AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta National got a chance to gloat about finally allowing women into their exclusive club.
Report by Reuters
The players got a chance to relax and spend some quality time with their families.
Now, it’s time for the first major of the year. Everyone, it seems, is chasing Tiger Woods. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
The Masters was set to begin last night with ceremonial tee shots by three of golf’s greatest players — Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.
But things really get serious when Woods heads to the first tee at midmorning, again ranked No 1 in the world, with three victories already this year and an overwhelming favourite to capture his fifth green jacket.
“I feel comfortable with every aspect of my game,” Woods said.
“I feel that I’ve improved and I’ve gotten more consistent, and I think the wins show that.”
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But, Augusta National doesn’t play favourites.
“Obviously, Tiger is Tiger,” Scott Piercy, who will play alongside Woods and Luke Donald in the opening two rounds, said. “He’s always going to be that target. He knows it, and that’s how he wants it. But there’s a lot of people getting closer. And the golfing gods, or whatever you want to call them, have a lot to do with winning. A bounce here, a bounce there. A lip in, a lip out.”
Angel Cabrera got one of those bounces off a pine tree and back into the 18th fairway in 2009 that helped him save par and win a playoff on the next hole.
Sure, he was a former U.S. Open champion, but the big Argentine was No 69 in the world that year, the lowest-ranked player to win the Masters.
The hole got in the way twice for Charl Schwartzel in 2011, once on a chip across the first green that fell for birdie, another a shot from the third fairway that dropped for eagle. He finished with four straight birdies to win.
Zach Johnson was just a normal guy from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who would not seem to fit the profile of a Masters champion. He wasn’t very long, didn’t hit the ball very high and didn’t go for the green in two on any of the parts. He won by two shots in 2007.
