Impossible seat to fill
Arnie’s loss saddens Augusta
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The empty chair spoke loudly yesterday.
Before Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus launched the first tee shots to open the 81st Masters there was a moment of silence commemorating the sad passing of Arnold Palmer — and his long connection with both the game of golf and the Augusta National Golf Club. But before that silent moment there was the empty chair with Palmer’s green jacket draped over the back. That chair reminded Player of a story.
“Arnold was a great stickler for manners, which really reminded me on the first tee this morning, when he sat on the chair last year and they called his name,” Player said. “You know a lot of people don’t stand up but Arnold could hardly walk to the first tee and he put his arm up like this and he stood up like this (a few inches above his seat) because he had been taught to stand up.
“He gave a little wave, and that was very touching to me and I could see him doing it in that chair today. It’s funny how things come back to your mind.”
Palmer died last September so this was the first Masters in over 50 years without his gracious presence around the course. Instead there was just an empty chair and a full life of memories.
“Good morning and welcome to the 2017 Masters,” said Augusta National chairman Billy Payne. “It is a wonderful, but in one respect a difficult day. For the first time in many, many decades someone is obviously missing from the first tee.
“The almost unbearable sadness that we all feel by the passing of Arnold Palmer is only surpassed by the love and affection for him.”
After a moment of silence, Player, Palmer’s longtime friend and old rival, stepped up and striped a drive down the middle. Then Nicklaus, whose rivalry with Palmer was legendary and lifelong, was next and he too laced one down the middle.
That there was not a third drive hit was a sad acknowledgment of the loss of the man who made golf not only popular but more than a country club province.
Arnie’s Army, his legion of working class supporters, was as real as Palmer was and without them both the game’s popularity would be far less than it is today.
“It was not easy playing with him when he had the Army and they were screaming and rushing off the green before you finished but one had to get accustomed to that,” Player recalled. “That really was his Army.”
Yesterday the Army was one man short and even the Masters seemed reduced for a moment by the loss.
British invasion
The day began with a record number of Englishmen in the field. Eleven Brits teed off, making it the second largest contingent in the field to the American horde.
With only 94 players in the field, Great Britain took up more than 10 percent of the slots.
“That’s an incredible achievement and should be shouted about from the rooftops,’’ said two-time Masters runner-up Lee Westwood.
Just 16 years ago, Westwood was the only British golfer ranked in the world top 100, so one can understand his elation.
The Brits now are all over the top 20 with Justin Rose, Tyrell Hatton, Paul Casey and defending Masters champion Danny Willett holding positions 14-17.
The 43-year-old Westwood considers himself the granddaddy of them all but he was ill-treated last year by Willett, who beat him out as Brits took the Masters’ top two slots.
“This decade alone England has had two world No. 1s, at least half a dozen top10 players and two major winners,” Westwood said. “At the Masters last year, we had first and second in Danny and myself. Tell me which top-class sport in England is better than golf?”
Fowler: Cool breeze
Despite shooting a 1-over 73, Rickie Fowler said he enjoyed his windy first day because such conditions are to his liking.
“You have to use your imagination and creativity and visualize and see what the wind’s going to do if you hit a certain shot,” Fowler said. “Then how to manage it. Which shot to pick, whether to hold the ball in the wind or let it ride high, low.
“Then just being able to execute and actually hit the proper yardage and do exactly what you want it to do in the air. I love playing in the wind but I still have to go out and execute and hit the shots I want to hit to play the way I want to do it.”
Some might argue 1-over par failed to achieve that goal but Fowler was realistic about the situation he faced.
“Anything under par was good and even par is still a good score and 1-over’s not terrible,” he said.