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Roy and HG always referred to IBF as The Dark Shark – it was funny at the time but not totally valid. IBF was a nice guy who could putt. Until he went to la la land in his head. Adam Scott has always had a strong tie to Sharkie and is the first to admit his influence on him. He probably falls somewhere in between IBF and GWS in the personality stakes but like his mentor/hero he is the purest striker of a golf ball in his era who more often than not is let down by average putting. These guys dont get to where they are being bad putters but if you look for their weakness it is the flat stick

So we come to the 72nd hole in The Master 2013 and Scotty( hereafter TDS) faces a very similar putt that GWS did to win all the bikkies back in 87. And it was pissing down. The Masters winner always birdies the 16th – TDS and Angel both faced a similar putt on 16 – TDS missed, Angel holed. The engraver moved from A to An…Ok, back to 18 – so who looked away? Not me , its the car crash phenomenon, you cant look away. He holed it and deservedly went slightly beserk. He made the long walk up with every man and his dog cheering him and high-fiving him. Back in the mist the ever cool and always lovable Argentinian Angel played one of the best shots you will ever see to 3 feet for certain matching birdie. Adam was still on cloud 9 in scorer’s tent and the camera shows his head swivel up to the TV when he hears the roar. His jaw , and likely his bowels, must have dropped . And then the true story begins

Sinking one great putt may be considered a fluke by the cold-hearted. Now TDS had to emerge from the warm hut into the doom and gloom and refocus again. Golf is a game of inches – and we nay think the way that TDS’s ball stayed out of the water on 15 showed that. But everyone who plays golf knows it is the 3 inches between the ears that matter. Not only did TDS have to redo it all again but against the totally relaxed and unflappable Angel. Walking to the playoff tee someone in the crowd leans over and yells QUEENSLANDER – is it an omen?After good drives on 18 they both leave approach shots short and it comes down to chipping. Angel plays a pearler that almost goes in. The one thing you dont want to see at The Masters is someone lose the tournament – you want someone to win it with a great shot or putt. So when TDS nervously left his chip short he faced that demon length putt – and nailed it. Out to 10 and another great tee shot from TDS only to have Angel blow it past him almost with an iron. Angel is on the green in birdie range and then TDS plays one that finishes just that little bit closer. Angel turns around and gives him the thumbs up. Class. Ok these guys are multi-millionaires who dont really need the money but when was the last time you saw one of over paid NBA/Soccer/Cricket clowns show such grace under pressure?? Angel’s putt finishes within a bee’s dick and then The Moment arrives. Remember it has been pissing down for hours. Notoriously fast greens are now slower but how much slower? Like all of these greens on first view the putts look quite simple. Then they show a different camera angle and you realise that what appears flat is not even close to it. How do they remain upright, let alone putt on these. He putts, it drops, the crowd erupts – and the monkey jumps off the back of Australian Golf.

Make no mistake – this is huge and oh so critical to the Australian Sporting psyche. We are a proud sporting nation who has always punched above its weight but struggled in a couple of big events. You can cross The Masters of that ever dwindling list. Sharkie will be interviewed of course and he will say how happy he is for TDS and it will be true. What he wont say, but we all know, is that he would fork over 10 million and 2 wives for one green jacket.

Will TDS now win the remaining 3 majors this year and challenge The Golden Bear’s major record? No. He will probably miss the cut in one of his next 3 events. Golf is like that. It was an amazing leader board all day with 3 Aussies in the Top 5 most of the time. You have to think this was Leishman’s best chance whereas Day will likely challenge again. JD shot his load on the 17th when he went back a club without apparent discussion with caddy and dropped it into the bunker. With 2 superb bunker shots under his belt already he didnt have a third in the bag. And Tiger? Who cares. Regardless of the rule change the penalty incident on the 15th will stay with him and slightly tarnish an already dulled lustre in the eyes of the golfing world. He does have a hot girlfriend though. Lets face it, most of them do.

The final 9 holes of The Masters is the greatest sporting theater you will ever see. If you had to pick the winner as the last group entered Amen corner and you got it right 3 out of 10 you would be burned at the stake for being a witch. This year marks about the 30 th time I have watched at least part of it live – being a reduntiree does have certain advantages now:) While this year will now rank as the most memorable there is one dead certainty – I will be watching it again next year even if it is a 15 yr old Chinese boy playing in the final group with Ben Crane and he is 10 shots ahead.

If only to see TDS place the Green jacket on his shoulders.

Tradition + Class = Golf.

Beyonce mimed with the best of them at half time but there was another child of destiny that had a bigger impact on the outcome of this event. The Peter Pan of golf even. Or maybe Captain Hook depending which driver he is using on any given day.

In January 2001 Mark Calcavecchia won the Phoenix Golf Open shooting 256 for the 72 holes. On the same day the Baltimore Ravens won the Superbowl

Last Friday Plastic Phil lipped out on the 18th hole in round one of the Phoenix Open (ok Waste Management Open!). Nothing too unusual about that except the ball virtually disappeared down the hole and reappeared in a way that would have made Punxsutawney Phil proud. Oh and it was for a round of 59 – only ever been done 5 times in the history of golf

Today on our version of Groundhog Day 2013 , although a bit later than 0600, Plastic Phil shot 256 to win the Phoenix Open. Baltimore Ravens won the Superbowl. San Francisco fans who know their golf would have been thinking back to that fateful putt on Friday as they now ascend the Golden Gate Bridge looking for the honorable way out only to run into bloody apes in the mist.

