A round-up of today's other stories from Augusta

Heading in the right direction

IT'S NOT often the occasion arises in the heat of battle at the Masters that a player gets the chance to play verbal football with someone outside the ropes, but the opportunity arose for Pádraig Harrington on the sixth hole of his opening round yesterday when he discovered a wayward drive had been diverted from a home amidst the pine needles by a spectator's head.

When Harrington arrived to find his ball nestling quite nicely in the rough, the injured party in the gallery piped up, "Hey, Paddy, you owe me one."

"What?" enquired Harrington.

"You owe me one, the ball hit me on the head."

"You must have a hard head," replied the Dubliner, jokingly adding: "Why didn't you head it further back?"

To which the golf fan's buddy quipped, "he couldn't even make the soccer team when he was in Grade Three (in primary school)."

Palmer hits ceremonial drive 'out of sight'

FIFTY YEARS on, Arnold Palmer's drive down the first fairway had a different relevance. The Masters champion of 1958 - teeing off at precisely 7.50am, only minutes before a thick fog descended on the azaleas and dogwood to cause an hour's postponement for the tournament proper - split the fairway with his ceremonial drive.

How did it compare? "Well, 50 years ago it went a lot further," quipped Palmer, who didn't even have to walk down to pick up his ball. That act was performed by a tournament official.

Palmer couldn't make out where his shot into the haze had landed, and joked: "I hit it out of sight."

Palmer, the only honorary starter this time round, intends to keep up the tradition in the coming years.

Player still breaking records

AS FAR as Gary Player was concerned, he had just missed out on par. "Man, that's one tough golf course, the toughest I've ever played," said the 72-year-old South African shortly after taking another step into golfing history.

In completing a first round of 83, Player - competing in a record 51st Masters, breaking the old record of his pal Arnold Palmer, joked, "well, par for me is 80."

Meanwhile, Fred Couples is seeking to set a new record of successive cuts made in the Masters, which he shares with Player. Freddie has made 23 successive cuts in the tournament.

Lonard's first

AUSSIE PETER Lonard's laid-back approach for his fifth Masters worked wonders. Having missed the cut on each of his previous visits here, Lonard decided that less is more in preparing: he arrived late on Monday, walked the back nine with just a putter in hand and then confined himself to playing the front nine on Tuesday and the back nine on Wednesday. The result? An opening round of 71, one-under - his first under-par round at Augusta.