The 2009 Masters was perfectly in tune with these economical times. It was the two-in-one Masters, the one that gave extra value for money.
The tournament was won by Ángel Cabrera after an incident-filled final afternoon, including the first three-man play-off for 22 years. But as major championships go, this one will be remembered as much for the final-day duel between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Perhaps more than any other, the sight of the two best players in the world going at one another on a sunny afternoon in Georgia brought the roars back to Augusta.
Billy Payne, the chairman of Augusta National, had spoken of how hurt he had been at criticism in previous years, when bad weather accentuated the testing demands of the course, making Augusta not a place of worship for golf fans but a venue where they struggled to keep warm and applaud the contestants.
It was the thrust and counter-thrust by Woods and Mickelson that brought home how the atmosphere had changed this year. They were born within a few hundred miles and less than six years apart in California. They stood on the 1st tee on Sunday afternoon within touching distance, but one looking one way, one the other. Why do they find it so hard to like one another? The historical fairways are full of rivalries. Remember the Great Triumvirate at the turn of the 20th century. Think of Ben Hogan and Sam Snead in the US and Severiano Ballesteros and Paul Azinger in the Ryder Cup. When Jack Nicklaus burst upon the scene, Arnold Palmer used to refer to him sneeringly as “the German”. Remember Nick Faldo and a number of players? Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie?
Perhaps Woods is more logical, cool and practical, Mickelson more artistic and harder to predict. Mickelson carried two drivers at Augusta in 2007, yet at last year’s US Open at Torrey Pines, the longest course for a major championship, he did not carry one at all. This sort of puzzling thinking may be why the Woods camp regard Mickelson as “flaky”. Mickelson once suggested that Woods’s equipment was out of date, which did not go down well in the Woods camp. When Hal Sutton paired them in the Ryder Cup in 2004, there was no chemistry between them and only Sutton was surprised when they lost — twice.
Steve Williams, Woods’s caddie, said what he thought of Mickelson in New Zealand late last year. He had been asked what the relationship was like between the two. There was no relationship, Williams replied. Mickelson, he said, was a “p****”.
Nothing more needed to be added to spice up the potency of the pairing that teed off at 1.35pm on Sunday. For 3½ hours thereafter, it was all that was expected: Mickelson, playing superb golf, reached the turn in 30, equalling the Masters record; Woods was out in 33. Two strokes told the story. While Woods’s tee-shot on the 1st went so far left it ended on the 9th fairway, Mickelson produced a stroke of pure brilliance on the 7th, a recovery from the treeline to the right, a slinging hook that curved 25 yards in the air and ended a handspan from the hole.
Goodness knows what was going through Woods’s mind as he watched this display by his rival. On many of the 23 occasions when they had played together before, Woods had come out on top. This time he was being given a masterclass. Each birdie by the world No 2 must have felt like a punch to his solar plexus.
Mickelson’s first error came on the 12th, when he failed to hit his tee-shot hard enough and his ball ran back into Rae’s Creek for a double-bogey five. His second came on the 15th, where he missed a putt that was barely longer than the shaft of his putter for what would have been an eagle three. Outplayed on the outward nine holes, Woods was slowly clawing his way back. By the time he birdied the 16th, he was ten under par and within two shots of the lead.
Then, just as it had started, it ended. It was like the popping of a balloon. Mickelson missed another short putt for birdie on the 17th, Woods bogeyed that hole and drove into the trees that line the right of the 18th fairway. The moment had gone. Mickelson finished nine under par, one stroke ahead of Woods but three strokes out of the play-off.
Rarely have two men in contention played so well. They had 12 birdies and an eagle between them over the first 16 holes. “It was a great show,” David Feherty said on CBS Television. “It was a fantastic show.”
After such a performance, you might have thought that the compatriots could forget their differences for a moment, the way boxers sometimes fall into one another’s arms at the conclusion of a title bout, or as Nicklaus and Tom Watson did at the 1977 Open at Turnberry — the “Duel in the Sun”.
But no. Perhaps the sting of defeat was too great. There was another brief handshake and that was all. Their reactions spoke a lot about their characters. Woods, stony-faced and curt, described his ball-striking as “terrible”. Mickelson, smiling, said: “Playing with Tiger was fun. We’ve had some good matches. I always enjoy it.”
And so the attention turned to Chad Campbell, Cabrera and Kenny Perry, a 48-year-old American who had a chance to become the oldest man to win a major championship. Had Perry prevailed, he would have beaten the record of Nicklaus, who was 46 when he won at Augusta in 1986, and older by four months than Julius Boros, who was 48 years and four months when he won the 1968 US PGA Championship. Instead, it was Cabrera’s day.
