Masters Betting Recap

Editor's Note: Be sure to follow @_DanDaly on Twitter for his off-the-cuff remarks and entertaining commentary!

Earl Woods famously predicted his son would go on to win 14 Major Championships….

Well, suck it Earl!    

I’m a Tiger homer.  Let’s just get that out of the way, but what happened Sunday will probably go down as the greatest Masters ever.  When Tiger’s ball started slowly rolling back towards the cup on #16 Sunday afternoon I literally jumped out of my chair and started screaming at the TV as if me yelling loud enough would will the ball to go in.  And you know what…I’m guessing I wasn’t alone. 

Golf is simply better when Tiger Woods is winning.  And for those of you that hate him, I will never understand you.  Look, I get not liking Tiger Woods the person, but I don’t turn on my TV to watch him give me life lessons. The guy is simply Must Watch TV. Now, this is where ‘that guy’ will tell you that The Masters is bigger than Tiger, and while that may be true I’m pretty sure people didn’t skip church on Sunday morning to watch the Masters at 9:00 a.m. ET because Francisco Molinari and Tony Finau were in the final group.  

Tiger’s win in 1997 was a “Win for the Ages” but Tiger’s win Sunday might have been the most popular win in the history of golf. 

Tiger had just hit his tee shot on #12 Friday afternoon when the siren went off for weather in the area.  What followed was an iconic picture of Tiger walking by himself across the Hogan Bridge to go mark his ball with thousands of fans in the forefront.  Later that night I saw a photo shopped version of that picture with Tiger walking across Rae’s Creek instead of the Hogan Bridge.  Now, 48 hours later, I can’t help but wonder…was the picture actually photo shopped?   

While we may never know the true extent of how bad Tiger’s injury truly was, it was such that he could barely get out of bed less than two years ago.  He privately wondered if he would ever play golf again, and most people rightfully assumed that even if he did he would be a shell of himself, more of a ceremonial golfer. 

On Sunday afternoon Tiger Woods not only won his 15th Major Championship at Augusta National he did so against arguably the greatest final round leaderboard in the history of the Masters. 

What Tiger Woods did on Sunday is nothing short of a miracle. 

This infamous scene in Tombstone pretty much sums it up better than I ever could.   

Here are the 15 biggest storylines from the Masters (if you have to ask why 15, well, I can’t really help you):

15) I am 100% on board with all Sunday Masters rounds starting at 9:00 am ET going forward.  I know it won’t happen but I’m going to start a petition just in case.  Waking up, making breakfast and watching the leaders tee off on #1 at Augusta is maybe the greatest unintended weather consequence of all-time.  Once again the Masters gets it right…like everything else.  Speaking of…

14)  The Masters app is quite simply the greatest app ever developed…of any kind.  The fact that you can watch every single shot from every single player on the course within 60 seconds of them hitting it is Nobel Prize shit.  

13)  Look, I’m not a fashion expert, far from it, but the crap that Nike and Under Armour put their players in this week was embarrassing.  From the horrible mock turtle necks that will apparently not go away to the horrible shirts that Under Armour made Spieth wear to Koepka’s hats, this was not the finest moment in golf history for fashion.

12)  #12.  How can such a beautiful, short, straight-forward hole be such a backbreaker?  I don’t know the answer but I know I love it.  Oh, and 12 at Augusta is so much better than 17 at Sawgrass and it’s not even really close. 

11) Bryson took the overnight lead Thursday with an incredible shot into 18 that hit the stick and left him stone dead for birdie.  Bryson then did the unthinkable, trying to be funny (which I actually applaud him for) he mocked science…“I guess I should’ve pulled the flag stick. Terminal velocity was too high!”  From that point on he played the next 54 holes in two-over.  Bryson, don’t ever mock science, it doesn’t have a sense of humor, you of all people should know that.   

10) Can you imagine if the security on #14 Friday had actually taken out Tiger’s leg to the point he had to WD?  You would find Jimmy Hoffa before you found that guy.  Come to think of it, has anyone actually seen him or heard from him since that happened?  Augusta National owns a lot of land around those parts.  I’m just saying.

