Tiger Woods announced today that he will be making his 2010 debut at the Masters next month. This will be his first golf tournament since his sex scandal broke around Thanksgiving, last year.

“The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I’m ready to start my season at Augusta,” Woods said in a statement.

Woods, the number one ranked golfer in the world, has never missed the Masters as a professional.

Since World War II, Ben Hogan is the only player to have made the Masters his first official event of the year and won it both times, 1951 and 1953.

The Masters will be held at Augusta National, April 8th – 11th.

With the field of 65 teams selected for the 2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament, the Madness of March is officially upon us . . . and what an incredible time of year it is.  The weather is getting warmer, the birds are chirping and with an additional hour of sunlight, there is extra incentive to cut out of work early and hit the links.

For the typical sports fan and random co-worker alike, this week is all about Brackets — Who’s your favorites for Final Four?  Any Cinderella predictions?  How much money do you want to spend on the Office Pool? 

Personally, I’m a huge College Basketball fan and March Madness is my annual thrill ride.  It’s the #1 thing that I look forward to each and every year.  I used to think that no other person in the world waited for the Tourney with such high levels of anticipation as me . . . then along came Jim Nantz.

Seriously, is there anybody else who has as sweet a gig as Nantz?  The guy is the prize commentator for CBS as the lead play-by-play announcer on NFL on CBS.  He’s called a Super Bowl and two Winter Olympic games.  Most relevant to this post, he’s the lead play-by-play announcer for College Basketball on CBS and the host for The Masters.

Just imagine what the next four weekends of Nantz’s life will entail:

1. March 18-21 – 1^st & 2^nd Rounds of the NCAA Tournament
2. March 25-28 – Sweet 16 & Elite 8 Rounds of the NCAA Tournament
3. April 3-5 – NCAA Final Four & Championship Game
4. April 8-11 – The Masters at Augusta National

So, is Jim Nantz the luckiest guy in Sports?  What do you think?

Acushnet Compnay, the parent company of Titleist, FootJoy, and Cobra has announced that it has reached an agreement to sell its Cobra brand to Puma. The deal includes the Cobra Brand, related inventory, intellectual property and endorsement contracts. Acushnet will keep control of the Titleist and FootJoy and will continue to provide services for Cobra for a period of time to make the transaction seamless.

“With the sale of Cobra, we have the opportunity to devote all of our resources to the global growth of our industry-leading Titleist and FootJoy brands,” said Wally Uihlein, Chairman and CEO of Acushnet Company.

“At the same time, Cobra is a strong brand with a heritage of innovation, and we wish the quality associates guiding the brand future success. Golfers and our valued partners will remain the key focus throughout the impending sale and we are confident that our customers will continue to be serviced to our high standards.”

The sale could be completed as early as second quarter 2010.