Preaching the southern gospel from the pulpit of golf’s cathedral in the pines
It’s the game’s biggest week of every year, but our annual taste of golf at Augusta only makes us hungry for more of its magic, writes Jim Tucker
The thing about the Masters, everyone has a story. Whether you have been lucky enough to play Augusta National, ogle from the gallery or merely watch it on the box, you can’t help but be entranced.
It is a golfing wonderland with memories to match.
Some footy games these days pass unnoticed in bland black-and-white with the pulse never quickening and are forgotten one hour later.
If mind or body is transported to the pristine fairways and pine straw of Masters week, it is sensory overload.
You might have 49 guesses and never know which US state hosts the Sandersons Farms Championship or the John Deere Classic but y’all know the Masters means Georgia in April.
Some of us can’t remember who the Panthers played in the opening round of the NRL in March but golf tragics amongst us can remember the shot played by Fred Couples in the 1998 Masters.
It was the postcard par five 13th. It was a three iron. The ball kissed the green and rolled out to just over a foot from the pin. Eagle.
Someone will rush to say “Oh baby” all over again after the first stellar shot they see on TV in 2022 just like Freddie did in 1998.
The Masters is that sort of theatre.
Memories of the Masters aren’t always those endlessly replayed classics on TV like the Larry Mize chip-in that denied Greg Norman or Phil Mickelson’s shot between the trees from the pine straw on the 13th.
Queensland’s Peter Senior played only once at Augusta in 1990 but being paired with Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller and Raymond Floyd made it an unforgettable four days.
“Tom Watson was pretty much my hero growing up so you can imagine I never slept knowing I was to play with him on a Saturday at the Masters,” Senior recalled.
“Tom shot the easiest of 67s in the wind with ball striking as good as you’d see.”
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A pair of crystal goblets is awarded to any player who makes an eagle at the Masters. It is one of Augusta’s wonderful traditions.
“I hit a three iron to 10 feet on the 15th and holed the putt for eagle in the second round. The two glasses sit in my trophy cabinet,” Senior said proudly.
Craig Parry led early in the final round in 1992. He was ringside for one of the best shots he’s ever seen a year later on the par five 15th.
“I played with Jack Nicklaus in the opening round. He hit this one iron over the pond to the 15th that came down like a butterfly with sore feet…eagle. Magnificent,” Parry said.
The late Shane Warne revelled in his golf. He had a wonderful, almost peerless Augusta National memory too.
“Warnie” being Warnie, he found a way to play the course in 2018. Hitting a six iron close to a tough back right pin on the par three 16th would have been pleasure enough.
Warnie went one bounce bang. A hole-in-one. His first on one of the world’s signature holes. True story.
Adam Scott’s drought-breaker at the 2013 Masters overloaded the champion with magical feelings.
Scott loves the traditions of the Masters. Away from the spotlight, he enjoyed a little one of his own in 2013.
If he felt like it in the morning, he’d just pop on the green jacket at his luxury home in the Bahamas to eat breakfast or sip a coffee.
“When someone was coming over I sometimes just left it hanging over the sofa. The look ‘Are you kiddin’ me, is that the…?’ was pretty cool to see,” Scott said.
Many still gush about the shot played by Tiger Woods on the 16th in 2005 where his pitch rolled and rolled down the severe slope until it teetered and tipped into the cup. With the Nike logo perfectly positioned, it was golf and business perfection.
Veteran American TV commentator Verne Lundquist somehow found the words: “In your life have you seen anything like that.”
Lundquist is now 81. He finished up commentating on college football and basketball years ago.
Calling the action from the tower by the 16th hole is now his one commentary gig. He loves it and that familiarity is something the green coats at Augusta National Golf Club love perpetuating.
You’ll never see a tweet from the course at Augusta. You’ll never see a grinning selfie taken beside a green during the tournament. Hallelujah.
Mobile phones are banned on course during the Masters and no one risks being kicked out for testing the rule. Fans in the galleries “oohing and aahing” at the shotmaking have to drink it in the old fashioned way and store their own mental images. There’s no fidgeting with an iPhone to get a snap.
My vote for best shot at the Masters will always be Bubba Watson’s crazy curve ball from the trees to set up his play-off victory in the 2012 Masters.
Bubba’s equation was the perfect hook, a 12-out-of-10 shot, that only a shot-shaping leftie like him could imagine.
Beyond dreams, I was lucky enough to have my name pulled from the media ballot to play Augusta National the day after the 2012 Masters.
