Posted 4/14/03 9:57 am ET

On the Course

Sunday gave us a glimpse of the new Augusta

By Gary Van Sickle, Sports Illustrated

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- One thing we should’ve learned from Tiger Woods’ latest Masters victory is this: If it’s true that the Masters doesn’t truly start until the back nine on Sunday, there’s only one place to be when that happens -- in the lead.

The mystery of why pursuers blew up and broke like cheap balloons was no mystery. Forced to try to make birdies in order to catch Woods, who was cruising with a four-shot lead, the challengers had to go for the pins. At Augusta on Sunday, that is often a mistake, only because the margin for error is so small. Woods, with the luxury of having the lead, didn’t have to shoot at any sucker pins or take any unnecessary chances although the way he was putting all week, none of that probably would’ve mattered.

The changes to the golf course have magnified that. What you saw Sunday afternoon was a glimpse of the new Augusta National. It wasn’t much firmer and faster than it had been after all that rain but all it took was the usual fiendish Sunday pin positions to add a little fire.

“There’s going to be a lot of three-putts at the seventh green today, mark my words,” said early finisher Tom Watson.

He was right. The pin at the seventh was close enough to the front edge to make it almost impossible to keep the ball below the hole. Phil Mickelson was among those who bogeyed the seventh. The seventh went from a layup birdie hole to a scary par. The 11th is much tougher, too. The same goes for the ninth and 18th. And club officials say they’re going to lengthen the fifth hole, which once upon a time was one of the most feared holes on the course but now is fairly routine.

Yes, the golf course made the pursuers look bad.

“It was a bad day for a lot of guys out there,” said Thomas Bjorn, who struggled in with a closing 77.

“You know the way the pins are, you can’t make many birdies. It’s a shame there weren’t more people who put the heat on Tiger. He doesn’t make many mistakes.”

There were self-inflicted mistakes, too. If this was tennis, they’d be called unforced errors. Ernie Els pulled a tee shot into the trees at the 13th, got too greedy with his recovery shot and didn’t escape the trouble, then hit his approach shot into Rae’s Creek near the green and made a triple-bogey 8. Of course, at that point, even a par still would’ve left him three shots behind Woods.

Vijay Singh laid up at the par-5 15th hole, then chunked a fat wedge shot into the pond in front of the green. He dropped and spun another wedge back into the pond en route to making a 9. Again, it wasn’t that crucial, he was four shots back at the time. But it was indicative of a day when Woods played well and those around him didn’t.

“Some of the guys who have played well for a long time, they are running on what they’ve got left,” said Bjorn. “It’s hard to keep it going when you are at the Masters with all the pressure.”

Among the 10 players in the final five pairings, only Woods and Els shot 2-under par on the opening nine. The rest scored a combined 8-over par.

“It’s a tough golf course,” said Sergio Garcia, shot shot 75, as he shook his head.

Tough? We had four days of almost no wind and wet, soft conditions. Sure, it was sloppy wet at times. But when this course gets firm and fast, the way it’s meant to be and the way the club officials want it after lengthening all those holes, this is just the start. You haven’t seen anything yet.

 

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