Andy Capostagno GOLF
It seems only right that in the week prior to the 64th Masters the name of Nicklaus has been in the news. It is 14 years since the Golden Bear won his sixth and last green jacket, but he still sells newspapers. In the week that Tiger Woods revealed he kept a chronological list of Nicklaus’s achievements pinned to his bedroom wall, Jack’s son Gary almost won the last tournament before the Masters.
Rain washed out the final round, so Gary (the Baby Bear) and Phil Mickelson contested what turned out to be a one- hole play-off for the BellSouth Classic, after being co-leaders through 54 holes. Mickelson, who will be among the favourites for the Masters this week, hit first to 4m on the par 3 16th, a shot which seemed to say, “beat that, kid”.
The kid duly stepped up to the tee, hit his iron straight at the flag and then watched in horror as it fell a foot short of the green, coming to rest in an unplayable lie below the lip of the bunker. From there he took two swipes to get it out, but Mickelson drained the birdie putt anyway. The good news, if there was any, is that victory for Nicklaus Jnr would not have qualified him for the Masters anyway.
The old man will get to peg it up, of course, as will, for the 43rd time, Gary Player (a three-time winner). But those expecting one more miracle can think again. Nicklaus has no new worlds to conquer, except perhaps to become the first player with an artificial hip to make the cut. But the fact that he is around at all will put into perspective the rampant Tiger-mania that has threatened to turn this stately tournament into a carnival side-show.
Nicklaus won 18 majors and in all had 73 top 10 finishes in them, the last as recently as 1998 at, you guessed it, Augusta National. And Nicklaus is not immune to the Tiger factor, having given it a push five years ago when he said that Woods could win as many Masters titles as he and Arnold Palmer put together (10).
But Nicklaus, the most dominant player in world golf prior to the arrival of Woods, knows better than anyone that no one wins every week. Whisper it, but Tiger, with his six wins in six starts either side of the new millennium, may have peaked too early. A fortnight ago he lost the Players championship to Hal Sutton and since winning the Masters in record breaking fashion in 1997, has failed to break 70 in any of his eight rounds since. Why?
It probably has something to do with the modern mania for consistent ball striking. Hit a driver or an eight iron slightly off line and a player, even one as sublimely gifted as Tiger, gets to thinking about it. Then he forgets that the key to low scoring is getting up and down around the greens and avoiding three-putts.
Last year Jose-Maria Olazabal won despite hitting the ball sideways off the tee, because he was one of only three players to avoid three-putting all week. On the final day he bogeyed three successive holes (3, 4 and 5) and played the rest of the course in four under par. He won because he refused to lose, not because he was in search of some kind of golfing epiphany, an error-free round.
Augusta National requires experience, even a few kicks in the teeth, to be “mastered”. Greg Norman has had more major championship beatings than anyone else, not just in the Masters, and at the age of 44 is probably never going to test the Augusta tailor’s ability to make a blazer which measures 2m across the shoulders and 30cm across the waist.
Mickelson comes to mind as someone who has graduated from underachiever to consistent performer, winning twice this year, including the victory which brought Tiger’s streak to an end. His short game looks miraculous, based as it is on complete mastery of the lob wedge flop shot, but consider these wise words from Norman on Olazabal: “He can play aggressively because he doesn’t have any fear about getting it up and down. He’s not a 60_ wedge guy who throws it up in the air and tries to spin it. He’s great at visualising the bump and run. And he’s a great putter.”
Besides, no one has ever gone on to win the Masters after victory the week before. How about Ernie Els? In contention through 54 holes last year, he shot a final round 80 which affected his game right up until he won last year’s Million Dollar Challenge at Sun City. If he putts well Els can win. So can Jesper Parnevik, Lee Westwood, Davis Love and Jim Furyk, among others. The Masters, as anyone who can distinguish a bear from a cat will tell you, is not just about Tiger.