Ten things you should know about the Masters
Ten historical nuggets worth knowing to know about the Masters and Augusta National Golf Club:
WHAT’S THE SCORE: Clifford Roberts, co-founder of Augusta National, devised a scoring system for the 1960 Masters that he called the “over-and-under” method. Scores were shown on a cumulative basis on how a player stood with respect to par, such as 10-under par or 3-over par. That has become the standard for scoring at golf tournaments around the world.
MEASURING HOLES: The Masters is the only major golf tournament in which the yardage of each hole is rounded off to end in “5” or “0.” Roberts felt that an exact yardage was not relevant because the movement of tee markers and pin positions for each round changed the distance. The course is listed at 7,435 yards. And no one can be sure it ever plays to that length.
WHAT’S IN A NAME: When the club decided to hold a golf tournament, Roberts suggested it be called the Masters Tournament. Co-founder Bobby Jones vetoed that because he felt it was too presumptuous, so it made its debut in 1934 as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament. The title changed to the Masters in 1939.
GREEN JACKET THEN: Augusta National bought green jackets from New York-based Brooks Uniform Company in 1937 for members to wear during the tournament so patrons would know who to turn to for information. Members wore them at the club so that waiters would know who would pay the bill.
GREEN JACKET NOW: Sam Snead in 1949 became the first Masters champion awarded a green jacket, a symbol that winners would become honorary members. The previous champions also were given green jackets. For past champions and members alike, the jacket can only be worn at the club. The exception is the reigning champion, who returns the green jacket when he comes back to defend his title.
AMATEUR HOUSING: Amateurs have the option to stay in the Crow’s Nest atop the clubhouse at Augusta National. It provides space for up to five players, and rising from the room is the 11-square-foot cupola with windows on all sides that can only be reached by a ladder. There are seven amateurs at the Masters this year, though not every man wishes to stay in the Crow’s Nest. Among the amateurs who did were Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw and Tiger Woods. Canada’s Corey Conners will stay there for part of this year’s Masters.
BLACKOUT: The Masters now is the most viewed golf tournament in the world, broadcast in more than 200 countries. But it wasn’t always that way. When it was televised for the first time in 1956, all CBS stations within a 200-mile radius of the club were blacked out from showing the tournament to help with ticket sales. The blackout was lifted in 1969.
ICE ON THE AZALEAS: One of the many myths about Augusta National is the staff places bags of ice on the azaleas and other flowers in the spring to keep them from blooming until the week of the Masters. That was proven incorrect most recently in 2012, unless the town ran out of ice. Every now and again, spring arrives earlier than the first full week in April, and the azaleas and dogwoods no longer are in bloom.
THE GREAT SWITCH: The most exciting back nine in golf used to be the front nine at Augusta National. The opening tee shot was what now is No. 10. Amen Corner would have consisted of Nos. 2, 3 and 4. But after the inaugural tournament in 1934, officials decided to flip the two nines.
MEMBERSHIP: Ever wonder how to be considered for membership at Augusta National? Don’t bother. Much like the tournament it runs, club membership is by invitation only. Golf World estimated in 2009 from a member who didn’t give his name that the initiation fee was “low five figures” and annual dues were “a few thousand” a year. When the club opened, the initiation fee was $350 with annual dues of $60. And by the way, Augusta National is closed from the middle of May to the middle of October.
Tiger Woods confirms he’s playing the Masters
Tiger Woods ended all that speculation about his game by letting everyone see for themselves.
He said Friday he will play next week in the Masters.
Golf’s biggest attraction and four-time Masters champion played two practice rounds at Augusta National this week before a simple announcement on his website that he would end his two-month leave on the sport’s biggest stage.
“I’m playing in the Masters,” Woods said on his website. “It’s obviously very important to me, and I want to be there. I’ve worked a lot on my game, and I’m looking forward to competing. I’m excited to get to Augusta, and I appreciate everyone’s support.”
Woods was last seen at a golf tournament on Feb. 5 at Torrey Pines. He hit a sand wedge some 30 yards over the green, duffed a chip coming back, bladed the next one too hard and made double bogey. One tee shot later, he withdrew because of tightness in his lower back, saying that his “glutes didn’t activate” after a delay in cool, foggy weather.
