Familiarity breeds contentment
After rookie mistakes last year, Russell Knox believes he is now better prepared for Augusta
RATHER like a leaf through “The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Sporting Old Chestnuts and Hackneyed Phrases”, the Masters is not short of a cliche or two. Seasoned nuggets such as “Augusta favours those who can play a draw”, “the course is much hillier than it looks on the telly” and “the Masters doesn’t begin until the back nine on Sunday” tend to sprout as regularly as those blooming azaleas at this time of the year.
The other perpetual pondering often centres around the fact that experience is key to mastering the Masters. More than 80 years of evidence tends to point to that, of course. If you exclude the inaugural tournament in 1934 – Horton Smith beat 71 other rookies to the Green Jacket – only Gene Sarazen in 1935 and Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 have won on their Masters debuts. Jordan Spieth came mighty close in 2014 when he finished in a tie for second.
As the two-time winner Tom Watson once said: “It’s not written in stone that first-time players don’t have a chance to win, but anyone It was just a crazy week. Apart from missing the cut, I wouldn’t have changed anything about it who’s playing it for the first time has a difficult chance.”
Amen Corner to that, Tam. Against these odds, it was hardly surprising that Scottish rookie Russell Knox endured something of a turbulent introduction last year.
“I felt I should have made the cut last year but, at the same time, when it’s your first one, you are so excited to be there that it’s almost impossible to do well,” admitted the Inverness exile. “There’s just so much hype and all sorts of things that you are excited about experiencing.”
Knox swiftly found himself on the back foot during that maiden voyage on Augusta National 12 months ago and an opening 79 gave him a mountain to climb. He eventually missed the halfway cut after a second-round 73. There were, you could say, a couple of rookie mistakes and not all of them on the golf course.
“We rented a house and had way too many people staying there,” he said of a friends and family gathering that added to the general sense of eyepopping occasion. “It was just a crazy week. Apart from missing the cut, though, I wouldn’t have changed anything about it as it was a great first experience. But this year is going to be a lot different.”
The rumble down Magnolia Lane and all the related oohs and aahs still stir the senses but Knox is now over that initial kind of point-andgawp tourism. A growing familiarity breeds contentment in this neck of the woods.
“It’s still an amazing place every time you go there, but because I’ve played the course a few times now, including the Thursday and Friday last year under tournament conditions, everything is now becoming a little more familiar, which is a good thing,” added the 31-year-old.
“There are a lot of guys who have obviously played there 20-plus years, and it’s nice to get that sort of shock and wow factor of playing in a first Masters out of the way. It’s behind me now and I can move on and try to concentrate on trying to play well rather than soaking up the whole experience, which, of course, I will still do. Hopefully, I can concentrate on my performance more than anything else this year.”
WHILE his scorecards from last year’s event may make for rough reading on a first perusal, Knox still maintains that looks can be deceptive. It was all part and parcel of the tough school that is the Augusta education programme.
“My scores in last year’s event were worse than I played,” he said. “I’ve gone over my rounds since then and I’m like, man, apart from a couple of brain farts, I struck the ball beautifully. I was really happy with how I played from tee to green, but I putted atrociously and had a couple of moments where I lost concentration.
“I ended up missing the cut by two shots and I made two triple bogeys. I might make two triple bogeys in a whole year and both times I had a pitching wedge in my hand from the middle of the fairway. I was too aggressive at times.
“What I think I’ve learned from last year is that I need to go there and putt better, first and foremost. I also need to realise that if I am in a good position, I have to make sure that bogey is going to be my worst score. There are so many shots at so many holes where you think you’ve hit a good one but it just catches a slope and you are in trouble.
“But that’s what makes it such a great test. There’s a fine line between contending and missing the cut. Every round you play there, you definitely feel you are learning a little bit more about the course. I just have to keep learning and begin to feel more comfortable about the course. I will probably play with Sandy Lyle again. We played together in Jacksonville recently and it will be nice to get another round with him. However, I won’t be over-prepared.”
Knox has been in the midst of a minor slump of late and missed the cut in three of his last four strokeplay events. He had gone 17 without missing one before that little wobble but fluctuating fortunes are par for the course in this fickle game.
“These missed cuts just make me want to practise harder and play better,” declared the world No 23. “I played a lot at the end of last year and also at the beginning of this year and I almost felt a run like this coming.
“I made 17 cuts in a row, I was contending almost every time I played. I knew this was going to happen and, in a kind of a weird way, I’m glad it happened when it did because there is a massive spring and summer of golf ahead. I have been disappointed
recently, but I need to keep going knowing that if my game can click at the right time, then big things can happen.
“Sometimes I can get down on myself too much, so it is nice to have people around me to stop that. It’s definitely a team effort. I surround myself with very positive people.
“There are so many hard times when you play professional golf and we’ve all been through them. My game is close to where I want it to be and hopefully after a good week’s practice I will be ready for the Masters. ”
ONE man certainly ready is the world No 1 Dustin Johnson. The 32-year-old will arrive at Augusta on the back of three successive PGA Tour wins and, according to mouth-frothing observers, is going to win by the length of Washington Road. Of course, this rabid hysteria tends to forget the fact that the last time a pre-tournament favourite snuggled into the Green Jacket was back in 2005 when Tiger Woods won for the fourth time.
The demands of Augusta, both on and off the course, can heap a considerable burden on a player, particularly one with so much expectation already piled on the shoulders. Johnson’s laid-back approach to all this hoopla may just be the biggest strength in his armoury while the improvements made to his chipping over the last year add a vital weapon of finesse to the fearsome firepower he possesses in his armoury.
With Danny Willett defending and Rory McIlroy aiming for the career grand slam, the eight-month wait for a men’s Major is nearly over.