Fans pick their favorites

After 49 years of coming to the Masters Tournament, Graham Gallemore knows how to spot the good players.

The Huntsville, Ala., man has his eye on Rory McIlroy this week.

“He seems to be playing the best,” Gallemore said. “He’s good on the shots, but he plays conservative when he needs to.”

Gallemore said he has seen many changes at Augusta National Golf Club over the decades. Years ago he was allowed to eavesdrop on journalists’ interviews in the media room and stand closer to the golfers as they played.

One thing, he said, has remained unchanged: “Pimento cheese sandwiches, even though I don’t eat them.”

JIMENEZ FANS: Brothers Graves and Jonathan Ganzert of Charleston, S.C., agreed on one thing late Friday.

They were sure Miguel Angel Jimenez would be the next Masters champion.

“For sure he’ll win,” Graves Ganzert said. “It seems he always does well here. It seems like this course, he knows his way around it.”

It isn’t the brothers’ first trip to the Masters together, but they say the excitement never fades.

“It’s just the tradition, the feeling here,” Graves said. “There’s no other place like it.”

ENJOYING IT LIVE: Kevin and Joann Reed flew from New Jersey to watch some of their favorite players.

Joann Reed said she’s watched the Masters on TV for years but that nothing compares with the real thing.

On their last day in Augusta on Friday, Kevin Reed said he was happy with Fred Couples and how he kept the crowd entertained while climbing the leaderboard.

But the patrons walking along with the 1992 champ were nothing compared with gallery following Tiger Woods, he said.

“Oh, the crowd around him was enormous,” Kevin Reed said. “He’s definitely the biggest draw.”