Shaky start for DeChambeau as Casey shines
Englishman in his element as weather rains on Augusta’s long-awaited parade
IT probably shouldn’t have been a surprise. In this wretched old year of lockdowns, limitations and curtailments, it was perhaps inevitable that The Masters, already seven months behind schedule, would have its movement restricted no sooner had it started. You half expected Professor Jason Leitch to emerge from the dogwoods and say, “sorry folks, you’re being dunted into Tier Four”.
As a rainy night in Georgia made way for a murky morning, play in the 84th Masters was barely half-an hour-old when an impending thunderstorm led to the klaxon being blasted. Either that or it was an alarm from the Fashion Police investigating the sartorial shenanigans of Sandy Lyle’s bold galluses? No, it was definitely a weather warning hooter.
They can do many things at Augusta but they can’t control the elements and, as gloomily predicted, Mother Nature unleashed the kind of sustained deluge that would have had Poseidon reaching for a Sou’wester.
Some 19 months since its last staging, it was certainly raining on Augusta’s longawaited parade.
After nearly three hours of thumb twiddling, the downpours stopped, the sun came out, play resumed and Bryson DeChambeau took to the 10th tee to begin his assault on back-to-back Major titles.
Perhaps he should have arrived with his own red alert warning from the Met Office?
This was the man, after all, who had boldly claimed that he would turn Augusta into a par 67 with his devastating howitzers and thunderous thwacks.
The initial signs were ominous. A 3-wood was swiped 320 yards down the fairway – just a little cushioned blow by his prodigious efforts – and a wedge was plonked to within five-feet of the pin. Here we go? Well, not quite.
The 27-year-old’s putt for birdie didn’t threaten the hole and that missed opportunity provided the catalyst for a chaotically entertaining spell from the reigning US Open champion.
Having been forced to hit a provisional after a wayward drive on 11 – he did manage to salvage his par – DeChambeau sent a teeshot on 13 sailing into the trees. With his here, there and everywhere approach, the former Walker Cup player was in more need of an Ordnance Survey map than a strokesaver and his second shot from the pine straw flew into the shrubbery behind the green. “Is that in the bushes?,” he asked with peering concern. It was.
In Amen Corner, DeChambeau was already saying some prayers.
He hit another provisional and dumped it to Rae’s Creek before finding his original ball in the bush, taking a penalty drop, duffing a chip, chipping on, taking two putts and signing for a crippling seven. A par 67? Maybe to the turn at this rate, Bryson.
That he ended up with a two-under 70 – the same as 62-year-old Larry Mize – said a lot about his powers of recovery.
“I needed a lot of patience today,” he said with a relieved gasp after finishing his round with a brace of birdies. “It was hold on to your horses.”
While DeChambeau was exploring a variety of Augusta’s nooks and crannies, England’s Paul Casey kept it all very neat and tidy and opened with a wonderfully assembled 65 in his 66th Major start to set a robust early clubhouse target.
The Englishman, left, began the 2019 Masters with a calamitous 81 but this was much more like it for a man who has pieced together a decent body of work at Augusta with five top-10s since a debut back in 2004.
“That 81 was a blip,” he said with a wry grin. “I know this course better than most and experience counts round here.”
Four-under to the turn – Casey started on the 10th – the Ryder Cup stalwart made another telling advance on
I needed a lot of patience. It was hold on to your horses
the second, his 11th, when he launched a sublime approach into four-feet and holed the eagle putt. It was a round worthy of a roar of approval from heaving galleries. Not this year, of course.
“I do miss the energy of fans but there is still a buzz among players,” added Casey, who generated his own energy with a thrusting display of poise and precision. “The season has been flat but I have looked forward to this for a long time.”
Webb Simpson, the former US Open champion, and Xander Schaufelle both signed for sturdy 67s while Tiger Woods, back in one of his happiest hunting grounds, ambled beautifully into the early mix with a bogey-free 68.
He may have registered just one top-10 in this very strange golfing year but yo would be a fool to write him off when Augusta comes calling.
With a lovely rhythm and some text book iron shots, the defending champion and fivetime Masters winner put in a polished performance of canny craft which showed all the qualities of experience in this neck of the woods.
“I understand this course, I know how to play it,” he said of an outing that was very different to Masters moments of previous years. “It’s so different. There are no roars, I got four or five hand claps.”
English veteran Lee Westwood joined Woods on the four-under mark while Jon Rahm, the world No. 2, recovered from a shoogly start to card a 69.
Sporting those aforementioned braces, the lone Scotsman Lyle, making his 39th Masters appearance, had to settle for a six-over 78.