Johnson’s nightmare
Westwood leads English charge after world No 1 quits on the first tee following freak back injury
They wondered what could stop Dustin Johnson at this 81st Masters. The answer was three small stairs at his rental property, which ultimately forced the tournament favourite to withdraw in dramatic circumstances on the first tee moments before his starting time. “It sucks really bad,” Johnson said.
The world No1’s crestfallen face was the enduring image of a windy first round in which the Augusta National bared its notorious teeth.
It seemed to take chunks out of everyone, except for Charley Hoffman, the unfancied American who slipped the field. Fine player though he is, nobody but his loved ones was mentioning Hoffman’s name in a build-up concentrated on Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. But there is the 40-year-old from California, four clear on seven under after a 65.
Spieth suffered. Last year, the American saw a five-shot lead disappear on the back nine courtesy of a quadruple-bogey seven on the par-three 12th. It was another quadruple yesterday causing the havoc, this time a nine on the par-five 15th. Spieth is not yet out of it after a 75, but his insistence that Augusta holds no demons for him looks more suspect than ever.
Johnson, however, will believe Spieth to be one of the lucky ones. After three wins in his past three events, he came here confident of adding to the US Open he won last year. But as he got ready to pick up his two-year-old son, Tatum, from day-care on Wednesday afternoon the freak accident happened. “I was wearing socks and slipped and went down three stairs,” Johnson explained. “The left side of my lower back took the brunt of it and my left elbow is bruised as well.”
Johnson still believed he could play after a night spent applying ice and then heat. It was in his favour that he was drawn in the final threeball and the morning report from his camp was optimistic.
The 32-year-old arrived at the course at 12.30pm following a therapy session. He lasted 15 minutes on the range, hitting easy wedges, but was in obvious discomfort and soon departed for the physio truck. He returned after 10 minutes of further treatment, but it was obvious he was losing the race against time when his caddie – his brother Austin – had to tee up his balls. Johnson could not even bend over.
After another five minutes Johnson consulted his coach, Butch Harmon, and then Fred Ridley, the chairman of the competition committee, joined the discussion. He advised Johnson that a physio could accompany him on the course and that he could receive treatment. Johnson told a reporter: “I’m going to give it a go.”
Yet, after joining Bubba Watson and Jimmy Walker on the first tee, he took a few practice swings, grimaced and walked off back to the clubhouse three minutes before his 2.03pm tee time. “I was doing everything
‘I am playing the best of my career and this is one of my favourite events. It sucks really bad’
I could, but I just don’t feel there’s any chance of me even competing,” Johnson said.
“I want to play, more than anything. I just can’t swing the club. I’m playing the best golf of my career and this is one of my favourite tournaments. It sucks really bad.”
There were gasps when he withdrew. Johnson is the form player and seemed set to follow up on his tie for fourth last year.
Spieth suffered a different sort of agony on the 15th. Every eye was on him when he arrived on the 12th, the capricious 155-yarder over Rae’s Creek which did so much to crush his dreams of winning back-to-back Green Jackets last year.
Spieth found the back of the green and when he two-putted for par, his Augusta exorcism seemed complete. It was Hallelujah at Amen Corner. Alas, the ghouls had merely skipped a few holes.
Spieth resisted the urge to go for the green at the 530-yard par-five 15th, laying up in two. His caution was misplaced. He hit his wedge into the water guarding the green and then flew his fifth shot over the putting surface. A chip and three putts later and he was recording the biggest single-hole score of his PGA Tour career. He did well to limit the damage to three over.
Hoffman’s 65 was extraordinary, even if the conditions had calmed by the denouement of his round. He made nine birdies, including five out of six holes from the 12th. He is a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, but his only top 10 in a major came here two years ago, when he finished in a tie for ninth.
In third is Lee Westwood, showing his fondness for Augusta again. The 43-year-old reeled off five birdies in succession from the 13th to move from three over to two under.
Last year, he finished second to Danny Willett, but the champion has had a dreadful run recently. Willett began with a double-bogey but retained his composure to post a commendable 73.
Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose and Andy Sullivan shot 71s – the same as Phil Mickelson and Sergio García as the record 11-strong English representation set about proving the old adage of strength in numbers. Paul Casey is on level par, alongside Rory McIlroy, who birdied three of the last six to rescue his day.
It was not quite a moment for hoisting the flag of St George above the whitewashed clubhouse, but on this blustery afternoon, with temperatures more akin to South Thanet than the Deep South, Augusta’s verdant acres were conquered emphatically by the English.
Those dog days of 2001, when Lee Westwood was England’s sole representative in the top 100, seemed long forgotten as Matthew Fitzpatrick, translating his background as a teenage prodigy to the grandest stage, shot an obdurate round of 71 to seize an early Masters advantage.
It turned out to be just a prelude to a memorable flourish of Westwood’s own, as the 43-year-old last night reeled off a sequence of five straight birdies for a 70 in a tournament where he has finished runner-up twice already, in 2010 and jointly last year with Jordan Spieth.
How dearly he would love to shake off his casting as the perennial bridesmaid come Sunday evening. The scars of 2010, when he led by one heading into the final round, still cut deep.
Westwood has wondered aloud why the recent surge to prominence of young English stars, from Tyrrell Hatton to Tommy Fleetwood, has not been a greater cause for national celebration.
After all, the elder statesman of this contingent recalls an era when it fell only to him and Sir Nick Faldo to sustain English interest. This year, when Faldo has not even taken up his exemption as a threetime Masters champion, is the point when Fitzpatrick and his contemporaries should receive some overdue recognition.
At 21, Fitzpatrick is already wellversed in the vicissitudes of Augusta. It was overlooked at the time, but the Yorkshireman mounted a stirring Sunday surge here 12 months ago, with a closing 67 to equal that of Danny Willett, the eventual winner. Where Willett was swiftly disabused yesterday of his billing as ‘Danny, champion of the world’, courtesy of a double-bogey at the first, Fitzpatrick simply continued where he had left off, reeling off three straight birdies from the eighth, when the winds were at their most devilish.
Never mind the azaleas, which have taken a battering over an unusually harsh Georgia winter, Augusta has become better acquainted this week with the White Rose. First Willett, native of Rotherham, treated fellow Green Jackets to a champions’ dinner menu of cottage pie and Yorkshire pudding – polished off with Henderson’s relish straight from Sheffield – and now Fitzpatrick has reminded his audience how they are bred tough in God’s Own Country.
This is Fitzpatrick’s third Masters appearance, after he secured an invite in 2014 for his victory in the US Amateur, and he has not needed long to demonstrate his assurance. Even a late wobble, when he pulled his drive at the 17th into the pine straw, was rescued by a doughty par. It was just regrettable that his scorecard was disfigured with two dropped strokes at the last, as he compounded the error of a hooked drive with a three-putt.
Fitzpatrick’s emergence from such a crowded field was significant. Often the first round of a major offers few clues as to the final outcome, but not so at Augusta, where no rookie has won since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. Early momentum is critical: over the last 10 Masters, the average position of the winner after the opening day is fifth. With conditions likely to be far more benign today, Fitzpatrick could hardly be better poised.
Not that he is likely to overlook the calibre of his competitors, mind. Rose, the Olympic gold medallist, is one who blends in seamlessly to Augusta’s floral tapestry, having never missed a cut in 11 journeys up Magnolia Lane.
Sullivan is also rediscovering the form that has elevated him from journeyman to legitimate contender. Minimising his mistakes in the gusts, he kept Fitzpatrick honest with a 71 that propelled him to the top of a congested leaderboard. “Last year I was nervous and couldn’t settle down,” he reflected. “This year it felt normal again. Naturally, you will drop shots in this weather. Holes like the 11th and 12th are difficult enough with a 5mph wind, but when it is 30mph it becomes so hard to judge.”
It took 20 years for English supremacy at Augusta to return, with Willett’s glory the first since Faldo’s vanquishing of Greg Norman in 1996. The initial pointers are that it could be here to stay.