Masters Recap

There are only so many things that can be written about this Masters. Some of the themes you should expect to see over the next week or so are:

• Zach Johnson is a mild-mannered guy who won a major. Oh yeah, did we mention he came from the Nationwide Tour?!


• Tiger Woods blew a major where he had a share of the lead. Nevermind that he held the lead for a single hole.


• South Africans and Australians didn't win this past weekend. Bad news for them, but they sure are good!


• AND THEN...Phil Mickelson is finished.

Tom Hanson over at the Naples News decided to pen a column saying that Phil's never going to win another major. Ok, let's settle this right now. The people who write columns like these are scraping the bottom of the barrel for topics. How can a slip up (albeit of monumental proportions) automatically DQ a guy from ever winning a major again? How could a triple bogey on a course that was averaging between 4-5 shots over par per round for the week signal that someone can forget major glory in the future?

Apparently, Tom Hanson is trying to make that case. Get serious. Making that case would be just the same as saying that, before this week, Zach Johnson could never win a Masters at this stage because he had not won more than one regular Tour event. By that logic, every player that has never won a major should never be able to win a major to start.

What in the world does Philly Mick have to do to get a little respect around here? He went 42 majors without winning and taking it on the chin everytime when he didn't. Then he won one for each of the last three years and was a few putts away from a potential Mickelslam. All of a sudden, the media could not stop kissing his ass. After Winged Foot, though, it's like the media went back to their column archives to relearn how to bash Lefty.

Get over it. Phil has won three majors and even if he never wins another, he will still go down in history as one of the greats. That will happen regardless of what is written of him. So, we can all stop wasting time on the subject and get to heralding Zach Johnson - a man who stood up to the best player in the world (maybe ever) and an unrelenting golf course to win the most famous golf tournament in the world.