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There's no question McCarron can play
Masters record has been impressive
Posted: Saturday April 06, 2002 8:27 PM
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Scott McCarron lines up a putt during the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando, Fla. Between the Match Play and the Florida tournament, he took a week off to go on a ski trip. Michael Holahan
The Augusta Chronicle |
By Scott Michaux
The Augusta Chronicle
To say Scott McCarron is hot would be accurate. To say he is fiery would be on the mark. To question either would be unwise.
Coming off consecutive runner-up finishes to first-time winners at the Nissan Open and the World Golf Championship Match Play, McCarron didn't cotton to being characterized as second fiddle to Tiger Woods at the halfway point of the Bay Hill Invitational.
Trailing Woods by four after 36 holes, McCarron was walking into The Golf Channel set for an interview when good friend and analyst Mark Lye uttered the following: "I don't think Scott McCarron has the fuel or the fire to win this tournament."
McCarron fumed.
"I'm standing there watching him say that 10 feet in front of me," McCarron said. "Things like that obviously fire you up a little bit. I think that's totally uncalled for - to judge what anybody's fire is. I mean, they have no idea. I have more fire than anybody right now. I want to win."
To judge McCarron based on stumbles down the stretch to Len Mattiace at Riviera and Kevin Sutherland in the Match Play final would be equally foolish. McCarron can win. He's proved it three times on the PGA Tour since 1996.
"Winning isn't everything," he said. "Playing to win is. I played well enough to win both those tournaments."
His early season success only fuels his fire more. He didn't miss a cut and had three top-five finishes in 2002 before missing the cut at The Players Championship.
He's so confident that his game is better than it's ever been, he took seven days off between the Match Play and Bay Hill and did nothing but ski.
"I just tried to keep my golf game intact by not hitting any balls so I would have total reminiscence when I came back," said the affable McCarron. "So I got that going for me, which is nice.
"I felt I was playing as good as anybody else in the world. I expected to come back and not miss a beat."
The same might be said of McCarron at Augusta. He played in four consecutive Masters from 1996-99, finishing 10th in his first appearance and posting three top-25 finishes. He was becoming very comfortable as a regular Masters competitor to be reckoned with.
"It's my favorite tournament. I love it there, and I feel like I can play good golf as soon as I get there," McCarron said. "It certainly seems like a golf course where if I'm going to win a major, that's going to be the first one."
But new qualification standards worked against him. In 1999, after sharing the first-round lead, McCarron settled for a tie for 18th, a finish that would have earned him a return trip before the Masters limited invitations to the top 16 that year.
McCarron also won last year's BellSouth Classic in Atlanta on the eve of Masters Week, an accomplishment that used to be good enough for an eleventh-hour invitation before the 1999 changes.
So after missing two straight years of competing on a major course he should always be competitive on, McCarron is eager to return.
"That's a tournament I look forward to all year long, and it's been pretty disappointing being aced out and tough for me to sit at home and watch on TV when you're good enough to be there," he said. "Now I get to go back and play, and I'm really looking forward to that."
As for his chances, McCarron likes the way things are lining up.
"Definitely it would be a good bet to put some money down on me," he said.
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