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On Aug 4, Bobby Jones’s green jacket will go up for auction in conjunction with the Chicago National Sports Show.  Jones was the co-founder of both Augusta National and the Master’s.

It’s pretty rare for a green jacket (especially Jones’s) to come up for auction since they’re not allowed to leave the club.  As you might guess, getting your hands on this is going to cost a pretty penny.  Estimates are that it could go for $100k or more.

The Augusta Chronicle

Golfwrx has some amazing pics of Kevin Streelman’s yardage book from Augusta. The level of detail is just amazing.  It’s definitely worth a click.

Yes, the 2011 Masters is over, but that doesn’t mean the Masters posts have to stop! For those of you not familiar with the Augusta National institution known as the Pimento Cheese sandwich, here’s a run-down from CNN.

I’ll be honest.  I was really rooting for Adam Scott to win the Masters.  Mostly because a) I wanted to use the headline “Great Scott!!!”, b) he could have single-handedly made long putters cool and c) I don’t have any pictures of Charl Schwartzel to post.  So instead I’m using a picture of Rick Moranis from Spaceballs, because he definitely knows the “Power of the Schwartz(el)”.

Schwartzel earned his victory at the 2011 Masters.  He was 1-behind Adam Scott, who looked destined to finally break through with a victory in a major.  But with 4 to play Schwartzel reeled off 4 straight birdies to get to 14-under, 2-strokes ahead of Scott and Jason Day.  That included an amazingly confident birdie putt on 17, which I believe was only the 5th birdie there all day.

Schwartzel was on many people’s “Dark Horse” lists for the Masters.  After winning twice and finishing 8th on the European Tour Order of Merit last year, he joined the PGA Tour for 2011.  He chose one heck of a tournament to grab his first PGA Tour victory, becoming only the 3rd South African to win the Masters (Gary Player, Trevor Immelman).

Tiger Woods was the early clubhouse leader at 10-under but several missed putts on the back 9 (sound familiar?) kept him from contending once Scott surged into the lead at 11-under.  Still, his Sunday 67 was a great response to his 74 on Saturday.  He didn’t quite get it done, but he struck the ball well and showed us all that maybe he really is close to putting it all together.

And well what can we say about Rory McIlroy?  He looked like a sure thing when he finished Saturday at 12-under.  But he found out the hard way how impressive Tiger Wood’s major performances have been over the years.

It’s often said that there’s “Sunday pressure” in a golf tournament and then there’s “Sunday at Augusta”.  That was apparent when McIlroy turned into an 18-handicapper on the 10th and hacked his way to a triple-bogey.  He shot a 43 on the back nine to card an 80 for the day, finishing T15.

He’s young though and handled everything with class.  Hopefully he’ll be able to build on this experience and come back stronger than ever.

Ultimately this was one of the most exciting Master’s finishes in years.  Normally there’s only one or two guys who really have a shot at winning on Sunday afternoon.  With 9 holes to play, the tournament was wide open, and Schwartzel was the player that stepped up, executed, and walked away with a green jacket.  May the Schwartz(el) be with you.

[Update] My apologies to Gary Woodland, it was a hooked drive that his a patron in the face, not his club.  That’s what I get for trying to watch multiple feeds at the same time

Gary Woodland, one of my “darkhorse” picks this week at Augusta, didn’t exactly have a career round today today at Augusta.  On the 15th tee box, he hooked his drive into the gallery and hit a fan in the face.

It looked painful for the fan, although it didn’t seem like it caused any serious harm.  A few minutes later Woodland was shaking the fan’s hand after apologizing.

Woodland went on to make par for the hole and finished the day with a 2-over 74.  Hopefully he’ll have a better day out on the course tomorrow.

In the latest Masters odds from Bodog.com, Phil Mickelson remains the favorite at 6-1.  Tiger is 8-1 (again, wtf?). Both Lee Westwood and Nick Watney are 14-1, with nobody else under 20-1.

The odds on my dark horse picks?  Justin Rose is 30-1.  Anthony Kim is 33-1.   Ben Crane is 100-1.  And Gary Woodland and Ryu Ishikawa are sitting at 150-1.

Interestingly Tom Watson is sitting at 400-1.  That might be a good long shot bet.  He came damn close to winning the British Open 2 years ago and was on the leaderboard going into Friday at the 2010 Masters after firing a first round 67.  Yes, at 61, he’s probably too old to realistically contend at the Masters.  But at 400-1 it might be worth a little fun money.

Phil Mickelson – 6/1
Tiger Woods – 8/1
Lee Westwood – 14/1
Nick Watney – 16/1
Martin Kaymer – 20/1
Luke Donald – 25/1
Paul Casey – 25/1
Rory McIlroy – 25/1
Dustin Johnson – 20/1
Padraig Harrington – 28/1
Hunter Mahan – 28/1
Justin Rose – 30/1
Graeme McDowell – 33/1
Bubba Watson – 33/1
Matt Kuchar – 28/1
Steve Stricker – 33/1
Rickie Fowler – 33/1
Aaron Baddeley – 33/1
Ian Poulter – 33/1
Ernie Els – 33/1
Anthony Kim – 33/1
Retief Goosen – 40/1
Jim Furyk – 40/1
Geoff Ogilvy – 40/1
Sergio Garcia – 40/1
Vijay Singh – 50/1
Francesco Molinari – 50/1
Martin Laird – 50/1
Charl Schwartzel – 50/1
K.J. Choi – 50/1

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]

Courtesy of a last week from Graeme McDowell, us mere mortals can get a sneak peek of the view from the back porch of the clubhouse at Augusta last week as they prepared for the Masters.  Very cool.

