Spring Is Officially Here

The calendar says that spring arrives on the 22nd of March. Sometimes the weather does not cooperate with that, and spring shows up a week or so later. Regardless of what the calendar says, or what the weather does, the spring season arrives in my mind this weekend. The Masters have begun. The first round was put in the books today, and you can just feel it in the air. It seems like the perfect spring weather arrives in coordination with the Masters beginning, so why not just make the first Thursday in April the official start of spring? It already feels that way.

Now to the actual tournament. Golf is not a big deal to me. I like watching Tiger Woods, if he isn't in contention I usually do not tune in, but the Masters is a different story. I enjoy watching the weekend play at the Masters regardless of who is playing well. Sure, I root for Tiger, but I still enjoy the rest of the players. This year, as in just about every year, you have to consider Woods the favorite. Every time he steps foot on a golf course he is the favorite. Tiger shot even par in the opening round, putting him five shots behind leader Vijay Singh. Five shots in three days is by no means difficult for Tiger to make up, but chasing Vijay presents a different challenge. Singh is one of the best golfers in the world, right there on Tiger's level, I can't point to any one player and say it would be more difficult for Tiger to chase him down than Vijay Singh. That has already set the stage it what looks to be a very interesting Masters Tournament. They have add distance to the golf course at Augusta National, making it more difficult for players to have low scores, so chasing down anybody is going to be more difficult this year. But as a viewer, I'm hoping Tiger can chase down Vijay Singh and have one of the better final pairings on Championship Sunday.

Publish Date: April 6 in the Missourian.