Bleacher Report: Anything Can Happen at Augusta: Get Ready for a Fantastic Finish at 2014 Masters

By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Never mind who isn’t here, and, yes, we’ll get to that. Look who is here: the kid who may be America’s next great golfer, the lefty who won two years ago and a 50-year-old pot-bellied Spaniard.

And look where they are, high on the leaderboard, each with a legitimate chance of taking the 78th Masters.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.

Newsday (N.Y.): Bubba Watson ends two-year drought with win at historic Riviera

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Bubba Watson has always been impressed with the history of Riviera Country Club, where Ben Hogan won a U.S. Open, celebrities from Humphrey Bogart to Dean Martin were members and Howard Hughes once took lessons.

It is a tournament once known as the Los Angeles Open that began in 1937 and through the years had winners such as Hogan, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Charlie Sifford and Tom Watson.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Bubba, Phil Bit Players to Tiger

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Phil and Bubba? Bit players in this drama. Cameo roles. The Magnificent Three was in truth a Majority of One. The first round of the 2012 U.S. Open on Thursday became the domain of Tiger Woods.

In three days the whole tournament may belong to Tiger Woods.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Golf's Big 3 and Memories of Ty Cobb

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — The word was out, drifting across Olympic Club, like the fog that was coming in off the Pacific: Tiger, Bubba and Phil in the same grouping for the U.S. Open. The huge merchandise tent had been unlocked about 10 a.m. Thursday. And now so was the secret.

They've figured it out at the U.S. Golf Association. Blind draw? Tiger Woods here, Phil Mickelson there? That was the old days, when the USGA wanted some pretense of equality and fairness.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

Global Golf Post: Golf's Immovable Feast And A Guy Named Bubba

By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA -- It always works, doesn't it? What they've got going at Augusta National, at The Masters -- and we'll cut to the chase and cut out the complaints -- somehow always produces a sporting event that seems more than a mere golf tournament. Mainly because as proved once more it isn't a mere golf tournament.

It's a festival, a fascinating concoction of flowery prose...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 Global Golf Post