Best. Week. Evar.

The most exciting sports week of the year aside from the opening weekend in college football, is Masters Week, because golf equals springtime, and springtime equals the eventual beginning of football season. (See what I did there?)

I get tired of a lot of the sappy, cliched feel-good stories that CBS usually rolls out for the upcoming weekend; ESPN's Tom Rinaldi not so much. If there was one kind of dream journalist I'd want to be in the shoes of for a week, it'd be a golf reporter at the Masters. Spending a week in sunny Augusta with all the food and drink imaginable, talking to pro golfers, and attending all the nifty members-only events sounds pretty darn good right about now.

Golf is the most fun sport to write about, because it's the most personal and the only sport that is about individuals and their personal stories. Of course there is a lot sprouting up from this year's tournament already: Greg Norman is in the field after earning a qualifying spot at the British Open last year, Fred Couples is the sentimental favorite once again after a near-miss at a victory in Houston last weekend, Anthony Kim is in the field for the first time, Jack Newman, a Michigan State golfer, has qualified in the field of Amateurs, and Gary Player is playing the Masters for the final time after 51 outings.

ESPN somehow grabbed the first two rounds of TV coverage for this year, which is fantastic, because I get a kick out of Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt and Andy North and Tom Rinaldi. The Masters has the distinct honor of having the best TV coverage of any golf tournament, because the tournament hates coporate interference, so commerical breaks are limited, and that makes me smile.

Things to watch for during Masters Week:
1. Some guy named Woods
2. Greg Norman vs. Freddy Couples in the battle for crowd favorite
3. Which of the amateurs will win low round?
4. Changes to the back nine
5. Tim Clark the Par 3 Champ from today. Will the curse continue?

I can't even put a pretty picture up because all the Augusta photos are copywritten by the Masters tournament.

Final notes: sweet ESPN game for the Masters, Jason Sobel's blog and visit masters.org for everything else.

For this year, I put my pennies on Sergio Garcia, Steve Stricker, Paddy Harrington, and Greg Norman for the darkhorse!