 "No expectations... big expectations")
So, I was wrong about the weather as well. The saving grace on this error is that most weathermen are wrong at least 50 per cent of the time despite having horrendously expensive instrumentation at hand. I was merely reporting what they had said last week. It rained on Thursday night and Friday opened to blustery and overcast conditions promising thundershowers until about noon. The afternoon players thus received a fortuitous advantage.
This course does not allow you too much time to be patient as the days advance; today the course gave nothing away with the leader still being at -6, so that even though there was movement within that number, the course essentially won the day. To really get ahead, one has to hit shots that are weighted more in favour of risk than reward. This is most particularly true of the reachable par 5s (yielded 10 eagles on Thursday) but the favourite, Tiger, scored only -2 on the par 5 s on Thursday and level on Friday. He could and should have been much higher on the leader board. This performance on par 5s will not do.
The performance of good players can be compared to good wine. John Platter of South African wine fame, who also possesses significant knowledge of golf, opines that just as the same superb wine can taste vastly different, and have varying levels of enjoyment, depending on the temperature, the weather, quality of air, the light conditions, the mood and also the company, the performance of great players varies on a daily basis depending on the wind and the weather, the light conditions, the course preparation and condition, the mood and the company (where one is on the leader board) and on just one's overall well being. Thus, a Sergio Garcia shoots a -6 to lead on day one but staggers to a +4 the next day, and Martin Laird, the winner of the Valero Texas last week joins the ranks of many vaunted challengers in taking the weekend off.
John explains that there are some 600 chemical compounds in barrels used for maturing wine, and also that each individual has a unique set of 10,000 or so different taste and nose buds (just as unique as finger prints); likewise, there are roughly that many muscles and neuro transponders that are used in executing a golf shot. In either case you do not know these facts but you do have differing reactions to the same stimuli in varying conditions. The comparison between good wines and good golfers is extremely apt.
With young Guan having just made the cut, one can expect golf in China to explode and one of the fall outs will surely be that the wine offerings by Ernie Els (5 red and 2 white wine labels), Retief Goosen (labelled "The Goose") and Gary Player's superb blends of Cab, Merlot, Syrah and Pinotage will command record prices in the East.
At the end of Friday, day 2, the top 13 players (within three shots of the lead) comprised three Australians with Jason Day leading the field, three Englishmen who were pretty well placed, the Korean K.J. Choi, Angel Cabrera the redoubtable Argentinean and five Americans led by the extraordinary Fred Couples. At age 53, being just one off the lead, Fred's remarkable grit is evident as his drives average 300 yards, his swing maintains it's fluidity and he continues to have the resilience of mind to recover from setbacks. What Tom Watson could not do at the age of 60, losing The Open to Stewart Cink in a playoff, hopes are rising that Couples might win this Masters and become the oldest major winner ever. The future is limitless for the brave.
Sic transit Gloria mundi (So passes away the glory of the world)!
However, the greatest story of the day was of Tianlang Guan who at 14 ½ years became the youngest player ever to make the cut, and that too despite a seemingly unnecessary one shot penalty for slow play. He will now surely become the low amateur winner at this Masters, will become world famous and, given how he handles himself at this young age, become the promise of what China holds in store for golf in the next 25 years.
Tomorrow is another day and the drama is beginning to build for an outstanding denouement once again.
This course does not allow you too much time to be patient as the days advance; today the course gave nothing away with the leader still being at -6, so that even though there was movement within that number, the course essentially won the day. To really get ahead, one has to hit shots that are weighted more in favour of risk than reward. This is most particularly true of the reachable par 5s (yielded 10 eagles on Thursday) but the favourite, Tiger, scored only -2 on the par 5 s on Thursday and level on Friday. He could and should have been much higher on the leader board. This performance on par 5s will not do.
The performance of good players can be compared to good wine. John Platter of South African wine fame, who also possesses significant knowledge of golf, opines that just as the same superb wine can taste vastly different, and have varying levels of enjoyment, depending on the temperature, the weather, quality of air, the light conditions, the mood and also the company, the performance of great players varies on a daily basis depending on the wind and the weather, the light conditions, the course preparation and condition, the mood and the company (where one is on the leader board) and on just one's overall well being. Thus, a Sergio Garcia shoots a -6 to lead on day one but staggers to a +4 the next day, and Martin Laird, the winner of the Valero Texas last week joins the ranks of many vaunted challengers in taking the weekend off.
John explains that there are some 600 chemical compounds in barrels used for maturing wine, and also that each individual has a unique set of 10,000 or so different taste and nose buds (just as unique as finger prints); likewise, there are roughly that many muscles and neuro transponders that are used in executing a golf shot. In either case you do not know these facts but you do have differing reactions to the same stimuli in varying conditions. The comparison between good wines and good golfers is extremely apt.
With young Guan having just made the cut, one can expect golf in China to explode and one of the fall outs will surely be that the wine offerings by Ernie Els (5 red and 2 white wine labels), Retief Goosen (labelled "The Goose") and Gary Player's superb blends of Cab, Merlot, Syrah and Pinotage will command record prices in the East.
At the end of Friday, day 2, the top 13 players (within three shots of the lead) comprised three Australians with Jason Day leading the field, three Englishmen who were pretty well placed, the Korean K.J. Choi, Angel Cabrera the redoubtable Argentinean and five Americans led by the extraordinary Fred Couples. At age 53, being just one off the lead, Fred's remarkable grit is evident as his drives average 300 yards, his swing maintains it's fluidity and he continues to have the resilience of mind to recover from setbacks. What Tom Watson could not do at the age of 60, losing The Open to Stewart Cink in a playoff, hopes are rising that Couples might win this Masters and become the oldest major winner ever. The future is limitless for the brave.
Sic transit Gloria mundi (So passes away the glory of the world)!
However, the greatest story of the day was of Tianlang Guan who at 14 ½ years became the youngest player ever to make the cut, and that too despite a seemingly unnecessary one shot penalty for slow play. He will now surely become the low amateur winner at this Masters, will become world famous and, given how he handles himself at this young age, become the promise of what China holds in store for golf in the next 25 years.
Tomorrow is another day and the drama is beginning to build for an outstanding denouement once again.
The writer is the Chairman of Mawana Sugars Ltd and Co-Chairman of Usha International Ltd