Apologies for the delay — took a little time to get the data compiled, but now I have a well organized spreadsheet (thanks to Steve, who replied to my Twitter plea). Then I had a little impromptu nap on my computer before I pressed “publish.” Anyway! What a mindblowing way to kick off the Masters with what was probably the greatest first round leaderboard in recent tournament history.
A few notes about my picks. I have a weird thing about not picking Tiger. Always have. For some odd reason, I just hate opting for the obvious favorite. I mean, choosing him every time is a good bet, but it’s a cop-out and I like switching things up. I also have a personal issue with picking Phil. I almost gave in and pulled the trigger, but decided to stand by my irrational principles.
After mulling over the decision for days, I made some last minutes switches to my line-up at approximately 7:30AM Thursday. Call it following my gut. I pulled Ryan Moore and Jim Furyk and switched in Geoff Ogilvy and Fred Couples. I gave Ryan such a hard sell to everyone, which meant I probably jinxed him. (Sorry!) So, my final five were Anthony Kim, Retief Goosen, Lee Westwood, Fred Couples and Geoff Ogilvy.
Most important, I learned never to underestimate Tiger Woods. Well, duh! Yeah, but given the circumstances, I wasn’t sure what to expect. No one did. Maybe I was more skeptical than others. I just thought he’d at least be a little rusty after taking time away. (But I guess we learned he wasn’t practicing in all his spare time.) Given what’s happened in the past five months, I thought he’d be shakier around the greens. I know, what was I thinking! Seriously, the dude looked like he hadn’t missed a day from competition, and it sure was fun to watch.
Round 2 standings will be up tomorrow afternoon and shortly followed by the Round 3 ones (I promise!). But for now, here are the totals from Round 1.
- Uchitel’s Sandbagging Caddy, 201
- Waggleroom, 201
- The Wei, 201
- GolfGuy, 202
- Shamed, 202
- Brandon Muir, 203
- Elin woods Memorial, 203
- Kiwi Pros, 203
- Mark Smolens, 203
- One guy and 4 foreigners, 203
- Super Dave Chen, 203
- Team Balabill, 204
- New Haven Townies, 204
- David Duran, 205
- Downhill Lies, 205
- John Lewis, 205
- KT Barton, 205
- Allan Schroeder, 206
- Boyle Advisory, 206
- Canali Dan, 206
- Cash of the Titans, 206
- Circa 83, 206
- nocurling, 206
- Prime Time, 206
- Tomo Bystedt, 206
- Intern Kevin, 207
- Stamps Richard, 207
- The Boom Boom Room, 207
- Woods A Victim, 207
- Chris Carey, 208
- Daniel Tak, 208
- Hawaii Bound, 208
- Show Ponies Plus One, 208
- Legend’s Links Lotharios, 209
- Quank’s Wankers, 209
- Skinny Todd, 209
- The Coveralls, 209
- The Long Drivers 209
- Tremendous Slouch, 209
- Ballbusters, 210
- Boston Fire, 210
- Melvin Avanzado, 212
- Team Hack Attack, 212
- Tim Copeland, 212
- Team Green Tea, 213
- The Omithologists, 213
- DCPC, 218
- Team Fidelity, 219
- The Streakies, 222
[Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images]
