Masters picks on Wednesday night

BARNWELL, S.C. -- What's with the kooky dateline, you ask.

This is my base of operations (place to sleep) during Masters Week. It's a town of about 5,000 people 45 miles or so from Augusta. Somene from Alberta is staying in my hotel. They must have come here for the Masters, too. Or to buy lumber. So far, I've seen about 12,000,000 trees in South Carolina.

No pigs, though. One place does advertise baby billy goats for sale, however.

Barnwell has a McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell. That would be encouraging to me if I were still, oh, 18.

So ... let's make some Masters picks. My rules for myself: No picking Zach Johnson because I look like a homer, and no picking Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson just because.

So, without a speck of science behind it, here are five picks in no particular order.

1. Ernie Els. He's hot.

2. Henrik Stenson. He's Swedish. The previous two champions come from Africa and South America, so it's Europe's turn.

3. Steve Stricker. He's been as good as anyone over the last nine months, and if he wins the John Deere Classic claims the reigning Masters champion as its defending champ.

4. Stewart Cink. No reason given other than he is a terrific player who now knows how to win a major.

5. Either Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, Fred Couples (he's owned the Champions Tour this year), Lee Westwood, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Geoff Ogilvy, Jim Furyk or Ian Poulter.

Hurry up and make some picks of your own here.