It was actually business cards in a cookie jar at the start of that wide-eyed week. Only 28 lucky media types had their names drawn from the more than 400 in attendance.
Bubba’s impossible spot deep in the trees on the right side of the 10th fairway was almost still warm when I took a look less than 24 hours later.
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The only shots I could visualise were punching it out 40m, blading it off the pine straw into a TV tower or hitting a branch.
Somehow, Bubba turned his wedge into a wand. He put so much work on the ball, he blasted a raging hook that rocketed out of his bushy tunnel, turned right and travelled nearly 150m as a drunken crow might fly to the uphill green. The shot won him the Masters.
It’s 10 years since this humble 12-marker played Augusta and I can remember nearly every moment.
That includes a “debut” behind the wheel of a left-hand drive car just to get down Magnolia Lane. It was like being in a slow-motion audition for the movie Driving Miss Daisy. There’s no rare Gate Three entrance pass for a taxi driver, right?
It was the first daunting drive at Augusta National because clipping a magnolia might not have been a great look. The windscreen wipers were already flailing away because the indicator was on a different side of the steering column.
Forget changing your shoes in the car park. We were ushered straight to the Champions locker room and the street shoes went into Fuzzy Zoeller’s locker, just below Jack’s.
All players were assigned caddies so you could literally enjoy the bucket-list stroll even more.
I still remember my caddie, Warren Leffler, being nudged to retell his story when we reached the 15th. He’d played on the mini-tours in his day, worked as a club pro and he’d once played the 15th like Gene Sarazen on a non-Masters afternoon away from the crowds in 1991.
He’d flown a four iron over the pond and into the cup for a double-eagle two on the 15th. The local papers got excited with a “Shades of Sarazen” story referencing the golfer who had famously done so during his 1935 Masters win.
‘‘But they didn’t build me no bridge here,’’ Leffler quipped in his southern drawl.
He wondered if he was caddying for a golfer at all until I settled over a chip from off the back of the green on the famous par three 12th with Rae’s Creek as a disconcerting backstop.
A sure chip took the speed and undulations of a pacy green and nestled close for short-putt par. Amen.
That’s my personal Augusta moment. You don’t share it often because you sound a bit of a tool.
Tiger Woods has such a trove of epic moments around Augusta that he’s nourished viewers around the globe for 25 years.
The “Tiger Roar” you hear about is a real thing. It will be everywhere at this Masters.
When you visit Augusta National for the first time, you realise the 12th is literally at the bottom of the course, some 50m lower than the 18th green.
When Tiger goes on a back nine charge, the roars reverberating through the pine trees at the bottom of the course spread with more noise and energy than for other player.
Like Norman, Jason Day and Scott before him, Cameron Smith bears the mantle as a Queenslander in the top bracket of “favourites” this week.
It is so different to his first outing at Augusta in 2016 when he soaked in the dream occasion, didn’t break par in any round and finished at 15-over-par.
The closest thing he got to a prize were the cool dog collar and bowl, with Masters logos, that he bought for his pet hound. He knew it too.
Since, he has become a serious contender.
We’ve all agonised with the pros through their epic splashdowns on that short 12th which only ever plays at around 142m. Remember Jordan Spieth’s two balls in the watery grave of Rae’s Creek in 2016? Spieth wishes he could because he hasn’t won another major since blowing the lead that Sunday.
Smith had an excellent run of 3-3-2-3 when playing the 12th last year for his third Top 10 finish at Augusta. That’s a perfect calm to handle that danger hole.
There are plenty of reasons to cheer the short game wizard. Here’s another, after his fine opening round 68 on Friday morning put him right in the hunt.
The Covid world prevented him returning to his old home at Wantima Country Club for the Cameron Smith Junior Classic last summer.
He never forgot the 128 kids playing. He sent a video message to cheer them on and encourage perhaps the next youngster to rise from a humble Brisbane golf club.
He helps out at junior clinics there too when he can. He’ll be back at Wantima for the Junior Classic this summer and at Royal Queensland for the Australian PGA if travel plans all connect.
For now, settle in and get the coffee ready for another string of early wake-ups and plenty more mesmerising Masters moments.
Jim Tucker has specialised in sport, the wider impacts and features for most of his 40 years writing in the media. He covered the 2012, 2015 and 2016 Masters tournaments at Augusta. He was transported way beyond his bucket list when pulled out of the media ballot to play Augusta National in 2012. He’ll always be even par on the 12th.