Of far greater concern was the state of his game.
Woods has played on two tournaments this year and completed just 47 holes. His short game was shockingly bad at the Phoenix Open, where he shot a career-worst 82 and missed the cut by nine shots. And he didn’t get out of the first round at Torrey Pines.
A week later, he said his game and his scores were unacceptable. “I enter a tournament to compete at the highest level, and when I think I’m ready, I’ll be back.”
Those are words by which he will be judged next week at the Masters.
Woods played an 18-hole practice round Tuesday at Augusta, and he played again at the club on Friday, according to his agent.
He will have gone nine weeks without competition when he hits his opening tee shot on Thursday, which is not unprecedented for Woods. He went nearly five months without playing when he returned in 2010 from a crisis in his personal life that led to one of the greatest downfalls in sport. He tied for fourth that year.
Scrutiny might be even greater this time around.
The last time Woods took an extended break before the Masters, he had won his previous tournament at the Australian Masters and was No. 1 in the world after a seven-win season. Now, his game has been in disarray over a series of injuries, physical limitations and another change in coaching.
He hasn’t won a tournament since the Bridgestone Invitational in August 2013. He hasn’t finished under par in 14 months, dating to the 2014 Dubai Desert Classic. And he has plunged to No. 104 in the world, his lowest ranking since Sept. 29, 1996, a week before he won the first of his 90 professional tournaments worldwide.
Woods hasn’t won the Masters in 10 years, though he has managed there even when his game was off. It’s the only major where Woods has made the cut every time.
He missed the Masters last year because of back surgery to alleviate a pinched nerve, and he wound up sitting out three months. Four tournaments into his return, he again dealt with back pain and sat out the final four months of the season to fully recover and get stronger.
But when he returned at his Hero World Challenge in December, he tied for last in an 18-man field and chipped so poorly that some analysts said he had the chipping yips. Two months of practice didn’t help. During the Phoenix Open pro-am, he hit a bunker shot on the 16th hole that shot over the green and into the first row of bleachers.
Chipping and pitching at Augusta National doesn’t not allow for much margin of error, and the scrutiny figures to be at a high level even by Woods’ standards.
“The first little pitch shot he’s got to hit – not chip shot, the first little pitch shot he’s got to hit – will be microanalyzed, and he knows that,” said Paul Azinger, a former PGA champion and now ESPN analyst. “There’s a big microscope on that guy. I don’t think he’d show up unless he feels like he solved that problem.”
When he skipped the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, Woods said he hoped to be ready for the Masters and would continue working.
There have been secondhand reports that Woods was playing a lot at his home club, The Medalist, in South Florida. Golfweek cited a source as saying Woods shot 74 with five birdies when he played Augusta National on Tuesday.
Woods has his own practice facility in the backyard of his home in Jupiter Island, Florida. Going from a private setting to some 35,000 fans figures to be the biggest challenge.
“All we see with Tiger is the tip of the iceberg,” Azinger said. “And what we don’t know is what’s under the tip of the iceberg. How hard has he worked on being the best player, not the best swinger? That’s what we don’t know.”
Starting Thursday, that’s what everyone gets to find out.
Westgate Las Vegas Superbook listed odds for Woods winning at 40-1.
I’m playing in the Masters. Thanks for all the support. http://t.co/SYih4eSxUa
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 3, 2015
Scott Piercy shoots 63, takes lead at Houston Open
HOUSTON – After his record-tying round Thursday, Scott Piercy let his thoughts drift toward qualifying for the Masters with a win this week.
Piercy tied a tournament record with a nearly flawless 9-under-par 63 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Houston Open.
“It’s the first round,” he said. “If I’m sitting here Sunday, then I’ll be super-excited. If I (keep playing) like I did today, I would say there’s a pretty good chance of that.”
Alex Cejka, in an afternoon group, made four birdies on his back nine – the course’s front nine – to finish with a 64, one stroke behind Piercy.
