AUGUSTA — Strap in for another Sunday, the 75th, on the proving ground of Augusta National.
There almost certainly will be a great clattering. “Over the years, I’ve heard some of the loudest roars and felt the vibrations in the ground,” said Phil Mickelson, a sometime source of such commotion.
And, chances are, there will be drama, for the Masters dishes out glory with one hand and ladles heartache with the other. The fickleness of the tournament is one of its greatest charms.
One year — 1992 — Fred Couples hit a ball onto the creek bank at No. 12, and the laws of gravity were suspended long enough for him to chip up, get out of there still intact and win his only major. And another — 2010 — Couples hit it to nearly the same spot, only this time the ball rolled into Rae’s Creek and sank any chance he had of winning a second Green Jacket.
No other major is conducted over the same plot of ground every year, and, accordingly, no other major has such a wealth of common experience. “You can go back to watching Arnold [Palmer] make charges here in the ’50s when it was on TV and relate to what we are doing now,” Tiger Woods said. “That’s unlike any other event. Because of that, there’s so much history that’s developed.”
That history always revolves around Sunday, and usually, more specifically, around the back nine on Sunday.
This year is the 25th anniversary of what most concede is the most special Masters final round — Jack Nicklaus’ back-nine 30 that propelled him, at age 46, to his last major championship. (As cruel as Masters Sunday can be, it occasionally gets quite sentimental with some of its elders. Ben Crenshaw, at 43, won in 1995, as a tribute to his mentor Harvey Penick, who had died just days before. There had to be something mystical going on, for Crenshaw has made only three cuts in his 16 appearances since, finishing no higher than 45th).
There are so many other Sundays on which to base expectations for this year.
These are but a few great/gory Sunday moments (non-Nicklaus Division) to draw upon while watching another Masters play out. Feel free to argue about the order in which they are presented, for historic debate is part of the pleasure of this tournament.
1The Shot Heard ’Round the World — But Seen by Hardly Anyone
Gene Sarazen had the bad form to hit the most famous Masters shot long before CBS cranked up its reverential coverage. The date was 1935, the second Masters.
It was just a little 4-wood second shot to the par-5 15th, that’s all. Before Sarazen swung, he was three back of Craig Wood. Moments later, he was tied — a double eagle will do that.
Sarazen won the next day in a playoff.
One witness to the feat was Bobby Jones, watching from a nearby mound. We have this description, from one of his later writings: “[Sarazen’s] swing into the ball was so perfect and so free, one knew immediately that it was a gorgeous shot. I saw the ball strike the tongue of the green, bound slightly to the left, directly towards the hole, and then the whole gallery began dancing and shouting.”
2The Sunday that Changed Golf
Woods bled all the drama from his first Masters victory, blowing away the field by 12 strokes in 1997, establishing the 72-hole record (270) that stands today.
Still, this was the day he became Tiger Woods, establishing himself with authority. This was the day a golfer of color won at Augusta National, a smashing symbolic victory as well.
3The Finish Almost Too Painful to Watch
The 1996 Masters was finally going to be Greg Norman’s big moment. With a six stroke lead entering the final round, he couldn’t blow this one, could he?
The cushion was gone by the 11th hole, and it only got worse from there. While Nick Faldo played flawlessly, Norman flailed.
He put shots in the water at 12 and 16 and shot a grotesque 78. When Faldo made his final putt on 18, he was too stunned by Norman’s fade to outwardly celebrate.
He told his playing partner afterward, “I feel horrible about what happened. I’m so sorry.” And both men reportedly teared up a little.
4The Vertical Leap
A man breaks the shackles of being labeled the best player to never win a major, it should happen like this: With an 18-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the Masters.
In 2004, Mickelson drained the putt to beat Ernie Els by a stroke and made a leap for joy that is one of the most memorable images in golf – both for the sheer ecstasy of it and for the regrettable lack of air between the ground and soles of Mickelson’s shoes.
“The cameras did not get me at the apex — I need to stress that,” he jokes to this day.
5The Great Choke
A 2-foot putt to win the Masters. Just two feet of perfect green between yourself and golfing immortality.
Scott Hoch didn’t even graze the hole. He missed from point blank range the putt that would have beaten Faldo on the first extra hole of sudden death in 1989. He then lost the tournament on the next hole, the 11th, when Faldo made a 30-foot birdie putt.
It became Hoch’s everlasting bad fortune that his last name rhymed with “choke.”
Quite Honorable Mentions: Larry Mize’s 140-foot chip-in on No. 11 in sudden death to win in 1987; Palmer with birdies on the final two holes to beat Ken Venturi; Gary Player with birdies on seven of his final 10 holes to win in 1978 at 42; Fuzzy Zoeller winning the 1979 Masters after Ed Sneed gave up a three-shot lead over the final three holes.
And any one of a dozen other examples of famous shots and flame-outs played out on the Masters last day.
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