Guys Who You Want to Win the Masters

It's that time of year again. It's time to start making foolish predictions about who will win the Masters. Ron Green, Jr., the golf writer out of Charlotte, took a different approach in his blog though. He listed the guys that he hopes to win the Masters and why. His top 5 in order to #1 is: Sean O'Hair, CH3, Freddy Couples, Ernie Els, and Boo Weekley. His criteria is the value of the story, which makes sense since he is a journalist. Green intentionally excludes Phil and Tiger because everyone is picking them.

Feel free to chime in with your own non-Tiger and Phil top 5, but here are mine.

5. Chris DiMarco - the guy has come painstaking close here (2005) and been in contention on multiple occasions only for his best to not be good enough. A win here would pull him out of a long Tour winless slump and I think the crowd would go nuts for him.

4. Retief Goosen - the Goose has shown some real signs of life in recent weeks. I love his cool demeanor and I think it is well suited for major championship golf. He has fared well here, but was also another victim of Tiger's intimidation in a final pairing. For him to pull one out here would give him 3 majors and put him in another stratosphere. He would barely crack a smile about it, too.

3. Boo Weekley - if he isn't on your list, then you don't have much of a sense of humor. Or you hate nice people.

2. Jeev Milkha Singh - a win by him would put the Asian Tour on the map for real, and it would be hilarious to find out Monty's reaction afterward.

1. Fred Couples - without being biased here, Boom Boom winning the Masters for a second time on the twilight of his playing days would rank as 1a with Nicklaus' 1986 triumph. No, really, it would. Couples is the ultimate fan favorite and the ultimate in what could have been. Were he to cap it all off with a green jacket, Couples' legend would only grow.