Thoughts on Thursday

First of all, the course is playing harder than it has in years. That is obvious. The weather being dry and sunny has clearly turned Augusta into a true monster. Hootie's changes to the course are demolishing the best players in the world. There are 9 players under par and only two players broke 70. Traditionally, Friday at the Masters is the day with the most difficult set-up. We may not see another sub-70 round until Sunday. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Part of Augusta's charm over the years is that while the course is extremely difficult it is not immune to a low round. A difficult course yielding a low round is the exact recipe for drama. This is why The Masters has been so dramatic over the years. Rounds like Jack's 65, Gary's 64 come immediately to mind. Unless there is some rain, 69 might well be the low round of the week.

Onto to specific people now:

Looks like I was right about Els. Very unfortunate his play, but, look, you either hit the shots or you don't. Tomorrow, I think we'll see Ernie go for broke and blow up again. I don't want to see it, but it's going to happen.

Badds was bad. You heard it here Tuesday. He stunk. That said, John Rollins, my sleeper pick was equally horrendous, so I'm not exactly dominating the predictions area.

Ogilvy did a phenomenal job of keeping it together following an 8 on the 2nd. I like his chances moving forward. The same can be said of Phil for bringing it back from 6-over to 4-over. The problem both of these guys have is that they are currently 2 and 3 back of Woods and Singh with those two teeing it up early tomorrow. That means that Ogilvy and Phil (and you can throw Garcia, Howell and Goosen into that mix as well) may find themselves several shots behind Tiger and Vijay before they even tee-off. If that's the case, they'll all be pressing to catch up and pressing gets you absolutely nowhere at Augusta.

As for Tiger, I know he bogeyed the final two, but let's be honest, he's right where he wants to be and Tiger never shoots a good score in the first round of The Masters anyway. Vijay played the last 7 holes in 2-under, and looks like a lock to be in contention on the weekend.

There are only a few guys with legit major experience on the first page (Toms, Beem, Love), and none of these guys has been in contention recently. There is a power vacuum at the top, and, as I said, with Tiger and Vijay teeing off early, things could get very interesting for those less experienced guys tomorrow afternoon.

Adam Scott impressed me and Olazabal made a nice birdie at 18. Both are at 2-over, right in the mix.

Tomorrow will see me blogging a lot more. Had some things I wanted to take care of before the weekend.