Hello my friends...

The limo industry in Vancouver should be on the upswing as Patty Kane is back. As everyone very well knows, the Hawks slipped into the playoffs via the side door as the Stars failed to beat the Wild (Marty Havlat still loves Chicago). It's too bad that the Hawks couldn't pave their own way into the 8th spot with a win against Detroit, even though it proved to be a pretty entertaining game. Mikey Frolik got the party going with a goal in the 2nd only to be answered a minute later by Kronwall, and then followed up by another by Datsyuk. Kaner played like he was still hungover from partying the night before and Datsyuk was shredding the Hawks D. Drew Miller got a junk goal at the beginning of the 3rd putting the Wings up 3-1. At this point, it seemed like they were gonna lose the game until Seabiscuit dropped a bomb from the blue line to cut the lead to 1. Then the Hawk D broke down again as former Hawk draftee Dan Cleary put one past Crawford to go up 4-2. Duncs got one in to cut the deficit by 1 with 8 minutes left, and the Hawks pushed to try to tie the game up. They failed to convert a powerplay in the final 2:30 and couldn't come up with the 1 point needed to secure a spot. In the end, the Wild threw us a huge favor and the Hawks have a date with Bob Luongo just as I asked for.

Bulls won against the Magic without Dwight Howard. Didn't watch much of this game as I was committed to the chief and of course the insanity that was The Masters.

After the most boring "Moving Day" in Masters history, I was pleasantly surprised with probably the craziest Masters Sunday that I've ever watched. It was so open that at one point 7 different people had a share of the lead. Tiger got this baby popping off first with a 31 on the front. He absolutely slayed it. Birdies at 2, 3, 6, and 7. A very Tiger-esque eagle at 8. Then he capped it off with almost an impossible par save on 9. He was just one off the lead at the turn and had the look and demeanor as if he was gonna flip this tournament on its head. His back 9 wasn't as stellar as we hoped. Had a 3-putt bogey on 12, and only mustered out a par on 13. He stuffed his second shot on 15 to 5 feet, but missed his eagle putt that would have put him in solo 1st. Grabbed a birdie at 15 and then grinded out pars for the last 3 holes and in the end he finished tied for 4th. Some people will jump and say that Tiger is back, and I hope that is true. Golf is much more entertaining with him in the mix every Sunday. He made Masters Sunday incredibly entertaining, and I hope that continues throughout the year.


And then.....there was Rory. Everyone was wondering how the young 21 year old kid from Northern Ireland would be able to handle the pressure with owning the 54-hole lead at Augusta. For the first 9 holes he looked a little shaky but still had a 1 shot lead over Tiger (and Charl) and could possibly just grind out a winning round. But then the back 9 at Augusta reared her ugly head and crushed his hopes. Rory yanked his drive off 10 into the woods (get your chainsaw out), punched out from an herb garden for his 2nd, yanked a 3-metal back into the woods for 3, hit ANOTHER tree on 4, on the green on 5, and then 2-putted for a 7. Didn't end there for the young lad. Bogeyed 11, Double bogey on 12 (4-putts), drove the ball into the creek on 13 (still saved par), and bogeyed 15. Thanks for coming out Rory. Just an absolute brutal back 9 for the guy, almost feel bad for him. He was even able to give a classy immediate post-round interview with Peter Kostis and somehow didn't break down in tears. But he also highlighted his hair earlier this year and looked like an idiot, so I don't feel as bad.

Then there were the guys with funny accents. The boys from down under were in the mix down the stretch. Adam Scott, Jason Day, and Geoff Ogilvy were able to tame the back 9 and were dropping birdies almost at will. Scott almost had an ace at 16 and hit a bunch of huge putts (with a broomstick none-the-less). Day was right there with him finishing the round with back-to-back birdies to get to -12. Geoff Ogilvy birdied 5 straight holes to put him at -10 (t-4) and the other Aussies finished T-2. Pretty amazing seeing as this was Day's first time at Augusta (led the tournament in birdies with 23) and Scott pretty much fell from the face of the planet after being deemed the next big golfer a couple years ago. Hopefully we'll see more from these two going forward.

Meet Charl Schwartzel. Started the day with the chip-in birdie on 1 and then dropped an eagle on 3. He was tied with Tiger for 2nd and 1 back of Rory at the turn. Hung in there with 10 straight pars even after the collapse of Rory, Tiger's run up the leaderboard, and the Aussie's birdie barrage. It was then when Hot Charl dropped a deuce on the chest of the rest of the field and birdied the last 4 holes to win his first Green Jacket. He had a great combination of luck (holes 1 and 3) and played the best golf down the stretch. That's what you need to win at Augusta. He said that he felt completely comfortable out there. Easy to say when Phil is putting the jacket on you and Rory is balling his eyes out by himself.

Going into Sunday, I thought this was Rory's tournament to win. Turns out he didn't have the stones to hold the lead and it led to the most open Masters in history. Overall it was a very entertaining and intriguing tournament, bring on Congressional and the US Open.

Pre-Tournament Picks (Just happy they all made the cut)

• Philbo Baggins: -1 (T-27)
• Luke Donald: -10 (T-4)
• Stricks: -5 (T-11)
• Tiger: -10 (T-4)
• Bubba: +1 (T-38)