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The 78th Masters got underway right after the much beloved trio of Arnold Palmer (84), Jack Nicklaus (74) and Gary Player (78) had ceremoniously teed off, amongst much jollity. Gary Player showed his very considerable fitness by smashing his drive down the middle of the fairway and then, in mock competitive defiance, kick his leg head high. The crowd roared their approval. Among these three they own 13 Masters titles.
The cool morning was already giving way to the predicted warm, sunny and cloudless day. Sunny, hot and cloudless days, with low humidity and only some wind being the forecast for the entire tournament, there is some serious speculation how these professionals will adjust to such perfect conditions. The consequential drying out of the course will render the fairways running longer and the greens even more dangerous. While there are no better bunkers or better tended grass anywhere in the world, there are also no more deadly greens. If your shot to the green does not land in a safe area, the unsuspecting ball can be carried 35-40 feet or even further away, needing a great putt just to leave it within two to three feet to enable a two putt. And then there are the run offs from some of the greens necessitating some excellent chip and putt work. You've simply got to be great at the devious three-five foot putts (the type that Arnold Palmer was talking about in his interview) if you are to go for birdies and still expect to make those insidious short ones coming back. The greens are so fast that some years ago, Tiger Woods, putting for an eagle on the thirteenth, found his putt narrowly missing the cup and kept rolling - right into the water. On the same hole on Thursday, from behind the green, Dufner, a major winner, lobbed his thirty foot chip onto the green which looked like stopping near the pin but it did not. It found a watery grave. He took a nine on that birdiable par five.
More than half the leader board of the top 20, those at level par or better (26 players) were non-US and, of those, Freddy Couples at -1 and Bernard Langer at even, the two regular winners on the Seniors Tour, are giving the rest a run for their money. Only three of these 26 are under 25 five years old and include multiple major winner McIlroy, the surprisingly brilliant Manassero and Jordan Spieth from Dallas, Texas, all at -1. This clearly speaks of the vital importance of experience on this course. Of the only four scores under 70, Bubba Watson and Adam Scott are Masters winners, Louis Oosthuizen lost to Watson in the play off, and the leader, Bill Haas at -4, has been a Fedex Cup winner with it's prize tag of $10,000,000.00.
The wind coming off the fairways was essentially mild with hardly any gusts. However, well hit shots that rose above the 70 to 100 foot high tree line would encounter some additional turbulence as the protective envelope of the trees was lost. These rules, of course, do not apply to "Golden Bell" as the par three pivot in Amen Corner is mildly named. It should have been named "Jezebel", after the tantalising wicked princess of biblical fame who knocked off anyone who crossed her. Adam Scott, the defending champion, leading the field at -4 and looking to go really low, suffered a double here on Thursday. It is bound to condition his muscle memory for this hole over the next three days. There were others who faced more or less a similar fate. But this is early days yet. Surely somebody will break from the pack with a really low score and have the rest of the field playing catch up. The Australians are looking good and one hears the occasional triple "Ozzie Oi". The South Africans have truly woken up with Oosthuizen showing his skill and character, Phil is just being Phil at this point but one should never count him out until he is out, and of course there is a host of great players yearning to break free (with apologies to Emma Lazarus). These guys are good. My guess is that a -16 should win.
The author is chairman of Mawana Sugars Ltd and co-chairman of Usha International Ltd (Tomorrow: Day Three of tournament, further analysis of the potential outcomes, atmospherics)
