Capelle On Golf

2008 Masters Coverage - thru 4/15

The likelihood of rain on Saturday was no big secret. And the tournament had already suffered through a fog delay on Thursday, which forced the last groups to play in near darkness or come back early the next day to finish their rounds. Given these developments, the sensible course of action would have been to move up Saturday’s tee times 60-90 minutes.

But CBS stuck to their rating sensitive guns. Now sunset, which comes at 7:56pm could be an issue. The last tee time was scheduled for 2:40. Now they’ll tee off at about 3:30, giving them a little over four hours to complete their round, assuming no further interruptions.

Tiger’s Big Chance to Show Us his Driving Skills
The heavy rains will have an impact on the players’ strategy. Softer greens will make birdies more plentiful. But first a player must hit the fairway off the tee. This is both good and bad news for Tiger Woods. He’ll be able to zero in on the pins more often, which could enable him to advance up the leaderboard. But the soggy fairways and colder conditions also mean that he will have to use his driver on most par 4s and 5s, or risk having long approach shots that will cut down on his chances of sticking the ball close to the pins.

In short, Tiger’s bid for the Masters and the Grand Slam rests on him having one of the best driving rounds of his life. This must come on the heels of a couple of way wide rights into the forest on two of his last three holes on Friday. Will he or won’t he be able to consistently find the fairway? That could be the day’s big story.

Bonus Coverage for Us
CBS wouldn’t dare end the telecast with players on the course, and they sure aren’t going to start the show later than it’s scheduled starting time of 3:30. What that means is that every minute that the telecast is delayed is another minute that it grows. Now we’ll be able to see about 4-5 more holes of Tiger’s and all 18 holes of the last 5-6 groups, proving they can finish today.