Blaine Train Recaps The Masters
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 10:18PM 
By Blaine Fentress
Senior Writer for lancewilkerson.com
Hello, my name is Blaine Train, how can I help you? Train Stop: Diary of a Mad Final Round at the Masters
All right, I had more than one person come up to me about this last week. Maybe I wasn’t being clear or it was the wrong choice of words. Anyway, John Wooden might be the greatest college basketball coach ever. Coach K is the greatest college basketball coach right now. But, if Coach K stays at Duke for another 10-20 years, I would have to say that would help him surpass Wooden. Sorry if there was any confusion.
Anyway, it is Sunday night and I just got off of work. Since starting to work on the weekends, I miss a few things here and there that normally I would be able to watch live. But, I don’t sweat it like I use to, thanks to probably one of the greatest inventions in the last few years…DVR.
Do you imagine what life use to be like before DVR? Sure, some people would use their VCRs to record programming. But, that had to include a tape that would be long enough to record the show and sometimes, those tapes were of bad quality. But, thanks to DVR, I don’t have to deal with tapes. I just find the program in the guide and hit record.
Why bring this up? Today was the final round of the Masters. One of my favorite days of the year. When I was young, I remember laying on the floor in the living room, with the cool air blowing through the open windows, and listening to Jim Nantz’s voice as I would usually nap through the front 9 holes for the leader’s group. It was a simpler time then.
But, as I have grown up, I have come to love the Masters even more. And, with the storylines going into the final round, I needed to record this thing ASAP. Would Tiger overcome everything that has happened in the last few months to come back and win his first tournament back? Would Lee Westwood finally win that first major? Would Phil Mickelson get the lead and not blow it? I have to watch this from beginning to end. And, what better way to help make this more fun than to write:
(The time will in hours format from the start of the broadcast)
0:01 --- All right, have my water in hand. Shoes are off and laying on my couch. Laptop right next to me and the DVR looks to have recorded the program. However, there is a break in the little bar at the bottom on the screen. IT BETTER HAVE RECORDED THE FINAL PUTT OR I WILL BE A LITTLE RIFFED. Time for Jim to recap the third round. So many good shots.
0:07 --- First great camera shot of the day: Tiger and Phil on the driving range, tee off around the same time. As a photographer, I enjoy it when you get these types of shots. Sometimes they come from planning, sometimes just dumb luck.
0:08 --- Nathan Green with the Hole-In-One at 16. I thought that the hole placements on the final round would not be in spots people could get it in from the tee. He might be +231 for the tournament, but he will remember that shot for the rest of his life.
0:09 --- “Hello friends, Jim Nantz here with you and welcome to a tradition unlike any other, The Masters on CBS.” Every year, the same line he opens with from the cabin. It is like a call to the post.
0:14 --- Adam Scott’s eagle on 7 was probably one of the craziest shots I have ever seen. He hits it well left of the hole, trying to catch the slope. The announcer thought he missed it but, the ball slowly, slowly kept rolling and rolling. It does finally catch that slope and like a heat-seeking missile, it makes it into the cup. Man, if shots like that are going to fall in today, this will be one long diary.
0:25 --- My first fast-forward of the day gets me past the opening ceremonies and up to Tiger’s tee off. No offense to Arnold or Jack, but I have seen that ceremony for the past three days. David Heckard and I were at the station when Tiger decided to cuss and tell the ball that it sucked. Laughter from the office ensued. Yeah, Tiger will calm down after bad shots now. Yeah right.
0:28 --- Fred Couples almost had the ball stay on the 1st green … from the 9th fairway!!! That was a little odd. Scrambles and saves par. Wish I could do that. I would have just gave up and sat in the golf cart the rest of the round.
0:31 --- Second jaw-dropping moment (JDM from now on) Tiger’s tee shot at 1. I have never seen him just drop his club like that on the follow through. At least he didn’t cuss or anything like that. Bogey to start off the day.
0:41 --- What is up with the golfers hitting far left on the tee shots at 1? Lee Westwood just followed Fred and Tiger. It doesn’t look like there is a wind or anything. BTW, do you agree or disagree that Phil’s popularity might be at a all-time high? The crowd was ROARING at the tee.
0:47 --- Third J.D.M : Westwood hitting the tree on his second shot at 1. It does land in the fairway, but he will have to scramble to get a par. You can just hear the ball knock off of that tree. Yeah, I know I am spending too much time on the first hole but, getting off to a good start, even on 1, is very important in the final round. Some golfers start to sink early on and they get out of contention fast.
