What Are
The Odds?
Hunter Mahan surges to Augusta
Judy Rankin’s
Road Back
Els To Miss Masters
USGA Exec Loves
His Public Roots
Whether he knows it or not – and he
probably does – Hunter Mahan just royally
ruined his chance to win The Masters, or at
least the odds just went way up. He did so by
screwing up and winning the Shell Houston
Open and, in the process, becoming the
highest-ranked American at world No. 4.
Phil Mickelson is the only one in recent
memory to break form and win The Masters
after winning the week before (Atlanta, 2006).
But you’ll notice that the Houston defending
champion and three-time Masters winner
craftily hung back at T4, just good enough
to have a boatload of confidence heading
into Augusta and not throw down the jinx of
winning the week before a major. You’d just
as soon win The Masters Par- 3 Contest.
Still, Mahan has to be among the favorites
this week, just behind Mickelson and that
Woods guy, not to mention Rory McIlroy and
Luke Donald and a whole long list of players,
which makes this year’s Masters one of the
most intriguing majors in quite a long time.
As it turns out, Yani Tseng is not invincible
nor is she indestructible. For the second
straight year, women’s golf’s best player
took the lead into the final round of the Kraft
Nabisco and failed to win.
Tseng uncharacteristically wilted in
the California desert while still another
talented Korean – this time Sun Young Yoo
– came seemingly out of nowhere to win a
women’s major.
And in Sicily, Dane Thorbjørn Olesen scored
a big victory for a tiny country with a surprising
tradition for winning on the European Tour. In
fact, a tradition unlike any other.
Well, maybe one other.
Mike Purkey
Kraft Nabisco Championship
winner Sun Young Yoo
