Of course, there are those traditions and unchanging traits that lend the Masters its stately air.
These fairways always will be to grass what Jennifer Aniston is to hair, each blade perfect.
The players will empty their thesauri trying to come up with variations on the word “heavenly.”
And no patron will exit the gift shop without at least once checking his or her available bank balance or credit limit on the phone.
Still, every tournament has to come with some variations, or else CBS could just keep running the black-and-white replay of Jack Burke beating poor amateur Ken Venturi in 1956, its first telecast.
So, here is a front nine of themes specific to the 2015 Masters:
A Green Jacket for the Emerald Isle?
Golfers of 11 different nationalities have won the Masters, but neither Ireland nor Northern Ireland has yet had the honor of serving up its traditional fare at the champions’ dinner.
They have eaten Scottish haggis and Argentinian blood sausage, but never have enjoyed an Ulster fry.
Rory McIlroy has won the past two major tournaments, halfway home to his own McSlam. He has won all the biggies except the Masters, and at 25, he’s already four years older than Tiger Woods was when he won his first, putting him desperately behind schedule.
Shouldn’t he be the favorite this year? “I guess if you go on form, then probably no,” he said upon leaving the Palmer Invitational with a t-11. He won in Dubai in February, but has not challenged in four PGA Tour events.
The resume of the world’s No. 1 has a gap about the width of Magnolia Lane.
But, “If he wins this one, he’ll definitely be on that Mount Rushmore of golf,” said Curtis Strange, U.S. Open champion and ESPN analyst.
Woods deigns to play.
Woods had two choices: Either play in the Masters or sit around the house scrapbooking. He ultimately went with option A.
Look at it this way, if he waited to play his favorite event until he felt like his old self, well, might as well build another bridge on the grounds, name it after him and call it a career. He’ll never be quite that right again.
Remember when everyone used to talk about Woods overpowering this track? Now it’s all about his short game. If Woods chips around these greens like he did on far gentler slopes a couple of months ago, he’ll be wearing an aluminum-foil golf cap and muttering incoherently about aliens and electrical fields by midday Thursday. Then he’ll grab his back.
“If he does play we have to be realistic about this,” CBS lead voice Jim Nantz said. “The odds of seeing Tiger in contention on Sunday afternoon are extremely long. He has spent the bulk of his career proving people wrong. I hope that might be the case, but we’ve got to set the bar very low.”
It’s been grand, Ben.
Bubba Watson did not invent the teary championship celebration, he just perfected it.
Ben Crenshaw leaked greatly in 1995 during the second of his two Masters victories. The day before the first round, he returned home to Texas for the funeral of the club pro who was the only teacher he knew, Harvey Penick. Upon winning, Crenshaw broke down on the 18th green.
It is safe to say the course will be further irrigated by Crenshaw as he competes in his 44th and final Masters this year.
“The place is as much a part of me as I am of it. It has shaped who I am as a person, player and course designer,” Crenshaw told “Garden & Gun” Magazine (not making up the title).
If you don’t choke up a little, too, consult your doctor.
Here’s to the Local Looper.
The first man to Crenshaw when he began his victory sob was his hulking caddie, Carl Jackson. Jackson is a throwback to a distant Masters past, when the tournament required players to use regular Augusta National caddies. In 1983, the club dropped that provision and quickly the locals were supplanted by the players’ regulars.
Jackson, though, survived. Now 68, he plans, as he has 38 other times, to be on Crenshaw’s bag. It would be almost unimaginable to see one strolling these fairways without the other. Like Penn without Teller.
Jackson caddied in his first Masters in 1961 at the age of 14, and he has missed one since. He is an important thread of Masters tradition — a vanished one when he packs it in along with Crenshaw.
On the Monday of tournament week, Jackson will be the first non-golfer to be honored at the Mayor’s Masters Reception in downtown Augusta.
The new Georgia Gang.
Among the 19 Masters first-timers are four players with strong Georgia connections, a reflection of the success this group enjoyed last season.
The one likely to draw the most attention is former UGA player Erik Compton, who has played his way through not one, but two, heart transplants. Something like that tends to draw media attention.
Joining him in the rookie class are former Bulldogs Brendon Todd and Brian Harman as well as one-time Georgia Tech star Cameron Tringale. (Counting the vets, there are 10 players in the field with state collegiate connections).
Respect your elders.
“The golf course is very, very good at helping an old lady across the street” — the Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee on the success of older players at Augusta National.
Last year, two 50-plus players finished in the top 10 — Miguel Angel Jimenez (fourth) and Bernhard Langer (eighth). And Fred Couples made his usual noise before finishing in the top 20.
Inevitably, someone of advanced years will post a score to be proud of before nap time.
The party is only starting for Dustin Johnson.
Having reportedly steam-cleaned his act, Johnson would seem particularly well-positioned to win his first major after a handful of close calls.
Since returning from his six-month timeout, Johnson has one win and three other top-six finishes in six PGA Tour outings. Amazing what a player of immense physical gifts can do when his head doesn’t feel like it’s full of Styrofoam packing peanuts.
“(Johnson) could win as easily this week as Rory McIlroy, simply because of his length and he’s playing well enough and his confidence is high,” said Curtis Strange, ESPN analyst and a U.S. Open champion.
The potentially weirdest storyline.
One of these Masters soon, Patrick Reed is going to contend. And when he does, good luck figuring out all his completed relationships in Augusta, in Georgia and all around the PGA Tour.
Having played at Augusta State after getting kicked out of UGA, with his parents making a home in nearby Columbia County, Reed potentially had the power to create a feel-good tale. But his relationship with his parents is contentious, according to various reports. A recently published book contained accounts of Reed alienating teammates both in Athens and Augusta. He has vigorously denied the worst of the allegations (cheating, petty theft).
Try putting all that into context when he birdies 18 on some Masters Sunday to gain admission to the champions’ locker room.
Riding the wave of change.
Golf is undergoing a face lift. “I think it’s a new era in the game,” Nantz said. “This is just what naturally happens, the ebb and flow of this sport. As much as people want to hold onto the Palmer era or the Nicklaus era or the Tiger era, there will be and always have been natural transition points in the game.”
And, McIlroy aside, that new wave has a distinctly American flavor. Jordan Spieth, Johnson, Reed, Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker are reasonable choices to win a first major next week.
Yes, the stately Masters just might serve as a vehicle for change.
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