AUGUSTA -- There are two phrases that seldom intersect in golf, and they go something like this: "Masters winner" and "son of a chicken farmer."
“I really don’t know,” Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said later when asked if such offspring had ever worn a coveted green jacket. “But that’s all I’m going to say. I’m not giving interviews.”
Maybe he was just overcome by the moment, or the thought of a new pipeline to fresh eggs.
The 75th Masters will be remembered for a lot of things. There was Rory McIlroy taking a 3½-round lead into the back nine, only to melt down with green numbers in the next three holes, including a cartoonish triple-bogey on 10.
There was Tiger Woods shooting a 31 and making up seven strokes on the leader in the front nine, only to flatten out and fade out on the back nine.
There was a crammed leader board that at one time had six players within two shots late in the day.
The storyline nobody was watching? Charl Schwartzel -- whose first and last names both could be bonus questions in a spelling bee.
“I hope you guys have learned,” he said Sunday when somebody remarked on the spelling.
Schwartzel won the Masters. McIlroy may get branded a young Greg Norman for his back-nine meltdown Sunday. But the reality is that Schwartzel did a pretty good job taking this away. He finished at 14 under.
He birdied the final four holes -- something no golfer in the history of the Masters ever had done on a Sunday. He shot a 6-under 66 on the final day. He had only seven bogeys over 72 holes.
Also, his father owns a chicken farm in South Africa, just outside of Johannesburg. The closest similar Masters story line? Maybe Angel Cabrera. He won the Masters two years ago. Cabrera stole chickens as a kid in Argentina because he was hungry.
Only the Masters can create drama and story lines like this.
Schwartzel had never won a PGA Tour event, let alone a major. His Tour finishes this year: 14th, 24th, 47th, 30th. His win also came on the 50th anniversary to the day when fellow South African Gary Player became the first international player to win the Masters.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done so much praying on a golf course in my life,” he said.
He dedicated the tournament to his father, who was back in South Africa. At the very least, he should buy dear old dad a nice new tractor because he never was forced to work with the chickens. Charl usually worked out in the field as a kid. He found it therapeutic.
“I like working with my hands,” he said the other day. “I like to sweat.
“I love being on a farm. Used to drive the tractors and do all of those things.”
His father played golf three times a week and taught Charl how to swing a golf club, when he wasn’t teaching him the finer points of poultry farming.
Slightly more than a year ago, Schwartzel was at a charity golf event, where he was introduced to Jack Nicklaus. A mutual friend then asked Nicklaus if he wouldn’t mind talking to Schwartzel about the golf course at Augusta National, since the young golfer was going to make his Masters debut that April.
“I was thinking it’s going to be just a vaguely quick little thing, and he actually took the time to take me through all 18 holes the way he used to think around Augusta and the way he used to play it, which flags he used to attack,” Schwartzel said. “The big thing for me was I had never, ever seen Augusta. I had only seen it on TV. And now I’m in the presence of Mr. Nicklaus, and it’s such a big awe. I’m just staring at him and taking in what I can.”
Fast learner. He made the cut in his first Masters and finished 30th. This year he did more than make the cut.
Walking up to to the 18th green, he cracked, “It wasn’t easy to breathe.”
But the moment didn’t seem to bother him. It was like being back on the farm.
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