In the End, It Was Tiger Who Supplied Proof

When Barry Bonds broke Mark McGwire’s single-season home run record last year, I wonder if Major League Baseball officials immediately called Pacific Bell Park to squawk about extending the fences (Barryizing?).

When Wayne Gretzky shattered the single-season goal record some years ago, I’m curious if the powers of the NHL decided to miniaturize the size of the goals and nets (Gretzkyizing?).

When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke the all-time scoring record, did the NBA commissioner and rules committee mull over raising the hoop another foot? (Kareemizing?)

Of course not! Ridiculous ideas all. Just goes to show how inane the hierarchy of Augusta National was in extending, or “Tigerizing” the course. Why try to stop one player (which they weren’t able to do) at the expense of countless other golfers that can’t drive the ball as well? Is it not fascinating to watch poetry in motion making history in our lifetime? The Nielsens, golfing world, and the general population think so.

In the immortal words of ESPN’s Dan Patrick, “There is no way to stop him: You can only hope to contain him.”

Mark J. Featherstone

Windsor Hills

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Bill Plaschke’s coverage of the Masters was annoying and embarrassing, kind of like that old geezer on the golf course that never shuts his yap.

First, you knock Phil Mickelson all over the place, saying he chokes in the majors. We are watching history in the making with Tiger Woods winning six out of the last 10 majors. It’s like calling Johnny Unitas’ backup a bum.

Second, you jump on Woods’ bandwagon in Sunday’s edition because you have no imagination. Third, you accuse Woods of lying back while others fall, stumble and bogey their way out of contention because they were scared.

I am writing to Hootie Johnson and requesting that Plaschke be sent one of those “letters” for next year’s Masters.

Bob Arranaga

Los Angeles

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As a sports psychologist, I watched the best players in the world “collapse” coming down the stretch in the Masters, leaving the sportswriters and even Ken Venturi perplexed as to how to explain it.

Why couldn’t anyone mount an aggressive challenge to Tiger Woods, they wondered? It’s called pressure, and it can’t be underrated. Venturi knows what pressure is--long ago it cost him his chance of being the only amateur to win the Masters.

If we’re going to invoke cliches like, “The Masters begins on the back nine on Sunday,” we need to try to remember what they are intended to address: fear and trembling; pressure.

Steven Hendlin

Corona del Mar

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It was exciting, thrilling and fun to watch Arnold Palmer “go for it” over the years. You knew that whatever the situation he would wrap the golf ball around the tree with a low hook and hope it stopped near the green. Sometimes it didn’t; when it did he won and we loved it. I thank Arnold Palmer for all he has done for golf and the thrills he gave us over the years.

Come back any time, Arnie, and we will watch you take your clubs out of the car and play golf--we don’t care what you shoot.

Bill Adams

Placentia

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Because Tiger could not present his third green jacket to himself, I thought it would have been more fitting, given the emotion of this year’s Masters, that Arnold Palmer should have presented Tiger with it instead of Hootie Johnson.

R.J. Deakins

Temecula