When the Golden Bear roared one more time
Born, raised and still living in South Carolina, his professional life has been defined by the goings-on just across that historic river, where the great state of Georgia begins to sprawl westwards.
Hidden deep in his sub-conscious, he admits, is the wide-eyed wonder he felt in 1974 when, as an eight-year-old, he was brought over the freshwater border to his first US Masters. If you grow up smelling those azaleas and dogwoods, it must be hard to relate to the rest of us who can only admire the magnolia trees through a TV screen.
However, that perennial longing for spring stepped up a notch in 1984 when as an 18-year-old freshman at the University of South Carolina he got to operate the sixth hole leaderboard, watching Ben Crenshaw stride past on his way to victory. From the same perch, he observed Berhard Langer pass through the following year.
By 1986, he had seen it all.
Boyette was a budding sports reporter by this stage, working part-time for his hometown newspaper, the Aiken Standard. Known for his love of the sport around the office, he was offered the chance to help cover that year’s Masters.
Showing a nose for a story, he set his sights on his 46-year-old hero, Jack Nicklaus, and followed him around for what would develop into a historic final round.
Even Nicklaus thought he was over-the-hill before the tournament and he certainly had nothing to prove. He already had five Masters as well as five US PGA Championships, four US Opens and three British Opens. Augusta just didn’t know how much it needed one final blooming.
Starting that Sunday in a tie for ninth place, four shots behind, having gone two years without a victory and five since his last major championship, Nicklaus shot a seven-under-par 65 to win. The round included a 30 on the back nine which could even afford to be tainted by a bogey at the 12th.
“1986 was a special way to start my career,” Boyette says with the requisite amount of understatement. I had never heard roars like that and I still haven’t heard anything close to it. I was thinking they’re all going to be downhill after that.”
Last Friday, Boyette, who is now in his tenth year as the sports editor at the Augusta Chronicle, released his first book, inevitably celebrating a quarter of a century since that momentous day. Bringing together the major protagonists, “The 1986 Masters: How Jack Nicklaus Roared Back to Win” offers new perspective on one of golf’s greatest stories.
“I always joke with people, saying that it took me 25 years to write it,” Boyette told me last week from his office in Augusta.
“I got serious about it when everyone made such a big fuss about the 20th anniversary five years ago. I wrote a few things back then and conducted a lot of interviews. But I started to really make some headway back in the Fall when I went to a Champions Tour event and spoke to a lot of people that I needed for the book: Sandy Lyle, who played with Jack that day, Nick Price who shot 63 the day before, setting the course record.
“I spoke to Tom Kite, who had a chance to tie Jack on the 18th with a putt, Greg Norman over the phone. But the coup de grâce was going down to Florida and meeting the Nicklaus family. They were very co-operative, very helpful.”
So intrinsic is the tournament to the life cycle of the Chronicle, planning for the 2012 Masters will get going before April is done with. One of his staff writers, David Westin, came to be known as “the face of spring” thanks to Nick Price. When pro golfers see Westin show up in Florida early in the season, they know the Masters build-up has officially begun.
It helps that their boss, Billy Morris, owner and publisher of the Chronicle, is an Augusta National member who can often be seen driving players from the 18th green to the press room.
“We feel like we have a really good relationship with Augusta National,” Boyette points out. “We’re here year round. We cover a lot of things related to the tournament and we feel like we do as good a job as anybody.
“They help us out from time to time when they can. They like to be fair to everybody but they treat the hometown paper very well.”
Which is just as well because with the world’s media descending upon Augusta this week, it can’t be easy being trampled upon by all these fly-by-night journalists every April.
“It’s put a little bit of pressure on us because you want to put your best foot forward and shine as best we can.
“But, you know, it’s very gratifying every morning to have all these journalists from all over the world — and I mean from all over the world — and they’re sitting there thumbing though all our stuff. We take a lot of pride in getting that right and being a source of information for them.”
* “The 1986 Masters: How Jack Nicklaus Roared Back to Win” is available now on amazon.com
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