The azaleas are in full bloom

Opening day is about a week off and I should really do a posting about that. The problem is that I'm much too jazzed about an event that starts on April 5th. The Masters. It is afterall a tradition unlike any other. Besides, Baseball goes on for 162 games so there'll be plenty of time for me to agonize over the M's.

There are 3 moments that stand out for me as I think about Hootie's "toonament". One is Tiger's win as a Rookie in 1997 (the kid won by 12 strokes) The second is Jack's win in 1986 which for me is synonamous with Vern Lundquists' "Yes Sir!". The yellow shirt, the plaid pants, and the raising of the putter that almost all golfers now do without even thinking about it. At the age of 46 with his son Jackie on the bag, The Golden Bear wasn't even on the front page of the leaderboard after the 3rd round:

Greg Norman -6
Seve Ballesteros -5
Bernhard Langer -5
Donnie Hammond -5
Nick Price -5
Tommy Nakajima -4
Tom Kite -4
Tom Watson -4

On Sunday he made one of the more legendary charges of any tournament in history (let alone The Masters). He parred the 8th hole after hitting his drive into the trees, birdied the 9th, 10th, and 11th hole, and played the next three holes at even par (bogey, birdie par). And then on 15 he hit a perfect drive. He looks over to his son Jack Jr. and asks him how far he thought a 3 would go here. Most would think he was asking how far a 3 iron would travel but in fact he was pondering the ramifications of what it would mean to his chances if he eagled the hole. Smack dab in the middle of what is known as Amen Corner he's thinking "I can win this thing". He got his eagle and on 17 took the lead with the now 2nd most memorable call by Mr. Vern Lundquist.

Why is this call the second most memorable you ask? Because in 2005 Vern happened to be the hole reporter at the 16th on Sunday and what happened then was more than miraculous. It was improbable. If you listen closely you can hear the announcers talk about how difficult this shot is. There are a lot of different clips of this but here's one accompanied by Handel's Messiah. The music is completely unedited and the pause comes at the perfect time. I am unashamed to say that it gave me goosebumps just watching it again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.