It was destiny folks. A great Survivor in the game of golf, maybe even a Soldier said Say My Name one more time and took home a cool million $ . Bootylicious!

But then the Writing was on the Wall all along wasnt it?

Dont Ruin Sport? Yes in a way but actually referring to the Decision Review System used in cricket – at times. Yesterday there was another ODI played between the super Aussies and the apparent easy beats Sri Lanka – who currently lead the series 2:1! Aussies must be super because we can choose any team we want on a given day regardless of form or ability. There is just so much talent in this country – apparently. Hughes was out early because as we Aussie Cricket followers know if those smart ass bowlers start to swing the ball we are screwed. Then Pup comes in to a rapturous applause. Smokes a few fours while Warner has a few swings and misses and all seems right with our cricket. Then Pup steps 3 feet outside the off stump and gets hit in the chest and they go up for LBW which is given not out. SL ask for referral and of course then lose the right to appeal a decision again this match. Then Pup is hit on the toe in front of middle stump and is given out and thinks wait a minute I am the captain, lets appeal the decision. Of course he is out so now both sides are open to any howler decisions – and didnt we get some.

Explanation: It was introduced to get rid of the “howler”, however batting teams have just two unsuccessful challenges against umpiring decisions in Test matches and only one unsuccessful challenge in 50-over cricket. International Cricket Council studies have found that decision-making has improved from 92 percent to 96 percent with the DRS. While India opposes the DRS for all the wrong reasons, questioning technology that is more accurate than the human eye, the system fails to remove blatant mistakes from the game.

So there is no easy answer but the current system is not working. Pup said it all evens out in the end – he may have had a different point of view if match had not been rained out. If he really believes that then there is no need for this half baked process in place at present. Like the video ref in Rugby League, a lot of it is a marketing ploy to engage the crowd more and lets face it in cricket we need that! Even in RL the video Ref can take 5 minutes and still get it wrong!

So does DRS improve cricket? Yes as a spectator sport but no as far as getting it right all the time. DRS can help Australian Cricket significantly though which is all we should be concerned about as our National Day approaches. How you may ask ?

Dump Rubbish Spinners and Dont Rotate Selectors!

Yes.

Ok before signing off on the shortest blog in history lets examine the “choking” phenomenon in more detail. It is a derogatory term used to describe those occasions when a sportsperson fails to perform to their usual standard due to the sense of occasion they find themselves in. It is very commonly applied to golfers – more so than any other sport. Why is this so? The most common evidence of choking is the missed 3 foot putt to “win it all”. Golf is one of the more complex games in the world and so when tension increases it is of no surprise that a few shots may be sprayed as in fact happened with Adam Scott. After all he dropped 4 shots in 4 holes. But most of us have had a go at golf and some of us even play quite regularly if rather poorly. We cant hit 300 m drives but most of us feel we can sink 9/10 3 foot putts. On British Open Greens that may drop to about 6/10 but still when a Pro misses it deep down deep inside we know we could have made it. Hence we state with a degree of confidence that he “choked”

For cricketers we have the quaint term of “nervous nineties”. Sam Stosur “struggles in big tennis events despite her obvious talent. Hell she was knocked out of the Olympics by some player from Uranus ranked 2074 in the world – first round!the Aussie 4X100 Mens swimming relay were odds on to win today – they were beaten by Russia who have to break the ice on top of the pool before they can even train. Missile Magnusson suddenly decided to add 1 s to every 100 m he swam. Its called pressure folks and some people handle it better than others.

Perhaps the most noted designated “choker” in golf is our very own Sharkie. This is because he had so much talent and so little in the Majors cupboard to show for it that he must have choked. In reality he really only choked in the 1996 Masters – no argument. Most of the other occasions were because of his “take no prisoners” approach to golf which both thrilled and dismayed his legion of fans. We had Ballesteros, Norman, Plastic Phil and now Bubba Watson. These guys lose more tournaments then they win maybe but man they could draw a crowd. I would rather watch Sharkie shoot 83 than Jim Furyk shoot 63. They can afford to be devil may care because they all hop in their private jets after missing out and head home to their mansion. The famous saying always was what comes after a 74 for Norman ? The second round! He always charged home – sometimes made it sometimes didnt. Deep down though the lack of “majors” in the cupboard hurts. Norman was unlucky at times but on most occasions it was poor course management – look at his last round when he had the chance to win the British Open a couple of years ago – when still with wifey Numero 2. He was taking driver on holes where clearly an iron was required

So yes Adam choked but he is not a choker – he showed that last year at The Masters down the stretch. When he gets in this position again, which he undoubtedly will, will be the test. Has he learnt from the experience or been forever scarred? It will be fun to watch either way – humans are like that.