Friday, April 11, 2008

Masters Day 2: Pimpin' On The Rise

The biggest theme was once again white pants; at this point that is looking like the fashion trend for Masters 2008. Even 2 time champion Tom Watson got in on the act:



Sadly he finished at +6 and will not be playing on the weekend.

Gary Player finished last at +17, but he did finish up par/par to shoot 78. Why is this important? He had said after shooting 83 in the first round that if he didn't break 80 on Friday then we would not come back and play his 52nd Masters next year. So thanks to his 78, hopefully he will be back for another go next year.


Thank you, GP. Hope to see you next year.

Oh, he also went full-on Wimbledon yesterday and rocked an all white outfit. After a career of wearing all black and acquiring the name "The Black Knight" this was interesting, along the lines of Gandalf The White. He also rocked the completely old school shoes with the flap over the laces. If you haven't figured out by now, I love this guy and he is my favorite of the legendary Big 3 of the 60s {Palmer, Nicklaus, Player}.


Retro shoes make the outfit. King of all-time
pimps GP knows it's the little touches that matter

The cut was not kind to other well and/or funky dressed men, among them:

Rory Sabbatini, who came extremely strong yesterday with a red shirt, white pants with red trim, a red belt, and a giant silver SKULL BELT BUCKLE. No really.


100% awesome, esp. in the hallowed halls of Augusta National.

Two time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal, who looked like the sharpest dressed Wyoming Cowboys fan you'll ever see.


You'll have to trust me that the brown shoes were tight,and if he
went with a hat to match those pants he would be El Rai de Laramie for sure.

Speaking of cowboys, Shingo missed the cut as well, so only 2 wacky but somehow pimpin' Japanese cowboy outfits this year instead of four.


Happy trails, Shingo.

U.S. Amateur champion and Virginia Tech student Drew Weaver came with it yesterday, rocking a sweet argyle sweater as part of a slick black & white ensemble:


Pretty strong for an amateur

The cut line was especially cruel to those at +4, as the cut looked to be at +4 all day but then finished up at +3, with several prominent +4's left on the outside looking in.

Sergio Garcia, who did much, much better on his outfit but as you can see here is sad to be missing the weekend, and it's increased pimpin' opportunities.


Tu ropa son mejor hoy, Sergio, pero adios mi amigo.

Luke Donald, also at +4, proved once again that you can actually pimp pretty hard even when yo handicap yourself by wearing a dorky ass golf visor.



Yesterday's newcomer Toru Tanaguchi came very weak yesterday, and missed the cut by 1 shot. After such a promising, close but no cigar start, surely a more bold attempt at pimpn' would have saved a stroke somewhere out there.

Aussie Aaron Baddeley also just missed at +4, which absolutely sucks because he wore the sweetest pants of the day yesterday- white with green pseudo plaid. Awesome. Sad that his Saturday and Sunday outfits will stay in the suitcase.


I want these.

Also, it is very sad that longtime fan favorite Fred Couples, who was looking to break Gary Players record for consecutive cuts made {23 I think} missed breaking the record in the end by a single shot, as he also finished at +4.

So who's left?

Well, leader Trevor Immelman, like Gary Player a smaller dude from South Africa, is your clubhouse leader and did ok yesterday, rocking the ever more ubiquitous white pants himself:



Ian Poulter is in 3rd place at -5, and backed up his lime green solid effort on Saturday with a pink & white ensemble on Friday.


Defending champ will not go quietly into that goodnight.

It sounds counterintuitive, but it takes a man to pull off pink pants, belt, and shoes, but he did it. At this point I think he's rocking the visor just to give everyone else a chance: if he had gone with the pimp hats again this year he'd pretty much already have it sewed up again.

Steven Ames is at -4 and also showed that he isn't afraid to rock a little pink, although {not surprisiingly} he was nowhere in Poulter's league.



England's Nick Dougherty was even stronger than yesterday. Check out this shirt:


He could be a surprise contender on the weekend.

I also must mention Adam Scott's pants yesterday, a subtle plaid print that was sweet as hell. These plus Baddeley's green & white's and I'd be muy contento.

Nice pants, mate.

Finally, a sad word of caution. Although I appreciate the effort, Bubba Watson simply went too far in his efforts yesterday. I applaud the white shirt, pink pants, white shoes foundation, but although visors are not so good, they can be pulled off {Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, etc}. On the other hand, neon green visors are never a good idea, nor is the neon green belt with dark pink {salmon} pants. Poulter & Ames proved that pink can be done and done well; w white belt and plain white visor would have been serious pimpin', but this insistence on neon lime green turned into a total disaster.


Ouch: a fashion Icarus that flew too close to the sun.

Again, I appreciate the boldness to think outside the box, just need to rethink outside the box bubba.

Usually pimpin' subsides a bit on the weekend as 1) the field is basically cut in half 2) the golf goes from serious to super serious. Hopefully we'll have a few standouts to get us through.

I only saw some of ESPN's coverage over the first two days, so I can't fully comment on it {until this year the first two rounds were on the old USA network but the production was still by CBS golf}. I can say that, not surprisingly, they abandoned CBS golf production's philosophy of showing golf only as much as possible: shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot: as much live golf as possible, unlike NBC who turns their golf broadcasts into the Olympics with canned human interest story features in the middle of the golf, which may be interesting to casual fans but is highly irritating to hardcore golf fans. ESPN showed lots of non live golf action- interviews, talking heads, and canned human interest story features as well from the little I saw. Obviously, I'm 1) not surprised and 2) very much looking forward to the fact that Saturday & Sunday are back on CBS.

One final note on the new & improved www.masters.org. They really stepped it up this year, with live video feeds both of amen corner {11, 12, 13} and the 15th & 16th holes. The quality of the video is amazing, and 16:9 to boot. I have a crappy monitor at work and it looked like HD. I can say that is is easily the best streaming feed of any sporting event that I have ever seen on a computer, the quality was that good. If you are stuck at work this weekend then definitely check it out.

Here's hoping for good golf and good pimpin' through the weekend. Enjoy.

1 comment:

C. Todd Davis said...

I am not sure if it is just me, but do Aaron Baddeley's green check / plaid pants have a seersucker look to them, which would make them that much more perfecto for the south as spring rises again!