AUGUSTA, Ga. — When NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller was asked before the 73rd Masters Tournament for a list of contenders for this year’s event, he included Angel Cabrera along with Tiger Woods, Camilo Villegas, Geoff Ogilvy, Danny Lee and Jeev Milkha Singh.

By Harry King

LITTLE ROCK — Manually operated, the quaint scoreboards tell the evolving story of The Masters by the numbers.

Strategically positioned around Augusta National, they are far superior to the electronic scoreboards that roll the scores at other golf tournaments.

Standing behind No. 7 green, spectators can peek behind them for the hole-by-hole progress of the leaders and watch names being added and removed.

On Thursday, for instance, Chad Campbell’s red numbers were a symmetrical 1-2-3-4-5 as he opened with a record five straight birdies. The numbers leave the details to the imagination.

Fans at Augusta are knowledgeable and they pay attention when the folks working the scoreboards fill in the next blank. There was a buzz when the numbers reflected Phil Mickelson’s eagle on No. 13 on Friday and a gasp when Tiger Woods’ double bogey on No. 1 on Saturday changed a red two to a green zero.

One more Masters tradition, the scoreboards will remain intact.

In fact, last year a question about video scoreboards was included in an on-course survey available at electronic kiosks.

Chairman Billy Payne said the question snuck by him.

“We are not going to have video on the golf course,” he said last week.

There is another fine tradition involving the scoreboards.

On Thursday, as the leaders began to accumulate red numbers, four names without numbers were on the big boards — Trevor Immelman, Tiger Woods, Danny Lee and Steve Wilson. That would be the defending champion, the U.S. Open champion, the U.S. Amateur champion and the Mid-Amateur Champion, and their names stayed until they teed off and their round developed.

Each year, a few players are deemed worthy of such status.

Ah, the irony Thursday afternoon when Woods’ name was removed from the scoreboard on No. 18. Only even par, Woods was replaced by Sean O’Hair with a red three.

Two weeks earlier, Woods was perfect with a 16-foot birdie putt that bettered O’Hair by one at Bay Hill.

The men putting up the numbers rarely make a mistake, but Steve Eddington of Little Rock picked up on one and righted the wrong. Once an employee of Henderson State University, Eddington was following former Reddie Ken Duke when he walked beneath the mini-scoreboard to the right of No. 13 fairway.

Eddington knew Ken Duke had reached 1-under-par Thursday with a left-to-right putt on No. 11, and he politely called the hand of the man who put a green one by Duke’s name. The man affirmed the red number via radio and made the change.

Stories about the reasonably priced food at The Masters usually elicit a double-take — there are a half-dozen sandwiches under $2 each and the top-of-the line is less than $3, including tax.

With that in mind, maybe the fact that parking is free shouldn’t be a shock.

Development of a new practice facility at Augusta National eliminated 3,000 or 4,000 parking spaces, so the club added about 4,500 spaces to its principle parking area by purchasing and leveling dozens of homes across Berckmans Road which borders one side of the course.

Lost in the 640 birdies recorded during the first two days was a bit of trivia Friday by the threesome of Rocco Mediate, Fred Couples and Jack Newman. Each player hit his tee shot into the water on No. 12. The hole’s senior scorer said that was the first time he had seen that happen in his 18 years on the hole.

Harry King

The dean of Arkansas sports writers, Harry King updates his column five days per week with the latest on the Razorbacks. A 35-year veteran of The Associated Press, King joined the Arkansas News Bureau in May of 2002. He’s covered the Razorbacks since the Arkansas-Texas game dubbed the Big Shootout in 1969.