It’s April, Augusta National and Azaleas await … and there promises to be a masterpiece at the first Major of the year
By Mike Wilson
For some, this correspondent included, the Masters was in danger of losing its allure, its lustre, the stardust it sprinkled in abundance in the heyday of the ‘Big 3’ and Tiger Woods in his pomp. But it seems the good times are rolling once more for what should be a masterpiece of pure theatre on one of the greatest stages in sport.
It really does say something about the reinvigorating nature of elite men’s professional golf that the man currently wearing the fabled Green Jacket, Sergio Garcia, is something of a rank outsider with those wise men they call ‘turf accountants’.
Sergio Garcia (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
At Augusta 12 months ago, the Spaniard finally shook off the least wanted moniker in golf as ‘the best player never to win a Major’, appositely on the birthday of his late, lamented compatriot Seve Ballesteros.
For Garcia, winning the Green Jacket was less and less about the money and more a moment of epiphany. The monkey was finally off the back of the man who has no fewer than 19 top-10 finishes in 77 attempts at winning one of what is, for every elite golfer, the only true currency of their sport – a Major title.
“I think the problem is, because where my head was at sometimes, I did think about, am I ever going to win one. I’ve had so many good chances and either I lost them or someone has done something extraordinary to beat me, so it did cross my mind,” said the enigmatic golfer from Borriol, now happy married and with a new baby daughter.
Garcia looks and sounds like a man vindicated, the shackles off, his doubters – and there were many – consigned to beyond the out-of-bounds markers. He has won twice since his career-defining Augusta denouement, on home soil at the Valderrama Masters he hosts and again at the SMBC Singapore Open for his sixth title in Asia, and appears to be coming back into form stateside.
All of which makes the man who turned 38 in January this year an authentic contender to become the first to successfully defend the title since Woods in his pomp in 2001 and 2002, and only the third – Nick Faldo won back-to-back in 1989 and 1990 – in the modern era.
But the big back-story to this, the 82nd staging of the season-opening Major, must be the resurgence of two former champions, both forty-somethings – Phil Mickelson and his arch-rival over two halcyon decades, the fully-fit again and reinvigorated Woods.
Tiger Woods (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
Woods is one-up on ‘Lefty’ in the Green Jacket stakes, four to three, and the prospect of the pair of them slugging it out through Amen Corner come Sunday afternoon would, without question, send TV ratings through the roof and into the stratosphere.
Woods has been managing his rehabilitation with unprecedented care and seems a more humble man than ever before. His best start to the season in recent memory justifies his status as second favourite to win a fifth Masters title, a feat only exceeded by Jack Nicklaus who claimed his sixth Green Jacket in his 46th year back in 1986.
Intriguingly, were Mickelson to make it a fourth Masters win – and, take note of a possible omen, he only dons the Green Jacket in even-numbered years – at age 47, five years older than Woods, he would surpass Nicklaus as the oldest player ever to win a Major.
And Lefty comes into Augusta on a run of fine form, topped-off by a barnstorming victory in the WGC-Mexico Championship – clear evidence of a man not only in the form of his life but belying his years.
The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) would suggest that top-ranked Dustin Johnson is the man to beat – but his track record at the Masters, two top-10s in seven outings, would suggest that, as they say in golf, Augusta National ‘does not suit his eye’ … perhaps his big-hitting, power-ball game lacks the subtlety to plot his way around one of the most strategic courses in world golf.
American idols, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth will, without doubt, be amongst the fans’ favourites. Thomas, second on the OWGR, has yet to record a top-20 finish in two appearances at Augusta to date … but his time may yet come.
Spieth was runner-up twice and Masters champion in 2015 … but one is left to wonder if scars remain from his botched title defence the following year when, leading by five strokes heading into the back nine, he suffered one of the biggest collapses in Masters history after bogeys at the 10th and 11th holes were followed by two balls into the water at the 12th for a quadruple-bogey.
Justin Rose, reigning Olympic champion and up to fifth on the OWGR, must surely learn from last year’s play-off defeat to Garcia. He has the game and the temperament to add the Masters to his 2013 US Open victory and, with five top-10 finishes including two runners-up in 12 Augusta outings, the 37-year-old South African-born Englishman will be one to watch again.
Rickie Fowler (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Those two inheritors of Garcia’s burden as the best players never to have won a Major, Lee Westwood and Rickie Fowler, will take heart from Garcia’s 2017 success. If the Spaniard could find a way to win after 18 years of trying and at the 73rd attempt, then Westwood – in the same territory and with three top-three Masters finishes since 2010 – anything is possible.
