The Masters: Golf At Its Best - Tiger Under Par Today
2006 Masters Golf Tournament offers big payouts. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, John Daly and Sergio Garcia.Hopefully for you, you’ve got one of those guys in your Masters Tournament pool, because they’re about the only ones who can win this week.
Or so the argument goes.
Seth Soffian of the News-Press explains that thanks to yet another lengthening of Augusta National Golf Club — which will play at 7,445 yards for this week’s 70th Masters, second longest in major championship history — many have argued in recent weeks that only the game’s longest hitters will have a shot at victory.“It eliminates a lot of guys, yeah,” Woods said. “If you hit it low and hit your irons not so high, if you have a flatter ball flight, you’re going to be struggling there.”
“Over four days of competition,” Els said, “it’s going to narrow the field dramatically.”
In the blessedly rain-free days leading up to today’s opening round, however, not only have many of those same people backed off their bold statements, but many more in the 90-man field have stressed that, for all the favor Augusta still provides to the longest hitters, the little guys still can win.
Little guys perhaps the likes of Vijay Singh or Ernie Els who both pay out 12 to 1 odds or $1200 for every $100 bet at Or how about Chris DiMarco with odds of 33 to 1?
He was the 54-hole leader in 2004, the 36-hole leader in 2005, but being the 72-hole leader at the Masters would have a better ring to it.”You’ve got to believe in yourself,” said Chris DiMarco. ”You’ve got to look inside and go, ‘Wow, maybe there is something inside me that I can do it,’ so you have a lot of confidence.”
DiMarco, who ranks 142d on the PGA Tour in driving distance, thinks so, and he has a thorough reason.”Until you get on these greens and you put a flat stick in your hand and you have to putt a putt on these greens, that’s what keeps everybody in the tournament,” said DiMarco, who got into contention that way the last two Aprils. In 2005, he ranked first in putting and fifth in greens in regulation; in 2004, he was ranked 16th and 12th in those categories, respectively. ”Putting is still the key here.”
