The power of green
Don't be fooled by the dogwoods and azaleas. The Augusta National has a pretty facebut packs a vicious kick
Of the four majors in golf, the Masters is the one that doesn’t travel. It has a permanent address in 2604, Washington Road, Augusta, Georgia 30904, USA. With the best golfers on the planet having a go, you would think familiarity with the layout would work to their advantage. They have all year to plot and scheme and, come mid-April, this elite horde would be itching to plunder. The golf course would be there for the taking. Defenceless, with nothing to throw back at the invading party. Not so.
Phil Mickelson is an old hand at the Masters with three green jackets, or wins, to show for his time there. Dressed in his regular opening-day combination of grey-striped trousers and black tee last week, he arrived on the seventh green with a spring in his step. And, why not? Mickelson’s golf game fits the track well, as demonstrated by his three wins there so far. The ready smile turned to a wide-eyed look of exasperation a few minutes later. Despite having overcooked his approach shot to the back of the green, it should have been a straightforward chip and putt. He hit his chip just a shade thin and as the ball rolled all the way across the green, Mickelson walked after it scratching his head. This from a man who is a wizard with a wedge. Choosing to go with the putter next, the ball shot 10ft past the hole. Conned by the slope. A few jabs later, he had a seven on the par four.
Day 3 and Brandt Snedeker, in the world top 5 last year, five-putted from 3ft on the par-three fourth. Yes, that’s right, five pokes from about a putter length. It was almost comical.
The Augusta National Golf Club does that. Don’t get fooled by the dogwoods and the azaleas, all timed to bloom during Masters’ week. It’s a pretty face with a vicious kick, at times directed to parts where it hurts the most. Miss the fairway into the pines, and you’ll be playing off dried up pine needles with no hope of making the green unless you’re called Bubba Watson. The languid pools of water and the meandering Rae’s Creek come into play on the back nine just when you need to step on the gas. But what really gets the golfers there are those 18 large, super-slick, heavily contoured putting surfaces where 15-foot putts are delicately tapped like they were three-footers. It’s not unusual to see somebody putting with their back to the hole as the ball turns right angles at places. Miss a couple of short ones and the mind starts to play funny games. Doubts creep in. That’s the beginning of the end. Before you can get the flatstick out, you have to land the ball on the green, and stay there. It’s like shooting darts in swirling winds. Catch a wrong slope and you could be looking at an almost impossible chip to the flag. You can’t blink at the Masters. If you do, you just might miss a trick.
Now, it’s not all a horror show in a beautiful setting. The Augusta National giveth as well and that’s what makes the tournament such an edge-of-the-seat roller-coaster ride for the participants and the many thousands who troop in to watch them perform. Like Watson’s five-hole birdie run on the back nine on the second day.
With Tiger Woods nursing a bad back and forced to watch proceedings on his flat screen for the first time in his pro career, it was left to a very young man, a youngish man and a couple of seniors to provide the thrills and spills at the 78th Masters this year.
Okay, I was rooting for the 50-somethings. Miguel Angel Jimenez is Spanish, all the way down to his warm-up routine, which incidentally is a big hit on YouTube. The dressing, the ponytail, the wine and cigars, and the marbles-in-the-mouth accent. You can’t help but like this guy. The only thing not flamboyant about him is his play. “The Mechanic” is almost robotic in his precision and after his stunning 66 (the round of the week on Day 3), he was right there on Sunday, finally finishing in fourth place. Talking about precision, two-time winner Bernhard Langer put a leg up for German engineering and the seniors with his share of eighth place. As did the grey-haired, smooth-flowing Fred Couples.
For the first seven holes of the final round, it looked like Jordan Spieth of Texas would take the shoot-out. He birdied the second with a curling eight-footer and holed out from the bunker on the fourth, but 20-year-olds are not supposed to win the Masters.
“Hubba Bubba” Watson’s freewheeling golf is made for the Augusta National. He hits these power fades with his strawberry-coloured driver to obscene lengths (clocked at 366 yards on the 13th on Sunday) and then smashes high balls on to the greens that land and sit. The lefty can putt too. Watson has now won twice in three years and I feel he has a couple of more green jackets in him.
Prabhdev Singh is the founding editor of Golf Digest India and a part-time golfer.
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First Published:16 Apr 2014, 07:08 PM IST
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