Masters
We love this week. Seriously.
And as a fan, Wednesday may be the most fun day to attend. The par 3 is magical. The players are out in full force in the morning, and no one has made a bogey yet or four-jacked it from 12 feet, so everyone is in a great mood.
Before we get to our Masters list of the day, we want to remind everyone of the Masterfully Mastering the Mastery that is the Masters contest. Pick five golfers. Your four best scores count. Each golfer gets points that match his finish (Winner gets 1; tied for eighth gets 8; you get the idea) and lowest score wins. We’re in, we’re out. No muss, no fuss.
We’ll start with an early flyer of Dustin Johnson, Jordan Speith, Jason Day, Bubba Watson, Hideki Matsuyama. Go. We have about a dozen players so far. Deadline is 8 a.m. tomorrow. There are a lot of favorites in our list – including DJ, who is far and away the odds-on choice to win this weekend – but you may want to cast a broader net.
According to the folks at SportsLine.com, last year’s winner – Danny Willett – was a 125-to-1 long shot, and five of the last six winners opened the event with odds greater than 20-to-1. (The average odds of those five winners was 58-to-1.) As for today’s list, let’s go with the five best moments we saw live at Augusta. We went to every tournament save one from Sunday’s round in 2002 to 2014, so we have a fairly large pool.
1. Tiger’s chip on 16 in ’05. We’re pretty sure that’s the loudest roar ever. (Or at least since Sunday in ’86.)
2. Mickelson’s birdie on 18 to win his first major in ’04. That was watching a moment that you knew changed a person’s life, which is cool in and of itself.
3. Louis Oosthuizen’s amazing 2 at the par-5 second in ’12. Standing behind the green, the entire collection of folks were like, “Wow, that’s a good shot Man, that’s a great shot That ball might IT’S IN THE HOLE.”
4. Bubba’s miracle wedge from the woods in the playoff to win in ’12. Amazing. And made even more amazing when the physics of that shot were explained. It was a 160-yard shot uphill he hooked 50 yards with a 52-degree wedge from the pine straw in the most pressure-packed moment of his life. It stopped 15 feet short of the hole and two putts later, the self-taught kid from Bagdad, Fla., was a Masters champ.
5. Tiger’s chip-in birdie at No. 6 (an vastly underrated hole to watch in person) in ’02 on his way to his third Masters. Man, we miss the old killer that Tiger Woods used to be.
FILE – In this Jan. 1, 2017, file photo, Dallas Cowboys’ Tony Romo smiles on the bench during the second half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia. A person with knowledge of the decision tells The Associated Press that the Dallas Cowboys will release quarterback Tony Romo when the NFL year opens on Thursday. The person spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, on condition of anonymity because the team hasn’t announced a decision on Romo, who will get a chance to pursue a starting job elsewhere. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) CBS’s big week
The Eye network is having a monster run right now.
The NCAA tournament was one of the most-watched in a quarter of a century. Final numbers from the title game were stellar from Monday night. UNC’s win was seen by an average of 22.99 million, according to Neilsen, which is up 30 percent from last year’s championship. That wrapped the second-most-watched total tournament in 23 years, averaging 10.827 million viewers per game. (An increase of 16 from last year.) Only the 2015 tournament drew more viewers, paced in large part by Kentucky trying to go 40-0.
Next for the the Big Eye is the Masters and the focus it will generate. And that’s cool. (Yes, the long-standing tradition of Jim Nantz believing one of the players in the title game wants Jim Nantz’s neck tie took at least a one-year break, according to this story. It was one of the more narcisstic announcing decisions around, but hey, your Jim Nantz and you go from the Final Four to Augusta National each April, so have at it. Jim Nantz looks like the guy that has a 7-foot oil painting of himself in the foyer of his home that is in full view when you open the front door.)
Then, CBS lands Tony Romo to be their lead analysis with Nantz for NFL games. According to this story, this guy believes Romo will be aces.
