Predicting the winner of a major golf tournament right now is akin to winning a game of bingo or hitting triple bars on the slot machine. You may think you have a system that leads to success, but it is all about blind luck.
Golf is just far too fickle a sport, and there are too many quality players right now to have any idea who will sit atop the leaderboard at the tournament's end.
Entering the 2012 Masters, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy were the overwhelming favorites, and for good reason. Both players are capable of dominating, were playing well and have games that are well-suited for success at Agusta.
Someone should have told that to Agusta, or to their game, because they aren't anywhere near the top of the leaderboard.
The two players finished the tournament tied at five-over par. So the two pre-tournament favorites are going to finish roughly (the leaders are still on the course) 15 strokes off the pace.
But that does not mean favorites are always a bad bet. The man most places had listed as the third favorite was Phil Mickelson. This was another logical choice. He had been playing well and he has won here three times.
Lefty started Sunday in second place, and with the rest of the leaderboard void of past Masters champions, it seemed like a good bet that Mickelson would use his experience to play a solid round while those around him faltered.
While that logic was sound, it proved to be completely wrong.
He started with three straight pars, and then had a triple bogey meltdown. Mickelson found the deep rough and made a puzzling series of decisions before mercifully tapping in for the triple, and falling off the lead.
In the meantime, Louis Oosthuizen drilled a double-eagle on No. 2 to vault into the lead. The fact that Oosthuizen would hold the lead on Sunday at Agusta is not a shock. He is a past major champion and entered ranked 27th in the world.
However, it was also far from expected. There are numerous players in that second tier with Oosthuizen, and the fact that he has actually won a major before makes his contention even more surprising.
Only two of the past 13 major winners had won past majors. The list of first-time winners includes some names you'd expect, like Rory McIlroy, and some you never would, like Lucas Glover. And that list is similar to the leaderboard at this Masters.
Names you'd expect have been, or are, near the top—like Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood—but then there are guys that are a complete surprise—like Peter Hanson.
Hanson led this tourney after three rounds. This was just the fourth major he had ever played and just his second trip to Agusta.
There was also the co-leader after the second round, Fred Couples. Couples is 52 years old! A victory would have made him easily the oldest major champion ever, and all of this has made it clearer than ever that trying to predict a major champion is futile.
The winner is likely going to be a first-time winner, but not necessarily. He may, or may not, be among the favorites leading up to the tournament, and he will be between the ages of 21 and 52.
In short, you can't count anyone out in today's PGA.
Javier Lopez Alex Hinshaw Ramon Ramirez Sergio Romo Ron Artest Shannon Brown
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen