There isn’t always a next time in majors

SITTING here at Augusta National, an arena that serves as a sort of shrine to golf, it may seem an inappropriate time to discuss football – the one played with a pigskin sphere not a round ball and feet – but afford me the opportunity to explain why Dan Marino comes to mind.

It was in 1983 when Marino, a celebrated collegiate quarterback, entered the pro football ranks and settled in with one of the glamour teams of that time, the Miami Dolphins.

Led by arguably one of the greatest coaches in that sport’s history, Don Shula, the only piece missing to make the Dolphins the best was a quarterback and oh, how Marino came through.

He played with poise and precision, marched the Dolphins into the championship game – we call it the Super Bowl over here, hideously corny as that might be – only to lose to San Francisco.

Disappointing as that was to Marino and Dolphins, the sentiment was, he’d have many more chances at the holy grail.

Wrong.

What followed were 16 seasons of touchdowns, completions, wins, records, and wide-spread praise . . . but no more trips to the Super Bowl.

So much for taking things for granted.

But it does bring us to that fork in the road where we can turn back onto golf, Augusta National, and Rory McIlroy. At 21, the youngster from Northern Ireland woke yesterday morning with one arm wrapped around a golf prize that can define one’s golf career — the Masters.

Harkening back to Marino, who was 22 in that Super Bowl loss, the prevailing thought on McIlroy’s behalf as we left Augusta National Saturday evening was this: now is the time to seize the moment, do not fall into the trap of trying to calm yourself by subscribing to the notion that you’ll have this chance again and again.

It was explained to me that in Ireland the expression is, “there’s only one time to cut a blackthorn stick,” and while cutting a blackthorn stick — like cricket and black pudding — remains a concept that is truly foreign to me, a large part of me understands what they are talking about.

There are endless examples from the golf world that express the same sentiment, though to remain contemporary let’s mention Sergio Garcia.

Having missed the cut badly in his major debut as a pro, the diabolical Carnoustie setup in 1999, Garcia stormed into the spotlight at the PGA Championship the very next month.

What remains an indelible memory is Garcia’s final-round sprint up the 16th fairway, joyfully watching an improbable shot that came out brilliantly.

What remains etched in golf’s media guides is this — Garcia did not convert his chance to beat Tiger Woods that day and, nearly 12 years later, he’s still without a major on his resume.

If he never wins a major, Garcia will be sorely disappointed, but so, too, will he join a notable list of those who had major thirsts, but never quenched them.

Any trip to Augusta brings to mind a big, powerful player with a mighty swing, Tom Weiskopf.

Being from Ohio, he was always compared to Jack Nicklaus, but never could he match up, most especially at Augusta.

Nicklaus won six times here and Weiskopf had the talent to triumph half of that total, a belief that seemed validated when the man finished second in his second trip here, in 1969.

The only thing is, Weiskopf never did break through at the Masters, going winless in 16 visits.

Then there’s Doug Sanders. He had finished second or third in a number of major championships and was within two feet of finally breaking through in 1966 at St Andrews when the unthinkable happened. He choked. He missed. There’s no other way to explain it and when he went into a play-off, Sanders was no match for Nicklaus, nor would he ever get a major victory that might have changed his life.

Instead of a celebrated major winner, Sanders shows up at Augusta annually, a sad figure in search of autographs and mementos that could improve his financial standing.

None of these examples, of course, rate as things McIlroy should have pondered Saturday night and Sunday morning, but the hope is he was in “blackthorn mode,” and thinking that this was the moment he had to jump on.

Surely, it would be nonsense to suggest that McIlroy was engaged in his last chance for a major championship. But you wouldn’t be wrong to suggest that is was important he won, simply because the psyche is a delicate line in golf and what’s more, the fields are getting deeper and deeper by the tournament and it seemingly doesn’t take more than a few years to go from 21 to 31.

Ask Garcia or Adam Scott or Luke Donald or Paul Casey — players who just a few years ago were in their early 20s and exploding into view, but are now in their early 30s and still without a major.

The challenges are coming from all corners of the globe now and no matter what one takes out of Woods’ stunning return to form yesterday, it is hard to envision the sort of domination he once brought to the golf world.

More probable is a series of major championships where the contenders will be young, an eclectic ethnic mix, fearless — and hopefully in possession of a sense of urgency.