When Australian golfer Stuart Appleby was readying himself to play the final round of a tournament in which he was 2 strokes in arrears of the leader Tiger Woods, Appleby was asked what he had to shoot if he was to win the tournament. Appleby smiled and replied, 'Tiger Woods'. As many good golfers have found, trying to tame the Tiger presents quite a challenge. Tiger's victories have given rise Read the rest of this entry

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Golf's popularity has been on the rise the last few years, especially now that young players have opened the game to a wider audience. These days, you can catch golf tournaments on TV as easily as football or basketball playoffs. But why sit at home when you can get tickets? Via a reliable on-line ticket provider, you too can watch as your favorites play for that coveted jacket.

Throughout the year, golfers compete in various tournaments around the globe. For the best players, the ultimate goal is to qualify for The Masters, one of the four major men's competitions. The Masters, an invitation only competition, is played first each year, offering the year's high performers a chance to challenge each other for the coveted Green Jacket. Additionally, the winner of The Masters is automatically qualified for the other three major contests.

The Masters is one of the oldest major tournaments. Its first annual match was held in 1934. It also has the distinction of being the only major tournament held at the same course every year - the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Getting to the Augusta National sidelines is simple for any golf fan.

Each year, during the first full week of April, competitors bring their best to Augusta. The first three days are reserved for practice rounds, and on Wednesday, the Par 3 Contest is held. The Par 3 contest is a separate competition, made up of nine holes played over DeSoto Springs Pond and Ike's Pond.

Tournament golfers, non-competing past champs and Honorary Invitees are the only players allowed to compete. Oddly, no one has ever won the Par 3 contest and The Masters Championship in the same year.

For the remainder of the week, the players are engaged in four rounds - one eighteen hole round per day, instead of thirty-six rounds on the third day. This schedule eliminates the necessity for qualifying rounds. You can get tickets for events on all seven days, even if the tournament providers are out.

The Masters has a long and colorful tradition that is appreciated by players and spectators alike. As part of that tradition, the golfers and fans maintain the dignified and sportsmanlike conduct that its founders, Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts, prized. The Green Jacket tradition began in 1937, but the first green jacket wasn't actually awarded until 1949, to Sam Snead, that year's winner.

In 1958, commentator Warren Wind coined the term "Amen Corner" to describe the high difficulty of holes 11, 12 and 13. Every golfer to play the Augusta course knows the pitfalls of those three holes and has his very own "Amen" story to tell. Many of those stories we've seen, whether we watched on TV or lived the anxiety there on the sidelines.

Without fail, someone posts amazing stats or breaks a record, whether it's a personal best or a tournament record. To date, Jack Nicklaus holds the record for most victories with six. Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods are tied with four wins each. Jack's sixth victory in 1986 made him the oldest champion at forty-six. Tiger's win in 1997, at 21, made him the youngest golfer to win the tournament.

Other interesting records include the best comebacks, by Nick Faldo in 1990 with seven strokes and Tiger Woods also with seven strokes in 2005. The 2007 winner, Zach Johnson, made three attempts before winning his first green jacket. According to tradition, last year's winner, in Zach's case Phil Mickelson, offers the distinctive jacket to the new champion. Nick Faldo (1989 & 1990), Jack Nicklaus (1965 & 1966) and Tiger Woods (2001 & 2002) are the only three golfers to successfully defend their titles. Come April, Zach Johnson will play for the chance to join this select group.

With so many talented players vying for a Masters green jacket, the tournament promises to be interesting. Getting there, however, is much easier than hitting a hole in one. If you're a golf fan, The Masters is a can't miss event.

Getting tickets to the Masters, the Kentucky Derby, Chicago Cubs or Dallas Mavericks games doesn't have to be a difficult task. With on-line distributors, getting access to your favorite events is just a click away. When you need game tickets, go with Golden Tickets. http://www.goldentickets.com

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Tiger Woods is well on his way to being the greatest golfer to ever play the game. Here are the top ten moments from his journey.

