holed from 25 feet for a birdie on the island green of the 17th hole. The crowd were going nuts and Montgomerie, who had been leading, had little chance once his second at the 16th splashed into the lake.
However, Montgomerie, who had already won the first three of his incredible seven-in-a-row order of merit titles on the European Tour, was now second on the world rankings, a career high. After a winter in his garage-turned-gym, a slimmed down version of the Scot emerged after a long winter’s break to win his first event of the year in Dubai in March, in the process hitting his famous shot with a driver from the fairway over the water to the 18th green. His record at Augusta was poor, but he was so heavily backed with British bookmakers on the eve of the Masters that he started as the co-favourite with Couples.
Adding to the sense that anyone could win was the fact that four of the last five winners on the PGA Tour had been first-timers. Just at the time of the season when all the top players were playing most weeks, Tim Herron, Paul Goydos, Scott McCarron and PaulStankowski, who was the sixth alternate for the last tournament prior to the Masters in Atlanta and was a winner on the second-tier Nike Tour the week before that, had all sprung surprise victories and booked their first trips to Augusta in the process.
Nicklaus said: ‘When Snead and Hogan were in their prime, you looked at five or six players to win the tournament. When I was in my prime, there were about ten players, maybe a few more. Today, you look at 30 or 40 players. But when it gets down to it on Sunday, you’re going to have the top ones there. You always do. That is what makes it such a great tournament.’
With so many potential winners to choose from, a survey of golf writers’ picks in the
Augusta Chronicle
produced 11 different nominations. Norman and Faldo received only one pick each. Montgomerie, Couples, Love and Daly had two each, while Phil Mickelson and Tom Lehman led the way with three each. Lehman was not a bad shout after becoming a regular contender in majors, though he would have to wait a few more months for his breakthrough win at the Open at Lytham. Mickelson was perhaps the form player of the early part of the American season, having won twice, at Tucson and Phoenix, but the 25-year-old had yet to win east of the Mississippi.
Love was the pick of a
Golf World
(US) magazine article which ruled out contenders on the basis of, for example, being an amateur (had never won the Masters); the defending champion (only happened twice); anyone older than 46 (the age at which Nicklaus won in 1986); Augusta debutants (only Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 had won on his first appearance in modern times); and anyone who had waited longer than the 14 appearances it took Billy Casper to win in 1970. Among those dispatched were Norman (16th appearance), Strange (20th) and Kite (23rd), and with other categories applied, eventually they got down to a final four that comprised Langer, Faldo, Mickelson and Love. They gave the final nod toLove, who turned 32 on the Saturday of the 1996 Masters, exactly matching the average age of the 59 previous Masters champions. Langer, in fact, had suffered a shoulder injury while playing volleyball in the garden with his children and had not quite recovered full fitness.
In honour of Nicklaus’s win ten years earlier, when the Bear had been inspired by an infamous comment in the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
by Tom McCollister that he was ‘gone, done, doesn’t have the game any more’, a columnist for the
Augusta Chronicle
handicapped the 1996 Masters field in a similar style. Norman: ‘When’s the last time this guy made a cut anyway? Nice hat, though.’ Faldo: ‘Here’s a little-known Masters fact for you: No player with a college-age girlfriend has ever won the tournament. At least, none that we know of.’
Faldo was in the process of getting divorced from his second wife Gill after his affair with
However, Montgomerie, who had already won the first three of his incredible seven-in-a-row order of merit titles on the European Tour, was now second on the world rankings, a career high. After a winter in his garage-turned-gym, a slimmed down version of the Scot emerged after a long winter’s break to win his first event of the year in Dubai in March, in the process hitting his famous shot with a driver from the fairway over the water to the 18th green. His record at Augusta was poor, but he was so heavily backed with British bookmakers on the eve of the Masters that he started as the co-favourite with Couples.
Adding to the sense that anyone could win was the fact that four of the last five winners on the PGA Tour had been first-timers. Just at the time of the season when all the top players were playing most weeks, Tim Herron, Paul Goydos, Scott McCarron and PaulStankowski, who was the sixth alternate for the last tournament prior to the Masters in Atlanta and was a winner on the second-tier Nike Tour the week before that, had all sprung surprise victories and booked their first trips to Augusta in the process.
Nicklaus said: ‘When Snead and Hogan were in their prime, you looked at five or six players to win the tournament. When I was in my prime, there were about ten players, maybe a few more. Today, you look at 30 or 40 players. But when it gets down to it on Sunday, you’re going to have the top ones there. You always do. That is what makes it such a great tournament.’
With so many potential winners to choose from, a survey of golf writers’ picks in the
Augusta Chronicle
produced 11 different nominations. Norman and Faldo received only one pick each. Montgomerie, Couples, Love and Daly had two each, while Phil Mickelson and Tom Lehman led the way with three each. Lehman was not a bad shout after becoming a regular contender in majors, though he would have to wait a few more months for his breakthrough win at the Open at Lytham. Mickelson was perhaps the form player of the early part of the American season, having won twice, at Tucson and Phoenix, but the 25-year-old had yet to win east of the Mississippi.
Love was the pick of a
Golf World
(US) magazine article which ruled out contenders on the basis of, for example, being an amateur (had never won the Masters); the defending champion (only happened twice); anyone older than 46 (the age at which Nicklaus won in 1986); Augusta debutants (only Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 had won on his first appearance in modern times); and anyone who had waited longer than the 14 appearances it took Billy Casper to win in 1970. Among those dispatched were Norman (16th appearance), Strange (20th) and Kite (23rd), and with other categories applied, eventually they got down to a final four that comprised Langer, Faldo, Mickelson and Love. They gave the final nod toLove, who turned 32 on the Saturday of the 1996 Masters, exactly matching the average age of the 59 previous Masters champions. Langer, in fact, had suffered a shoulder injury while playing volleyball in the garden with his children and had not quite recovered full fitness.
In honour of Nicklaus’s win ten years earlier, when the Bear had been inspired by an infamous comment in the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
by Tom McCollister that he was ‘gone, done, doesn’t have the game any more’, a columnist for the
Augusta Chronicle
handicapped the 1996 Masters field in a similar style. Norman: ‘When’s the last time this guy made a cut anyway? Nice hat, though.’ Faldo: ‘Here’s a little-known Masters fact for you: No player with a college-age girlfriend has ever won the tournament. At least, none that we know of.’
Faldo was in the process of getting divorced from his second wife Gill after his affair with
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