GAME ON

Given how this year's Masters played out, it looks like we're set to have a landmark year in professional golf.

As the last few tournaments on the PGA Tour panned out, golf writers around the world have their hands full deciding which exciting story line to follow.

Do we track Ernie Els' return from oblivion to claim two tournaments in a row before the spring arrived?

Was Anthony Kim's win at the Shell Houston Open a harbinger of a bumper year for the exciting Korean American?

Where's Sergio Garcia?

It almost seems that Tiger Woods' problems with infidelity, and his comeback trail is reduced to an asterisk.

The Masters solved all our worries that this year will be just like the last. Majors won by players who have yet to make a dent in 2010's leaderboards, and tournaments facing a fall in ratings (not to mention prize money) as quickly as some of Tiger's sponsors headed for the exit.

Of course, Phil was the crowd favourite to win. A Tiger win would have been earth-shattering, but awkward, and the fact that he came in fourth with his C game really tells us something about what he's capable of. But no one can take it away from Phil in that he was the best player in Augusta this year.

To say that Masters 2010 was one fraught with excitement and headlines is a gross understatement. Couples almost pulled a Watson. Westwood almost got the monkey off his back (even though it seems that he is likely to be one of the best players never to have won a major if he doesn't turn his final Sunday stats around). Kim thrilled the crowd with his birdie barrage. And Tiger, well, he lived up to his reputation as the number one golfer in the world. Even when he's not at his best, he still hangs around the top of the leaderboard.

One thing we can take away from the first major of the year is that it has set up a showdown for the remaining three. We know that Tiger hates to lose (he is probably the only player in the world that consider's raking in several hundred thousand dollars in earnings from a fourth place finish "unsuccessful"). But we also know that if it's one thing he hates more than that is that he hates losing to Phil.

Mickelson has leapfrogged Stricker to take the world's number two spot. Will No.1 be around the corner.

My feeling is that if Tiger continues to play (he didn't say when he'll be back, but my guess is that he will play The Players Championship, then Memorial, before the U.S. Open), he'll keep the No.1 spot. Phil has always been a spotty winner. He can play unbelievable golf one week, then not even contend another. Augusta is great for him, given his propensity to go a little wayward at times. But this might be a different Phil we're seeing. He seems to be picking the right shots these days, and Pebble Beach may be his kind of golf course.

But apart from the golfers who did well at Augusta, what surprised me more than that were the small group of golfers who didn't. We expected better things from Ernie, especially after his great start to the year. And we thought Adam Scott had turned the corner with his slump. Certainly, Sergio Garcia's +10 finish (he ended next to last of those qualifying for the weekend) all but confirms that he has hit a patch so rough, he may not recover. Needless to say, Ryo Ishikawa's missing the cut by a sliver of a stroke sank many a teenage hearts. Unless the quiet prince gets some consistency into his potential, he may be following in Ty Tyron's footsteps (Ty who? I prove my case.)

The bright spark from an Asian point of view is that two Asian golfers (okay, two Koreans, but who's looking) - K.J. Choi and Y.E. Yang - finished in the top 10. If there is something to take away from this is that hopefully, this will continue to spur others in our part of the world to believe that they too are capable of winning a major.

The most astounding occurrences begin with a dream.

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