Elementary from Watson
The opening day of the Masters was the most eagerly awaited in living memory and it didn’t disappoint as 60-year-old Tom Watson, three-time major winner Phil Mickelson, US PGA champion YE Yang and the hungry Worksop man Lee Westwood fired five under par 67s to set the early pace.
With a swirling wind gusting up to 30mph among the pines, the dogwoods and the flowering magnolias, the best bloomed early with the only disappointment the struggles of the Irish trio of competitors around Dr Alastair MacKenzie’s Georgia masterpiece.
For a while it looked as though 52-year-old Bernhard Langer would steal the early headlines as the two-time Masters champion rolled back the years to get to three under with two to play only to falter with bogeys at the 17th and 18th.
A 71 is never a bad score at Augusta but Watson’s 67 was something from another planet – the result of an old master warming himself in the afterglow of his performance at Turnberry in last year’s Open Championship, where he came within a whisker of lifting his ninth major title only to falter on the cusp of immortality in a play-off with Stewart Cink.
Scorecards tell you nothing about how a player compiled his score and while Watson’s pristine card featured five birdies and no bogeys, it was far more interesting than that.
He holed a 30-footer at the first, an eight footer at the third to turn in two under 34 before storming home in 33 with birdies at the 15th, 16th and 18th, where he coaxed a seven iron to eight feet.
In between he got up and down for pars five times in a row from the 10th to the 14th, the pick of them coming at the 13th where he put his second in Rae’s Creek and pitched to six feet and made it for par.
“I think a big part of my success today was having my son on the bag,” Watson said.
“‘Dad, show me. Show me you can still play this golf course’. You know what, I wanted to show him I can still play the golf course.
“There are certain holes where I just can’t hit the right shots into the greens. But today, everything was pretty good as far as the winds were concerned.”
What Watson achieved at Turnberry last July played a massive part in the Kansas man’s ageless performance yesterday.
“I would have to say that there’s been a certain glow about the whole situation, even though I finished second. And the glow comes from the people who watched it and who have come up to me and have commented to me about what they thought of it. You know, there’s been a couple of them that actually, more than a couple, but a lot of them have said, you know, I’m not too old now. You’ve just proven to me that I’m just not too old.”
Can an oldie still win a major? “It’s a longshot for somebody, still, honestly, of our age to do it,” Watson said. “But still, they can do it.”
Westwood, the world No 4, is still looking for his first major title and he could hardly have hoped for a better start than a 67 that featured seven birdies and just bogeys – both of them three putts.
But did he expect that Watson, a player from the TV screens of his youth, would be one of his rivals?
“Well, no,” Westwood said to peals of laughter. “And yes. I was lucky enough to partner him in the Dubai Desert Classic Par 3 tournament earlier on in the year, and just getting that close to him and seeing how well he swings the club and how well he strikes the ball; he’s always going to have class. So it’s no surprise, really.”
After watching Yang hold off Tiger Woods to win the US PGA at Hazeltine last August, it was no surprise to see him up there either, posting six birdies and just one error in his 67,
Mickelson has won two Masters titles but given his poor early season form and his wife’s battle with breast cancer, this was a effort of great heart.
The flamboyant left-hander hit just six fairways but his magical short game did the trick as he made one bogey, four birdies and an eagle three at the 13th, where he hit a 207-yard six-iron to 30 feet and made the putt.
He said: “I needed a good, solid round because I’ve been putting myself behind early in tournaments and been having to almost force things. But there’s just something about this place that when I get on the golf course, I don’t feel like I have to be perfect. It relaxes me. I’m able to free up my swing and let my short game save me if I make a couple of bad shots.”
American young guns Anthony Kim and Nick Watney were just one back on four under after 68s with Ernie Els four off the pace after a 71.
As for the Irish, Rory McIlroy finished on two over while Pádraig Harrington was one over with five to play thanks to a birdie at the par-five 13th.
Ireland’s three-time major winner had earlier birdied the par five second but he bogeyed the short fourth and then double bogeyed the par four seventh when he drove into the trees, chipped out short of the green and chunked his pitch into the front bunker.
He birdied the eighth with a towering flop shot to a few feet but a bogey at the short 12th left him hoping for a hot finish with the leaders already well into red figures.
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