THE MASTERS: A FAMILY AFFAIR
Cam Cole tells a generational tale from Augusta
AUGUSTA, Ga.
The Stadlers, Craig and Kevin, the first father and son ever to play in the same Masters tournament, were a nice story in advance — and may yet become one again this week.
But it’s going to be pretty hard to top the story Bill Haas can tell about family ties and Augusta National; the story he told Thursday after shooting a four- under- par 68 to take the first- round lead on a pictureperfect day at the Masters.
His great uncle, Bob Goalby, famously won the 1968 Masters when Roberto De Vicenzo signed for a score one stroke higher than he actually shot.
His father, Jay, played in the Masters 22 times, finishing as high as third in 1995.
His uncle Jerry, Jay’s brother, played it in 1985.
His mother’s brother, Dillard Pruitt, played in two Masters and finished 13th the year Freddie Couples won, in 1992.
Elite golf talent mainly defies attempts to pass it from one generation to the next. Think of the great names of the game’s history: did any of them have a son who was half as good as the old man?
“I think my answer is purely numbers,” Haas said. “The odds of getting out on Tour are small. And then you take it down to how many Tour players have sons, and then how many have sons that even like golf; and then if you like golf ... the best part about this game is that you have to earn it. “Kevin Stadler and myself and other players that followed in their father’s footsteps, they didn’t get to have their father hit shots for them. So it’s the most rewarding and sometimes the most difficult part about our sport.”
Perhaps it’s because nice guy Jay Haas wasn’t a superstar — only a consummate pro, week in and week out for decades — that his son may yet become the better player.
Bill Haas has already won a FedEx Cup and its $ 10- million bonus payout.
He is still a long way from winning the green jacket, but he is his father’s son, through and through, and looked every bit as comfortable behind the microphone in Augusta’s interview room as defending champion Adam Scott, who sat one stroke behind Thursday along with 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and 2012 Masters winner Bubba Watson.
“We came down here, I don’t know ... we might have missed a handful of them over the years, but we came most years,” Haas said.
“I remember like it was yesterday, ( his father) said it was 20 years ago he finished third and it does not seem that long ago. I remember a lot of the shots he hit coming down the stretch.”
He remembers the ball that moved after Jay had addressed it, on the third green in the wind in 1995.
“Somehow the ball stayed right of the pin on No. 3 there and he replaced it and waited and waited and when he got over it, the ball moved and cost him a stroke,” he said. “I remember on ( par- five) 15, he went for it and it landed on the green and it went back in the water, and still finished third that week. Certainly could have won that week. It just didn’t happen.”
Now, it’s Jay taking a break from the Champions Tour to accompany the son to the Masters, and cheer him on.
“The only thing that’s different, I never remember thinking, ‘ Man, I wish I could hit this shot for my dad.’ But I do know now that there’s some times I’m like, ‘ I wish my dad could hit this shot for me,’ ” Bill said.
“He’s the person I looked up to the most. He’s the person I idolized golf- wise. I pull for him every day and I watch every score he shoots on the Champions Tour. And we are staying together this week. He’s on the range with me in the morning and he’ll probably be there watching me hit a couple in a little bit here — hopefully he hasn’t left. He’s my ride home.”
This was a day when plenty of players must have wanted to go home. Despite terrific conditions and hardly any wind, Augusta National hung a licking on the field: lots of big numbers, including 78s by recent Masters winners Angel Cabrera and Zach Johnson, a 79 by 2008 champion Trevor Immelman, 80s by PGA champ Jason Dufner and Canada’s Graham DeLaet, and an 84 by Branden Grace, DeLaet’s International teammate in last year’s Presidents Cup.
But perhaps because the course played so fast — with more speed coming, no doubt, as it gets drier — the leaderboard is already loaded with dangerous challengers: Brandt Snedeker, K. J. Choi and Jimmy Walker in a pack two strokes off the lead, Freddie Couples, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Francesco Molinari a further stroke back ... It was no day for pretenders. Scott, who had only one hiccup in his round — hitting into the water at the 12th, making double- bogey — was that close to leading the tournament outright in his attempt to win back- to- back.
“Having won last year I think, in some ways, has taken a little of the pressure off me — I kind of felt what was the worst that could happen? I’m still going to be a Masters champion,” he said, jokingly. “So I didn’t have the legs shaking and the nerves jangling for six or seven holes like usual.”
Haas looked every bit as serene. But a one- stroke lead with 54 holes to play is like starting even all over again.
“I was leading last week after the first round and finished 37th, so I know, very recently I know, there’s tons of golf left,” Haas said. “And maybe understanding that, I know that I can’t expect too much. You’ve just got to go out there and try to hit that fairway on No. 1 tomorrow.”
And if he doesn’t make it, as his father didn’t, quite?
“I think maybe I knew at a young age that third was better than fourth and fourth was better than fifth. Maybe my dad instilled that in me,” he said. “I would follow my dad every shot, every day, and then I went to the range with him or I went home. I wasn’t interested in the Masters; I was interested in my dad’s score at the Masters, if that makes sense.
“I think he deserves a major in his career, as good as he’s played, but I was just as proud that year that he was able to finish third, and the other majors that he was so close. He was working his tail off to try to win those things and we all knew as a family that he left it all out there.”