Don’t be fooled by Augusta’s beauty

AT LONG last, the 2011 US Masters has officially begun and the hype surrounding the event is over. It is now time for those players competing in Augusta to perform and take us on our annual roller coaster ride of calamities, heartbreaks and stupendous shots.

Augusta National, famed for its beauty, will challenge every player this week and no one will escape unscathed. The winner will be the man who can best keep his emotions in check, who can rise to the challenges presented by the course and who can execute the clutch shots and putts when all around him are falling by the wayside.

Visiting Augusta for the Masters is a must for every golf fan as it allows them to witness for themselves, at eye level, players competing on a magical course of severe gradients, natural amphitheatres and stunning beauty. With Dogwoods and Magnolias in full bloom and perfectly manicured greens lined by stately Georgia Pines there are few places that can capture the imagination quite like Augusta.

The serenity is almost off-putting at times as nothing buzzes, blips, or beeps. The quietness is unreal, even despite the fact that you’re surrounded by upwards of 50,000 fellow spectators.

Spectators at the Masters are typically a mixture of corporate browsers (much like the corporate “prawn sandwich” brigade so famously identified by Roy Keane at Old Trafford) as well as golfing enthusiasts. They will readily clap a shot that ends up close to a hole or a putt holed by a player, but only the good golfer or the experienced veteran of many Masters will truly appreciate the quality of shot-making executed by the professional here.

Tournaments at the Masters are always won or lost on the back nine holes, especially around Amen corner (11th,12th and 13th). It is this glorious amphitheatre, filled to the brim with expectant spectators, which annually provides us with both the drama and the excitement so lacking in other professional events.

This year Phil Mickelson rightfully starts as favourite, but everyone will be hoping for an improved performance from Tiger Woods, or even a European win.

Whatever happens, we know that players will simply jostle for position for the first three-and-a-half rounds in the hope they can land the knockout blow come Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday, the light winds and high temperatures provided an ideal stage for players to take advantage of the course.

Rory McIlroy delivered in spades! His entire game looked really sharp and today he will rightly take the plaudits he richly deserves from the world press.

However, he is all too aware that he has been in this position before (at last year’s British Open) and hopefully that painful second-day experience that saw him shoot 80 at St Andrews will stand to him over the coming days. His caddy JP Fitzgerald’s role now assumes even greater importance in that he has to keep Rory ‘loose’ and focused.

There is a saying in tournament golf that there are no pictures on score cards. The irony may well be that in order to win this week, the winner may well have to win playing ugly golf, scrambling his way around the prettiest course on the tour.

Picture: Lee Westwood hits out of a bunker on the 17th hole (AP)