Rivals through the ages
Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player Known as “The Big Three”, they dominated the game in the Sixties.
Nicklaus and Tom Watson Had huge respect for one another and fought several memorable duels.
Severiano Ballesteros and Paul Azinger A tenseness was always evident in Ryder Cup play. They made up later.
Harry Vardon, James Braid and J. H. Taylor The Great Triumvirate, rivals at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries.
Source:The times
Sunday, April 26, 2009
All-Toyota front row in Bahrain
In the wet of last week’s Chinese Grand Prix, Jarno Trulli was so slow he was a hazard. Yet in the baking desert heat of qualifying in Bahrain yesterday he was sublime in slotting his Toyota on to a scintillating pole position ahead of teammate Timo Glock. Such is the enigma of Trulli, which Glock alluded to, saying: “I made a small mistake at the beginning of my lap and I knew that meant Jarno was going to beat me, because he is just so good at squeezing everything from the qualifying lap. But I’m very optimistic for the race.” That last comment was also a reference to their respective fuel loads, Trulli being fuelled light enough for a three-stop race compared with the two of most of the others.
In Trulli’s long Formula One career - he made his debut 12 years ago - the 34-year-old Italian has f r e q u e n t l y b e e n devastatingly fast in qualifying but has won only once, for Renault in 2004. That is one more win than Toyota have secured since entering the sport in 2002. As F1’s biggest spenders during that time, they have been criticised for their lack of hard results. But the Cologne-based team have been steadily improving their competitiveness in the past two seasons, and as one of the three teams to find the double diffuser loophole in the 2009 regulations, they have hit the ground running this year.
The car is now fitted with the next evolution, the triple diffuser, which extracts the underbody airflow from the car even faster, increasing its grip-inducing downforce. The car was staggeringly good through the Sakhir circuit’s fast corners. Toyota were the only diffuser team to have attended an off-season test at this circuit, so amplifying their advantage.
Which Toyota driver is favoured for the race is a moot point. Trulli is a demanding perfectionist, which is reflected in an extreme driving style. Hugely effective in a well-balanced car, he is intolerant of the changes in handling as a race progresses, the track and tyre grip change and the fuel load comes down. He is superbly precise and commits to this precision with enormous entry speeds into a corner. But when the front of the car doesn’t grip as he needs it to, he is poor at improvisation. This is in contrast to his young German teammate, whose more extrovert style is less precise but better able to adapt to changes in grip.
Their personalities reflect these styles. Trulli tends to be either bouncy and chipper or down in the dumps - something accentuated by a typically Latin flamboyance of gesture. Glock is regular as clock-wo r k . F r o m a y o u n g e r generation than Trulli - he’s in his second full season of F1 - Glock spends much of his spare time playing computer games, whereas Trulli spends his making fine Abruzzo wines. They are the artist and the craftsman; which of them is better depends on the circumstances.
Neither Toyota driver is rated as highly as the man who appears to pose their strongest threat today, last week’s winner Sebastian Vettel. He put his Red Bull third on the grid with a heavier fuel load, so he is in a better position to be ahead after the first fuel stops.
All of which is a bit of a concern for world championship leader Jenson Button. He was fourth-quickest, his Brawn apparently not as well suited to this circuit as the three previous tracks. The car lacked stability in the braking zones, which Button finds difficult to deal with, and it was all he could do to fend off Lewis Hamilton in the hitherto difficult McLaren.
In advance of the team’s appearance before the governing body’s world council on Wednesday to answer disrepute charges over lying to stewards in Australia, Hamilton has often seemed emotionally charged this weekend but he focused fantastically well in qualifying to transcend the level of his car, which has had no significant upgrades since the previous race. Regardless of the controversies surrounding him and the limitations of his car, Hamilton is driving out of his skin. What’s more, he is equipped with Kers, the energy recovery technology that has been introduced as an option this year. None of the cars ahead of him on the grid features this technology. It gives a brief extra burst of 80 horse-power, which will probably be overwhelming down to the first corner.
The Bahrain track is perfectly configured to suit Kers, with lots of heavy braking areas to recharge the batteries quickly and two key uphill sections where the extra power is particularly valuable. Seeing how Hamilton can deploy it in an effort to keep what is probably an inferior car in a flattering position could be one of the highlights of the race, but the real intrigue centres on whether the Toyotas can work as a team to thwart the theoretically faster Red Bull of Vettel from winning. To expect Hamilton to figure in that battle is perhaps asking too much.