J. B. Holmes was next at 65, having also gotten to 8-under with four holes to play before finding a fairway bunker with his first shot at No. 6. After badly missing the green, Holmes had to scramble to a bogey.
Phil Mickelson, Luke Guthrie, Charles Howell III and Houston’s Shawn Stefani each shot a 66 and trail Piercy by three strokes.
Piercy, who made five birdies in a row over one torrid stretch during the middle of his round, became only the fifth player to card a 63 since this PGA Tour stop moved to the Golf Club of Houston Tournament Course in 2003. Two of the others, Mickelson in 2011 and Johnson Wagner in 2008, went on to win the championship.
The 36-year-old Piercy, a pro from Las Vegas, missed only one green in regulation and needed just 26 putts. Two days earlier, however, feeling so discouraged by the way he’d been playing of late that it crossed his mind while he was out grinding on the driving range “to go home and not waste my time.”
Piercy, instead, decided to keep practicing. He wound up hitting golf balls for “12, 13 hours. … In the 13th hour, something kind of clicked and I kind of figured it out. On Wednesday, I kind of engrained it, kept working and got pretty good. Today was awesome. It really was.”
Piercy was off the PGA Tour for six months last year while recovering from elbow surgery and said he still hadn’t felt quite right before arriving in Houston. But he liked his form Thursday the moment he first swung his driver. He began the day with a birdie on No. 10 and capped it by sinking a 30-foot birdie putt on the No. 9, his final hole.
“Everything went right,” said Piercy, who last won on the Tour at the RBC Canadian Open in 2012. “I hit the ball so good. It’s been building. I kept hitting good shot after good shot. By the end, I was (only) trying to make birdies.”
Teeing off 20 minutes before Piercy, Mickelson made himself the early front-runner by chipping in for birdie on his first hole, then turning the corner at 3-under, about the time Piercy began his birdie run. Mickelson reached 7-under at one point but bogeyed the par-three ninth, his final hole.
The three-time Masters champion, one of at least 36 players in the Houston field who are headed to Augusta National next week for the season’s first major, had skidded to a final-round 76 Sunday in the Texas Open. So, his late lapse here notwithstanding, Mickelson called his effort “a good round, a good start to the tournament. I got off to a quick start, birdieing three of the first four holes, and kept it going.
“The course is in pristine condition. The greens being soft are going to allow us to get more aggressive (aiming for) the pins and make some more birdies. The scores are going to be low” he said. “I’m just glad I was one of them.”
Piercy wasn’t the only one thinking about qualifying for The Masters.
Canada’s Graham DeLaet opened with a 5-under 67.
Ko ties Sorenstam’s record of 29 straight rounds under par
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. –
Lexi Thompson figured young friend Lydia Ko was dead in the woods to the left of the seventh fairway.
“I didn’t know she had that kind of shot because she was on an upslope,” Thompson said. “I didn’t know she could keep it under the trees.”
Trying to tie Annika Sorenstam’s LPGA Tour record for consecutive rounds under par, the 17-year-old Ko was even par with three holes left Thursday in the first round of the ANA Inspiration. And she was stuck behind five large trees.
“It was a pretty nasty place to be,” Ko said.
To escape, she needed to a hit a sweeping, low hook.
She did, with the ball scampering onto the green and stopping pin-high 25 feet to the right.
“I said, `I’m going to try to hit the biggest hook,'” Ko said. “It would have probably looked really bad, that swing on camera, but it ended up being OK. … I had to hit it low enough and had to hit a slinging hook, so I didn’t end up in the bunker.”
The New Zealander two-putted for par, then hit a 6-iron to 18 inches on the 158-yard eighth to set up the birdie she needed to get under par. She closed with a par on the par-5 ninth for a 1-under 71 to match Sorenstam’s record of 29 straight rounds under par.
Ko was tied for 10th, four strokes behind first-round leader Morgan Pressel in the first major championship of the season. Pressel won the 2007 tournament to become the youngest major champion at 18 years, 10 months, 9 days.
“I kept the ball in play,” Pressel said. “I was never really in terrible position.”
Ai Miyazato was second at 68, and Hall of Famer Juli Inkster, So Yeon Ryu, Alison Walshe and Gwladys Nocera shot 69. The 54-year-old Inkster won in 1984 and 1989.
