Tournament is over, but the memories linger

No walk provides for the necessary room to think quite like the one afforded by Augusta National. The view is expansive -- even with tens of thousands of people -- the sights are colorful, the sounds natural, and the landscape is like nowhere else. Perfectly pitched hills. Rolling mounds. And grandstands that give you a chance to sit in on history.

All of it is the Masters, which is gone from the schedule, but not the memory. It leaves too many indelible images to pass easily.

The weather was uncomfortable, but the time for thought was gentle, as usual. There was, for instance, the conversation that revolved around where officials choose to cut the holes. Some will insist on calling them "pin locations," but I have joined with those who cringe at the term.

"Hole locations" is what we prefer and while I concede that caddies and players will still seek out "pin sheets" before a round, a "pin" is what we aim for in bowling. In golf, we assess where on the green the flagstick is.

As for another pet peeve, it involves those large obstacles that we need to avoid. They are sprinkled along the edges of fairways and in front of the greens. You will hear people refer to them as "sand traps," but please don't commit such a triple bogey. They are bunkers. As for those times when you are in a bunker and need to use a rake, this is another matter to which I gave a lot of thought at Augusta National. After you are done with the rake, place it in the bunker. It's where it belongs.

Augusta National is probably the best place in the golf world for sitting and thinking and so a week's worth of time has left me stocked. For instance:

There are stories of intrigue in the pro golf world, and chief among them is the status of Ernie Els. He played poorly at Augusta, a few weeks after having played poorly in key stretches at Doral. He hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 2004, he needed until December to win anywhere in the world in 2006 -- and even then it wasn't a "Level A" win -- and for some reason or another, he just hasn't seemed to be his once gregarious self.

Give yourself a birdie if you knew that Markus Brier was ahead of Brad Faxon, Justin Leonard, and John Daly in the world rankings.

Actually, give yourself an eagle. You get a birdie for just knowing Brier is a pro golfer.

For eight straight Aprils, Phil Mickelson had finished top 10 at the Masters. This year was a different story, and in reading some of the postmortems, you'd think the lefthander is finished as a legitimate major contender. In fact, one writer suggested Mickelson would never win another major. Wow. A little severe, don't you think? There was a theory offered that the window for players to win majors was seven years, which, of course, doesn't explain Jack Nicklaus, who won his majors over a 25-year period, or Gary Player, whose span was 20. Then again, Lee Trevino (17-year span), Walter Hagen (14), Gene Sarazen (14), Tom Watson (9), Ben Hogan (8), and Byron Nelson (8) would take exception to that premise, too, given the years between their first and last major.

So what did go wrong for the lefthander? Why did he shoot 11-over 299 and finish T-24 after having gone a combined 50 under while finishing top 10 in each of his eight previous Masters? My hunch is, he over-prepared. In a weird way, the BellSouth move really hurt him. Normally, he'd have been in Atlanta at the BellSouth the week before Augusta, but with that event now in May, Mickelson had too much free time on his hands and spent too much of it at Augusta National. Of course, that's only part of it. The greater problem was the weather -- windy and cold. Mickelson has never been a great wind player. He has a high-trajectory style that is ineffective in the wind and not helpful for knocking balls close. Sometimes, things work against you, and to make it worse, you play poorly.

It's golf. It's not the end of the line for Mickelson.

While some would blame the cold weather and quiet crowds on first-year Augusta National chairman Billy Payne, I would give him high marks. He returned Arnold Palmer to a prominent role and he was behind a move to honor a group of 14 journalists, each of whom has covered more than 40 Masters, and that meant something special to a lot of people.

No one has asked me, of course, but I'd make the first hole at Augusta National slightly shorter, bringing that daunting bunker into play. It sits harmlessly down the right side, more than 300 yards away, and many of the guys don't worry about it because they can't reach it.

I was thinking this as Mickelson drove into that bunker to start his Sunday round, an errant shot that led to a triple-bogey 7 and pretty much ended whatever hopes he had to win.

Sometimes, you see, even a good thought is spoiled. The views from a seat at Augusta National never are, however.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.