It’s the week of The Masters golf tournament, so I’m passing along a copy of the Augusta National scorecard that my late father used when he shot a cool 99 at the course back in the mid-1970’s. The weather forecast for the tournament is looking a bit dicey on Saturday and Sunday.
Golf course design consultant and golf blogger extraordinaire Geoff Shackelford is doing an outstanding job at GolfWorld of organizing the media pieces and blog posts about the tournament — here are his Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and the weekend reports. And he is even finding time to blog a bit as this post decries what has become of the Masters par-3 tournament. Check back each day of the week as Geoff will provide the most comprehensive launching pad of links relating to the tournament. The Wall Street Journal’s very good golf writer, John Paul Newport, is also blogging the tournament here.
Meanwhile, golf author and blogger Daniel Wexler provides this entertaining post on the ten best golfers who never won the Masters and this interesting hole-by-hole analysis of how the changes to Augusta National’s back nine have altered 
the shot-making options that course architects Bobby Jones and Alister McKenzie emphasized in designing the venerable layout. He concludes:
So in the end, is this present incarnation a better nine than existed in the beginning? From the perspective of keeping modern golfers from going low, absolutely – plus the 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th remain, altered or not, among the most exciting holes in the history of the game. The problem is that the addition of rough and trees does not add (or even complement existing) strategy; it simply makes it harder for the golfer to post a good score. This may salve the egos of present-day club leaders, but re-reading this column’s opening quote, and considering that it was final-nine drama – the rapid-fire eagles, bogeys and “others” – that used to make the Masters so utterly unique, I keep finding myself wondering:
What’s wrong with great scores?
Finally, the Masters has been a frequent topic on this blog, so the following are a few Masters-related posts from over the years:
Ken Venturi and Arnold Palmer’s little snit over that embedded ball at the 1958 Masters.
Phil Mickelson wins his first Masters in 2004 and Masters’ expert Dan Jenkins puts it all in perspective.
Read about some of Dan Jenkins’ favorite Masters moments and how he "birdied his bypass." Also, don’t miss this post in which Jenkins describes Chris DiMarco’s putting grip and what Mickelson and Tiger Woods were saying to each other as Mickelson helped Woods into his fourth green jacket during the 2005 awards ceremony.
Culture shock — John Daly on the Augusta National driving range.
A golfing Zimbabwe (see also here) and a salute to the King.
A fellow Iowa native makes good at The Masters.