Masters 2008 rail information
Five top players to watch
1. Zach Johnson
Bragging rights: Masters champion 2007
Born: February 24, 1976
Iowa City, Iowa
College: Drake
Years Pro: 10
2008 PGA Money List Rank: no. 71 ($358,042)
2. Phil Mickelson
Bragging rights: Since 1997, only Tiger and Lefty (2004, 2006) have won more than one Masters.
Born: June 16, 1970
San Diego, California
College: Arizona State
Years Pro: 16
2008 PGA Money List Rank: no. 2 ($2,161,320)
3. Geoff Ogilvy
Bragging rights: Beat Tiger Woods to capture CA Championship Doral title, snapping Tiger's streak of five straight PGA tour wins.
Born: June 11, 1977
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Years Pro: 10
2008 PGA Money List Rank: no. 5 ($1,621,600)
4. Retief Goosen
Bragging rights: Has won two U.S. Opens (2001, 2004) and has finished third, third and second in the last three Masters.
Born: February 3, 1969
Pietersburg, South Africa
Years Pro: 18
2008 PGA Money List Rank: no. 27 ($686,280)
5. Rory Sabbatini
Bragging rights: Tied with Goosen for second last year. Is more well-known for his recent habit of calling out Tiger, then disappearing in the clutch.
Born: April 2, 1976
Durban, Africa
College: Arizona
Years Pro:10
2008 PGA Money List Rank: no. 15 ($1,090,480)
WATCH IT LIVE
Wednesday, April 9
3:00 - 5:00 p.m.: ESPN
Thursday, April 10
4:00 - 7:00 p.m.: ESPN
Friday, April 11
4:00 - 7:00 p.m.: ESPN
Saturday, April 12
3:30 - 7:00 p.m.: CBS-TV
Sunday, April 13
2:30 - 7:00 p.m.: CBS-TV
Source: www.espn.com
A VERY GREEN HISTORY
It's exclusive. It's pretentious. It's the Augusta National Golf Club. But might it have a reason to be all these things with a history that traces back to 1857?
The property was then the Fruitland Nurseries, owned and operated by Belgian Baron Louis Mathieu Edouard Berckmans and his son Prosper Julius Alphonse.
For more than fifty years, father and son imported trees and plants from all over the world. But it all stopped with the death of Prosper in 1910.
So the land lay stagnant until the early 1930s. When Bobby Jones < who won the Grand Slam in 1930 and promptly retired < set out to built his "dream course".
Clifford Roberts jumped on board the project, and the two bought the old Fruitland property for $70,000 in 1931. The couple commissioned Dr. Alister Mackenzie to help design the course, and Louis Alphonse Berckmans, Prosper Berckmans' son, to help revitalize the once-luscious plant life.
And so it began. Now more than 80,000 plants of more than 350 varieties grace the course.
ALL ABOUT AUGUSTA
Nicknames: The Garden City (of the South), Masters City, The AUG
Location: 150 miles east of Atlanta
Population: (2006) 189,366
ON THE GOLF DOWNTIME
For the taste buds: Augusta is also known for Barbeque. Take a trip to Sconyers BBQ, where you can see BBQ become a delicious dinner.
Tons of flora, what about fauna? See otters, egrets and alligators in Phinizy Swamp Nature Park, over 1150 acres of wild lands in an urban Nature Park via trails, boardwalks, and observation decks.
Artists' Row: Nearly 10 years ago, downtown Augusta was seeded with artists. Today you can see the growth along Broad Street where art has bloomed.