“I actually have been hitting the ball fairly well the last couple of weeks and I’ve been out with a bulky putter,” Inkster said. “Today, I made a few putts and I made great par on 16.”
The top six played in the afternoon, long after strong wind tested the morning starters on their opening nines at tree-lined Mission Hills.
Thompson, the defending champion, had a 72 playing alongside Ko in the morning.
“I knew she would salvage the round,” Thompson said. “She might have been a little bit off today, but she has an amazing short game and hit some incredible shots.”
The top-ranked Ko started the streak in the first round of her victory last year in the season-ending event. Her worldwide streak is 32, counting her three rounds in her victory in the Ladies European Tour’s New Zealand Women’s Open.
Sorenstam set the LPGA Tour mark in 2004.
With the wind gusting to 20 mph, Ko opened with a 14-foot birdie putt on No. 10 and made an 8-footer on 12. She bogeyed 13, hitting into the front right bunker and leaving a 25-foot putt.
After Thompson hit into the front water on the 133-yard 14th with the wind gusting to 25-30 mph, Ko hit pin-high to the right and made the 15-footer.
“I had to play like 12 yards (for the wind), so I went up a club and a half,” Ko said.
Ko bogeyed three of the next four holes to make the turn at 1 over.
Playing into a right-to-left crosswind on the par-4 15th, she drove into the front of the left fairway bunker. A half-foot from the lip, she chipped 30 yards to the fairway and hit her 6-iron third to 35 feet.
On the par-4 16th, she drove left into rough on the front edge of a bunker. Her fairway wood with the ball below her feet was short of the green in the left rough and she hit her third to 20 feet.
She was fortunate to drop only one shot on the par-5 18th. After going from the right to left rough and sending her third through the green, Ko hit a flop shot that ticked a palm tree and stopped in the fringe. Her downhill putt raced 15 feet past, but she holed the comebacker.
“I would have never thought I would hit the tree that was like 3 yards away right on my target,” Ko said. “But holed a good putt, so maybe that was the turning point.”
Ko got back to even par on the par-5 second, chipping to a foot. She also chipped to a foot on the par-3 fifth after missing to the left.
She was too busy scrambling to worry about the record.
“A record was the last thing I was thinking about,” Ko said.
Ko won in Australia in February – the week before her New Zealand victory – for her sixth LPGA Tour victory. She has 10 worldwide titles in professional events.
Canada’s Alena Sharp opened with a 76 and was tied for 85th after the opening-round.
Canadian Women’s Tour returns for 2015
Golf Canada announced today the 2015 schedule for the Canadian Women’s Tour. The tour’s 14th season will feature three tournaments, and offer five exemptions into the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.
Each event champion will earn direct entry into the 43rd playing of Canada’s National Women’s Open. Following the tour’s finale – the PGA Women’s Championship of Canada – two additional exemptions will be awarded to the top two competitors (not otherwise exempt) on the 2015 Canadian Women’s Tour Order of Merit.
The 2015 season will see a total of $180,000 being awarded through the Canadian Women’s Tour. Each 36-hole competition purse has been set at $60,000, while the winner of each event will come away with $10,000.
“Golf Canada is thrilled to announce the venues for the 2015 Canadian Women’s Tour,” said Tournament Director Mary Beth McKenna. “Our competitors will have the opportunity to demonstrate their elite skill level on three challenging, competitive courses. The additions of these marquee clubs will add to the proud tradition of the tour and help demonstrate the passion for golf in Canada.”
Glencoe Golf and Country Club, located just outside of Calgary, will play host for the tour’s season-opening event. From May 25-27, the picturesque course situated along Elbow River will feature a field of top golfers from Canada and abroad.
The second leg of the tour will be played June 15-17 at Smiths Falls Golf and Country Club in Smiths Falls, Ont. Winding through forests of cedar and spruce, the club is home to Team Canada’s Brooke Henderson and her sister Brittany. The pair will kick off the championship by hosting their inaugural charity pro-am in support of the Team Henderson 110% Club.
