Ah it’s April. March Madness is wrapping up. The sun is staying up later. Birds can be heard chirping again which may or may not be a welcome sound.

April also signifies that golf tournament down in Georgia called The Masters. It is also the Super Bowl of golf. This realization came to me in grade 8. The Monday after the 1996 Masters all my classmates were talking about the final round that year. Of course who could forget Greg Norman’s epic six stroke collapse to eventual champion Nick Faldo.

This is just one of the many great Masters moments. The course and setup lends itself to amazing moments every year. Based on the play of the world’s best golfers, the 2013 edition will not let us down.

Tiger Woods has found his game with three early season wins. A slew of young challengers are ready to take the green jacket away from the odds on favorite Woods.

Now before starting my Internet marketing business, I use to be a Golf Professional. And every Sunday I would sit in front of the TV for 4+ hours waiting for the drama and amazing moments to unfold.

But you don’t have to be a Golf Professional like me to enjoy this event. To get you in the spirit of Masters week, I wanted to share with you five great moments in Masters final round history.

#5
Golf has changed a lot over the years. The technology advancements have made the game easier in many regards.

However it has made curving the golf ball difficult. Players are not able to put as much spin on the ball to curve like they use to.

That’s why I love the way 2012 Master Champion Bubba Watson plays golf.

After all, what’s not to love about a guy who can hit it in the woods and recover like this….

#4
Before Tiger there was Boom Boom better know as Fred Couples. Couples plays the game aggressive. He hits it long, has a great touch around the greens and his carefree attitude is adored by golf fans everywhere.

So when Freddie was in contention to win the 1992 Masters, everyone was pulling hard for him. But all Freddie fans know he has to battle the choke factor.

This was evident when his ball almost fell victim to Rae’s Creek on the famous par 3 12th. The golf gods were shinning down on Freddie this day though. Instead of having his ball roll back in the water like all others, his stayed up on the bank.

This stroke of good fortune was the reason Freddie was able to hit the chip close and escape with a par 3. That was the difference as he won by two strokes.

Take it away Mr. Cheadle…..

#3
In 2010 Phil Mickelson was chasing down his 3rd green jacket. But in between him and the 13th green was a tree and Rae’s Creek.

Many would choose to layup and try to make birdie another way. Not golf’s biggest show man…..

#2
2005 was a year where it looked like Tiger might falter in a final round. He had never been beaten heading into a final round of a major with the lead.

That all might have changed if this didn’t happen….

#1
Professional Golf is a young man’s game. But the game’s greatest wasn’t having any of that in 1986.

At the age of 46 Jack Nicklaus was on the verge of something really, really special. Heading into the final round Jack was 4 shots back but there was a bunch of golfers in front of him. Passing all of them would take a low round and some major collapses.

Well, that’s what happened. As the players in front of him started to see his name rise on the leaderboard, they all crumbled like cookies.

By the time he reached the 17th, he was tied for the lead. Here’s his birdie putt to take sole possession of the lead….

Augusta National is the golf course on the planet. When the best golfers in the world tee it up there, amazing moments are bound to happen.

No matter if you’re a golfer or not, I suggest you at least tune in for the back nine on Sunday. Here’s a list of TV times.

See you on the couch!

Author Bio

Jordan J. Caron is former Golf Professional turned Internet marketing consultant. Every Masters Sunday he can be found on a coach somewhere drinking a few Scotch’s and eating some terribly unhealthy food.

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.

I wish I could say that I saw Schwartzel coming from a mile away and brilliantly picked him last week as a darkhorse favorite to win the Masters. But unfortunately the Power of the Schwartz-el wasn’t with me.

So how did my darkhorse picks fare? Read on to find out.

1. Ryu Ishikawa (T20) – I was pleasantly surprised by the strength of Ishikawa’s performance.  I figured if there was one player that was most likely to miss the cut out of picks, it was Ishikawa.  But he shot back to back 71′s to make the cut with room to breathe.  It got away from him a little bit on Saturday but he came back with a strong 70 on Sunday to finish T20.

This was only the 3rd cut he’s made this year on tour, and judging by his performance, he’s starting to get things figured out over on this side of the pond.  I think we might see him in contention for a win later this year.

I also have to call out Hideki Matsuyama.  He was the low amateur (the only one to make the cut) at T27.  He didn’t have a great Sunday, but he shot a brilliant 68 on Sunday.  Matsuyama is from Sendai, the city devestated by the earthquake/tsunami last month and will be returning there this week to finish school and help wherever he can.  He showed a lot of class in his comments during the green jacket presentation ceremony.

