GOLF: THE MASTERS: T HE YOUNG GUNS:As last night's outcome confirmed the Masters is no longer a US preserve, writes RICHARD WILLIAMS
THE FIRST shots in the 75th Masters were fired on Thursday morning by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, who drove somewhat creakily from the first tee before shaking hands, signing a few autographs and retiring to the clubhouse, leaving the field of 99 players to get on with it. The role of honorary starter is a Masters tradition going back to 1963, and it is one that was filled before Palmer and Nicklaus by other former champions, including Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead – American heroes to a man.
Look down the road, however, perhaps to the centenary tournament in 2026, and the picture may be a little different. At dawn on that Thursday morning the honorary starters could well be a grey-haired Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam, or Bernhard Langer and José María Olazábal, illustrating the shift in golf’s centre of gravity in the 50 years since Gary Player became the first non-American to put on the green jacket.
When the final round of the 2011 tournament started on Sunday morning, the leaderboard represented a dismaying sight to local eyes accustomed to a strong American presence. For the first time in the history of the competition, not one of the top seven players in the Saturday night standings was a citizen of the United States.
Just as amazingly, the seven represented five continents: Europe with Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and England’s Luke Donald, South America with Angel Cabrera of Argentina, Africa with Charl Schwartzel of Johannesburg, Asia with KJ Choi of South Korea, and Australia with Queensland’s Jason Day and Adelaide’s Adam Scott. Add Bo van Pelt, Tiger Woods and Fred Couples, filling eighth to 10th places, as the leading North Americans, and only Antarctica failed to lodge a representative in the top 10.
In the rush to acclaim the preponderance of non-Americans at the top of the leaderboard, it was easy to overlook the fact that no European player had won the Masters since Olazábal took the second of his two green jackets in 1999.
“And let’s not forget,” George O’Grady, the chief executive of the European Tour, cautioned, “that the defending champion here this week is Phil Mickelson.”
Five months ago, however, O’Grady was able to bring the European Tour’s season to a triumphal climax during the Race to Dubai by lining up the 60 competitors with their array of trophies, including the three major championship trophies currently held by Graeme McDowell (US Open), Louis Oosthuizen (Open) and Martin Kaymer, the current world number one (US PGA), plus the Ryder Cup, which had just been recaptured at Celtic Manor.
As a statement of past achievements it was impressive enough, but O’Grady’s real purpose was to help strengthen the players’ self-confidence by providing an illustration of what could be achieved in the future, and a sign of why there was no longer a need to accept a place in the shadow of the US and its golfers.
“There’s a great self-belief among the players,” he said, standing beneath the famous oak tree outside the Augusta clubhouse while the early starters teed off yesterday. “Should Rory McIlroy hold on to this position, there’s a mass of people associated with golf around the world, not just the European Tour but everywhere, who can take a lot of pride in contributing to that – amateur bodies, the structure of the game in different areas, as well as the Golfing Union of Ireland, the Nick Faldo junior series which he’s played in, and the Junior Ryder Cup as well.
“This is the same in Italy, for example, where the Italian golf federation has developed Matteo Manassero, and that sort of thing is being replicated throughout the rest of the world. You’ve got to have extraordinary talent to come through, of course.
“When we lined up the players and the trophies for the photograph on the Thursday morning in Dubai, it was done on purpose, to give a message to the players. The message was, which one of those are you going to win next year?
“Even the guy who’d got in in 60th place, he felt, ‘I could win one of those.’ These things come round. It’s only eight or nine years since the English papers were asking where the next English golfer was coming from. Now you’ve got (Ian)Poulter, (Paul)Casey, (Lee) Westwood, Ross Fisher, all that lot.”
When O’Grady launched the Race to Dubai format in 2009, he was asked if it constituted an attempt to lure the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson to the European Tour. “My answer was no, it was about looking after the current people on the European Tour and developing our own Tiger Woods. I said then that possibly a brilliant younger player called Martin Kaymer might be the German Tiger Woods, and that Rory McIlroy might be the Irish Tiger Woods.
“I think now they believe they can do it.”
Guardian Service
