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Masters field is set New rules leave out some worthy players
Posted: Friday March 10, 2000 01:55 PM
For the first time ever, the Masters field is essentially set a month before the tournament. This year, Augusta National officials are taking the top 50 players on the world ranking not otherwise eligible. Under the old rules, PGA tour winners from the previous 12 months were automatically in the Masters field. Some of those left out this year include Mark Calcavecchia, who nearly won the 1988 Masters and has finished in the top 20 eight of the 13 times he has played. Also excluded are 1999 PGA Tour winners like Brad Faxon, Tom Pernice Jr. and Rich Beem. Also left out are Brian Henninger, who tied for 10th in the 1995 Masters, J.L. Lewis, Olin Browne, last month's Tucson winner Jim Carter and Michael Campbell, who has won four times recently on the Australasian tour. If any of those players win at Honda, Bay Hill, or the BellSouth, there will be howls to restore the old system. Comebacks not so surprisingMaybe we should stop being shocked when someone overcomes a six stroke deficit on the final nine, as Jim Furyk did last Sunday to win at Doral. Arnold Palmer has been bemoaned for years over the fact that he lost the 1966 U.S. Open when Billy Casper made up seven strokes on the back nine. Tiger Woods made up seven on Matt Gogel on the back nine last month to win at Pebble Beach. He made up eight on Ernie Els in the last round of the 1998 Johnnie Walker Classic and won. Payne Stewart was seven behind Scott Hoch with 13 to play at Houston in 1995 and won. And that's not to mention Nick Faldo catching and passing Greg Norman from six behind at the 1996 Masters, and Karrie Webb doing the same to Laura Davies at last year's DuMaurier. And what about the granddaddy of all comebacks, Paul Laurie making up 10 strokes on Jean Van de Velde in the fourth round of the 1999 British Open to win. It happens. It's called golf. Casey and the cartAlthough a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled in Casey Martin's favor this week, another court in Illinois ruled against a disabled amateur who is suing the USGA for use of a cart in the U.S. Open qualifying rounds. The Illinois court said giving the player a cart would substantially alter the nature of competition. That is exactly is what the PGA Tour has argued, and lost, in the Martin case. Looks like the issue will be decided in the Supreme Court after all. By the way, Arnold Palmer, who testified for the tour and against Martin on the issue, has given Martin a sponsor's exemption to next week's Bay Hill Classic. Dream groupingAnd finally, here's a very likely star grouping for the first two days of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach -- Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Tom Kite. They are the winners of every Open ever held at Pebble. Sports Illustrated senior writer Jaime Diaz covers the golf beat and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's Pro Golf Weekly.
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