2011 Masters Clippings, Friday
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So much happened Thursday and the leaderboard is so stocked that no one pointed out what a nice job the committee did setting up the course to get the large field around. No Sub-Air suction silliness, no goofy hole locations, just golf. Sure the scores were low, but these are the best players in the world on a perfectly maintained course in even more perfect weather.
Ledes
The flair of Rory McIlroy. The sheer power of Alvaro Quiros. These are but two of the fresh faces in golf who offered more evidence Thursday at the Masters that a new generation is on the way.
Larry Dorman for the New York Times…now, does this count against my paywall clicker thingy for linking to this?
Rory McIlroy and Alvaro Quiros advanced golf’s youth movement and its global reach in a major way on a sunny Thursday at the Masters. First it was McIlroy, the 21-year-old prodigy from Northern Ireland, who went out early and shot a seven-under-par 65 that gave him almost an entire day as the youngest first-round leader in the 75-year history of the tournament.
Lawrence Donegan for The Guardian:
Dispense with guesswork and put away the crystal ball because every once in a while the future seems clear. The opening round of the 2011 Masters was one of those rare occasions: a beautiful day, a wonderful course, a pair of gifted young golfers.
James Corrigan for the Independent:
Rory McIlroy is no respecter of reputation. Nine months after bringing the grand old lady that is the Old Course to her knees with a 63, so the Ulsterman dared treat the Georgia beauty in the same contemptible manner. With a 65 the 21-year-old became the youngest first-round leader in Masters history.
Last year it was St Andrews, this time Augusta National. Only the best is good enough for Rory McIlroy, who followed up his opening round 63 at The Open last year with a 65 on Thursday to become the youngest first round leader in the storied history of the Masters.
The Irishmen
Scott Michaux on Rory's run-in with the neighbors before his opening 65.
Four kids from Northern Ireland were tossing a football in the streets of a quiet Augusta neighborhood, until the cranky old neighbor yelled at them to keep it down.
"I was actually told off by the lady living across the street; we were making a bit too much noise," said the kid who hours later would be leading the Masters Tournament. "Had to cut it short. ... I just said, sorry, we'll go inside now."
Jim Achenbach leads off an awards column with a prize for Rory, who averaged 297 yards off the tee. I believe Tiger was at 263?
Bob Harig points out that Rory is showing a knack for rising to the major occasions.
Not that it is a surprise these days. McIlroy is playing in just his ninth major championship and already has three top-3 finishes, including the previous two -- third at both the Open Championship and the PGA Championship.
"I seem to play well in the big occasion," said McIlroy, who is ranked ninth in the world. "The big occasions are something that I'm learning to deal with, and I feel as if I'm dealing with them pretty well at the minute.
Brian Keogh on Padraig Harrington's unfortunate driving range neck injury.
The Dubliner, who was advised to pull out before the start, will need a miracle now to make the cut if he carries on and eventually tees it up in Friday’s second round.
Unable to turn his head to the right, the three-time major champion couldn’t align himself properly on the greens and confessed that it was a bitterly disappointing day for him considering how well he had prepared.
“I nearly pulled out before I started,” Harrington said.
Randall Mell on Graeme McDowell's 74.
McDowell was the hottest putter on the planet last year, but he took 36 putts while shooting 74 in the first round of the Masters.
“I three-putted 10, three-putted 13, three-putted 14, three-putted 15,” McDowell said. “That was kind of my day, summed up right there.”
This is the guy who guy won the U.S. Open last year with all those white-knuckle par saves, who helped secure the Ryder Cup with a dramatic putt and who beat Tiger Woods at the Chevron World Challenge with a couple of pressure-packed makes.
“Pace is my problem,” McDowell said of all his three putts Thursday. “The first nine holes I could barely get a putt to the hole. And then I sort of overreacted and started blasting everything on the back nine.
Keogh quotes McDowell as suggesting the greens seemingly have grain.
“It’s funny, this golf course, you get it below the hole into the grain and they’re incredibly slow. Just don’t tell anybody in a Green Jacket that I said that.
“You get above the hole down grain and they’re ridiculously quick. There’s such a big differential.
The Bombers
Jim McCabe on the threesome that would have had Hootie Johnson drawing up new plans to screw with the design. Over the last six holes, Quiros, Woodland and Vegas combined for two eagles, 10 birdies, and a cumulative 12 under par.
Julian Linden of Reuters on 65-shooter and last grouper Alvaro Quiros, who charmed the scribblers so much they almost forgot that he made them re-write their game stories.
"The two previous years, I came to the Masters thinking that I can play well, shoot low, and this was my main mistake," the self-deprecating Quiros explained.
"This golf course, it's too tough. Every single situation has to be measured -- the risk, the reward. Today, I was very happy making pars. This is why probably shoot 65."
Quiros, who has often said he has the hands of a bricklayer, was even more surprised to learn that he ended the as joint pacesetter because he never bothered to check the leaderboard before starting his round.
"I just checked what the other Spanish guys were doing, nothing else," he added.
"You have to see, this is my third appearance (at the Masters) and my best score was 75. I cannot be pretending to see the leaderboard, it would be stupid."
