Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Masters still provides a familiar sight
Not even HD can adequately express the sheer verticality of Augusta National as golfers around the world prepare for the Masters.
AUGUSTA, GA. » It is now a universal truth.
Anirban Lahiri, 27 years old, from India and the topranked player on the Asian Tour, played Augusta National for the first time Saturday. His verdict: “It’s a lot different than it looks on TV.” They all say that. Not even HD can adequately express the sheer verticality. Nor the waffle-iron character of the greens. Nor the proximity of all these one-act plays, all these individual stages, that make a Masters Sunday the greatest show in golf, or earth, as if there’s a difference.
The 15th green is right there next to the 16th green. The sixth tee overlooks both the sixth green and the 16th green. The only hole that feels like its own province is the fifth, a wrenching uphill par-4 to a green with a nice ridge in front, behind which the Masters folks often place a pin. It is “The Hole That Nobody Sees”, and hardly anybody birdies.
The Masters’ secret is identifiability. It is the only major played on the same course every year.
You walk the 11th hole, with a green so violent that Ben Hogan supposedly preferred to miss it, and remember exactly where Larry Mize’s chip slamdunked Greg Norman’s heart. The 10th is where Scott Hoch missed a Masters-winning putt no longer than your thigh, and allowed Nick Faldo back in.
The 16th is where Tiger Woods manipulated his walk-the-dog chip-in ten years ago, the last time he won. The 12th is where Fred Couples’ tee ball landed on the bank and somehow found a blade of grass strong enough to restrain it from Rae’s Creek, where so many Masters bids have capsized.
You knew it was Monday because people were asking marshals, “What hole is this?” Monday through Wednesday is for the practice-round customers. The “patrons,” who are here the whole week, know what hole it is. They can find the solitary palm tree near the fourth green. They can recite Augusta.
But even they smile at the dogwoods and azaleas, and when “Augusta friends” run into each other, having survived another winter. Never has one week felt more like home.
“I’m still amazed every time I come here,” said Jay Haas, who made the cut 19 times in 22 appearances, beginning in 1976.
Only at Augusta could 56-year- old Bernhard Langer, a 2-time champion who encrypted this place long ago, finish eighth, tied with Rory McIlroy.
Only at Augusta could Charl Schwartzel win with birdies on 15 through 18, four years after Zach Johnson braved Lambeau-caliber winds to win at oneover-par.
And only at Augusta could a spectator duck into the refreshment tent for a $3 chicken sandwich and an egg salad sandwich he could buy with six quarters.
“I’ll buy more stuff than I can hold with two hands and it’ll cost me $12.50,” Haas said, laughing, as he stood right around the corner from a golf shop featuring $125 shirts.
But the truth is that Augusta has changed radically over 20 years.
The course is wildly different. “They didn’t just Tiger-proof it,” said Haas, whose son Bill led after the first round last year. “They put a lot of thought into it. The 17th hole, guys used to blast it down there and go in with sand wedge. Now it’s worthy of being a closing hole in a major.”
Otherwise, chairman Billy Payne has moved a lot of physical and metaphysical dirt.
The practice area is stupendous. “Used to be, we’d have a delay and then try to warm up, and there wasn’t room for everybody,” Haas said. “I’d hit six balls, then Freddie (Couples) would come in and hit six. And it was so short, we should have been using whiffleballs.”
Payne was the prime mover behind the Asia Pacific and Latin American Amateur championships. The winners get Masters invitations. That’s why Matias Dominguez, of Chile, is here, and 2-time PGA Tour winner Harris English is not.
Payne also brought Drive, Chip and Putt to Augusta last year, a Sunday convention of age-group kids that has captivated everyone.
“They’ve made it a lot more comfortable,” Haas said. “You don’t have quite the feeling that you’re walking on eggshells anymore.”
Players from 21 nations are here. Lahiri is the thirdever from India. Ranked 34th in the world, he grew up pretending he was holing 8-footers to win the Masters, and he stayed up late to watch Woods.
“I remember that year he destroyed everyone else and the golf course, if I may say so,” Lahiri said. “I’m very much a part of the Tiger era.”
Woods came here to prolong that era. Besides, he watched on TV last year. Not the same.