Everybody knows that Phil and Tiger are the two favorites to win the Masters.  And of course there are guys like Dustin Johnson and Lee Westwood that have sniffed at glory in the majors and come up just short.  But there are a number of other players who have legitimate shots at winning their first major this year.  Keep reading to find out who I like as “dark horse” picks.

1. Ryu Ishikawa – I don’t actually think Ryu is going to win the Masters.  He’s finding out the hard way this season that the level of play on the PGA Tour is very different than on the Japanese tour.  But the 19 year old phenom has serious game and I think it’s a matter of time before he gets his legs under himself and wins on Tour.  So if I don’t think that Ishikawa has a realistic shot at winning, why am I picking him?

Well, last week Ishikawa announced that he’s donating his entire 2011 tournament earnings to disaster relief in his home country of Japan.  That’s a hell of a thing for a 19-year old to step up and commit to.  And I for one would love to see him mixing it up on Sunday at Augusta with the entire country of Japan behind him (along with a good number of fans here in the US).  It would be one of the greatest feel-good sports stories in recent memory if he’s able to pull it off.

I know that I (and probably a number of others) will be rooting for Ishikawa this week.

2.  Anthony Kim – Kim had a rough 2011.  After getting off to a great start, he had a thumb injury that required surgery and forced away from the golf course for several months.  And when he finally did return in the Fall, it was obvious that he wasn’t quite a 100%.

But now several months later, Kim is showing signs of the form that he kicked off 2010 with.  No, he’s still not quite 100%, but his Friday 64 at Houston last week, showed that he can put it together.  The only question now is whether he can do it for 4 days in a row.

3.  Gary Woodland – He hits the ball a mile (although not always too straight) and is a pretty darn good putter.  That combination adds up to somebody who can win at Augusta where long errant tee shots aren’t penalized like they would be at a US Open.  Woodland had his breakthrough win at the Transitions last month and seems poised to continue to play well after his T13 finish in Houston.

If he can figure out a way to make putts on the slick greens at Augusta, he should do very well.

4.  Ben Crane – He leads the tour in greens-in-regulation at 73%.  No, he’s not a long hitter.  But he hits a lot of fairways and is able to convert those into GIR’s.  He hasn’t any great finishes yet this season, which is kind of surprising given that he ranks 16th in scoring average at 69.81.

Crane doesn’t do anything flashy on the golf course.  But sometime slow and steady wins the race.  Or in Crane’s case, really, really slow and steady.  But I’ll be honest, I kind of want Crane to win just to see what kind of video he’ll release afterwards.

5.  Justin Rose – Rose had 2 victories last year and came out ready to play this spring (I still can’t believe that he and Paul Casey were left off of the Ryder Cup team).  He already has 3 top 10 finishes this year including a T3 at a very tough Bay Hill course.  He’s not a particularly long hitter by Tour standards (284 yd avg drive), but he does keep it in the fairways (65%) and he hits a lot of greens in regulation (73%).

Rose’s short game is also excellent.  So on the rare occasion that he misses a GIR, he’s probably going to chip it close.  Like Woodland, the question mark will be his putting.  If he can get it going, he’ll be in the hunt on the weekend.

So what do you guys think of my picks?  Disagree?  Have any picks of your own?  Let me know in the comments.

It’s official.  People that bet on golf are idiots.  Tiger Woods is currently 10-1 to win the Masters this week.  He was the odds on favorite to win this week until Phil Mickelson won in Houston over the weekend.  He dropped from 8-1 to 10-1 while Phil did the reverse.

Seriously, what the hell are people thinking?  I’m not saying that Tiger should be 100-1, but 10-1?   That’s nuts.  Tiger hasn’t done anything recently that would warrant those odds.  If he had finished well at the Bob Hope, I could see it.  But a T24 performance doesn’t bode well for his chances at Augusta.

Here’s the list of Tiger’s 2011 stats:

There isn’t anything on that list that screams “Favorite to win the Masters”.  He’s averaging 289 off the tee and only finding the fairway 47% of the time.  He’s going to have to improve one of those stats significantly this week to contend.

How are some of the other big names faring in the betting?  As previously mentioned, Phil’s win in Houston has made him the favorite at 8-1.  World #1 Martin Kaymer is 18-1.  How anybody could follow golf for the past year and a half and think that Tiger is basically twice as likely to win the Masters as Martin Kaymer is beyond me.  Dustin Johnson is 12-1 and Nick Watney (probably the hottest golfer on the planet in 2011) is 15-1.

You can never count Tiger out of a golf tournament.  But he hasn’t won since 2009 and so far this year he’s clearly not playing like somebody who’s going to win the Masters.  Stranger things have happened, but it seems like your money would be better placed elsewhere.

Masters betting odds from Golf.com:

Here are the Tropicana’s Masters odds for the top favorites:

Phil Mickelson: 8 to 1

Tiger Woods: 10 to 1

Dustin Johnson: 12 to 1

Nick Watney: 15 to 1

Lee Westwood: 15 to 1

Martin Kaymer: 18 to 1

Matt Kuchar: 18 to 1

Rory McIlroy: 20 to 1

Graeme McDowell: 25 to 1

Luke Donald: 25 to 1

Esposito said Las Vegas casinos have been seeing enough action to drop the odds on these players:

Bubba Watson: 25 to 1

Ricky Barnes: 35 to 1

Rickie Fowler: 35 to 1

Outside of Woods (2006 champion) and Mickelson (2010 champion), recent Masters winners aren’t considered strong contenders:

2009 champion Angel Cabrera: 100 to 1

2008 champion Trevor Immelman: 100 to 1

2007 champion Zach Johnson: 80 to 1

The field (all the players not given individual odds) is 10 to 1.

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]