Steve Elling on Quiros' 65 with a new bagman.
Quiros, 28, has charisma to burn and plenty of energy, too. At least he did Thursday, when he chatted non-stop with his caddie, who is in his first week on the bag. Quiros sacked his former bagman and hired Robert Karlsson's old looper.
"It's like in soccer, or in football," he said. "When a team is playing bad, you cannot change the 22 players. The only thing that you can change is the coach, isn't it? In my case, it's the same. You know, I cannot change myself. Well, I'm trying to change myself but it doesn't work."
Randall Mell says Gary Woodland credits his back nine 31 to practice round partner Tom Watson.
“He told me how to play every hole,” Woodland said.
Woodland arranged to play nine holes with Watson in a practice round Wednesday. Watson won the 1977 and '81 Masters.
“We played the back nine,” Woodland said. “I should have gotten him to play the front nine with me, too."
The Europeans
Paul Mahoney assesses the Europeans and notes this about Sergio Garcia.
There was redemption and resurrection for Sergio Garcia, perhaps, among the Augusta pines. The Spaniard has been plummeting down the world ranking faster than a downhill putt on Augusta's ninth hole, but his one-time cheery disposition has been showing signs of coming back. He even smiled after a first-round 69 despite a bogey at 18.
"It's never nice to bogey the last," he said. "But any time you shoot under par on this course, you can't be too unhappy about it."
His highlight was a drive and 6-iron for eagle on 13. It did wonders for his sometimes-brittle confidence.
Ewen Murray on Lee Westwood's 72:
Woes with the putter have been a long-standing and ruinous issue for Westwood.
"If you can't hole out from four feet, you are going to struggle, aren't you?" was the world No2's rhetorical analysis of Augusta day one.
The Englishman pushed his drive at the 1st into a fairway bunker, from where he could only pitch out, chip on to the green and miss a five-foot putt for par. As snapshots go, that was an insightful one.
Paul Newberry reports that after a 78, Martin Kaymer suggests he doesn't think Augusta fits his eye.
Kaymer has missed the cut in all three of his previous Masters, and this was his worst score yet. He'll have to shoot in the 60s Friday — something he's never done at Augusta — to have any chance of making it to the weekend.
"It was very difficult," the German golfer said. "There's some golf courses that suit you and some, they just don't."
Gene Wojciechowski on Kaymer and Augusta.
The good news is ... well, there is no good news. Once again, Kaymer laid a very large German egg. Only four other players shot worse scores. Sam Snead could have shot better -- and he's dead.
"I think that I don't really know how to play that golf course," Kaymer said. "I can think about it another hour, hour and a half or two hours. I just don't really find a solution."
But Jeff Rude wonders if this is really a matter of Kaymer changing his swing to hit a draw at Augusta.
Kaymer has perhaps the best bullet fade in the game. Why he’s not sticking with it is curious.
The SI gang has a brief confidential and it's a nearly unanimous view that Kaymer's 78 was the shock of the day.
The Americans
Robert Lusetich notes that Phil finished the round irritated while Tiger seemed oddly satisfied to only be six back. Either way, he wonders if this is the beginning of the inevitable shift.
Mickelson immediately went to the driving range as dusk fell to try to straighten his crooked driver.
Woods, meanwhile, left reassuring himself that "I’m only six back."
In truth, maybe neither of them will have what it takes to win the 75th Masters.
Maybe the generational change that’s been brewing in golf for some time will finally arrive on Sunday.
Maybe the young, powerful Quiros will just blast his way into immortality or maybe it’ll be McIlroy, who’s a savant with a golf club in his hand and putts without fear.
Christine Brennan noted a difference in the crowds.
Is it possible that even Augusta National isn't as welcoming to Woods as it used to be? The reception for the slumping Woods seemed a bit muted Thursday. His gallery was large, to be sure, but not massive. There was plenty of room to watch Woods putt on No. 9 and tee off on No. 10, where many spectators gather. In previous years, those spaces wouldn't have existed.
Perhaps that's because there are other draws on the golf course now, young players like McIlroy, 22-year-old Rickie Fowler and 23-year-old Jason Day, who happened to be placed in the same threesome for the tournament's first two rounds.
While it is true Woods never goes low in the opening round of the Masters --- three of the four times he won here he opened with a 70, the fourth time with a 74 and last year's 68 was the only time he broke 70 in the first round -- these are not ordinary times. On three of the occasions in which he ended up taking home the green jacket, Woods was first in the field in greens in regulation and he was second the other time. In all four of those victorious efforts, Woods hit more than three-quarters of the greens in regulation, compared to the two-thirds effort he turned in Thursday.
Bill Fields on Fred Couples' 71:
Couples received cortisone shots last week in hopes that they would allow him to have a chance to play well. He figures to take some time off after this week to see if rest will alleviate some of the discomfort, which is obvious with his frequent stretching and shifting from side to side.
"I've been feeling terrible for two weeks," Couples said. "I'm going to try my best to get through this tournament then take some time off. I do like this place. I expect to shoot a nice score tomoorow. What that is, I don't know. But if I shoot 75 or something like that, I'll be highly, highly disappointed."
