Masters maketh the man, not the other way around

If the intention was to make a statement without actually saying anything, then William Payne succeeded in an emphatic fashion yesterday at Augusta National Golf Club.

For more than 30 minutes, Payne — the club chairman and by extension the head of the Masters tournament — read a prepared statement, then answered questions from the media without ever once invoking the name Tiger Woods.

It was as if Payne were answering those media folks who for weeks have bemoaned the absence of Woods as a sure sign that the 78th Masters would suffer a lacklustre fate and be a forgettable affair.

With tens of thousands of people milling around the hallowed course, and with most of the 97-player field busy with the Par 3 Tournament, Payne spoke of the concerns that consumed him and other tournament officials.

There was a healthy discussion about the positive effects of the inaugural Drive, Chip, and Putt Championship that was held on Sunday to an acclaimed success. There was information provided on all the tree damage that the course suffered during a February ice storm, the biggest casualty being the iconic Eisenhower Tree down the left side of the 17th fairway. And there was the annual assessment of Augusta National and what changes may be forthcoming.

But when mention of golfers were made, the names that were bandied about were Adam Scott, the reigning Masters champion (“A wonderful ambassador,” said Payne), and Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player, the iconic trio whose presence each April is greeted with trumpets and fireworks, for they embody the spirit of this golf tournament, the rich histories and traditions that are the Masters.

There wasn’t the sort of hysteria that some in the media insist is at the heart of the first Masters without Woods since 1994. If Payne has given thought to TV ratings being down or fans turned off because of Woods’s absence he sure did a good job of hiding his apprehensions. Perhaps that’s because Payne’s thinking runs parallel to Mark O’Meara, the 1998 Masters winner who said, “No one man is bigger than the Masters. The Masters makes players great, not the other way around”.

Having laboured in discomfort for the latter half of 2013 and for the first few months of 2014, Woods finally succumbed to the wishes of his doctor and advisors — he had microdiscectomy surgery on March 31 and will be sidelined for four months, maybe longer.

Thus he will bypass the Masters for the first time since he turned professional and his chance at a fifth green jacket and a 15th Major championship will have to wait till next April.

Of course, when he returns a year from now, Woods will be 39 and even further removed from his glory days when his mere presence made opponents shake and his aura was at its zenith.

Woods has not won a Major since the 2008 US Open and the forces working against him are numerous. He no longer has a ferocious advantage with his length off the tee. Players rarely putt better as they grow older.

His body battered by injuries to his back, knee, and neck, Woods doesn’t have an abundance of swings left in his game, so he saves them forlimited competition and can’t afford the practice time.

Nothing about that could have given you a warm feeling about Woods’s chances, yet some in the media will propose the idea that this Masters is devoid of a distinct buzz or a prime contender. Nonsense.

The fact that Palmer, Nicklaus, and Player are here only to strike the ceremonial first tee ball, that the Masters grew with them but has clearly survived without them, is proof positive that the season’s first Major is in good hands, whether Woods is here or not.

Time stops for no athlete, not even a once-in-a-lifetime comet such as Woods, and the Masters is an institution that is there for the next generation of stars to take hold of, names such as Scott, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth.

There was an unmistakable buzz around Augusta National yesterday. The Masters carried on without Gene Sarazen and Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead. It was brilliant without The Big Three and ditto Tom Watson and Nick Faldo.

It will be quite fine, thank you, without Woods, too.

It’s just a natural progression.