Faldo/Norman (9 page)

The opening day of the 60th Masters began as tradition demands, or at least as most have since 1963, with the ceremonial tee shots by a handful of honorary starters. Gene Sarazen and Byron Nelson had performed the duty since 1981 and Sam Snead joined them in 1984. The sign by the 1st tee showed not their caddie numbers but their ages: Sarazen 94, Nelson 84 and Snead 83. Sarazen was not being taken in by all the hype about 20-year-old amateur Tiger Woods. ‘When I was 20,’ he said, ‘I won the US Open and the US PGA Championship.’ At Augusta, they keep records even for the honorary starters and Sarazen had overtaken Fred McLeod as the oldest ever. He tried to stop earlier, complaining to an Augusta chairman that he had difficulty swinging the club, only to be told: ‘People don’t care how you swing, they just want to see you are still alive.’ He would get to perform the task for three more years, while Nelson continued until 2001 and Snead until a year later.

These days another of golf’s great triumvirates, the Big Three themselves, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, perform the task. But back in 1996, they were all playing for real and Palmer’s 74 was his best score for 12 years, which was how long it was since he had last made the cut. Player was on 73 and, on the heels of his Senior Tour victory at the Tradition, Nicklaus had a 70. His score included only 23 putts, the lowest mark of the day, but the Bear was not happy with his driving. ‘It wasn’t a very hard day to play golf but I didn’t take advantage of the par-fives.’

It was the sort of day in golfing heaven when the roars rattled around the cathedral of pines. They all sound different, echoing back up the hill towards the clubhouse, depending on who is involved. You could feel the love for Palmer but Nicklaus always got the loudest roars. Norman recreated some noise on this afternoon, but those following Fred Couples were unusually quiet as the Players champion and pre-tournament favourite started with a 78. Couples was already 15 strokes behind and after the round
his fiancée Tawnya Dodds, in reference to his generosity in offering his back therapist to the leader, remarked: ‘You picked one hell of a time to make Greg Norman feel like a million bucks.’

Phil Mickelson was already building a fan club and one of the biggest cheers of the day came when he hit a six-iron to two feet at the final hole. He tapped in for a seven-under 65, another record score, the lowest ever by a left-hander in any major, beating the previous mark of 66 first scored by Bob Charles. He held the clubhouse lead until Norman posted nine under. This was only Mickelson’s fourth appearance in the Masters but the patrons were already getting to know, and appreciate, his attacking style of golf and he was getting to know, and appreciate, when and how to attack Augusta.

‘When I first came here,’ he said, ‘I felt like I should be firing at every pin. I’ve picked up little things over time. Now I know firing at a pin might mean being eight feet away so that I have an uphill putt.’ An example of how easy it is to get out of position came at the 4th. He missed the green in the bunker on the left and although he came out to four feet it was a downhill putt. With the swiftness of the greens, he tried to dribble it in but it wandered off line for his only bogey of the round.

Like Norman, Mickelson came home in 30 with five birdies in the last six holes. He made a four at the 15th with help from a practice round the previous day when Ben Crenshaw had shown him how some putts on that green curve in the opposite direction to that in which they appear to break. ‘I’m glad I helped somebody today,’ said the defending champion after a 77 in which the normally supreme putter took 32 blows on the greens. Mickelson thought he was quite fortunate with his score. ‘It was deceptive,’ he said. ‘The golf course is not playing to a seven-under round. I felt if I could shoot one, two, three under par, it was going to be a good round. I had a couple of opportunities where the ball
ended up below the hole and I was able to be aggressive. It was a fortunate round.’

Norman must have been even more fortunate but there were plenty of high scores to prove conditions were hardly easy. As well as the 78 by Couples and the 77 by Crenshaw, there was a 76 for the winner of the previous major, Steve Elkington, and 75s by Tom Lehman, Corey Pavin and Woods. Tom Watson also had a 75 but had seemed on course for something better until a five-putt on the 16th green. The hole was cut in a diabolical spot, back right of the green just off a ridge and Watson twice knocked putts past the hole from the upper terrace all the way down to the front of the green.

Bob Tway and Scott Hoch scored 67s, while Lee Janzen was on 68. Alongside Nick Faldo on 69 was his compatriot, David Gilford, along with Singh, Scott Simpson and Brad Faxon. With Nicklaus on 70 were Ray Floyd, Jay Haas and Paul Azinger, who was still regaining form and consistency after being treated for lymphoma in the shoulder following his victory at the 1993 US PGA.

Frank Nobilo, who had missed a number of weeks earlier in the season with back problems, opened with a 71 having played the first two holes on his own. Peter Jacobsen, his intended playing partner, withdrew with sore ribs just before their tee time. A marker was found for Nobilo for the last 16 holes in the form of Jim Holtgrieve, the former US Mid-Amateur champion, and future Walker Cup-winning captain in 2013 at National Golf Links. Stopping by to thank Will Nicholson, chairman of Augusta’s competitions committee, for some practice round tickets, Holtgrieve was asked if he had his clubs with him and fancied a game. Having retrieved them from his car, and dashed to the 3rd tee, he played the last 16 holes in two over, only one shot worse than Nobilo.

Tway’s form had dipped since beating Norman at Inverness in 1986 but his confidence was finally returning. ‘In pursuit of getting better, I changed a few things and got worse,’ he said. The Oklahoman spent part of his growing up in Georgia and had loved the Masters ever since. It did not particularly love him, though his reward for a first appearance in five years was his best ever round of five under, helped by three birdies at Amen Corner (the picturesque part of the course that includes the 11th green, the short 12th hole and the 13th tee).