Steve Elling on Phil's erratic 70:
The defending champion shot a 2-under 70, but was frightfully wild off the tee, even by his uneven standards, hitting only 4 of 14 fairways to rank dead last in the 99-man field in driving percentage. Not surprisingly, Mickelson conducted only a brief interview with ESPN after the round and hustled off to hit some balls on the range before darkness fell.
Ryan Herrington on former Amateur champs and Crow's Nest occupants Matt Kuchar, Ricky Barnes and Ryan Moore walking off with red numbers.
Maybe it's just coincidence that the trio had success, even though each had top-25 finishes at the tournament when playing for pride rather than pay. Or maybe it's good karma.
"The atmosphere is a little different," Moore said of playing Augusta National as an amateur compared to a pro. "The way you're treated [as an amateur] is almost better."
John Strege has his daily Media Watch and this on Rickie Fowler after a 70.
From Rickie Fowler's post-round interview with the media, on whether he would wear his hat backwards: "Well, around here it's forwards. Once I get off, if I had a chance, I might throw it on backwards."
Fowler talked about playing with Rory in his Masters.com diary.
I loved playing with Rory McIlroy, we had a lot of fun. He's obviously very confident with his swing right now. The ball is taking off right where he wants it to. It was nice to see him post a good number and to actually see that and know that it's out there. So I'll try to get after it Friday and chase him down a bit.
I like to talk on the course, I like to hang out, have a good time. He spent some time down in Jupiter (Florida) recently, which is where I live, and we talked about stuff to do down there, fishing, fun stuff, not really talking too much golf.
Other Players
Wayne Staats on Y.E. Yang, positioned nicely at five under.
But the four birdies on the front nine and his success in the first seven holes of the second nine, Yang, who finished tied for eighth in the 2010 Masters Tournament, is in good position.
He enters Friday in good shape to make a run at a second major.
"Winning a major isn't a privilege, it's an honor," Yang said. "With that comes confidence. Coming into other majors, it's no longer a dream for you. You know it's something you can grasp."
KJ Choi, also posted 67, and likes playing before large crowds, reports Larry Fine.
"The gallery here, they are so supportive of the players. The Masters has its own tradition. All of those elements really make me feel comfortable playing here.
"The fact that there's so many galleries here on both sides of the hole, on any given hole, it really enables me to focus. It's easy to set the target."
Mark Hayes on Geoff Ogilvy posting the low Australian score of the day, a 69 that has him wondering what will happen to the setup after Thursday's red numbers.
And perhaps it's because he knows bigger challenges lie ahead, even predicting that organisers could toughen the course up at will if they think today's scoring barrage went too far.
"They like to see people get red (sub-par scores), but the set-up is not pre-determined here. It's fluid, depending on weather and how the scores are going and they will keep it at a score they want to see shot most of the time," he said.
"If they think that we went too low today, it might get tougher tomorrow," he said with a grin.
Sean Martin wraps up the fierce amateur competition and shares this about Stanford's David Chung, who teed off not long after Jack and Arnold's ceremonial first tee shots:
Amateurs are accustomed to playing in front of friends and family. The Masters’ large crowds are just another challenge they must overcome. When low amateur David Chung stepped to Augusta National’s first tee at 7:56 a.m. Thursday, he tried to take deep breaths to relax himself.
“It seemed like there was no oxygen coming into my lungs,” said Chung, a junior at Stanford. “Not only are there people all around you, but there are people lining the fairways. It’s very different.”
Speaking of that opening shot, Jim McCabe with all the details on Jack and Arnold still getting butterflies all of these years later.
‘When I stop getting nervous, I won’t be here,” Arnold Palmer said, moments after opening the 75th Masters not with fireworks and pageantry but grace and humility.
“I’m most grateful (to be here),” Palmer said. “No tournament carries the heritage and tradition (like the Masters). It’s still fun, still exciting to see people I’ve been looking at all these years.”
Images
The Augusta Chronicle offers slideshows devoted to Tiger, Phil, bunker shots and the afternoon round.
Golfweek with a really nice collection of images.
Flora, Fauna, Food
Dave Kindred's review of the Pimento Cheese Sandwich is in…
Let me say I now remember why I retired from pimento cheese sandwiches.
They're the consistency of wallpaper paste with none of wallpaper paste's good taste.
Alan Bastable writes about a new members only cabin on the 13th hole.
Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne declined to say how the club came to the decision to build the cabin, telling Golf.com it was a “club matter,” not a “tournament matter.”
Could he at least describe the interior?
“No, sir.”
Speaking of the Chairman, John Huggan posed ten very legit questions that did not come up in Wednesday's press conference.
And finally, the best laugh of the day came via this Darren Rovell conclusion to a CNBC reader poll.
It's pretty amazing that, out of the 253 votes we received on the poll below, that the most popular opinion — 22 percent — is that Tiger will never win another major. If that's the case, the PGA Tour is in for a rude awakening when it comes time to negotiate their TV rights at the end of this season.
Yes, those negotiations will be impacted by reader polls that suggest 22 percent of 253 people think Tiger will not win another major. And this is the business communities' Golf Channel?
