SA stars on Masters mission
Schwartzel and company out to spoil Aussies’ party
NOT long ago, the Masters was considered the golf tournament the Australians could not win.
While South Africans – first Gary Player, who won three times, then Trevor Immelman, followed by Charl Schwartzel in 2011 – and Spaniards – two each for Severiano Ballesteros and José Maria Olazábal – showed the Americans how it can be done, Australians came close, but also came up short.
In 1996 Greg Norman had a sixshot lead going into the final round, but at the end of the day it was Nick Faldo who put on the green jacket – three shots ahead of the Shark, who admitted that the melt-down left him gutted.
“Of all the ones I let slip away this was the big one. Call it what you want to call it, I just let it get away,” he said.
Since then, Australians have continued coming close, Jason Day and Adam Scott tied for second behind Schwartzel in 2011, with Geoff Ogilvy finishing fourth.
But last year things changed when Scott managed to beat Argentine’s Angel Cabrera on the second hole of a playoff and to crown matters for golf fans Down Under, Day finished third, while Marc Leishman tied for fourth with Tiger Woods.
With back surgery having forced world number one Woods to withdraw from this year’s Masters which gets under way at the Augusta National Club tomorrow, the field is wide open, with both Day and Scott being among the favourites.
Among a challenging group of players who will be aiming to prevent another Australian triumph are South Africans Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen and Ernie Els.
Schwartzel fancies his Masters’ chances, but is looking to putt better. “I’m really feeling good. I think my strength for the last few months has really been my putting, but I just don’t have a nice feel for it at the moment playing on so many different greens,” he said
“It doesn’t feel bad and it’s not something that I’m worried about. It’s just I’m hitting a lot of putts that are going over edges.
“If I can change that I think I’ll be OK.”
The other South Africans in the field, Brendan Grace, Immelman and Tim Clark, are only given outside chances.