0:50 --- Freddy blows the short eagle putt on 2. He gets the birdie but, eagles will be the best way to get up the leader board fast today. Especially with Lee and Phil playing as good as they are.
0:54 --- Phil misses the two-shot swing into the lead at 1 but, Lee drops a stroke. See, it can go away like that.
0:57 --- Fourth J.D.M. : Tiger, hitting in the bunker on 2, doesn’t clear the lip and it ends up just a couple feet away from him in the same bunker. Early on, this doesn’t look very promising for Tiger.
1:00 --- HERE COMES CHOI !!!! Birdies 2nd and is only two back of the lead. Probably the second greatest golfer coming out of South Korea. Who is the first you asked? Jason Pumo, former South Korean golfer and current producer at the TV station.
1:02 --- Fifth J.D.M. comes from FREDDY with the monster birdie putt on 3. He was one of my first favorite golfers back in the early ‘90s when I started watching. He usually drives the ball great and has a good short game.
1:09 --- The trees have it in for Phil as a leaf fell right onto the green before he took his birdie putt on 2. The ball runs over the leaf and heads in a different direction. John Denver had it all wrong: PLANTING TREES HURTS GOLF GAMES, JOHN. He pars the hole with Lee getting his Birdie, up by 1 again.
1:25 --- Two bogeys in the first four holes for Tiger. Since the start of the round, he hasn’t looked all that good yet. His drives haven’t gone where he wanted them to go, his short game doesn’t seem to have any touch, and he hasn’t nailed a huge putt yet. Bad start.
1:35 --- Lee with the bogey on 4 puts him back in a tie with Phil. Two bogeys to start off for Lee will not get the job done today, my friend. Sure, the back nine has a mine of its own but, not a good start for Mr. Westwood.
1:38 --- Tiger blows another par putt as I hit the Jose C. Margarita Mix, complete with the tequila mixed in. This diary will only get better at this point.
1:40 --- Miguel Angel Jimenez with the chip shot eagle on 16 gets the sixth J.D.M. of the day. He is the second best golfer from Spain, I believe. Who is the first? Jason Pumo again. He changed nationalities back in ’98.
1:48 --- Lee hit’s a birdie to go back up by 1 at the fifth hole. Bogey, birdie, bogey, birdie…everything is balancing itself out. But, those two birdies should have helped him get a bigger lead on the competition.
1:50 --- Ryan Moore with the seventh J.D.M. with the hole-in-one on 16. He was wearing a green tie. Who plays golf with a formal green tie. Ryan Moore does. The ball landed in the middle of the green and just rolled straight into the hole.
1:57 --- Eighth J.D.M. moment comes from Tiger, who nails the 2nd shot from the fairway on 7 in for an eagle. You see, he plays bad, nails a big shot, and gets back into it.
2:10 --- Great bunker shot by Lee almost holed in on 7. Why is everybody nailing these chip shots near the hole.
2:22 --- A pair of birdies on 8 has Choi tied with Phil for second and Tiger back to even par for the day. Something tells me the back nine is going to be crazy.
2:27 --- Freddy with the birdie at 9 puts him 2 back of the lead. Can he become the oldest person to win a major? And, does it make me feel old remembering that I used to cheer him on when I was a kid. Man, time for some more margaritas.
2:29 --- Phil FINALLY with a birdie to tie for the lead at 12 under. He has had some chances, now it is put up or shut up time. That sounded more fierce than what it was.
2:45 --- A three-putt bogey by Lee at 9 puts Phil in the lead for the first time today. Phil had to scramble to save par on the hole. Now, we are hitting the back 9 for everyone, which means things are about to get interesting real quick here.
2:50 --- Choi-mania is hitting a fever pitch as K.J. ties for the lead with Phil, who has hit a horrible drive on 10. Pumo just watches and laughs, knowing he is still the darling of South Korea.
3:00 --- So, in reality, there are only 5 golfers yet who has a chance to win the Masters. This number will start to dwindle within the hour and it might have started with Fred, who finds the water hazard at 12. The water hazards will be the death of at least two of the golfers. Watch out, Tiger.
3:06 --- NO PUN INTENDED ALERT: Woods has hit into some woods, where he hit it into more woods. He ends up with a bogey to kill his momentum.
3:09 -- A double-bogey has dropped Fred to 5 back of the lead. I think we can now eliminate him from contention to win the Masters…on CBS. But, Anthony Kim fooled me and now is only 3 back of the lead. He is having a hot round and will put up a good number ahead of everyone.