Westwood, unlike Fowler, is careering headlong outside the top-100 on the OWGR, suggesting, in the parlance of the sport of racing he so loves, his race may be run. Contrastingly Fowler, #7 in the world, started the season well with a win at the Hero World Challenge and fourth in the Tournament of Champions, before his form tailed-off as the calendar year of 2018 has unfolded.
One man not mentioned in dispatches to date is Rory McIlroy; but with his game back on the boil, the Northern Irishman – once the anointed heir-apparent to Tiger Woods – might just get the Masters title and he needs to secure his legacy as one of the greats of the game.
The Masters has, over the years, thrown-up some unlikely and unheralded winners, like Larry Mize in 1987, Mark O’Meara in 1998, Angel Cabrera in 2009 and Danny Willett two years ago … so, given a fair wind, a good draw and some large slices of luck, anyone in it can win it.
And, like sticking a pin whilst blindfolded in the start list, the best of the rest could … such as the currently in-form Paul Casey, 2016 Open Championship winner Henrik Stenson, whose Augusta record to date is lamentable, US-based Spaniard John Rahm, tied for 27th on debut last year, and Aussie Jason Day.
Come late afternoon US Eastern Time on Sunday April 8, the Masters will hopefully make for compulsive, compelling and clamorous viewing and give men’s professional golf the shot in the arm it so badly needs … for sure we’ll all have Georgia on our minds.
ASIA’S AUGUSTA EIGHT
Here’s a look at the pedigree and chances of the eight players from Asia who have either received their invitations or qualified to play in the season-opening Major at Augusta National this month.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Thailand: With 10 professional career wins, including most recently the Perth Super 6 and joint 15th at the 2018 WGC-Mexico Championship, the big man from Bangkok is in the form of his life. A tie for 15th on his Masters debut last year showed he can play at Augusta National and, while he may not need an XXL Green Jacket, a top 10 finish is not beyond the 28-year-old Thai No 1.
Yuta Ikeda, Japan: 10 years as a professional and a serial winner on his home tour with 19 victories, just inside the top-50 on the OWGR, the man from Chiba finished 29th on debut at Augusta in 2010 but has since missed the cut the following year and 12 months ago. There is little to suggest the 32-year-old ‘Pocket Dynamo’ is ready or able to win what is arguably golf’s most revered event.
Si Woo Kim, South Korea: The 22-year-old prodigy from Seoul has two PGA Tour wins under his belt already, including last year’s Players Championship, and is considered by many to be the real deal. A missed the cut on Masters debut in 2017 could stand him in good stead. His cool, calm composure when in a winning position could see him finish high up the leaderboard, but probably not in Butler’s Cabin come Sunday evening.
Li Haotong, China: Arguably China’s greatest prospect, Li has visited the winner’s enclosure twice in his short career – at this year’s Dubai Desert Classic where he fought off Rory McIlroy, and his ‘home’ Volvo China Open two years ago under intense expectation. Third place in the 2017 Open at Royal Birkdale showed his mettle on the biggest stage, although victory in his Masters debut will most probably be a step to far.
Lin Yuxin (AM), China: Qualified for the Masters by winning the 2017 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in New Zealand, which also earned him a spot in the Open Championship at Carnoustie in July. The 17-year-old left-hander from Beijing winning the Green Jacket would be an even bigger story than had the then 59-year-old Tom Watson lifted the Claret Jug at the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry.
Hideki Matsuyama, Japan: The 26-year-old Japanese from the eponymous city of Matsuyama has five PGA Tour victories to his name and 14 professional titles in all. Has consistently been Asia’s best prospect of a maiden Major and two WGC titles clearly show his ability to win on the biggest platforms. Fifth, tied-seventh and tied-11 in his last three Masters appearances would suggest 2018 could be his year.
Shubhankar Sharma (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Yusaku Miyazato, Japan: At 37, something of a veteran, Miyazato – brother of retired LPGA star Ai – has eight wins on the Japan Golf Tour. But the absence of any Augusta experience cancels out two decent finishes, tied-23 and tied 60th, in the 2016 and 2017 US Opens respectively. Realistically, making the cut at Augusta would be a result, a top-20 place a remarkable achievement for the quiet man of Japanese golf.
Shubhankar Sharma, India: The 21-year-old from Gurgaon in India proudly sits atop the early Race to Dubai Rankings following two victories in the Joburg Open and the Maybank Championship, plus top 10 finishes in his home Hero Honda Open and the WGC-Mexico Championship. Sharma accepted a special invitation to make his Masters debut and, if he can get his head around the intricacies of Augusta National, could surprise.
