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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > April > 10
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Few days in sports rival the Masters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Augusta — It started with Arnold Palmer drilling a ceremonial shot into the morning fog before a thick and nostalgic crowd. It ended in brilliant sunshine with Justin Rose doing what he often does. That is, he placed at least one of his arms in a green jacket by leading on the first day of a Masters or by sitting in the vicinity.
In between, with thousands of the calmest folks you’ll ever see gawking over nature’s beauty as much as the golfing talent everywhere, there were enough splendid moments Thursday at Augusta National to make you wonder if sporting life ever gets better than this.
It doesn’t. Not at Super Bowls, not at World Series games or Final Fours, Daytona 500s or anything else without an Amen Corner and Ike’s Pond.
Once again, the grass was the loveliest of green. Once again, the only thing more striking under the bright sky than the dogwoods and the Georgia pines were the azaleas. Once again, there was a bunch of Tiger Woods, too. After an afternoon of mediocrity on the front nine, he became worse than that. He had bogeys on Nos. 13 and 14. Then either Bobby Jones or Earl Woods reached from the clouds to help Tiger sink an uphill chip for an eagle on the 15th, and he gained instant momentum to keep his fifth Masters victory likelihood alive after finishing an even-par 72.
Still, for the longest time, the only thing missing to make this even more of a mid-April version of heaven on earth was a hole-in-one. Then, right below me, there was that sound and then that sight. First, I heard the crowd easing into a roar, and then I saw Ian Poulter’s tee shot ignore the water and the three bunkers around the frequently magical 16th green to land 25 feet from the pin. The ball eventually found its way to the bottom of the hole after a relatively slow but definitely persistent roll.
This was the hole that Palmer and Jack Nicklaus used to become even more famous with birdies along the way to Masters victories. Mostly, this was the hole that featured Woods’ twisting chip shot that finally sat on the lip of the cup forever during his fourth and last victory at Augusta National three years ago.
Others were more prominent than Woods on Thursday, but only on the leaderboard, where Rose and Trevor Immelman led everybody else with 4-under 68s. There also was your typical Masters guy out of nowhere. This time, his name was Brian Bateman, shooting a 69 to tease the ghosts of Hogan, Nelson and the rest before vanishing by Saturday afternoon. Then there was defending champion Zach Johnson, owner of a respectable 70 in his attempt to remove “fluke” from paragraphs mentioning his name and “Masters.”
Woods was the star of the Augusta National moments, though. In fact, he contributed heavily to the day’s mighty ambiance by just breathing. While Arnie had his Army, Woods has his version of the whole armed forces, along with the joint chiefs of staff. He inspired a growing collection of fans (a quiet mob, really) to follow him from shot to shot. Among those, you had a prominent Bulldog in Georgia athletics director Damon Evans, a prominent Gator-turned-Gamecock named Steve Spurrier and an appreciative 80-something-year-old retiree from Venice, Fla., named Steve Davis.
Davis was the most indicative of the masses. After he watched Woods close the afternoon with a par on the 18th green, Davis couldn’t hide his misty eyes above his widest of smiles as he walked away with his son, Andrew Davis. “This was part of his ‘Bucket List,’ ” said the younger Davis, referring to the movie featuring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman doing a wish list of things before they die.
The older Davis laughed, while glancing back at those still cheering Woods as he headed toward the clubhouse. Said Davis, still glancing and laughing, “I always wanted to go to the Masters, and I finally got this chance, but my wife is in rehab, and she even said, ‘Go.’ So here I am, and it’s all through now. You know, it’s like, ‘See Tiger, and then die.’”
Davis laughed some more, then he frowned before adding in a hurry, “Well, not quite.”
