Measure of normalcy at Masters in April

The record score at Augusta National wasn’t all that set Dustin Johnson apart from other Masters champions.

No one else ever won the Masters and then didn’t play in another tournament the rest of the year. No other Masters champion was allowed to keep his green jacket for only five months before it was time to try to win it again.

Then again, no one ever played the Masters in November.

Postponed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Masters is back to being that annual rite of spring — the first major of the year, not the last one — and so much about the 85th edition that begins April 8 feels almost normal.

Gone are the autumn hues of gold, orange and red in the trees, the brown leaves mixed in with the pine straw on the ground. Augusta National is blazing with pink and red and purple azaleas, accented by the white blooms of dogwood.

Inside the ropes — yes, there are ropes — is a course expected to play fast, firm and scary.

“I think it will be back to feeling like a normal Masters,” Johnson said. “I’m definitely looking forward to that.”

Along with the spring colors, the volume returns, though not to the same decibel. Augusta National had no choice but to keep the spectators away in November because of the pandemic, just like the other majors last year. The only witnesses to a masterclass performance by Johnson were media, staff, club members and families.

It will be 144 days from when Tiger Woods helped Johnson into his green jacket until Johnson tees off in the opening round in his bid to join Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only repeat winners at Augusta.

Woods, such a huge part of the Masters landscape, won’t be around for this

one. He suffered careerthreatening injuries to his right leg and foot from his SUV running off the road along the coastal suburbs of Los Angeles on Feb. 23. It will be the fourth time in the last eight years that injuries have kept the fivetime Masters champion from playing.

Augusta National has not said how many badges have been sold, only that they will be limited. Fans have slowly returned to golf in the last few months, with estimates of about 10,000 or more at places like Bay Hill and the TPC Sawgrass, enough to line the fairways to watch the marquee players.

That was missing at the last Masters.

“Without the patrons, it just wasn’t the same,” Jordan Spieth said. “Whatever percentage it will be, patrons that are there will make it feel like normal, even it’s not at full capacity. I’m looking more forward to this one that I was maybe in November. But the Masters is the Masters. They give out ajacketattheendofitand it’s a dream-come-true situation.

“It doesn’t matter when it’s played and who’s there,” he said. “It’s you against the golf course and the field.”

Neither stood much of a chance in November against Johnson.

The No. 1 player in the world, whose career had been defined as much by the majors he didn’t win as the one he did, pulled away on the back nine for a five-shot victory. He finished at 20-under 268, the lowest score in tournament history. It was one of several records that were set in soft conditions, inevitable because the rye grass had not taken full root and the summer Bermuda had yet to go entirely dormant.

There were 65 rounds in the 60s. There were 187 rounds at par or better for the week. Both were records.