Exercising the push-up

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It was a concession to the difficulty of Augusta National this year that tee times were pushed up 45 minutes for yesterday's final round. This was no trivial decision, because tournament officials and CBS executives cherish a 7 p.m. finish, and for many years that has been possible with a 3 p.m. tee time for the third-round leaders.

But not this year.

Players were taking 5 1/2 hours to play their first and second rounds, but those were threesomes. It was expected the pace would pick up with Saturday's twosomes, but that didn't happen. Rounds took nearly 4 1/2 hours, so officials decided Saturday night to send the leaders off at 2:15 for Round 4.

If that was evidence that the course was demanding, the players were not overly critical. To them, it was almost a "perfect storm" of conditions that led to Saturday's 77.350 field average, fifth highest in Masters history. Hard, dry fairways were intact all week, and the greens, always firm and fast, were at their firmest and fastest. Toss in unseasonably cold weather and a rare northwest wind that gusted up to 20-25 miles per hour, and there wasn't much officials could do.

"Conditions. Tough conditions," said Ben Crenshaw, who has played in 36 of these affairs. "When you have this much golf course and it is open and vulnerable in the cool and the breeze, scores are going to go up."

Fred Couples, who has made the cut in all 23 of his Masters appearances, agreed officials were helpless. "If it's not blowing, [players] wouldn't be 4 over par," said Couples, gazing up at the early fourth-round leaderboard that indeed showed 4 over as the best score. "It's never happened, so obviously it's the wind."

Said Retief Goosen: "They got it perfect. They knew it could get silly, which is just what they didn't want."

If players had any criticism, it was in the way officials dealt with water on the greens.

"There was no consistency," said Adam Scott, who pointed to firm greens Thursday, which he suggested were watered Friday, then left dry Saturday. For the fourth round, "they were much softer," he said.

It was the proper thing to do, said Crenshaw, who was in the first pairing that finished and made a prediction. "You'll see some scores," said Crenshaw. "The greens are [more] receptive. You might see some fireworks."

How right he was, although hardly anyone could have predicted unheralded Zach Johnson would be the one to light them off.

As title defenses go, this was not a sterling one. Phil Mickelson was primed and ready to try for a second straight green jacket, a third in four years, but he failed to break par in any of his four rounds, made just 10 birdies, and had his stretch of top-10 finishes at Augusta National halted at eight. The lefthander shot 77--299 and was tied for 24th, his worst effort here since missing the cut in 1997 . . . The good news was, Brett Quigley finally solved the par-4 first hole as he made par there after having opened with bogey each of the first three days. The even better news was, after he shot 75--306 to finish 51st, he was headed home to Florida to see his wife, Amy, and their 5-day-old girl, Lillian Sage Augusta. "I'm going to take three weeks off," said Quigley, who isn't the type to skip a lot of events. "That'll be hard for me, totally foreign, but I'm looking forward to just getting away from golf." Quigley had a whirlwind week. He was called off the course during a Tuesday practice round, went home for the delivery, then returned to Augusta Wednesday. Quigley figures to play next at the Wachovia Championship May 3-6 . . . Quigley was hardly alone when it came to problems at Tea Olive, the name for the 455-yard opening hole, a true bear. Rich Beem bogeyed it all four days, as did Fuzzy Zoeller, and for the tournament it played second toughest, with a field average of 4.474.

There were just nine birdies Saturday at the par-5 15th, the fewest there in any round since Sunday in 1983, when there were just seven. With less wind and a more inviting hole location, players rebounded to make 20 in the final round . . . How difficult was this Masters for scoring? The low round was 68, and you'd have to go back to the first Masters in 1934, when the low round was 69, to find such a high low round. Seven times in between there have been Masters with low rounds of 68 . . . In all, there were 35 sub-par rounds and just eight sub-70 scores . . . For a while, it appeared as if Masters officials were going to save themselves a lot of money on crystal, which is the prize for eagles. Through 54 holes, only eight had been made, but with a slightly softer setup in Round 4, the total rose, as 10 were made. Six came at the par-5 13th, two at the par-5 second, and two at the par-5 eighth, the first by Luke Donald, who had his second hole-out of the week to eagle a par 5. It got Donald to 4 over, just two off the lead, but the Englishman suffered a crushing blow at the par-4 ninth when his approach spun off the front of the green and he needed two more pitches to get it close. The triple bogey left him 7 over and he never got back into it. Donald shot 73--295 to share 10th place . . . Donald and Beem were the only players to make two eagles.

Justin Rose had gone 54 holes without a double bogey, then he made two in the first three holes. When all the shots had been made, only six players had gone the distance without making at least one double bogey, most prominent the winner, Johnson. The others who did it: Jim Furyk, Tiger Woods, Vaughn Taylor, Charles Howell, and Vijay Singh . . . Though he shot 39 on the back for a 73--296 that left him tied for 13th, Vijay did win the battle with Jeev (79--302) as the Singhs were paired together . . . Mark Calcavecchia started birdie-eagle, but whatever momentum he had was slowed with a double bogey at the par-3 sixth. He added a triple bogey at the par-5 13th, shot 73--298, and secured his ninth top-20 finish in a Masters with a tie for 20th . . . Brett Wetterich was 2 under and coleader through 36 holes before he shot 16 over on the weekend and crashed into a tie for 37th . . . There was a healthy list of players who went birdieless in at least one of their four rounds. Shingo Katayama did it twice, while those who did it once were Crenshaw, Wetterich, Beem, Rose, Dean Wilson, Jeff Sluman, Jose Maria Olazabal, Arron Oberholser, Trevor Immelman, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Angel Cabrera, Stewart Cink, Tim Clark, and Howell . . . In Round 4, Sluman birdied the second to end a stretch of 21 birdieless holes, but he was hardly alone in that department. Oberholser birdied the eighth to halt his stretch at 30. When Wetterich birdied the second, it snapped his drought at 28, and when Clark birdied the sixth, it stopped his slide at 28.

No two holes provide the back-to-back challenge quite like Nos. 10 and 11. Just ask Beem, who played them in 8 over for the tournament. Henrik Stenson, Couples, and Sandy Lyle were both 6 over, while Yong-Eun Yang was 5 over. On the flip side, Rory Sabbatini's spirited bid to win was helped immensely by the fact he was 1 under at Nos. 10 and 11 . . . Couples finally solved the par-3 12th, making birdie after having gone double, double, and bogey. On Nos. 10-12, Couples was 10 over; he was 3 over everywhere else . . . J.J. Henry broke par in his first-ever Masters round, a 71, but followed with 78-77-76 to finish at 14 over.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.