2. Anthony Kim (MC) – As pleasantly surprised as I was with Ishikawa’s performance, I was equally disappointed with Kim’s missed cut.  The bottom line is that he just made to many bogeys.  He fired off 4 birdies in 5 holes on the back nine Friday but it was only good enough to get him to +2 for the tournament, missing the cut by one.

I think it’s just taking a while for him to come back from the thumb injury and he’s still not 100%.  Hopefully we’ll see him back at full strength in the near future.

3. Gary Woodland (T24) – Not a bad showing for his first Masters.  He didn’t play his best golf on Saturday, culminating in pegging a spectator in the face with hooked shot on 15.  Hey, when you play golf with thousands of fans all over the course, it happens.

But he did get everything back on track for Sunday.  He made 3 birdies on the way in to card a 70 and finish the tournament at 2-under (T24) alongside Jim Furyk and David Toms.  Not bad company.

He played 13 really well all week, finishing at 4-under on that hole alone.  Hell be able to build on this experience and I think we’ll see his name on the leaderboard at Augusta one day in the not too distant future.

4.  Ben Crane (MC) – I wasn’t quite as surprised as I was with Anthony Kim that he missed the cut.  He really struggled on Friday making 5 bogeys on the way to carding a 75, leaving him at +4, 3-over the cut line.  I’m just disappointed that we won’t get to see a video featuring him in the green jacket.

5.  Justin Rose (T11) – Justin Rose played a solid tournament.  His only problem was that he really didn’t get things going until Sunday, when he shot a 68.  He was dead straight off the tee all week (78%) and hit a ton of greens (79%).  But he averaged 31 putts, which just isn’t going to get it done at the Masters.

He’s playing really well though so I would not be surprised at all if he picks up another victory or two this year.  And if he keeps hitting it this straight, we could definitely see him contend at the US Open, where the course will be set up to punish 300 yard wayward drives (neither of which describes Rose’s tee game).

So how did I do overall? 5 Picks.  T11, T20, T24, and 2 MC’s.  Honestly I don’t think that’s too shabby for darkhorse picks.  Did any of you guys pick Schwartzel to win?

Liars…

[Image Flickr/Pocketwiley]

Clearly the putting advice worked well for Schwartzel. What else can you say? He putted well all day and lights out on the last 4 holes. Combine that with a chip-in birdie and a hole-out for eagle earlier in the round and you have yourself a green jacket.

I’ve also got to say that the long putter really seems to be working well for Adam Scott. I can’t imagine how many would have been sold if he had pulled off the victory. Putting has always been his achille’s heel but he looked very comfortable out there on the greens this week. Hopefully he’ll be able to take this momentum forward into next week’s title defense at the Valero Open.

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.

With Martin Kaymer missing the cut 78-72, the #1 world ranking is officially up for grabs this weekend at the Masters.  Lee Westwood (#2), Phil Mickelson (#3), Luke Donald (#4), and Tiger (#7) could all take over the number 1 spot depending on how the other contenders finish.  Graeme McDowell (#5)  missed the cut and because of the math, Paul Casey (#6) can’t move to #1 even if he wins.

You’d have to be a statistician to figure out all of the possible scenarios, but thankfully the Golf Channel’s Randal Mell has laid out the possibilities for the rest of us:

No. 2 Westwood and No. 3 Mickelson can become No. 1 with a Masters’ victory regardless what anyone else does.

No. 4 Donald becomes No. 1 if he wins and Westwood finishes worse than solo second.

No. 7 Woods becomes No. 1 if he wins and Mickelson finishes worse than solo second and Westwood finishes outside the top three.

No. 5 Graeme McDowell missed the cut. No. 6 Paul Casey by virtue of divisors and OWGR rolling two-year math has no shot to become No. 1 this week.

My head hurts now.

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]

[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.

You can check out the full list at Sportspickle, but some of my favorites include:

Steve Marino:  Here’s a Marino that can win the big one!  Steve Marino has won the biggest title of all: the Masters!

Sean O’Hair:  O’Hair yeah!  Sean O’Hair has won the Masters!

Rory Sabbatini:  He might look Sabbatini, but he’s standing tall at the Masters!

I’m willing to bet that Jim Nantz really does have a list like this somewhere.