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    #26
    From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

    Ian Poulter with a hole-in-one on 16.

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      #27
      From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

      Really? Man, the way people treat Augusta like it's some sacred ground annoys me.
      Well, to American fans, it pretty much literally is sacred ground, given that it was laid out and built by Bobby Jones, the millionaire Amateur who became a semi-mythical figure within the game during the 1920s, when he won several US Opens against the hated "professionals", in the era when being a professional sportsman was very much sneered upon by the gentlemen of the country clubs. Although by the 1950s professional golfers had kind of been accepted into such polite society, it's worth remembering it took tennis a further decade (until 1968) to accept them, and openly professional athletes weren't accepted into the Olympics until the 1980s.

      The fuss they had when the Augusta committee decided to "Tiger-proof" Bobby Jones' course a couple of years ago (by moving several tees fifty yards back, and narrowing several other fairways with rough and trees) was unbelievable. You'd have thought they'd dug Jones's body up and dragged it around the course behind a horse.

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        #28
        From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

        That was some round by Rose after being 2 over after 5. He can go home happy now...

        "Selected" leaderboard:

        Goosen -1
        Leonard / Woods / Chopra / Choi / Cink E
        Els +2
        Ogilvy / Baddeley +3
        Couples +4

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          #29
          From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

          Azinger, amiable bloke that he was
          Coming a bit late to this - but are you sure about that? Just about everything I've read about Azinger suggests he was one of the most disliked golfers on the tour when he played. Admittedly, this was probably from an entirely European perspective, but still.

          I usually get really into the Ryder Cup but I might find it difficult this year to get truly behind a team led by Faldo.

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            #30
            From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

            Inca wrote:
            Nil a fhios agam wrote:
            Each hole is named after a tree or a flower.
            Really? Man, the way people treat Augusta like it's some sacred ground annoys me.
            Really, though, you're much more likely to hear "Tiger at 18" than you are "Tiger on Holly", although the image conjured by the latter is more amusing.

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              #31
              From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

              Oh, and here's my 'preferred winner order':

              1. any English player (ideally Luke Donald)
              2. Vijay Singh
              3. any Spanish player (ideally Sergio Garcia)
              4. Ernie Els
              5. Michael Campbell
              6. any non-English, non-Spanish or non-American player
              7. any American player except Woods
              8. Woods

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                #32
                From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                Well I certainly never foresaw Brandt Snedeker being so high on the second-round leaderboard, but there's a way to go yet. Bobby Clampett, anyone?

                Immelman I could have foreseen, he had a top-5 finish 3 years ago, but he's just coming back from having a cancerous growth cut out of his stomach, so I didn't think he'd feature much in 2008.

                Goosen and Cink are both still well-placed, but my third tip Ogilvy is going to have to go some today to back onto the leaderboard. So too, if he wants to assume his favourite position of leading from the front after three rounds, is Tiger - seven shots back at present, but it's not beyond him, of course, to pull out something ridiculous like a 65 today. Should be an interesting afternoon's golf.

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                  #33
                  From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                  I think Snedeker could win this, you know. Long, long way to go yet, but he looks so assured. Rookie of the Year last year (I'll admit I'd missed that - let's face it, hardly any "rookies of the year" have made any impact at all since a certain ET Woods in 1996), but who knows.

                  He's either going to be this year's Tiger Woods, or this year's Bobby Clampett. The next 24 hours will tell ...

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                    #34
                    From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                    Casey still hanging in there.

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                      #35
                      From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                      Here comes Tiger ...

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                        #36
                        From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                        Uh-oh, Alliss is already dragging out World War One anecdotes, and it's only 8.30 ...

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                          #37
                          From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                          Immelman has this in the bag. Flesch and Snedeker have been dropping shots over the last few holes. Tiger missed a five footer for birdie and a seven footer for par. Those two misses coupled with Immelman sinking a twelve footer to save par and now pitching to within inches of the pin has settled it.

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                            #38
                            From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                            I'm enjoying Peter Alliss's gently Partridge-esque use of metaphor: he's just described the 16th as having a "gentle slope, like a hog's back". Well, clearly...

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                              #39
                              From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                              Fair play to Immelman, he only made one big mistake in four rounds. I don't think tv really showed how difficult the conditions were yesterday.

                              I usually don't mind Peter Alliss but he has a bit of a nasty streak doesn't he? He was very disrespectful when Flesch started to fall away. Kept repeating that he was "not a winner" and "just didn't have it".

                              Made a few bob on Stewart Cink, cheers Rogin!

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                                #40
                                From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                                Yeah, Alliss was out of order re Flesch. He's not usually ungenerous like that, I don't think. He's long in the tooth but he's all right for a few stints, not least because he doesn't take it too seriously.

                                Immelman closed everyone out, didn't he? Tiger couldn't have played it better from there. Excellent performance.

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                                  #41
                                  From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                                  Alliss kind of extended his commentating career far beyond where it should have gone in 1999, when correctly but gleefully predicting the downfall of Jean Van De Velde at Carnoustie.

                                  It's become part of his game now, happily pointing out to viewers that players with no experience of winning the big events are effectively shitting themsleves and are unlikely to win. He did it with Thomas Bjorn at the 2003 Open, too.

                                  Of course, Alliss's schtick adds to the drama, so he's right to do it, but recent history in majors doesn't really bear it out. Complete outsiders do win majors nowadays - pressure or not - like Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel, Todd Hamilton, and arguably Immelman last night. Len Mattiace almost won this tournament in 2003, and nothing has been heard of him since. And who remembers Brian Watts, who was a putt away from winning the Open in 1998?

                                  I can't help but thinking that Alliss's insistence that "if you haven't been there before, you can't possibly be expected to do it" comes from his own experience, when as a 21? -23? - year old in 1953, he had the chance to win the Ryder Cup for Britain and Ireland against the US side of Hogan and Snead, but three-putted from about 10 feet to lose the trophy on the final green of the final match. Alliss won a lot of big tournaments in the rest of his career in Britain, but, a bit like Lee Westwood to date, never came close to winning a major.

                                  Well done Immelman, by the way. I don't know what it is about the southern hemisphere golfers, but by god they're racking the majors recently. Campbell, Ogilvy, Cabrera, Goosen, Els, Singh, now Immelman - all major winners in the 2000s, while Europe just has Harrington's Open win last year to compare.

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                                    #42
                                    From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                                    Well, they've got a whole hemisphere, and we've only got a continent.

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                                      #43
                                      From Arnie on Tea Olive to Tiger on Holly...

                                      Well done, btw, to all who followed my tips - even though only one came up in the end I had Cink each way at 66-1. Goosen should really have made it 2 out of 4 for me but unexpectedly fell away in the last round.

                                      I'll set my mind to the US Open, now. Actually, Goosen and Cink aren't bad long-range bets for that, too.

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