Angry Augusta eats up 17-over-par McCoy

EVERY decent club golfer in Britain has surely tuned into the Masters and wondered how they would score if playing off the same tees — and to the same flags — as the 97 competitors in the 78th Masters. It’s an impossible question to answer, of course. But perhaps the fate of America’s MidAmateur champion Mike McCoy offers a clue. Now McCoy (right) is no decent club golfer. He’s a brilliant club golfer. In fact, the 51-year-old insurance executive from Des Moines is the greatest amateur golfer the state of Iowa has ever produced. McCoy is an 11-time Iowa amateur player of the year and five-time Iowa amateur champion. To get here, McCoy prevailed from an original entry of 4,238 players for the Mid-Amateur Championship to claim the Bob Jones Memorial Trophy, named after the greatest amateur of all and the founder of the Masters. Make no mistake, our friend from Iowa is very much the real McCoy. So how did he shape up against such daunting yardage and flag positions so precarious they look like they might fall off the ledges they’re perched upon? Poor McCoy had resolved to enjoy every minute of his once-in-a-lifetime experience. But how can a man so accustomed to shooting in the sixties enjoy what happened yesterday? After opening with a 78, he had the satisfaction at least of seeing a couple of former champions — albeit now in their 60s — in Ben Crenshaw and Craig Stadler below him on the leaderboard, not to mention a current star in Luke Donald. What happened on day two? McCoy shot 44 for the front nine, notionally what a 16-handicapper is supposed to shoot. He finished with an 83. ‘My body just wouldn’t respond to what my brain was telling it to do,’ he sighed. He was not alone. Garrick Porteous, the 24-year-old British Amateur champion at the other end of the age scale, will turn pro today having signed off with an 80. What would a decent club golfer shoot? Watching McCoy, a good four-handicapper would do well to break 100.