Conducted in partnership with the PGA of Canada, the PGA Women’s Championship of Canada will close the 2015 tour. From July 20-22, the finale will take centre-stage at the Burlington Golf and Country Club in Burlington, Ont.
The 2014 tour opener saw Michelle Piyapattra earn the season’s first exemption at Morningstar Golf Club in Parksville, B.C. Brooke Henderson won both the second leg of the circuit and the 2014 PGA Women’s Championship of Canada in her home province. Samantha Richdale of Kelowna, B.C. and Simin Feng of Windermere, Fla. earned the final two exemptions and the right to compete in the 2014 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open at the London Hunt and Country Club in London, Ont.
The 2015 edition of the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open is set to take place August 17-23 at the Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam, B.C. Four exemptions will be available through an 18-hole qualifying competition held at Pitt Meadows Golf Club in Pitt Meadows, B.C. on August 17. These four qualifiers and those who emerge with exemptions from the Canadian Women’s Tour will join a full field of the world’s top golfing talents to compete for the honour of being named Canadian Pacific Women’s Open champion.
At season’s end, the top five players on the Canadian Women’s Tour Order of Merit will also be awarded direct entry into LPGA Stage-2 Qualifying. Since its inaugural season in 2002, the Canadian Women’s Tour has served as a platform for amateur and professional players, from Canada and across the globe, to showcase their talents on the international stage.
For more information on the Canadian Women’s Tour, click here.
BC Children’s Hospital named charity for 2015 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open
COQUITLAM, BC – Canadian Pacific (CP) and Golf Canada have announced that BC Children’s Hospital has been chosen as the charity partner for the 2015 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open (CPWO). The CPWO will see the top LPGA Tour players in the world compete for the national title at The Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam from August 20-23, 2015.
Funds raised will be dedicated to the pediatric cardiology research program for BC Children’s Hospital (BCCH) Heart Centre. Last year alone, BC Children’s cardiac surgeons performed 337 heart procedures, including 201 open heart surgeries.
“We are seeing incredible work being done in the area of pediatric cardiac care and research at BC Children’s Heart Centre,” said Canadian Pacific CEO E. Hunter Harrison. “By leveraging our CP Has Heart community program and the generosity of our employees, golf fans and supporters of the hospital, we have set a $1,000,000 fundraising target that I know we’ll achieve – but let’s work together to exceed it.”
“We are delighted to be the official tournament charity for the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open,” said Teri Nicholas, president and CEO of BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. “CP’s support for our pediatric cardiology treatment and research programs will ensure that children with heart disease, whether they are from BC, the Yukon or elsewhere in Western Canada, will always receive outstanding care and benefit from the latest research when they turn to BC Children’s Hospital for help.”
CP announced that, beginning today, it will match all online donations made to BCCH until the end of the CPWO tournament. Other fundraising initiatives will involve LPGA Tour players, club members and fans through CP’s Birdies for Heart challenge, something LPGA athletes, including CP ambassador Lorie Kane, embraced at the 2014 CPWO.
“CP does a tremendous job of creating an exciting atmosphere over the week and certainly a huge draw for players and spectators alike is the Birdies for Heart Challenge on the 17th hole,” said LPGA Tour player Lorie Kane. “Feeling the energy from the CP Fan Zone when you’re standing on the tee gives you even more incentive to play the hole well and get a birdie, especially knowing you are directly contributing to the funds available for helping sick children.”
Golf fans attending the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open can upgrade their general admission tickets for the CP Fan Zone, which includes premium seating, healthy treats, player meet and greets and giveaways. Proceeds from CP Fan Zone tickets will go directly to BCCH and CP has also pledged to match funds from all Fan Zone ticket sales as part of its commitment.
CP is also extending its fundraising efforts off the course and into the community to promote the importance of keeping fit. The railroad will also match all donations made to Grouse Mountain’s annual fundraiser Grind for Kids which already benefits BC Children’s Heart Centre.
