The 5 flying the flag for South Africa
MICHAEL VLISMAS
THE caddies will tell you that you learn more about walking the Augusta National Golf Club backwards from green to tee than you do the other way around. That’s because Augusta is all about those greens.
Television will never do justice to how severe the slopes are on many of Augusta’s greens. While the club itself will reward the big hitters this year, it is the player who adds to this with some big putting who is going to slip on that green jacket.
The South Africans in this hunt include Charl Schwartzel, Ernie Els, Branden Grace, Trevor Immelman and Louis Oosthuizen. Tim Clark has withdrawn because of a recurring elbow injury.
Charl Schwartzel
The 2011 champion knows better than most what is required on Augusta’s greens.
“Around Augusta you need to be so precise. When you putt there you have to be exactly on the right line otherwise the ball just won’t go in. You have to know exactly where you want to place the ball on the fairway to give you the best shot into the green. It’s a very wellthought-out golf course. People don’t realise how fine the line is between playing well and playing poorly at Augusta.”
Schwartzel missed the cut last year.
Ernie Els
It’s the Major he believes would represent the finest performance of his career. It’s the one he always thought he was going to win first.
But the 45-year-old hasn’t had a great run at the Masters of late. He missed the cut last year and was tied 13th in 2013.
You have to go back to the early 2000s when Els was last competitive at Augusta National, including finishes of second in 2000 and 2004 and top 10s in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Midnight is looming for what Els has said would be a Cinderella story for him to win the Masters.
Branden Grace
Grace will be playing in only his third Masters but is one of the strongest South African contenders. He finished tied 18th on debut in 2013, then missed the cut last year. But he returns a very different player.
With the blessing of Els, Grace managed to muscle in on some time with vision expert Sherylle Calder towards the end of last year and the putting change was evident when he won twice in succession on the European Tour.
“The thing that has maybe kept me back a bit is the putting. At the moment, I’ve got this under control. I make a lot more putts than I used to. When my putting is on, there aren’t really a lot of guys who are going to beat me. I don’t see my ball-striking as being any worse than the great players in the world. It’s just about doing it at the right time and making the putts at the right time, and I feel that’s been the big change for me. Everybody knows how quick the greens on the PGA Tour are, and you really have to place the ball well on them.”
Louis Oosthuizen
He came close in 2012 before Bubba Watson produced a play-off shot only he can pull off. Oosthuizen was 25th last year and has missed the cut in every one of his four other appearances at the Masters.
If the back is good, “Shrek” has a real chance. He has a swing that makes the world’s best drool, and he can match it with ability to avoid three putts with the best. He’s had two top 10s on the PGA Tour this year.
Trevor Immelman
Champion in 2008, Immelman missed the cut last year.
But Immelman hasn’t made a cut on the PGA Tour this year and will have to rely too much on memory rather than form.