3:19 --- Tiger with the great par save on 12 keeps him 4 back of the lead. I was very close to scratching him off my list. Look he can get 4 birdies in the next 4 holes. But, I believe that Choi, Lee, and Phil are just playing more consistent than Woods is.
3:20 --- While Choi makes his par putt…DO YOU KNOW: They hold two parades in South Korea. One is for K.J. that just only goes three blocks. The other is for Jason Pumo, which circles the entire county twice.
3:22 --- Anthony Kim with the eagle on 15 puts him one back of the lead. Kim has had a great round and now I am starting to wonder if the number he puts up at the clubhouse will imitate Phi and the others.
3:23 --- I was waiting for this all tournament long…Tiger after a bad golf shot: “God, Ti-ger!” As you can see, I believe certain people have gotten in his ear that he needs to clean up the language. Remember, CBS is still dealing with the FCC about the Super Bowl Halftime show, last thing they need is for Tiger to drop the F-bomb on national television.
3:28 --- Phil says, I AM MAN, with a big birdie putt on 12 to put him at 13-under par. He leads by one over Choi, two ahead of Kim and Lee.
3:32 --- Kim says, WAIT A MINTUE, I AM A MAN TOO with the long birdie putt on 16 to keep pace with Phil. Unless Lee does something soon, I think we might be left with the final three.
3:36 --- Apparently, Kim doesn’t want to be the man because he has hit his tee shot on 17 onto the 15th fairway.
3:38 -- Choi drops a stroke and bogeys on 13 to put him two back of Phil and one back of Kim. South Korea is now turning to their statue of Pumo, asking what needs to be done.
3:41 --- Best shot of the tournament by Phil. He was in the rough after his tee shot on the par 5. He hit it between two trees in pine needles, over the creek that is in front of the green, just short of the hole to give him a great eagle try. If he nails the eagle, the tournament is over in my books.
3:48 --- Phil blows the eagle chance, but gets the birdie. Still life left for Lee, has he gets his birdie to remain two back of Phil. Kim scrambles to save par, keeping him back of the lead by 2 with 1 hole remaining.
3:50 --- I am declaring it, Tiger will not win the Masters. He is 5 back of Phil with 4 holes to play. It would take a huge meltdown by Kim, Lee, and Phil in order for Tiger to get back into this. It was a better effort than I thought it was going to be. I didn’t think he was even going to make the cut. But, he played good. You can tell there is something wrong with his swing as his rhythm is off. But, with the Masters behind him, he will probably sit out for a bit and wait for the US Open in the summer.
3:56 --- You can tell it was a bad swing on 18 with Kim, who hits it out of one bunker and into another. He will need to scramble to save par.
4:04 --- Kim with a 65 on the day and goes into the clubhouse with 12 under par. Phil now knows that all he needs to do is par out the rest of the way. Sure, Lee is at 12 under as well but, Lee hasn’t been nailing a lot of birdie putts this afternoon.
4:11 --- I am declaring it, Choi will not win the Masters. He is 3 back with 2 to play. It was a great run for him and South Korea can be proud. Also means I stop writing about how important a television news producer is to a country. But, one last fact: the currency in South Korea is the Pumo.
4:27 --- With two holes to play, I am declaring the Masters victory for Phi Mickelson. At this point, it would take a bogey to reduce his three shot lead. Lee Westwood had a good ride the last two rounds, but the bogeys early on really hurt how effective his birdies were. Anthony Kim just came out of nowhere and had a huge round today. But, when you are playing so far ahead of the final group, it does hurt your chances of being able to keep up.
4:40 --- Going into the last hole, Phil is up by two on Lee. It would take the single largest meltdowns in golf history for Phil to lose this. Tiger finishes the day with 69 on the round. Yes, I understand the ramifications of that score and Tiger Woods.
4:45 --- Tiger says that he doesn’t enter competitions to finish fourth. Or that, people are making way too much out of how he seems angry when he makes bad shots. Yep, it does sound like Tiger has learned a thing or two from the past few months…NOT. He is still as cocky and brash as ever. People like that about him, so why change that.
4:51 --- “That’s a win for the family” says Jim Nanz as Phil birdies 18 and finishes 16 under par to win the Masters. His wife, who has been battling breast cancer over the last year, along with Phil’s mom, was overjoyed. What a good story this turned out to be. Phil, once a golfer that people never thought was going to win a major, now has three Masters titles. And, for all that he has dealt with on a personal level, how can you not cheer this guy on. It was a great final round to a great tournament this year. So many good shots were made. And, we close this diary and the Train rolls on…
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