The Masters: Phil Mickelson wins; Tiger Woods 4th place

The 2010 Masters is history: Phil Mickelson wins his third green jacket; Tiger Woods gets 4th place. But, regardless of who you were rooting for, and this blogger was cheering on Tiger Woods, it was a great golf game that had all of the drama of a Hollywood movie. First, Tom Watson, then Lee Westwood, then Phil Mickelson had the lead, and all were threatened by Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, K.J Choi, Anthony Kim, and Ian Poulter, before he faltered in the 2nd round.

But give it to Phil Mickelson, who at times shot a Mayo clinic level of golf, especially on Sunday at the 13th, when "Lefty" hit an amazing to-the-green shot from behind a set of trees that's to be seen, and you can see it here (the tree shot is at :23):



For his part Tiger Woods was fighting with several voices in his head: his, that of his new self, what others were saying, and what his friends were saying. Tiger Woods lost because he wasn't himself. It showed Sunday at the 15th hole when he missed a chance to go to 9-under-par by missing a (for him) routine short put, twice.

While the media, including this blogger paid perhaps too much attention to Tiger's emotional levels, it was only because Woods himself said he was going to be more in control of himself. Really, Tiger didn't need to do that. Woods set the expectation, but more to the point, it was an indication that he wasn't happy with himself and who he is.

Tiger Woods needs to rediscover himself and accept himself as he is; that will drive the voices out of his head and allow him to focus on playing consistent golf. At The Masters, Tiger Woods was either incredibly good or uncharacteristically bad.

Later, Woods said to an incredibly rude CBS correspondent that he was going to take some time off and reevaluate things, then he walked away. What Woods should do is keep playing golf and find himself on the course, where he started it all.

Stay tuned.