Masters Golf 2021

[Ken4155]

The Masters returns to it's usual April slot tomorrow , just 4 months after the 2020 version was played out in November, and i have been running my beadies over the 'runners'.

I have swerved some of the more obvious choices for various reasons; Koepke has just recently had a knee operation, De Chambeau treated the Augusta course with disdain in November, and paid heavily for doing so, Speith won a tournament last week and no player since 2006 has won a tournament prior to lifting the title. and McIlroy often flatters to deceive.

While the last player to win back to back Masters titles was Tiger Woods in 2001, i believe that Dustin Johnson is more than capable of emulating that feat. Finishing with -20 in last year's tournament, he was 5 shots ahead of the field. £5 win @ 9/1.*
Xander Schauffele - tied for 2nd in 2019. £1.50 e.w. @ 20/1
Lee Westwood - one of the old men in the line up but currently in good form. £1.50 e.w. @ 28/1
Tony Finau - 2 top ten finishes from 3 visits to Augusta. £1.50 e.w. @ 28/1
Webb Simpson - tied for 5th in Nov, 2nd top ten finish in a row. £1 e.w. @ 30/1
Phil Mickelson - woefully out of form, end of career in sight. Out with a bang? £1 e.w. @ 100

All bets with SkyBet who are paying 1/5th odds to 1 places

Best of luck to anyone else having a punt

[grumpy01]

Also,no player who has one the Par 3 tournament has ever one the Masters.Who are the ceremonial starters this year?

[grumpy01]

Re par 3 tournament.In the same year that is.

[angie55]

Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Elder, the first black man to play in the Masters.

[grumpy01]

Due to social distancing there was no Par 3 tournament this year.Thanks for the information Angie55.

[Ken4155]

Reigning champ, Dustin Johnson, began his defence of the title by finishing +2 after going 3+ for the last 3 holes. Early days.
Surprise leader on -7 is our very own Justin Rose, 4 ahead of the field. He was 2 over after 7 holes but then completed the rest of the course in 9 under. If none of my bets oblige, i wouldn't be unhappy seeing Rose lift the title. However. early days.
The rest of my selections had mixed fortunes; Simpson -2, Schauffele ended on level par, Finau is on +2 with Johnson, Mickelson is p
+3 while Westwood had a poor first day ending on +6.
Early days.

[Ken4155]

Two of my selections have fallen by the wayside and are on their way home, Lee Westwood and, surprisingly, Dustin Johnson.
Tony Finau is now my main hope in that he lies just 3 shots off the lead with -4.Xander Schauffele is just a stroke behind, while Simpson +2 and Mickelson +3 need to vastly improve their game and hope others falter.

[Stickybottle]

It was sad watching the highlights and not hearing Peter Aliss rip

[Ken4155]

The last day of the tournament and i basically have the one realistic chance of having backed the winner. Xander Schauffele has improved steadily over the last 3 days and now sits in joint 2nd place, albeit 4 strokes behind the leader, Japan's Hideki Matsuyama. If Schauffele continues his improvement, i ought to get some e.w. money back at the very least.
Tony Finau is also in with a shout of grabbing some e.w. cash for me, sitting on -3.
I wrongly suggested that Dustin Johnson would be on his way home after missing Saturday's cut. Of course he has to remain in Augusta to drape the Green Jacket on Xander Schauffele - er, i mean the eventual winner:-)

[Khandro]

I tuned in to BBC 2 this morning for a resumé of play which was accompanied by appallingly noisy background music, so bad I couldn't follow the broadcast, would anyone agree?

I have just made a formal complaint to them, why would anyone want this invasive sound ?

[brainiac]

Happens in all sorts of TV shows now - even The Antiques Roadshow is plastered with music between every appraisal. Grrr

[Ken4155]

17th and it looks as if, barring a miracle of gigantic proportions, Matsuyama (-11, level par today)will take the title and i'll have to settle for place money with Schauffele, equal 3rd (possible outright 3rd) on -7 (level par today).

[Ken4155]

No miracle - just a bogey on the 18th for the Japanese and Schauffele finished level par for the round to claim a tie for 3rd. So a bit of something back to soften the blow - just £4.50 down.

[choux]

Well done, Ken. I have just watched the highlights on BBC2. I tend to find Augusta a bit boring now. The Americans don't seem to bother with things such as wind speed so it is a bit hard to get a feeling how the course is playing. Thought some of the play around the greens was a bit disappointing and kept hearing Henry Longhurst's voice saying "the ball that was never up was never in", (not including the times Matsuyama went through the greens). I noticed only Zalatoris seemed to have the ability to put some back spin on the ball.

Many good golfers there but how many great ones? I would love to see the same players at our links, especially St. Andrews on a wet and windy day. Talking of which, I remember well the "sands of Nakajima" in 1978. Poor chap, a great golfer but not on that day in the Road Bunker. He never gave his club the Tiger treatment - well done.

If you want to see how he should have played then stick with the 2nd video on this link and enjoy Gary Player's tutorial - magic.