Hoch finished with three birdies in the last four holes and could have gone even lower had three successive chances on the front nine not lipped out. But he also would have been the Masters champion in 1989 had not his tiny putt for victory at the first extra hole of the playoff not lipped out, too. Instead, Faldo went on to win his first green jacket at the next hole.

For his opening round of the 1996 Masters, Faldo was paired with the 1995 Open champion John Daly. With Crenshaw and Woods in the pairing immediately in front, a lot of spectators were scurrying between the two groups trying to see which of the two big-hitters was actually the longer. At the 400-yard 17th, Woods hit a drive of 345 yards, Daly then stood up and hit one of 355 yards, though he would finish with a double bogey at the 18th for a 71. ‘It was good, fine,’ Faldo said of playing with the ‘Wild Thing’. ‘I think the Augusta crowd was very good.’

In truth, Faldo could not have cared less about the commotion around him. His 69 was his best opening score since his first Masters win. He holed from eight feet at the 3rd for the first of four birdies, hit a wedge to a foot at the 8th, got up and down at the 13th and hit a seven-iron to eight feet for a rare two at the 16th hole, where Watson had suffered his five-putt, and Player, Singh and Gilford all took four putts. Faldo’s only real blemish was three-putting the 14th green. ‘I had a lot of good chances,’
he said, ‘swung well and hit the ball where it was intended. I played nicely.’

Of the conditions, which were expected to stay dry throughout the week, Faldo said: ‘It’s the first time I’ve seen Augusta when it’s dry on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Normally, it’s wet on the greens and the ball stops. It’s the first time we’ve had them dry and we know what we are in for with the weather forecast. It’s perfect for what they want. Just give that grass a drink, and that’s all it’s going to get. So the greens are going to be quick.’

Faldo added: ‘If it gets firmer and firmer, you’re going to have to play very safe, cagey, or whatever you want to call it. I call it smart, aggressive, defensive. You’ve just got to land it in the right spots and try and pick them off when you have a chance.’

After four holes of the final round on Sunday, Faldo was finding the right spots more often than not. Norman, less so.

G
OLF TOURNAMENTS
, particularly the major championships, are like marathons. Greg Norman sprinted clear of the field early in the 60th Masters and for two days backed up his record start. But by the time he reached the 5th hole on Sunday there were signs he was beginning to flag. It was Nick Faldo who would put in the sprint finish. ‘Everyone knows the tape is at the end of the 72 holes,’ said the Englishman.

Over the last four decades, scoring a 63 in a major has been some help in winning a championship, but not that much. At Oak Hill in the 2013 US PGA, Jason Dufner produced the 26th occurrence of a 63 in major championship history but became only the sixth player to go on to win. Johnny Miller was the first to do so, in the final round of the US Open at Oakmont in 1973. He started six strokes off the lead but won by one from John Schlee, by two from Tom Weiskopf and by three from Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. Three other players have scored a 63 in the final round of a major, but none of them ended up as the champion either.

Miller had been intent on a quick getaway from the tournament but a swift start, with four birdies at the first four holes, put
him right into contention. He produced nine birdies, many from stunning approaches to only a few feet from the hole, and had only one bogey, from a three-putt at the 8th, and parred the last three holes on his way to a remarkable victory. Oakmont’s fearsome greens were holding after being saturated by rain and even at the time some critics could not quite put the blond Californian’s round ahead of the likes of Ben Hogan’s 67 at Oakland Hills in 1951 – ‘I brought this monster to its knees’ – or Palmer’s charging 65 at Cherry Hills in 1960 as the best round in US Open history. But the fact remains that no one has beaten his score since in any major.

Bruce Crampton, a tough Australian who took over from Peter Thomson as the country’s best player, was the next to score 63, in the second round of the US PGA Championship at Firestone in 1975. An eagle, six birdies and a bogey gave him the halfway lead. ‘The only thing missing from my career is a major title,’ he said. But he was overhauled by Nicklaus at the weekend. Crampton finished second for the fourth and last time in the majors, but on each occasion he was second to Nicklaus. ‘We all suffer from human deficiencies,’ Crampton said. ‘Jack just suffers from fewer of them.’

Mark Hayes produced the first 63 in the Open at Turnberry in 1977, lowering the championship record from 65, which was first scored by Henry Cotton at Sandwich in 1934. Meanwhile, the only time two 63s have been scored in the same round came on the opening day of the 1980 US Open at Baltusrol. Tom Weiskopf led the way before he was matched by Nicklaus a few moments later. Then they went their separate ways. Weiskopf added rounds of 75, 76 and 75 to finish 37th, while Nicklaus followed up with rounds of 71, 70 and 69 to beat Isao Aoki by two strokes. The Japanese player was in the form of his life and a month later he also scored a 63 in the third round of the Open at Muirfield, but to no avail as Tom Watson took the title.

As well as Miller, Nicklaus and Dufner, the other players to have scored a 63 and go on to win are Ray Floyd, at the 1982 US PGA at Southern Hills, where his record-tying round came on the first day, Norman at the 1986 Open at Turnberry and Tiger Woods at Southern Hills for the 2007 US PGA. Like Dufner, Norman and Woods both made their scores in the second round, which has seen more 63s than any other round.

Augusta National has still only seen two 63s in its history and, much to their regret, neither Nick Price in 1986 nor Norman in 1996 ended up as the winner. ‘The big thing is I would trade that round for a green jacket in a heartbeat,’ Price told the
Augusta Chronicle
recently. ‘It’s always nice to have a course record at a very nice golf course and a major championship, but in hindsight it’s not something that’s going to enhance my career.’