Els’ six-putt 9 one for record books
Palmer part of ceremonial tee shot at the Masters
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Ernie Els was 2 feet from a par to start the Masters. Twenty-four measly inches. Then, the unimaginable happened. One miss. And another. And another. And another. And another.
Finally, on his sixth putt — a one-handed swat that showed his total disgust — Els finished off a quintuple-bogey 9 that essentially ruined any hope of contending for a green jacket on the very first hole Thursday.
Talk about a hard one to take for the Big Easy.
“I can’t explain it,” said Els, who went on to shoot an 8-over 80 that matched his highest score ever at Augusta National and left him a whopping 14 shots behind leader Jordan Spieth. “You’re not able to do what you normally do. It’s unexplainable.”
Els posted the worst score ever at No. 1, a 445-yarder known as “Tea Olive.”
No one at the Masters had ever gone higher than 8 on the par-4 hole.
“I feel bad for Ernie,” said Spieth, the defending Masters champion. “It’s obviously in your head. I’ve certainly had my moments, everybody has, from short range, where they just are not confident in where they are starting it. And on Augusta National’s greens, with the wind blowing, it’s a place you certainly want to be comfortable.”
Making the whole scene downright surreal, none of the putts appeared longer than 4 feet. Els just kept knocking the ball back and forth past the cup, totally bedeviled by not only the slick, treacherous greens at Augusta National, but basically a meltdown in his mental approach.
He missed so many times, the score was initially recorded as a 10 instead of a 9. It was easy to lose count. Even Els wasn’t quite sure how many times he putted.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that,” said Jason Day, who was playing with Els.
FOWLER: Rickie Fowler’s latest pursuit of a major championship got off to a rocky start.
Fowler opened the Masters with an 8-over 80 as he tries to shed that label of best player without a major title. He recovered from an opening double bogey with three birdies in four holes.
The rest of his round wasn’t pretty on a windy, sometimes exasperating day: one more double bogey, a triple on No. 13 and four plain ole bogeys.
“Golf. Golf happened,” Fowler said. “It’s a crazy four-letter word.”
PALMER: The most meaningful start to this Masters was a ceremonial tee shot that wasn’t even hit.
Arnold Palmer was on the tee Thursday morning. That was enough.
Palmer, the four-time Masters champion known in the golfing world simply as “The King,” rode a cart out to the first tee at Augusta National, offering that familiar wink and a thumbs up. He watched Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player hit their shots to officially begin the 80th Masters.
NICKLAUS: Six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus says there is no mystery to playing Augusta.
“It’s not going to blow you apart,” Nicklaus said. “Sure, you can hit a bad shot off in the trees. Most golf courses are that way. But the game of golf is played by making sure you don’t screw up the tough shots. Get by them and take advantage where you can take advantage. If you’re doing that, you’re not mentally torn up all day long.”