Now the echoes of the crowd have subsided on the 18th fairway at the Augusta National Golf Club, it’s time to reflect on the 2007 US Masters. Golf fans were anticipating a titanic battle between Tiger Woods, Lefty and perhaps Ernie Els or Vijay Singh. This never materialized and Zach Johnson tore up and ignored the script by winning in a final round round, 3-under 69 for a two shot win, and in the process, picked up the winner’s prize money of $1,335,000.

It was a strange tournament that never really lived up to the hype or elevated itself beyond a pedestrian pace. Johnson’s winning score equaled the worst previous championship score seen and also where unbelievably, on the Saturday, only one player was able to break par. The newly designed course, together with the weather conditions, certainly leveled the playing field and Johnson is the lowest ranked player to have won the Masters, since the rankings were introduced.

What were the highlights? Well it’s difficult to say really because there were slim pickings. The most obvious highlight for me was South Africa’s Tim Clark who curled in a mammoth birdie, 60 foot putt, from off the green at the 18th, for a first round score of 71. He will no doubt ‘dine-out’ on that for year’s to come.

Also, just a casual observation, but poor Tiger seems to have developed a strange affliction for which we in medical circles would call ‘Anatidaephobia’, or to the layman and the average golfer - ‘the fear or phobia, that a duck is always watching you’. How else would you explain his sudden affinity for shooting into the water, as if to cull his imaginary duck demons, and the massive over-reaction on sensing a bird flying past as he was about to drive off the 13th Tee on his second round?When questioned Tiger said, ‘birds flew right over me’. BIRDS!..you would have thought it was an A10 ‘Thunderbolt’, Tankbuster, plane….I’m only surprised that he didn’t dive and take cover for the nearest bunker! Lets hope that Zach Johnson doesn’t choose Duck L’Orange, for next year’s menu…but then again, if Tiger hasn’t recovered from his fear of ducks, it could be exactly the way to go!

So apart from a few incidents of little note, overall it was a disappointing tournament. Roll on the Open.

Tags: 71st us masters, masters