Despite the Chatter, a Wide-Open Masters
David Cannon/Getty Images
Phil Mickelson, who is looking to retain his Masters title, watching a shot during a practice round at Augusta on Wednesday.
By LARRY DORMAN
Published: April 6, 2011
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Aside from the back nine on Sunday, when results crystallize and the winner emerges, the best part of the Masters is the entire day Thursday, when the tournament finally begins and all the speculative chatter ends.
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There is no sound like the silence that envelopes the first tee behind the manor clubhouse at Augusta National just after the starter says, as he will for the 7:45 a.m. threesome: “Fore, please, Jonathan Byrd driving.”
Byrd may or may not emerge as a story line in this 75th Masters. But when he strikes the first tee ball, the loud report will mark the official start of the year’s first major, an event that is still — despite what one might have read, heard or seen in the run-up — wide open.
Phil Mickelson leapt into the unfilled role of favorite when he won easily at the Shell Houston Open last week, blistering the weekend with rounds of 63 and 65. He will have two drivers in the bag this week, just as he did in 2006 when he followed an 11-stroke win at Atlanta with his second Masters championship.
“To be able to have that type of performance heading into here feels very good,” Mickelson said. “Reminds me a lot of 2006 when I was able to put it together the week before and carry the momentum through.”
Mickelson does not just have confidence, he is bursting with it. And when he gets this way, he is fully capable of running the table. But before betting on Mickelson to go back to back, which has been done only by Tiger Woods(2000-1) and Jack Nicklaus (1965-66), it helps to know that there are other golfers among the field of 99 — the largest since 1965 — capable of slowing the Mickelson express.
Start with Woods, who is relentlessly searching for a return to form. Woods was pounding ball after ball on the range Wednesday, alternating draws and fades and high and low ball flights. True, the longest yards in golf are those between the range and the first tee — and the distance from the new practice facility at Augusta to the first tee is about one-third of a mile — but sooner or later, Woods is likely to bring his practice game with him.
He thinks it will occur this week. He smiled and nodded when asked if he was ready to win, kept smiling and nodding when asked why, and replied, when asked what part of his game was ready, “Everything.”
Then there is Dustin Johnson, whose two close calls in major tournaments last year seemed to presage something big, assuming he is as impervious to mental scarring as he has said.
“I know what it takes,” he said Wednesday. “I know what it’s like to be in the position.”
His position in the first round will be in the 8:40 a.m. threesome along with Nick Watney, a friend and, along with Mickelson, a fellow disciple of the celebrated swing coach Butch Harmon. As Watney demonstrated in his victory at Doral in the W.G.C.-Cadillac Championship, he is not just a long hitter. He can really putt and has worked on his pitching and chipping.
Also like Johnson, Watney took a fall at the P.G.A. Championship at Whistling Straits, shooting 81 in the final round, which he had entered with the tournament lead. Did he learn anything?
“Whistling Straits was a very bad day on the scorecard.,” he said. “But I learned a lot that day just about how I handle situations, and I think that helped me in Doral. To beat that field, and I think I heard that everybody in the top 50 was there; so to beat that field was an honor and it kind of validated what I feel I need to address.”
The winner may emerge from the European contingent, led by Martin Kaymer, the No. 1-ranked player, and Lee Westwood, last year’s Masters runner-up and the No. 2 player in the world. Luke Donald, the No. 4 player, and Paul Casey, No. 6, are also highly rated.
Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, No. 5 in the rankings, is not getting much attention, probably because he said earlier this year that he does not like his chances at Augusta.
As well as Mickelson is playing, he knows how many challengers he will have to overcome. He can probably rule out the 20 first-time Masters competitors, which include the six amateurs. Only one player — Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 — won in his first Masters. No amateurs have. Neither has an Australian, and there are six of them here.
But beyond that? How many people figured the off-form Mickelson to win last year? Or Angel Cabrera the year before, when he prevailed in a playoff over the long shots Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell? Or Trevor Immelman in 2008 or Zach Johnson in 2007?
Somewhere among the overlooked — maybe in the creative Bubba Watson or the flamboyant and motivated Ian Poulter — the next Masters champion could emerge. This Masters is wide open, and the proof will be in the playing, which replaces the talking, starting now.
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