Button will be fuelled heavily, so he should be capable of challenging the Toyotas and Vettel, but his chances may be compromised by being stuck behind the faster-starting but ultimately slower McLaren. “I’m effectively fifth on the grid thanks to the McLaren’s Kers,” he said. “We have potentially very good race pace but so much depends on what happens in the first two corners.”
Rubens Barrichello was sixth-fastest in the second Brawn but is also expecting to be swamped at the start by Kers cars starting behind him, notably Fernando Alonso’s Renault and Felipe Massa’s Ferrari, which line up seventh and eighth respectively.
Victory prospects seem to centre on the artist, the craftsman or the Wunderkind. But as Formula One has shown many times already this year, a surprise is always possible.
- Mark Hughes writes for Autosport magazine
Source:The times
In Trulli’s long Formula One career - he made his debut 12 years ago - the 34-year-old Italian has f r e q u e n t l y b e e n devastatingly fast in qualifying but has won only once, for Renault in 2004. That is one more win than Toyota have secured since entering the sport in 2002. As F1’s biggest spenders during that time, they have been criticised for their lack of hard results. But the Cologne-based team have been steadily improving their competitiveness in the past two seasons, and as one of the three teams to find the double diffuser loophole in the 2009 regulations, they have hit the ground running this year.
The car is now fitted with the next evolution, the triple diffuser, which extracts the underbody airflow from the car even faster, increasing its grip-inducing downforce. The car was staggeringly good through the Sakhir circuit’s fast corners. Toyota were the only diffuser team to have attended an off-season test at this circuit, so amplifying their advantage.
Which Toyota driver is favoured for the race is a moot point. Trulli is a demanding perfectionist, which is reflected in an extreme driving style. Hugely effective in a well-balanced car, he is intolerant of the changes in handling as a race progresses, the track and tyre grip change and the fuel load comes down. He is superbly precise and commits to this precision with enormous entry speeds into a corner. But when the front of the car doesn’t grip as he needs it to, he is poor at improvisation. This is in contrast to his young German teammate, whose more extrovert style is less precise but better able to adapt to changes in grip.
Their personalities reflect these styles. Trulli tends to be either bouncy and chipper or down in the dumps - something accentuated by a typically Latin flamboyance of gesture. Glock is regular as clock-wo r k . F r o m a y o u n g e r generation than Trulli - he’s in his second full season of F1 - Glock spends much of his spare time playing computer games, whereas Trulli spends his making fine Abruzzo wines. They are the artist and the craftsman; which of them is better depends on the circumstances.
Neither Toyota driver is rated as highly as the man who appears to pose their strongest threat today, last week’s winner Sebastian Vettel. He put his Red Bull third on the grid with a heavier fuel load, so he is in a better position to be ahead after the first fuel stops.
All of which is a bit of a concern for world championship leader Jenson Button. He was fourth-quickest, his Brawn apparently not as well suited to this circuit as the three previous tracks. The car lacked stability in the braking zones, which Button finds difficult to deal with, and it was all he could do to fend off Lewis Hamilton in the hitherto difficult McLaren.
In advance of the team’s appearance before the governing body’s world council on Wednesday to answer disrepute charges over lying to stewards in Australia, Hamilton has often seemed emotionally charged this weekend but he focused fantastically well in qualifying to transcend the level of his car, which has had no significant upgrades since the previous race. Regardless of the controversies surrounding him and the limitations of his car, Hamilton is driving out of his skin. What’s more, he is equipped with Kers, the energy recovery technology that has been introduced as an option this year. None of the cars ahead of him on the grid features this technology. It gives a brief extra burst of 80 horse-power, which will probably be overwhelming down to the first corner.
The Bahrain track is perfectly configured to suit Kers, with lots of heavy braking areas to recharge the batteries quickly and two key uphill sections where the extra power is particularly valuable. Seeing how Hamilton can deploy it in an effort to keep what is probably an inferior car in a flattering position could be one of the highlights of the race, but the real intrigue centres on whether the Toyotas can work as a team to thwart the theoretically faster Red Bull of Vettel from winning. To expect Hamilton to figure in that battle is perhaps asking too much.
Button will be fuelled heavily, so he should be capable of challenging the Toyotas and Vettel, but his chances may be compromised by being stuck behind the faster-starting but ultimately slower McLaren. “I’m effectively fifth on the grid thanks to the McLaren’s Kers,” he said. “We have potentially very good race pace but so much depends on what happens in the first two corners.”
