Icewind's Ramblings

The Masters started today in Augusta and with it a return of two great champions, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer for the honorary first tee shots.  We are off for a great weekend of chasing that little white ball around the hallowed grounds that is Augusta National Golf Club. Yesterday before the competition started and the hoopla of a returning Tiger Woods there was the usual press conference from the Masters chairman but it was not the normal talk with little meaning as Billy Payne did the right and necessary thing for all of those who love the game, the traditions, and keep The Masters what it is. For all his brilliance and leadership as the man in charge of the Masters, it is unlikely Billy Payne will ever do anything as masterful, as blunt and certainly as necessary as what he did Wednesday afternoon on the eve of the 74th edition of The Masters. In what was a stunning and rare departure for a Masters chairman, he not only admonished one of the players in the field for...

It’s springtime in Augusta , Georgia which means the Masters Tournament is this Easter weekend. It’s that four day walk through the beauty and rolling hills that is the Augusta National Golf Club. For many it is hallowed grounds where past memories of golf’s finest tournament is played with a gallery full of people. In the South where I grew up it was a rite of passage each spring much like our beloved Iditarod here in Alaska . There are the familiar names such as Rae’s Creek and Amen Corner with each of the three holes that make the turn each year usually making or breaking Master’s Dreams on Sunday afternoon. The unique beauty that makes up that portion of the course inspires to bring out the best in the competitors. The flowers as a backdrop and the wonderful television shots of the Ben Hogan Bridge or the reflections of the Byron Nelson Bridge gives one a proper perspective of the gentleness of Bobby Jones the founder of this spectacular golf course. ...