Time for a walkthrough
Aura at Augusta evident in practice
AUGUSTA, Ga. - It is on those early days of April when a vibrant green carpet is rolled out that a bevy of stories circulates. Masters stories. They are like no other, and what often comes to mind on walks around Augusta National is the recollection Dave Anderson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist for the
"He would walk the golf course, then come into the press room," said Anderson. "Then he would stop and ask you, 'What did you see today?' "
That is because Wind knew what Anderson knew and what so many others have learned over the years - that there is no walk spoiled when the landscape is Augusta National during the Masters. So it was that yesterday's official opening of the 72d Masters afforded another great walk in sultry conditions, yielding sights and sounds at every hole.
No. 1 - By 3:55 p.m., a calm has enveloped the course, surely a perfect time for a stroll. So onward up a steep hill goes Henrik Stenson and his caddie, Fanny Sunesson, though the picture is missing something. Specifically, a golf bag. Sunesson is in possession of just a yardage laser, while Stenson carries only a putter and wedge. With a brief stop just shy of the sprawling bunkers on the right side of the fairway, they continue to the green area where Stenson chips and putts, a practice he will carry out on each of the ensuing holes.
No. 2 - After laying up at the 575-yard, par-5 second, Shingo Katayama stands over his third shot as patrons in the crosswalk stop and form a wall of eyes some 35 yards behind him. With a mere 100 yards to the flagstick, it is judged an easy shot by one gentleman, but when Katayama's shot goes 10 yards right and 65 feet long onto the back right tier of the putting surface, the patron gasps. No worries, he is told: Katayama was playing for a hole location later in the week.
No. 3 - Before Luke Donald and Camilo Villegas can play their approach shots into the green, an attendant walks out and removes the flagstick, then replaces it with a new one. No detail is too trivial here. Thus will a new coat of yellow paint be applied to the flagstick.
No. 4 - Always are there changes to the dynamics of the course and the tournament, some subtle, others structural. Like the bleachers to the right of the fourth tee. Well, we mean the bleachers that used to be there, because they're gone. By itself, no big deal, but it shows the thought to detail, because it improves traffic flow.
No. 5 - The patron asks a friend, "Who is the president?" Thinking it a trick question, his friend laughs. He isn't going to bite. "No, I mean president of Augusta National," the man clarified, and his friend nodded. "Hootie," he says, referring to Hootie Johnson. Nice try, but incorrect, because Johnson stepped down as club chairman in 2006, and the post is now held by William Payne.
No. 6 - It's a true destination spot, the grassy hill beneath the tee box at the 180-yard par-3, and to sit there while golfers fire balls over your head is to fulfill a mandatory Masters tradition. Only there is now competition, for if you look a short distance to your right, there is another sloping hill on which you can sit and watch the action at the par-5 15th and par-3 16th.
No. 7 - Five impressive bunkers protect the elevated green at the end of these 450 yards, and Ian Poulter seems intent on studying every grain of sand. He plays six balls out of a back bunker onto a green that slopes sharply back to front, then watches as each one lands some 10 feet from point of impact, yet trickles 20 or 30 more feet. To one of the three front bunkers goes the Englishman, who nearly holes each of his first two tries, then hits a third to 15 feet before removing himself to do some putting. "That's a lot of raking for his caddie," suggests a patron.
No. 8 - A late-afternoon stillness is interrupted by a pair of golfers as they march up the hill at the 570-yard, par-5. Woody Austin chirps away, apparently confident that he's about to gain a hole on Brett Wetterich. With his second shot having gone wide left, Wetterich does have a difficult pitch over a mound that must be 10 feet high, but he waves off the trash talk. Sensing the shot carries some significance, the crowd reacts with applause as Wetterich flops his shot over the mound and onto a flat part of the green so that the ball slides gently to 4 feet. Yes, Wetterich is free to throw the trash talk back in Austin's face.
No. 9 - As the sun breaks through and a sudden burst of warmth flows forth, Zach Johnson is alone at this devilish green, practicing putts from the lower tier to hole locations up back. There are bigger names in his line of work, but none of them will ever have what he has: The 2007 Masters green jacket.
No. 10 - As Katayama continues his work, he is faced with a long approach into this 495-yard, par-4, dogleg left, but unlike the second hole, the man from Japan focuses on the real flagstick, not a future hole location. He drills the shot within 4 feet.
No. 11 - There's little doubt where you are going to miss this green after you've traveled the twisting, downhill route from 505 yards, which is why Mike Weir and Jerry Kelly stand in a swale to the right and hit soft touch shots to all quadrants of the putting surface. So many shots, in fact, that it's easy to lose count, though it gets up to 20 between them when the urge to leave becomes difficult to resist.
No. 12 - The key moment in Fred Couples's 1992 Masters? Two patrons agree it was the tee shot at Golden Bell that trickled down the bank but did not reach the water. What they can't agree on is where the ball was, their opinions resting probably 25 or 30 feet apart. At they debated, so, too, were Weir and Kelly while hitting pitch shots.
No. 13 - Anthony Knight, the caddie for Aaron Baddeley, is out walking off yardage, though his player is not present. This represents a change in tournament policy, because "up until a few years ago, we couldn't walk the course without our players," said another caddie.
No. 14 - After practicing putts for 10 minutes, Geoff Ogilvy and Martin Kaymer depart toward the 15th tee, though a woman feels compelled to tell them they left behind some tees sticking out of the green. She is told by a patron not to worry, that they are there for practice-putting purposes.
No. 15 - Playing in his 51st Masters, 72-year-old Gary Player marches down the fairway in a passionate discussion with fellow South African Richard Sterne and China's Liang Wen-Chong. "I have never seen a better golfer than Ben Hogan," Player is telling them, and while for sure we know that Sterne understands, we are not sure about Wen-Chong, though he smiles and nods, which gives the three-time Masters winner the OK to continue. "Sam Snead was good, but Ben Hogan . . ."
No. 16 - A tradition like no other: Skipping balls across the pond at this 170-yard par-3. Rory Sabbatini pulls it off with a shot that races to the back of the green and rolls nicely back toward the hole. Players who don't partake are summarily booed.
No. 17 - Their due diligence has arrived at Nandina, the 440-yard par-4, and Kelly and Weir are still at work with the deft pitches and long putts. Kelly's caddie, Eric Meller, looks in various spots, checks his yardage book, then asks Brennan Little, Weir's caddie: "Where do they put this back [hole location]?" Little, who was on the bag the year Weir won in 2003, points and says, "Four [paces] behind and a little more to the left." Meller takes note, then jots it down.
No. 18 - Some 21 hours earlier, Johnson Wagner was in Houston, another in a long line of unheralded PGA Tour names. But having won the Shell Houston Open, here he is amid the azaleas and dogwoods, the last member of the Masters field, and the crowd behind the green at the closing hole responds enthusiastically. "Great victory. Good luck," says a patron, as he pats Wagner on the back. Then, watching the 28-year-old walk away, the man adds, "He must still be on cloud nine."
It's an assessment that can be safely made about most everyone else in attendance. 