VictorOnopko

Can't say I do - he's a great player on his day, and a European. Very impressive round today midway through an injury comeback. Some folk seem annoyed that he had the audacity to win the Masters.

We didn't get caddies on #2, no. The American guy who made up our 4 had one so we got some chat but I didn't think we needed one really. It's quite a flat course and the main thing you might need is green reads. I was off 10 at the time and short game is a strength but it's fair to say that I didn't play to anything near my handicap. It's just really, really hard (the landing areas on the greens are tiny and if you miss them you're off down a bank with a difficult chip), but all in a wonderful setting, the clubhouse is amazing too. Pine Needles was probably more enjoyable overall, just because it's wider and has more elevation changes (it has plenty of pedigree too and is also a Donald Ross). We already had Masters tickets but if you search on Golfwrx there's usually forum threads there on prices and how it all works on the secondary market. You will love it if you go, no question about ir. We walked the course before settling down at the 16th and I remember crossing the 15th fairway and looking down across the pond to the green with water behind it too, imagining that shot even with a short iron - a downhill lie to a tiny target. We just laughed as it looked so intimidating in the flesh!

I'm lucky enough to have done the Masters trip with my dad and brother. We were there on the Thursday from dawn till dusk; it was the best spectator experience I have ever had at any sporting event, by a long way. I think all the silly rules work well when you are actually there, especially no cameras (except on practice days - I think they had to be real cameras?), and it's not hugely crowded either because the numbers are very controlled. When you compare the atmosphere at Augusta to, say, the Open last year at Liverpool or most US Opens where half the crowd is annoyingly p1shed and you have folk shouting "mashed potato" or whatever, there is a lot to be said for the quieter experience. Even the catering is brilliant and certainly highlights what utter rip-off merchants the R&A are. Still have my pile of Masters plastic cups and green folding chair kicking around somewhere. We flew into Charlotte NC, stayed at Pinehurst for a couple of nights and played #2 (badly) and Pine Needles, then moved base to Columbia SC which was quite a nice town (about 1h 15 drive to the Masters). Not only is Augusta the town a dump (mainly a featureless, dusty long main strip with crappy restaurants and petrol stations) but ofc you won't find accomodation there in Masters week except at very silly prices. You may know this already but you can usually get tix on the streets just over a mile (or whatever the exclusion zone limit is) from the gates of the course. Tobacco Road does look fantastic - maybe next time...

I think they should be awarded the three points and a 3-0 win for providing this entertainment.

All the lonely people, where do they all belong? (Larkhall and Northern Ireland?)

I don't think Olesen is a LIV player is he? Immediately ruling out Aberg and Clark for being debuts seems a bit odd - but not as odd as filtering out McIlroy, Spieth, Homa and Day for "poor play from 175-225 yards" then having Keegan f8cking Bradley as one of the 10 picks. That made me chuckle.

You comment has already rightly been slagged but just to add - this part is Championship cliche bingo, and gets said every single year, usually by disappointed fans of a team doing quite well but not on top. This isn't the knock-out stages of World Cup 94, it's an average season in the second tier of Scottish football.

Yep, this sounds pretty grim for Lawless. I really hope the recovery goes smoothly and we see him again in a Jags shirt next season. It'll be interesting to see whether Doolan changes the shape or shoehorns folk in out of position to keep the current formation. Stating the obvious but we could really do with holding onto 3rd place for the prize money alone. Airdrie at home on the 20th looks like quite a big game now.

Has a fired-up, crowing, triumphalist, tifoing and smokebombing set of fans ever been silenced as quickly as today?

100% agree with this. I can't stand Off the Ball so I sometimes put 5 Live on at lunchtime on a Saturday if I am at home or in the car. despite it being about English leagues which I don't actually care much about. The analysis on there is excellent; well-balanced and enjoyable (even Mcfadden somehow isn't as bad when he is covering games down there). They have just the right amount of stats/analysis and more general punditry. Mark Chapman is 1000 times better than Kenny Mac, and they seem equally as interested in covering the championship as the premiership, with competent reporters across the country calmly telling listeners who has just scored rather than butting in with incoherent rambles or Biscuits' ear-splitting screams. Overall it makes Sportsound/OAM sound like amateur hour (which it is).

Why do these weirdos feel the need to cover their faces?

Yep, that's quite sad. Talking of Sandy, this is lovely stuff - would have liked to see more of his shots and the reverse course:

"Weeks after his rapid departure from Aberdeen, Neil Warnock is already planning a return to the north east of Scotland. For £100 - and an extra £50 for those keen to take afternoon tea - Balmoral Castle will throw its doors open to members of the public over the summer months. For the first time, visitors will gain access to two dining rooms, the drawing room, the page’s lobby and the red corridor, where King Charles greeted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Warnock spent Wednesday traversing the internet in a quest to get himself and wife Sharon to the front of the queue. ‘We saw they were letting people inside for the first time and we tried to get tickets online and couldn’t get any,’ he tells Mail Sport. ‘We tried all day on the website. ‘We wanted to try the afternoon tea for £150 and a look at some of the rooms. ‘I’d love to do that, because I’m a royalist me. It’s only 40 tickets a day and if you can get some tickets let me know. I might catch an Aberdeen game when I’m up.’

My recollection (could be wrong) is that Morton were on top mid-season having played 2 or 3 games more than us and beaten us around Christmas at Firhill in a scrappy game. We caught Morton once we played those games in hand, and played attractive attacking football most of the season with SOD and ATS as pacy wing backs and Erskine, Lawless and Doolan all on great form. We doled out some pumpings scoring 5, 6, and 7 goals - and won the league by 11 points in the end. It's the only season I can remember where there was oodles of confidence around the club from quite early on that we were going to be champions. McNamara left us for Yinited midway through (a nervy moment) but that was a key turning point as we started to win away games under Archibald which we had struggled to do before. Yes we were lucky with the fogged off game against Cowdenbeath - but the 1-0 win over Morton at a buzzing Firhill was just a very cagey and tense affair, with neither side playing their best.

Perhaps, but I would guess that if either of the Old Firm were charged with something then they'd get better lawyers in to defend them than a diddy team could muster. As with global finance/taxes, the biggest cheats tend to get away with everything, while small fry are hammered. Also, not sure who would propose to bring a FFP structure in, or pay for it - and while it may not be 100% the case, most Scottish clubs these days seem a lot better run than they were 10-20 years ago, so there is a question mark over whether this would be worth the hassle and inevitable ongoing controversies.

If we look down south, the FFP rules have so far been unable to pin anything on Man Citeh (who have been facing about a hundred charges for a long time now), while managing to do so quite quickly at Forest and Everton (but changing their minds on points deductions for the latter, so the league table has had an asterisk against it while they decide what to do). That's probably due to the complexity of the financial dodginess going on, but also maybe because Citeh have the best legal team oil money can buy. It does seem likely that the main effect up here would be to hammer smaller clubs with oversized investors, but that kind of thing is out of fashion now anyway. If it did get brought into Scotland I have little doubt it would be botched, and I shudder at the thought of the endless Sportsound discussions on the matter.

I reckon the flag shagging conspiracy theorists with an Irish history obsession might see their team win this one.

Haha - good taste One day I think Scotland should go full Saltire on an official kit. The away 06-07 sort of did it (an inverted version anyway), and it was great.

They are indeed, and every media outlet and official source should start showing them as two separate league tables, which would be much more logical. I would say the uneven home/away balance is the main point against the split but in general it does liven up the tail end of the season.

Hate the latest kit so I'm just going to wear this from the collection in Munich instead: