The Masters

This week, The Masters is being played. For those not aware, this is an annual event that brings golf's best together in competition. There is little in the world of sports that compares.

The site is Georgia's Augusta National course. It is beautiful, rolling hills, lovely streams and bountious blooms of dogwood and azalea,  mixed with little stone bridges, a stately clubhouse and magnificent magnolias and pines.

The course itself is quirky. The fairways are very wide and the rough is insignificant. The tree do come into play and, from there, sometimes the shot is easy, sometimes impossible. On several holes, a mistake will put you in the water. The sand traps are not deep, like on links courses, but they are placed where they will cause maximum difficulty.

The big issue is the hills. Every faitway is up and down and side to side and the greens are full of slopes, some very obvious, some subtle. Where you are hitting from determines where you can hit to and your approach shot must factor in the green's slopes. The areas around the greens are often shaved, so a even a seemingly fine shot will find itself rolling off the green, often into sand or water.

The course plays different every year because the weather in Georgia, this time of year is unpredictable, sometimes hot and dry, sometimes wet and rainy, not infrequently cold. And, it changes from day to day and sometimes every few hours.

IT may be still, which makes things easy, but, usually, the wind is up and it gets caught in the tall pines. That  makes it swirl and judging a shot can be nightmarish.

All in all, a fitting test for the World's best players. The tournament is special. And, by the way, it can be so volatile that the old time players were right when they said, the tournament doesn't really hit its stride until the back nine on Sunday. Sit back this weekend and enjoy The Masters.