The post-Masters syndrome

This will be the first time-but not the last time-I will be using the first person "I" in this space, either in a concession that I've run out of material that I need to talk about myself, or in my desperate attempt to be featured on What They're Writing (see Links for detail) by doing something other than a generic post-tournament report.

Anyway, I don't know about you, but I am suffering from what I call the post-Masters syndrome. I felt a bit jaded watching bits of golf over the weekend. It never helped that this year's Masters was not the most memorable one ever, and what's even worse is, as is the case every year, there won't be another major until the U.S. Open in June. In the meantime, some dubiously-named classics and opens of the world would have to do.

Speaking of which, I found it really refreshing to see a tournament without a corporate sponsor's title; see, it was just the Masters, not the MasterCard Masters or whatnot. Last week, though, it was back to the business with WorldCom Classic-hey, didn't it used to be called MCI Classic? This week's turn belongs to Chrysler, who hosts Greater Greensboro Classic.

I digress. Back to the post-Masters letdown: along with the conclusion of the season's first major came the start of the playoffs in National Hockey League (NHL) and National Basketball Association (NBA), not to mention the new major league baseball season fully underway. Since we sports fans have the attention span of a two-year-old-even that's stretching a bit-it was going to be a challenge to concentrate on a nondescript PGA Tour event.

Look, I am a golf fanatic, and that tournament at Hilton Head did perk up my interests. After all, it would have been nice to watch a CBS-televised golf tournament where there was no syrupy, tinkling piano music in intro, Gary McCord was back doing his job, and Ken Venturi could say "rough" and "front nine" without being conscious. (by the way, he had a few slips in that regard at the Masters. Geez, think he knew it was going to be his last Masters?) Plus, after all that tumbling and choking that went on at Augusta, somebody was bound to play half decently on the weekend for a change.

But I am just as big a fan of other major sports. And, really, if I had a choice, I would have watched golf on the weekend. But there was no What They're Writing to set me up for the weekend golf action, although I must admit if there was anyone in golf deserving time off, it was Robinson Holloway, who compiled nearly 100 golf articles a day during the Masters weekend. And I myself was due for some break from reading that much golf anyway.

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