Faldo/Norman by Andy Farrell Read Free Book Online Page A

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    Woods had faced the media a day earlier, one of only nine players to be invited to the interview room for a formal preview interview. It was quite an honour for an amateur, though that is not a word he would probably use after being constantly rolled out as a professional. The room was as packed as it would be for a champion on Sunday night. ‘I’m pleased to say I haven’t got lost in the clubhouse like last year,’ he said. There was more laughter and a flash of his gleaming smile when he added: ‘One thing I forgot about the Masters is all the cameras people can bring to the practice rounds – and they fire them, too.’
    The big question on everyone’s lips was when he would turn professional. It was a question he was already fed up of answering. ‘It does tend to get to you after a while if it keeps coming up repeatedly. But the answer’s still the same.’ Stanford University, where he was in his second year, was ‘awesome’ and, in any case, ‘I have no place to play yet. I’m not exempt. I have no security.’
    When the time was finally right, at the end of the summer, Woods would have no problem finding security or a place to play. In the meantime, Nicklaus was not only being asked about the young amateur’s chances of winning, but his own. Ten years on from his dramatic sixth victory at Augusta when he swept past Norman and Seve Ballesteros with a stunning back-nine charge, he arrived having won his eighth major title as a senior at the previous week’s Tradition tournament. He played down his chancesof winning, though. ‘My game felt awfully puny today,’ he said after playing with Woods. Others thought he might have a chance. ‘I’ll bet Jack does,’ said Nick Faldo.
    This was Nicklaus’s 38th appearance at Augusta but he could not accept becoming a ceremonial golfer, as Palmer had. The King, ten years older than the Bear, had been honoured by the city of Augusta with a statue unveiled in the Riverwalk area on the banks of the Savannah River. The inscription on the plaque, entitled ‘Arnie’s Charge’, noted that when in contention ‘he wore his determination and concentration just as surely as he wore his smile a few holes back. Once you saw it, you could never forget it. Now, it has been captured forever, for those who remember and for those not fortunate enough to have seen it for themselves.’
    Nicklaus did at least contend in the par-three contest, the traditional Masters curtain-raiser on the club’s gorgeous nine-hole course that started in 1960, recording his best finish of joint third with Ian Woosnam on 23, four under par. In his prime, Nicklaus used to skip the event to conclude his media duties and rest up for the tournament proper. Nothing to do with the supposed jinx on the winner of the par-three, who has never gone on to don the green jacket in the same week, a curse that persists.
    Jay Haas was the victor on this occasion, beating Larry Mize at the second extra hole after they had tied on 22. Haas, with an ace at the 2nd, was one of four players to have a hole-in-one, along with debutant Mark Roe, Ian Baker-Finch (both at the 7th) and Sandy Lyle, at the 9th. He joined Sam Snead and Isao Aoki as the only two-time winners, having won the event as an amateur 20 years earlier. However, by finishing 36th on Sunday, he merely proved again that Wednesday’s winner could be ruled out of contention for the green jacket.

    He was about the only one. Almost everyone else was in with a chance. ‘It’s not likely you can pick anybody,’ said Davis Love. ‘It’s whoever gets that magic. You always need to look toward guys who are really playing well.’
    Since 1987, when Augusta native Mize shocked Norman, the winners had all come from the top of the game. The only exception to this trend had been Ben Crenshaw in 1995. Crenshaw had won the Masters in 1984 but 11 years later had little form in the run-up to Augusta and even less during the practice rounds. On the Sunday