The karma of Immelman

The karma of Immelman's victory will be much discussed tomorrow. The guy's had such a man-crush on Gary Player for so long, and if you watched, you heard through the broadcast that Player left a message for him this morning, expressing his complete confidence that he'd win. That's an enormous gift to carry around on the final day of Augusta with the wind blowing.

Nearly as big a story is this: Tiger's tournament was completely off. There were so few great putts, only one today, a lot of blown putts under ten feet, and even a three-putt on an easy green. There were a couple of rims, there were a lot of extra swings because of all the bad drives he hit, and there was absolutely no luck to be had for him.

Yet the guy finishes second. When you think of the golf he played, and how no shots seemed to drop for him, it seems impossible.

Snedeker is the best new face in golf: happy-go-lucky, steps up and hits the ball immediately after setting up. He might take the place of John Daly as being an unlikely perennial crowdpleaser; all he needs is a few bad habits.

Funny, Uncle Phil almost backed into the money, despite teeing off on the final day an hour before the contenders. Without hitting that pin yesterday and bizarrely richocheting off the green, he might have put enough pressure on to finish in it.

It was great to start a blog like street-hassle-golf, a soft green that's ready to go for the PGA. I'll be yanking it off the sidebar tomorrow, but those who clicked, thanks for reading.

Immelman, again

Birdie-birdie on 17 and 18 and Immelman closes with the lead well in hand. But Brandt Snedeker has been just as much fun to watch, and seems to be having an even better time.

What goes around comes around: on Thursday, Mickelson hit a pin and the ball dropped in the hole, saving a hopeless par. But yesterday he hit a pin again, this time on an iron shot, and the ball, with tons of backspin that would have set it down perfectly, instead caromed like a superball and almost ran off the green.

Somebody found something at The Masters that wasn't named: a pond. Even some of the trees have names there. The holes are all named after foliage on them.

On moving day, Tiger made a small move, not a big one. His long putts are all close but he can't find an eagle. We did see the graphic again: he's never won a Slam in which he's trailed after 54 holes. And the other graphic: he's a couple strokes over on the 3s and 4s lifetime, but 88 strokes under at Augusta on the par fives.