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Friday, April 6, 2007
The misadventures of Tiger and Phil
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Augusta — One guy hits it into Rae’s Creek. The other fires it into the woods, bounces his second shot into some other trees, then morphs into DeSoto, looking under leaves and cable for his ball (and his game).
One guy hits it into a tributary, thereby leaving him a lake or an ocean short of the aqua hat trick. The other guy figured he would be fine with a 68 Friday. He was fortunate to close at 73, given he was 3-over through six holes.
Welcome to Masters Lite.
Through two rounds, the leaderboard is devoid of a Tiger or a Phil. It barely has a Vijay, who is struggling just to be the best Singh. (Vijay’s at par; Jeev is 3-over.)
Billy Payne said at a dinner the other night that the players make the Masters. Right now, the players are making the Masters the Greater Milwaukee Open.
Only three players are under par. Everybody else is merely sub par.
We thought this would be the Tiger and Phil show. We just never figured there would be slapstick involved. They have combined for 19 bogeys, one double bogey and several created heart palpitations at CBS.
Both scrambled to avoid second-day disasters. Woods hit water on 12 and 13, nearly threw out his back on 13 when he stopped a tee shot because of low-flying birds, then managed to grind his way back a couple of shots.
“I turned a 90 into a 74,” he said. “[Thursday] I threw away a good round and [Friday] I salvaged a bad one.”
Mickelson, the defending Masters champion, has not built much confidence among his fans since the tent-trees-bunker collapse on 18 in last year’s U.S. Open. He appeared in danger of missing the cut Friday, when he was 3-over through six holes and 7-over for the tournament. As it was, he settled at 5-over 149, his second-worst two-round score ever here.
The course isn’t just winning.
The course is humiliating.
Tiger and Phil? Generally acknowledged as the world’s two best golfers, they have combined to hit only 40 of 72 greens (56 percent) and 24 of 56 fairways (43 percent).
Woods has won four of these. It was at Augusta National 10 years ago that he shot 40 on the front nine, then changed the face of golf by shooting 22-under for the rest of the tournament. He won again in ‘01, ‘02 and ‘05. Now, conditions have led Woods to almost cower.
He dropped a 30-foot putt to “save” bogey on 12, after his tee shot was short of the green and rolled back down the embankment into Rae’s Creek.
“I’m just thinking, ‘Let’s just not do any more damage than what we’ve already done,’ ” he said.
Somehow, Woods saved par on the par-5 13 when his second shot bounced into tributary short of the green, leading to another drop.
“The whole idea is you never make a double at this place,” he said. “If you don’t make doubles and you don’t make three-putts here, usually you’re in contention to win the tournament.”
If the concrete greens and wind gusts weren’t enough, even other life forms seemed to be against Woods. On 13, he abruptly stopped his tee shot on the backswing when a flock of birds flew over his head. They weren’t dive bombers, and, fortunately, did not feel the need to leave a souvenir on Woods’ shoulder. But Woods wasn’t thrilled with the sudden stop.
“I broke my back, my wrist, my neck, legs, hip,” he joked. “I don’t how those baseball players do it with a check swing. But I tried to check it and did somehow, and I felt like the shaft was going to snap.”
Somebody took the amen out of Amen Corner. On 11, Mickelson’s tee shot went into the woods. His second rattled around trees and fell under leaves and near a TV cable, allowing him a free drop. He was happy to get bogey.
After the tee shot, he said, “I thought I might have to pack my bags and go home.”
No, Mickelson and Woods are still here. It’s just not their show.
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High scores bloom like azaleas
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Augusta — Few birdie (and fewer eagle) roars were rising from the galleries around Augusta National. The weather was enormously beautiful. Not a leaf moved on the trees. If you were a golfer, this was a perfect day, or if you weren’t a golfer.
Reminded me of the story of the man who had dreamed forever of playing Augusta National, and at last, here he was, walking down the fairway, his caddie trudging along under the burden of his bag. “Here I am, playing the Masters course. What could be more perfect. I wonder what the poor folks of the world are doing today?”
“I don’t know about the rest of ‘em,” the caddie said, “but one of ‘em’s toting yore bag.”
There was a lot of bag-toting going on at Augusta National Friday, but not a lot of scoring. Caddies were the only people the press staff didn’t bring in for interview — and a spectator who slipped into a pond. The scoreboard was littered with 80s. It sort of grieves an old warhorse like me to look up and see all those 80s by the names of past champions. Seve Ballesteros, Gary Player, Larry Mize, Raymond Floyd, not to mention two British Open champions, Todd Hamilton and Ben Curtis. Maybe the luckiest one was Ian Woosnam. He withdrew, sprained something or another.
Of course, that’s part of the charm of this old American classic. Champions are always invited back. Some come, some don’t. Some play, some have been wisely retired from competition. Twenty-six are here this year, seventeen of them are playing. Charlie Coody played his last round last year and checked in with a sport-model 74, then found himself being interviewed like a rock star.
“I quit just in time,” he said, “looking at those scores.”
This was becoming the “silent” Masters, as in “The Silent Spring.” The foliage is breath-taking. The galleries are as mannerly as an art show. Nobody is complaining vigorously, though Tom Watson did say, “We can’t compete anymore,” speaking of the seniors. Of course not, they’re not supposed to. They’re here as sort of walking museum pieces.
High scores have been part of the history of the Masters. Two champions have won with scores over par, Sam Snead in 1954 when he and Ben Hogan tied at 289. Snead won the playoff, 18 holes then. Jack Burke won straight out at 289 in 1956, but there were conditions on Sunday. Ken Venturi, then an amateur, went out with an eight-stroke lead the last day, but how the the wind did blow, and so did Venturi. He shot 80, Burke let his experience take hold, played just well enough to win by a stroke, and Venturi exited in tears.
All Jack Nicklaus had to do in 1966 was shoot even par, but so did Gay Brewer and Tommy Jacobs. Nicklaus won in the playoff Monday, by eight strokes over Brewer. But, Brewer would be rewarded the next year and won his own. The highest winning score since that time has been 285 in 1987, when Larry Mize and Greg Norman tied, and you know the rest of that story. (Check playoff, 11th hole, chip-in. Winner: Mize.)
These are changing times at Augusta National, beyond the invigorated presence of Billy Payne. The man who sets up the course is straight out of the USGA mold. Fred Ridley, former U.S. amateur champion, former USGA president, is in his first year as chairman of the Competition Committee, previously occupied by Will Nicholson, who retired. This is Ridley’s first show, and maybe it’s a spinoff of the old USGA policy: “Give ‘em hell.”
It’s OK with the rest of us. Not that we like to see grown men suffer, but it does endear these old acres to us to see them sweat and cuss, and come off the course looking as if they have just seen a UFO. Stand by, the show is just beginning.
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