Rubens Barrichello was sixth-fastest in the second Brawn but is also expecting to be swamped at the start by Kers cars starting behind him, notably Fernando Alonso’s Renault and Felipe Massa’s Ferrari, which line up seventh and eighth respectively.
Victory prospects seem to centre on the artist, the craftsman or the Wunderkind. But as Formula One has shown many times already this year, a surprise is always possible.
- Mark Hughes writes for Autosport magazine
Source:The times
Dirk Kuyt's brace keeps pressure on United
THE TALK beforehand, even among the City fans, was of how many, but the three goals Liverpool scored were no sort of reflection on a game in which the Tigers matched the visitors for long periods. Even after being reduced to 10 men when Caleb Folan was rightly sent off, and going two down immediately afterwards, City fought with a spirit born of desperation. They pulled a goal back and put Liverpool under severe pressure before Dutch forward Dirk Kuyt’s second strike finally made the game safe in the 89th minute, and put the pressure back on Manchester United.
It would, however, be a mistake to ascribe any defensive nervousness on Liverpool’s part to their opponents. Not at all, said Rafa Benitez afterwards, it was the fault of the pitch.
“We were a little bit nervous because the pitch was terrible, it was dry, the grass was long and it was very difficult to pass the ball, so you can make mistakes when the other team tries to press,” said the Spaniard.
“It’s part of the game, you have to accept it, and we were better in the second half. The sending-off was very clear. After this, credit to them, because even with 10 players they were pushing, but it was just a question of timing. We had to pass the ball correctly two or three times to have a chance.”
As an impression of the game it was less than generous, and certainly not generally held. It might have been after five minutes, when Liverpool nearly went ahead after Yossi Benayoun’s shot rebounded off Michael Turner to the feet of Fernando Torres. The striker’s sidefooted effort was heading for the top corner when City goalkeeper Boaz Myhill touched it over the bar.
Benayoun curled a shot on to the roof of the net soon afterwards, but City, chasing every pass, were already beginning to grow in confidence. Dean Marney shot wide, but Pepe Reina’s dive was no more than a gesture when Geovanni’s brilliantly executed 30-yard volley screamed a foot wide.
With an encouraged crowd noisily trying to recreate something of the atmosphere of the early part of the season, Liverpool’s back four looked decidedly edgy, not least when Alvaro Arbeloa gave away unnecessary corners twice in two minutes. Given that half of the 36 league goals City scored before this game had come from set-pieces, Benitez cannot have been impressed, and nor can he have been when the fact both were eventually scrambled clear owed as much to luck as to judgment.
In possession, it was a different story. Hard though Hull worked to close down the man in possession, Xabi Alonso’s influence began to grow. Martin Atkinson’s decision to award the visitors a free kick for a foul by George Boateng on Javier Mascherano shortly before half-time was generous, but Hull looked to have got away with it when Alonso curled it straight into the wall. The ball rebounded straight to him, however, and the resulting swerving volley through the crowd of players gave Myhill no chance.
For all that they were applauded off at half-time, the demeanour of the Hull players confirmed the timing of the strike was deflating. They still looked dispirited at the restart and might have been even more so shortly before the hour, when Folan was sent off for stupidly kicking out at Martin Skrtel after the defender beat him to a through-ball.
Without the benefit of a replay, the crowd let Skrtel know what they thought of him, and their disposition was not improved two minutes later, when Skrtel’s scuffed shot bounced up for Kuyt to head past Myhill.
That should surely have been that, but again Liverpool’s Achilles heel was exposed. Phil Brown had made a double substitution after Folan’s dismissal, and the two men who came on, Bernard Mendy and Daniel Cousin, combined superbly to set up Geovanni to turn the ball into the net.
Liverpool were wobbling, with Reina dealing far from convincingly with a series of high balls into the box. Torres should have eased their nerves but headed against the bar, and only a minute remained when the admirable Kuyt beat Myhill for a second time.
“The disappointing thing from my point of view is we’ve kept our best for the best — and we need to keep our best for teams that, with all respect, are not the best,” said Phil Brown. With games against Aston Villa, Stoke, Bolton and Manchester United to come, their game plan is clear.
Star man: Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool).
Yellow cards: Hull City: Marney, Fagan Liverpool: Arbeloa.
Red card: Hull City: Folan.
Referee: M Atkinson.
Attendance: 24,942.
