RealClearSports: A Masters to Be Remembered

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com


AUGUSTA, Ga. — The tales are about the azaleas and the green jacket and the difficulty in purchasing tickets. But what makes the Masters the Masters is the golf.

It's wide open, and wild scoring. It's golf the way the NBA plays basketball, dramatic and entertaining, where the best — Charl Schwartzel's historic four closing birdies Sunday — and the worst — Rory McIlroy's awful collapse — are as close as the next shot.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Unlikely hero emerges from wild day at Masters

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner


Tiger Woods was almost there. Adam Scott was almost there. Rory McIlroy was there and then was nowhere. The final day of the year’s first major golf tournament turned into an unsuspected Sunday afternoon of drama, disappointment, and for a skinny kid most Americans have never heard of, success.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

Global Golf Post: Charl Charges to Masters Triumph

By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com


AUGUSTA, GEORGIA — When it finally ended, when the most confusing and compelling Masters in history had wrenched every bit of tension and emotion out of a United Nations field of competitors, the winner turned out to be nobody you could have imagined.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 Global Golf Post

RealClearSports: No Americans in Sight at Masters

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com


AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Inevitability is about to meet reality. Golf, as forecast, is no longer the domain of the U.S.

Golf belongs to South Africa. Golf belongs to Germany. And since Rory McIlroy is about to duplicate the major triumph of countryman Graeme McDowell, most of all golf belongs to Northern Ireland.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011