Gladiators....ready!
After a few quiet years, The Masters really returned to form over the Easter weekend.
The committee running the show made a few changes with a few easier pin positions and changes from the tee boxes in an attempt to restore some of the lustre to the greatest golf show on Earth.
And it really worked.
There were birdies and eagles left, right and centre on the final day, without anyone really able to say they had mastered the course.
In the end, Angel Cabrera, who a times skulks around a golf course more like an Argentinean lock forward than a golfer, ran out a deserved winner after Kenny Perry, unfortunately choked with a major in his grasp for the second time in his career.
But the final day will not be remembered for the winner or the tense play-off which enabled him to slip into the green jacket in the early hours of a British Bank Holiday Monday.
Instead, the thing I will take away, and I’m sure many others will too, was the battle between the world’s top two golfers.
Tiger Woods is arguably the greatest golfer who has ever lived, but after months away from the game recovering from a knee, injury he is still feeling his way back into the swing of things.
The last person he wanted to be paired with going into the final round was world number two – and his fiercest rival, Phil Mickelson.
While Woods had been away, Lefty, has been beefing up in the gym and wore shirts with very short sleeves to show off his newly sculpted biceps.
No doubt those guns were flexed when he shook hands with Woods on the first tee. I say shook hands, it was no more than perfunctory at best as Woods and Mickelson really do not like each other. At all.
There was the added edge of less-than-friendly comments from Steve Williams, Woods’ caddie, about Mickelson lat last year.
And that was the joy of it.
The pair started on the same score, -4, and proceeded to slug it out heavyweight-style as if the competition itself really did not matter.
It was a war between these two golfing greats and at times the gallery was ten deep as the pair, metaphorically, traded blows.
The early rounds went to Mickelson as he got off to a flying start and by the turn, had equalled the lowest ever score at Augusta National for the first nine, with a 30.
While Mickelson was harbouring hopes of slipping on the green jacket, Woods was finding things a little tougher.
But he is nothing if not a fighter.
And after a monster putt for an eagle, things turned in his favour when Mickelson made an uncharacteristic error at the 12th and his ball got wet.
While he may not have been smiling on the inside, Woods must have had a measure of pleasure.
And so it continued up the stretch.
When one was putting out, the other was practically at the next tee. Neither looked the other in the eye for fear of blinking.
In the end, Woods blinked first and stumbled over the line, while Mickelson hardly broke the tape either.
He shot a 67 to finish on -9 while Woods was a shot further back.
It was the Texan who laid down a marker, while Woods disappeared after a couple of quick interviews.
Mickelson, meanwhile, claimed he had “a lot of fun” and “loved” playing with Woods.
I think that’s what he said, because I’m sure he was gritting his teeth at the time.
Nonetheless, he may not have won, but the first round goes to Mickelson, who outpointed his greatest rival without landing a knockout blow.
He’s hoping the golfing gods smile on us again and pair them up for the other three majors this season.