9) Every week I think I can’t like Jason Day any less and then every week he raises his game.  This week he injured himself bending over to kiss his kid on the putting green?!  Are you frickin’ kidding me?  Yet somehow went out and swung 30 or so times at 120 MPH without having to WD?  Yeah, it’s called Munchausen syndrome. ‘Munchausen syndrome is a factitious disorder, a mental disorder in which a person repeatedly and deliberately acts as if he or she has a physical or mental illness when he or she is not really sick. Munchausen syndrome is considered a mental illness because it is associated with severe emotional difficulties.’  If they named a disease after Lou Gehrig I’m pretty sure they need to rename this disease after Jason Day.  Can you imagine if that security guard had slid into Day the way he slid into Tiger?!  Day would need an ambulance and 10 surgeons on site before he could continue. 

8) Phil dropped another bomb on Saturday via social media, which admittedly was pretty funny, when talking about being paired with Matt Kuchar, “No side action today, because I’d probably see like .06 percent if I win...”  One problem Phil, Kuchar-68…Phil-70.  Karma’s a bitch even if it was in good fun. 

7)  Rory McIlroy is never going to win at Augusta.  It’s just not going to happen.  Rory is the modern day Greg Norman at Augusta.  There are simply too many demons in his head now.  He will probably win another Major or two in general before it’s all said and done and he will definitely contend at Augusta going forward just like Norman did, but the Green Jacket will always be the one that got away from Rory. 

6) Patrick Reed finished his Masters defense on #9 Sunday half an hour before the leaders finished in front of roughly 12 people and ironically it was about the same noise level as when he won last year.  On that note, Tiger’s ovation after he tapped in for the win was the loudest cheer I have ever heard on a golf course…by far.  No offense Patrick. 

5) I genuinely feel bad for Adam Scott. Never in the history of golf has anyone hit it so good and putted it so bad for 54 holes. I don’t have any statistical evidence to back that up so you’re just going to have to trust me. The guy even tried putting with a spaceship…it didn’t help.  If a middle school golfer putted for Adam Scott the first 54 holes he would have been leading by 8 shots.  I can’t blame the guy for mailing it in on Sunday, at a certain point it just absolutely wears you down.  If he hits it like that the rest of the year he could be dangerous on a venue that doesn’t put a premium on putting. 

4) Francisco Molinari didn’t go full Jordan Spieth 2016 but he was pretty damn close.  Molinari went from the 11th hole Thursday to the 12th hole Sunday without making a bogey.  That is insane.  He had one arm in the green jacket walking off of the 11th green (just like Spieth in 2016) and then washed his chances away not once, but twice.  The entire day, or weekend for that matter, Molinari could have made it in a Cheerio from 8 feet.  I’ve never seen a short game performance like he put on this week. The guy played 70 incredible holes of golf, but as Spieth or Van De Velde or a so many others can attest to, it can fall apart all too quickly.  I’ll tell you this much, don’t sleep on Frankie going forward, this guy is legit.    

3) Whatever is going on with Jordan Spieth is hard to watch.  An opening nine 40 left him zero chance the rest of the way. Mark Grace once famously explained the term slump-buster to a reporter. "A slump-buster is if a team's in a slump, or if you personally are in a slump, you gotta find the fattest, gnarliest, grossest chick and you just gotta lay the wood to her. And when you do that, you're just gonna have instant success. And it could also be called jumping on a grenade for the team."  I’m not promoting infidelity on the part of young Jordan but the guy has to do something sooner than later because this has become painful to watch.  He is too good to continue to play this bad. 

2) Brooks Koepka literally doesn’t care about any golf tournament that isn’t a major.  It’s honestly one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.  It’s like watching Ryan Tannehill play 16 regular season games at QB and then Tom Brady comes in for the Playoffs.  He has three wins, a 2nd and a 6th in his last seven Major starts.  Since the start of 2018 in non-majors or WGC events he has three Top-10’s and zero wins.  On that note, you can go ahead and book it now, Brooks Koepka is going to win the British Open.  He would probably win anyway but the fact that his caddie, Ricky Elliott, was born in Portrush and has played it an estimated 1,000 times basically means the rest of the field has zero chance. 

1) Tiger left us all with a very simple message

HOLY HELL…Tiger Woods just won The Masters after 14 years and his first Major in 10 years, 9 months & 27 days.  I still can’t believe it.  I’m genuinely giddy.   

I will be back next month for the PGA Championship…on a venue Tiger has already won a Major on.  Just saying…