HULL CITY: Myhill 6, Ricketts 6, Turner 6, Zayatte 6, Kilbane 6, Fagan 5 (Mendy 61min), Marney 6, Boateng 6 (Manucho 78min), Barmby 6 (Cousin 61min), Geovanni 6, Folan 4.
LIVERPOOL: Reina 5, Arbeloa 5, Carragher 6, Skrtel 6, Insua 6, Alonso 7, Mascherano 6 (El Zhar 84min), Kuyt 8 (Dossena 89min), Lucas 6, Benayoun 6 (Agger 88min), Torres 5
Source:The times
It would, however, be a mistake to ascribe any defensive nervousness on Liverpool’s part to their opponents. Not at all, said Rafa Benitez afterwards, it was the fault of the pitch.
“We were a little bit nervous because the pitch was terrible, it was dry, the grass was long and it was very difficult to pass the ball, so you can make mistakes when the other team tries to press,” said the Spaniard.
“It’s part of the game, you have to accept it, and we were better in the second half. The sending-off was very clear. After this, credit to them, because even with 10 players they were pushing, but it was just a question of timing. We had to pass the ball correctly two or three times to have a chance.”
As an impression of the game it was less than generous, and certainly not generally held. It might have been after five minutes, when Liverpool nearly went ahead after Yossi Benayoun’s shot rebounded off Michael Turner to the feet of Fernando Torres. The striker’s sidefooted effort was heading for the top corner when City goalkeeper Boaz Myhill touched it over the bar.
Benayoun curled a shot on to the roof of the net soon afterwards, but City, chasing every pass, were already beginning to grow in confidence. Dean Marney shot wide, but Pepe Reina’s dive was no more than a gesture when Geovanni’s brilliantly executed 30-yard volley screamed a foot wide.
With an encouraged crowd noisily trying to recreate something of the atmosphere of the early part of the season, Liverpool’s back four looked decidedly edgy, not least when Alvaro Arbeloa gave away unnecessary corners twice in two minutes. Given that half of the 36 league goals City scored before this game had come from set-pieces, Benitez cannot have been impressed, and nor can he have been when the fact both were eventually scrambled clear owed as much to luck as to judgment.
In possession, it was a different story. Hard though Hull worked to close down the man in possession, Xabi Alonso’s influence began to grow. Martin Atkinson’s decision to award the visitors a free kick for a foul by George Boateng on Javier Mascherano shortly before half-time was generous, but Hull looked to have got away with it when Alonso curled it straight into the wall. The ball rebounded straight to him, however, and the resulting swerving volley through the crowd of players gave Myhill no chance.
For all that they were applauded off at half-time, the demeanour of the Hull players confirmed the timing of the strike was deflating. They still looked dispirited at the restart and might have been even more so shortly before the hour, when Folan was sent off for stupidly kicking out at Martin Skrtel after the defender beat him to a through-ball.
Without the benefit of a replay, the crowd let Skrtel know what they thought of him, and their disposition was not improved two minutes later, when Skrtel’s scuffed shot bounced up for Kuyt to head past Myhill.
That should surely have been that, but again Liverpool’s Achilles heel was exposed. Phil Brown had made a double substitution after Folan’s dismissal, and the two men who came on, Bernard Mendy and Daniel Cousin, combined superbly to set up Geovanni to turn the ball into the net.
Liverpool were wobbling, with Reina dealing far from convincingly with a series of high balls into the box. Torres should have eased their nerves but headed against the bar, and only a minute remained when the admirable Kuyt beat Myhill for a second time.
“The disappointing thing from my point of view is we’ve kept our best for the best — and we need to keep our best for teams that, with all respect, are not the best,” said Phil Brown. With games against Aston Villa, Stoke, Bolton and Manchester United to come, their game plan is clear.
Star man: Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool).
Yellow cards: Hull City: Marney, Fagan Liverpool: Arbeloa.
Red card: Hull City: Folan.
Referee: M Atkinson.
Attendance: 24,942.
HULL CITY: Myhill 6, Ricketts 6, Turner 6, Zayatte 6, Kilbane 6, Fagan 5 (Mendy 61min), Marney 6, Boateng 6 (Manucho 78min), Barmby 6 (Cousin 61min), Geovanni 6, Folan 4.
LIVERPOOL: Reina 5, Arbeloa 5, Carragher 6, Skrtel 6, Insua 6, Alonso 7, Mascherano 6 (El Zhar 84min), Kuyt 8 (Dossena 89min), Lucas 6, Benayoun 6 (Agger 88min), Torres 5
Source:The times
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