Watney primed to lead home charge

IT is convenient for us Europeans to think that our continent is now the epicentre of the golfing world.

The world’s number one and two are German and English, six of the top 10 are Europeans and, hey, wasn’t that Ryder Cup something special last October?

Yet, for all the heroics of Sandy Lyle and Seve Ballesteros, of Ian Woosnam, Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer, it’s been 12 years since Olazabal won his second Masters and became the last European to don the famous Green Jacket.

And as far as the Americans are concerned, there is more than defending champion Phil Mickelson and four-time winner Tiger Woods to fly the Stars and Stripes.

Never mind the Euro boom, on this side of the Atlantic the US resurgence is the big story in golf.

Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer may have won the US Open and PGA respectively but those tournaments marked important stepping stones in the experiences of Americans Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Nick Watney, while Matt Kuchar and Hunter Mahan are also consistently high performers with good track records around Augusta.

Johnson suffered heartbreak in both of those majors last year, blowing his 54-hole lead at Pebble Beach in the first three holes and while he incurred a penalty at the 72nd hole at Whistling Straits that cost him the chance of a play-off with Watson and Kaymer.

Watson lost that play-off in a tournament headed after three rounds by Watney.

All three have been knocking on the door. While the big-hitting Johnson and Watson tend to get all the rave reviews, Watney has the best credentials to conquer Augusta.

The eldest of the trio at 29, Watney has an excellent record in the Masters, making the cut in all three of his starts with an average score of 71.09 bettered only by Mickelson and Woods over the last five years.

His form this year has been red hot, with five top-10 finishes in his first five starts and victory at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral.

The Californian has learned the lessons of his Whistling Straits experience, when he shot a final-round 81 to slide back into 18th place, and it’s helping his approach to weekly tournament play and this weekend’s Masters.

“You know, Whistling Straits was a very bad day on the scorecard. But I learned a lot that day just about how I handle situations and I think that helped me in Doral.

“I love it [at Augusta]. I like to play a draw, and it’s documented that a draw works well around here. I love everything about it.”