By Rick Dorsey
Chronicle Staff

Against a cloudless Sunday sky, a man few predicted early and even fewer preferred later put on a sports coat all men dream of possessing. It may have been the coldest reception for a Masters Tournament winner in recent memory.

It is said that Augusta National galleries give ovations for great men and grant mighty roars for great shots.

Jose Maria Olazabal, the unpopular 1999 Masters champion, received neither and he warranted both.

This is the Yankees winning in Fenway, the Cowboys clinching at Lambeau and Duke triumphing at the Dean Dome.

Rick Dorsey is a sports columnist for The Augusta Chronicle.

It's quite embarrassing when a man of Olazabal's endurance and sheer bravery warrants nary a whisper when he conquers and defeats the pressure that 95 of his peers could not.

Listen to the crows around the 18th green. ``What a disappointment'' could be heard from more than one patron who walked away from the afternoon's theater upset about the result.

Clearly, the people's choices were divided between Greg Norman and Davis Love III. Neither has the Masters title they should eventually own, and both have endured their share of second-place suffering.

The roars reached crescendos twice on Sunday -- when Norman captured his tenuous lead at 13 with a heroic eagle, and when Love displayed intricate knowledge with his chip-in at 16.

Olazabal, the champion, received only perfunctory respectfulness, almost as if the crowds were obligated to applaud as he approached.

The Spanish survivor is no thief. He deserves our appreciation. He deserves our warmth.

When his final putt sank to clinch the two-shot win, there were no hands in the air. No celebration of a Masterful performance. No standing ovation. No jumping for joy.

Sunday was certainly not Ollie-palooza.

It's as if those watching said, ``Oh, he won. Well, let's get this applause out of the way so I can beat the bees running to their hives.''

``I knew today before teeing off that everybody would be rooting for Greg, pretty much the same as in '94 when everybody was rooting for Tom (Lehman),'' Ollie said.

``Actually, I enjoyed it.''

Not a lot of people who enter this tournament have the opportunity to be scared to death on Sunday. Olazabal stared a Shark down, stared the local boy down, stared down his own early demise, and recovered in time to thrill us in victory.

And he is received like a weed ruining the azaleas, an uninvited guest to the world's party.

His press conferences were half as full as Norman's. It wouldn't be surprising to learn that Olazabal waited for Norman on 18 not just as a token of sportsmanship, but to revel in Norman's unwavering support.

To ignore his unspoken brilliance is to demean a feat so few can accomplish. Winning one Masters separates golf's tertiary classes. To survive the turmoil that has rattled so many is certainly a feat few can claim.

And to win twice, in a six-year span after seeing your career crumble with a mysterious ailment, deserves our everlasting cheer.

But there stood Olazabal, dangling his two-shot lead over the noses of the sentimental favorite and the hometown boy as he pondered his tee shot on the 16th hole. His Titleist floated through the sky, and you felt the collective wills of 40,000 onlookers hoping that ball would find Rosebud's water.

Ollie's ball landed beneath the hole, bounced beyond, caught one of the fabled slopes and trickled within 3 feet.

What would normally be a raucous, riveting scene in the heat of golf's finest major sat as though the bull had just gorged their most popular matador.

``It was quite quiet, wasn't it?'' Ollie's caddie, Brendan McCartain, said. ``He only hit it to 3 feet. That probably wasn't close enough for them.''

In expecting a coronation, we received one. The reluctance to bow at this king's feet is unnerving.

Norman possesses every gift of greatness except timing. His story may have warmed our souls this week, but in no way should it have dwarfed the man we should honor for the next calendar year.

Jose Maria Olazabal deserves more than the snubbing he received Sunday. He deserves our respect.