Getting in the mood

Dave Tindall is heading to Augusta but first he whets his appetite by playing the new EA Sports Masters game.

After years of wishing I was there, I'm finally fortunate enough to be heading to The Masters this year. It still won't really sink in until I arrive although giddiness levels took another upward turn today when I got hold of the new Masters game on EA Sports. It's been the talk of Twitter for the last few days and Bubba Watson even tweeted a video of him (playing as his computer self) scoring a hole-in-one at the seventh! I have a four-year-old Wii obsessed son so as soon as school was over I whisked him home, tore off the cellophane wrapping and we prepared to do battle over Augusta National. Joe is a lefty but as we couldn't find Phil Mickelson, he chose Tiger. Seeing Woods launch one off the first tee at Augusta National left-handed was somewhat strange although it did cross my mind that maybe the real one should give it a go like Ronnie O'Sullivan does at snooker. A radical answer to his current woes perhaps but it could just work. Tiger found the green in two but walked off with a seven after a five-putt. Me as Justin Rose did the same so it was an ugly pair of triple bogeys. I blasted one out of bounds at the par five second but my spirits were lifted by an approach shot (my fifth) which Jim Nantz claimed "could make the highlight reel". Another botched attempt at putting left me with a nine though, leaving Joe three clear after his four-putt six. And so the pattern was set. Some good, sometimes excellent, play tee to green but neither of us could get the hang of the putting. Does anyone else struggle with this? I actually had a 20 foot putt for eagle at the long eighth but hit it just six inches. "That's one you'd like to have over," said Jim Nantz after I'd duffed it. Thanks Jim. Joe stayed three shots clear with six to play but showing his inexperience - well he is only four - he dumped two balls in Rae's Creek at the 13th and took an 11. We traded birdies at 15 and Joe's left-handed Tiger threw another birdie at me on 17 to close my lead to just a shot. Both of us hit it into the trees at the last and after some pinball in the pinestraw and more putting woes we both closed with sevens. Honestly I was trying to miss my two foot putt for victory by trying to welly it too hard but somehow it went in. Any "competitive dad" accusations are unjust I tell you. All great fun though and some of the views of the course were superb. On TV, The Masters is always shot closely so seeing the wide-angled views on the computer version was a real eye-opener and even gave me a few ideas about where to go as a spectator when I get there next week. After our round we then had a three-hole challenge as the Molinari brothers. That didn't go well though. Joe set both Francesco and Edoardo up to be lefties and on the second he hijacked my Francesco and putted his ball 80 feet off the green. While Jim Nantz declared "total miscalculation of the speed with that one" Joe and I got into a row over which Molinari we were meant to be so I sent him to bed. And then 20 minutes later he snuck back downstairs again and we had another game. I guess you'd call it childlike excitement... on both our parts.