Phenomhood has officially ended. 5. Tiger Woods. The glass is half-full: The kid played awful for two days, yet still gave himself a chance to win on Sunday. The glass is half-empty: The kid played awful for two days. Me, I'm a glass-is-half-empty kind of guy.
Don't forget to check out Alan's new column, On Tour, posting each Wednesday. Click here to send him a comment.
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