Rick Shefchik --
Points very well taken, and well worth considering -- especially your note that the last 12 winners have come from the final group ... which suggests that we somewhat fool ourselves when we think of come-from-behind dramas at Augusta.
I would add -- to elaborate on (and possibly contradict) that observation:
What I have loved about The Masters, as a golf tournament, and about Augusta National, as a tournament golf course, is that the tournament and the course virtually PROMISED high drama in the home stretch.
You knew, every April, that someone would have the lead as he stood on the tee at No. 12, trying to decide just how conservatively to play it.
And you knew, every April, that four or five other guys -- at least -- could IMAGINE shooting 30 on the back side and coming from behind to catch and pass the leader, or at the very least to challenge him.
You knew that the leader would play conservatively -- lest he turn into Curtis Strange. And you knew that the challengers would play boldly -- lest they turn into Chip Beck. And you could guess, if not know, that of the four or five or more guys who could imagine going low, one of them would likely do it ... and put that wonderful pressure on the leader, who, at least by the time he stood over his 2nd on 15, would KNOW that the game was afoot! What now?
It's pretty clear, if the last 12 winners have come from the last group, that hardly anyone ever pulls off one of these big comebacks and actually WINS the tournament, the way Jack did in '86.
But it's equally clear, unless I completely deceive myself (a possibility), that in most years, there have been roars in the pines, excitement on the golf course, someone making a bold -- even if, ultimately, insufficient -- move forward.
No one can deny that that was missing this year -- maybe because Tiger is the Man of All Men; maybe because his competition is not only less skilled, less intelligent, and less "courageous" on the golf course than Tiger is, but less skilled, less intelligent, and less "courageous" than Snead's and Hogan's and Palmer's and Nicklaus's and Watson's fellow-competitors were; maybe because Hootie, Fazio & Co. have systematically destroyed the very characteristics of the golf course that made it such a marvelous tournament site.
Maybe all of those things.
A few more years should tell us.
By then, if we're lucky, the Greencoats will have unveiled to the world the Competition Ball -- and some lucky architect will be given the plum assignment to undo work that need never have been done, and The Committee won't feel the need to hide the flags. (Oops. Sorry. The "holes.")