#10 - Tiger Wins Thirteenth Major Championship

In August of 2007, Tiger wins his thirteenth major golf tournament, the PGA Championship. He is now over two thirds of the way the to Jack's eighteen major victories. Tiger's quest to be the greatest golfer of all time continues. Read the rest of this entry

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The first golf major is coming up and you can almost feel the excitement in the air. With Tiger Woods confirming that he will be playing it is guaranteed to be an electric event. There is something so special about Augusta, it is almost like visiting a sacred place. It is truly one of the most beautiful courses in the world. But for most true golf fans the beauty is lost as they concentrate on the Read the rest of this entry

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The August 14, 2000 issue of Time Magazine features an article about Tiger Woods titled "The Game of Risk - How the Best Golfer in the World Got Even Better". Although I have no specific interest in the sport of golf, I do have a long-standing fascination with the general theme of the article: how can someone learn to do something better?

That's precisely what the Alexander Technique is all about. And while Tiger Woods has probably never heard of it, it's interesting that his quest for a better golf swing parallels in many ways the process F. Matthias Alexander - the developer of the Alexander Technique - went through a century ago.

Alexander was a Shakespearean reciter who ran up against limitations in his ability to perform well on stage. At that time there were no microphones and speakers and so he had to fill an entire auditorium with just the power of his own voice. Like Woods he was very talented at his profession but he also knew that there was room for improvement. In particular, he found that his voice gave out during a longer performance and that he had a tendency to gasp for breath on occasion.

Neither his doctors nor his vocal coaches were able to help and so he set off on his own, using a system of mirrors to monitor his performance in order to see precisely what was causing his difficulties. If he were living today, he would probably use videotapes of himself to see what was going on.

That's what Tiger Woods did in order to improve his swing. "I knew I wasn't in the greatest positions in my swing at the Masters," Woods said. "But my timing was great, so I got away with it. And I made almost every putt. You can have a wonderful week like that even when your swing isn't sound. But can you still contend in tournaments with that swing when your timing isn't good? Will it hold up over a long period of time? The answer to those questions, with the swing I had, was no. And I wanted to change that."

The article notes that Woods has become "...an obsessive student of the game who reviews videotapes of old tournaments for clues about how to play each hole." Alexander too was an obsessive student of his performance and in the end his obsession paid off not only in providing a solution to his voice problem, but later in the discovery of a process that could be taught to others who wanted to improve the quality of their physical functioning.

"What is most remarkable about Woods," the article continues, "is his restless drive for what the Japanese call kaizen, or continuous improvement. Toyota engineers will push a perfectly good assembly line until it breaks down. They'll find and fix the flaw and push the system again. That's kaizen. That's Tiger."

And that's Alexander, too. Never content with the progress he had already made - first in solving his own voice problem and later in developing better ways to teach others, and to train teachers in his Technique.

Wood's first instructor, Rudy Duran, commented that he has "the ability to stay in the present during a tournament and focus on hitting one shot at a time."

Alexander, too, discovered that in order to change his way of speaking he had to learn to stay focused on what he was thinking and doing in the present. Much of what Alexander Technique teachers do to help their students with today is teach them how to develop this skill for themselves.

It's no wonder that so many leading performers in the fields of acting, music, and dance have studied the Alexander Technique and have publicly endorsed it. It turns out that this ability is also very useful for people who don't consider themselves to be performers but whose "performance" of activities in their daily lives has put harmful stress on their bodies, often to the point of causing pain such as backache or stiff shoulders and necks.

Learning how to monitor your thoughts and actions in real time is a valuable skill for anyone to master.

Robert Rickover is a teacher of the Alexander Technique living in Lincoln, Nebraska. He also teaches regularly in Toronto, Canada. Robert is the author of Fitness Without Stress - A Guide to the Alexander Technique and is the creator of The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique at http://www.alexandertechnique.com.

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