Dave's Thoughts of the Day: April 14

"Genius" is the least applicable word to describe Bubba Watson.

That was the word used in reference to him on the 18th hole yesterday at the final round of the Masters.  You gotta be kidding me.  You really think Bubba Watson thinks that much out there?  Oh HELL NO.

Dude is like "ohhhhhh I'm gonna whack at this thing" and just goes for it.   He makes some *great* shots but he does *not* think about a whole lot of things.   Certainly he doesn't think about his own behavior when he's behind.  He wasn't on this day for very long.   Bubba looks all great today because............ he won, but the dude is such a boorish oaf.   Wait until he loses or blows the big tournament.  Then you'll see the real guy.  The one who tells his caddy "why even bother to show up?" on a shot HE clearly yakked into the water.  The guy who blames the wind when the flag at the pin isn't even moving and he hooks a shot way into the woods.

That's Bubba Watson.   The Masters is the antithesis of what he is.  Masters represents class tradition and dignity, yes, despite its own stuffy foibles.   Bubba is obnoxious, classless and tasteless.   I could not believe how many badly hit tee shots, and when I say bad I don't refer to the distance - his distance has really been top of the class, no doubt.  I speak of his accuracy.  One out of every three holes he'd make a bonehead drive way to the left or to the right and somehow the trees would bounce the ball back onto the fairway.   That is outrageous!  This is the dude who won two of the last three Masters tournaments.  Just unreal.  Then he starts bawling like a baby when he wins I mean uggggghhhh...

He is pretty damn great at golf though, even if he's doing everything by the seat of his pants.  He never had a lesson, he says.   Yet somehow, it *works*... that can be simultaneously dazzling and frustrating.  This weekend he was hitting everything, and after a while, not even a furious run by 20 year old Jordan Spieth on the first 7 holes could overtake him.

Today I have to write a podcast description for our Masters Recap show tonight.  I do *not* want to write this description about Watson winning the tournament.  I wanted to write a description about Jordan Spieth winning the tournament.   THAT would have been a great story:  20 year old kid only 18 months into being a pro, a kid who loves his family, doesn't show up anybody, has dazzling insight for his age, and a great reader of greens.   A guy who helped his Texas Longhorns win the Golf National Championship in College, and a fantastic ball striker himself.   Humble and grateful, you're speaking of a dude who went to Augusta National back in October and soaked it all in.   He like many had lifelong dreams of winning the Masters, and every part of that trip and this one here in April mesmerized him.  Doesn't that seem like great copy?  Wouldn't that have been a wonderful article to write?

...and wouldn't it have been grand to see this writer win more than a few extra bones on that premise?  Alas, no.   The monetary confidence was not large but the return would have been enormous.

Now with all of that said, you really couldn't ask for much else from Jordan Spieth this weekend.  Overall I was extremely impressed with Spieth's outing.  Making the cut in the Masters is really hard to do!  He did it as a rookie!!   I loved every second of it up until the 8th and 9th holes when he fell apart.  It's no big thing though... for a first attempt it was truly a sight to see.  Even Bubba Watson was impressed and had the utmost respect for Spieth (one of a rare few moments of humility for Mr. Watson).   I hope this points to even greater things for Jordan Spieth as we go into the meat of his career.  What a start for the rookie!  As I remember it, he hit under par in every round except the final one, where he shot even par.  Some big names didn't make it nearly as far.  Spieth still gets the second place finish and a good cash reward as a result.

Now here's where I want to give the Masters an attaboy:  The Masters and PGA Tour Tournaments will award appropriate cash prizes to the top finishers, but the Masters only has ONE physical trophy: the green jacket.    If they threw in an Orange Jacket for the second place finisher that'd get hokey.   Meanwhile, in Wimbledon they have their shiny trophy for first place, then they add this silly looking plate for the second place guy.  Who wants to go to Wimbledon to win a stinkin' plate?!  It's so dumb that I think people would just hide it.  If I received a plate from Wimbledon I would just take it home and serve chicken fingers on it.  Come on you guys!   Is the plate even necessary?  The second place finisher gets a cash reward already anyway.

I've got a really good trick for booking hotel rooms.   I call it the "Hotwire/Priceline" trick.  What you do is go to Hotwire and book a hotel for particular dates in your city of choice.   The fascinating thing about Hotwire is they'll give you the Star Rating, the discounted price, AND the original price of the room, but not the name of the hotel itself.  HOWEVER, you can open Priceline in another tab, look up the same city on the same dates, and you can match the star rating and original price to the names of the hotels shown in Priceline!

To pose an example, I went on Hotwire and looked up hotels in New York City on June 22nd.  It listed a "Four Star Time Square Hotel for $112" marked down from $249.   If you match the $249 with four star Time Square hotels you'll get the Westin Times Square for that same price on that night.  Ergo, the Hotwire hotel should very likely be the Westin.  How about that?  Imagine I just learned all this on Saturday?  I could have been way further along if I knew this earlier.

That's all for the moment.  Enjoy your Monday!