Regardless, getting to replace Phil Simms, who last we saw was cutting the cheese with Nantz in the playoffs last January, is a great opportunity for anyone.
Who knows, if Romo plays his cards right, maybe he can get one Nantz’s ties.
Lamont Paris, left, is introduced by Athletic Director David Blackburn as the new Mocs basketball coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanoogaon Tuesday.UTC new hire
Here’s TFP ace spots columnist and college hoops expert Mark Wiedmer’s view on new UTC coach Lamont Paris.
Here’s TFP UTC beat ace Mean Gene Henley’s details of the announcement Tuesday. Here are our thoughts, considering that Lamont Paris spent an hour in studio with us on Press Row. (If you missed it, you can listen to the podcast here.)
He looks 10 years younger than his age of 43. He says he’s not a big ‘numbers’ guy when he was asked about analytics, but he is very focused on efficiency and was intent on his desire to average a point per possession.
He does a very good Morgan Freeman impression. Co-host David Paschall asked him his “must-stop movie” and Paris’ answer was “Shawshank Redemption.” Paris then went into a very good Freeman speech from the movie, and he did it on the air in the final segment. Good times.
He’s not afraid to laugh – in general and at himself. Case in point: When asked if he was teased by kids growing up because he shared the same name as Fred Sanford’s son on the great show “Sanford and Son” he said: “All the time.” He said it was no big deal before slyly throwing in there, “Until someone called me a big dummy.” (That was Fred’s general insult for everyone.)
We know lots of people who make a good-to-great first impression. Does that mean they can coach hoops at this level? Not really.
But after spending some time with Paris on Tuesday. it was really hard not to believe that he will find success here. (Little things like admitting to being a basketball nerd and the easy connections he made rather quickly bode well for the skill sets needed to acquire talent and develop talent.)
Thoughts?
This and that
* Skip Bayless has turned a loud voice, a love for the Cowboys and a hatred for LeBron James into a $5 million a year gig hosting a show on Fox Sports. Good for him. Well, it does not come without some backlash, and SI media write Richard Deitsch is among the folks less than impressed. After Bayless unloads critical Tweets – like these recently Tony Romo’s retirement showed he didn’t have a burning desire to win and LeBron follows 52-minute game w team-high 37 mins tonite in what turned into home blowout of MAGIC. Why so many w @Boston tomorrow? Excuse? – Deitsch hits back where all TV people live. With ratings numbers. After each of the above tweets, here’s what Deitsch posted: On Mar. 30 the Bayless-led Undisputed drew 91,000 viewers. On same day/slot: a 1981 episode of M*A*S*H on WGN America drew 319,000. #Excuse and On March 30 the Bayless-led Undisputed drew 91,000 viewers. On the same day/timeslot: Paw Patrol drew 734,000 on Nick Jr. Ouch-standing.
* Speaking of golf earlier, Phil Mickelson took to the podium on Tuesday and when asked about Lexi Thompson’s scoring deal from last weekend, Lefty took a turn and addressed what he called a problem on tour. He says a growing number of folks are very loose with marking their ball on the green, saying some do it intentionally and admitting they all have done it at some point. Interesting, and yes, this will only make the stay-at-home golf officials with the remote in one hand and the Fritos in the other looking twice as closely for rules infractions sadly.
* Here are Thursday’s first-round tee times for the Masters. Also of note, there is no better coverage site on the planet for a specific event than Masters. com. Seriously.
* Kudos to Russell Westbrook, who notched his 41st triple-double of the season to tie the all-time regular season mark. Also, kudos for consistency for LeBron James, who now has scored in double figures in 788 consecutive games, the second longest streak in NBA history behind MJ’s 866.
Today’s question
It’s a one-word Wednesday, so we’ll offer a couple.
Tony Romo as an announcer will be __________. When you think of the Masters, you think _________.
Also, remember to enter the contest.
Finally, if we’re going to do a Rushmore, let’s go here.
Colin Powell is 80 today. Douglas MacArthur died on this day in 1964,
Rushmore of generals. Go.