“Canada’s National Women’s Open Golf Championship is about making this great sport, and the professionals who play it, accessible to the host communities and leaving a legacy,” says Scott Simmons, CEO of Golf Canada. “CP is a tremendous partner, and they continue to show their heart and commitment to the communities we play in. We are looking forward to a great week in Vancouver, a market that has always supported golf. The Vancouver Golf Club is an outstanding course and will provide a stiff test to the best golfers in the world. ”
Tim Clark to miss Masters with elbow injury
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tim Clark of South Africa will miss the Masters next week as he recovers from an elbow injury.
Thomas Parker, his agent at Professional Advisory Group, said in a text message Wednesday that Clark’s elbow is feeling better but that he has not had enough time to properly prepare for the first major of the year.
The 39-year-old Clark was runner-up to Phil Mickelson at the 2006 Masters.
Clark was eligible by winning the RBC Canadian Open last year. He has not played since the Sony Open in Honolulu the second week of the year. Because the Masters is by invitation only, there is no alternate list.
With Clark not playing, the Masters is assured of having fewer than 100 players at Augusta National for the 49th straight year.
Canada’s Conners trying to treat Masters like any other golf tournament
Corey Conners is getting ready for the biggest golf tournament of his life. But, the Canadian is trying to treat it like any other.
As a youngster, Conners said he got a VHS tape of the 1997 Masters when Tiger Woods won by 12 strokes. He watched that video “one or two hundred times.” He also remembered watching on television as Mike Weir sank the final putt to win his own green jacket in 2003.
Now, Conners will be playing in the tournament he’s only seen on a screen.
The 23-year-old from Listowel, Ont., will be in the field for next week’s Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga., thanks to a runner-up finish at the U.S. Amateur Championship in 2014. The two finalists are traditionally invited to participate in the Masters each year.
He’ll become the 13th Canadian amateur to play in the tournament, joining names like Sandy Somerville – who played in the first Masters in 1934 – and Moe Norman. He’ll be the 29th Canadian ever.
And, unless Graham DeLaet wins on the PGA Tour this week at the Shell Houston Open, Conners and Weir will be the lone Canadian representatives in the field this year.
Conners hasn’t allowed the big stage to get to him yet. Augusta, although historical, is “pretty cool.” He admits he is “really looking forward to the experience,” but he just wants to play golf.
“I’m really excited for next week,” he said Tuesday. “I’m really looking forward to the experience.”
No amateur has ever won the Masters, but American Ken Venturi came close. He finished one shot back of the eventual champion Jack Burke Jr. in 1956.
Conners doesn’t shy away from saying how Augusta National fits his game.
“Overall the course is beautiful, and it sets up well for my game,” he explained. “It’s a really great course and I think I can do really well.”
He’s not alone in thinking this.
Besides a group of fans from his hometown – Conners says his father will likely caddie for him in the par-3 competition next Wednesday, before the tournament begins – Golf Canada’s men’s national team head coach Derek Ingram will also be in Augusta.
Conners has been part of Golf Canada’s program off-and-on since 2010, and Ingram has watched him grow as both a player and a young man.
“If he plays his game, I really think he can (finish in the) top 20,” Ingram stated. “The course at Augusta suits his game really well.”
Conners has played a handful of practice rounds at Augusta National, including one where Ingram was present. He says they’ve tried to work on hitting shots to the best spot possible on Augusta’s notorious greens.
“He’s trying to treat it like golf. He knows golf really well and he knows tournament golf really well,” said Ingram. “Obviously the Masters is the most iconic and biggest professional golf event in the world, and there will be some challenges there. But we’ve talked about dealing with them.”
Conners is working to arrange a practice round with Weir. He’ll definitely play one with Europeans Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke, who are both managed by the same company as Conners – International Sports Management (ISM).
The team at ISM arranged for Conners to get a spot in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open in March. He missed the cut, but said that experience was invaluable.
“It was a huge in helping me prepare. I learned a lot playing there and it was great to be out there with a bunch of professionals,” he explained. “I learned a lot that will make me feel comfortable during the Masters.”
Conners has picked the brains of a few fellow amateurs who have played in the Masters in years past, players he crossed paths with while playing for Kent State University.
Conners was a two time All-American there, and was named Kent State’s outstanding male athlete in his graduating year.
The award is given to, “the male member of the senior class who has demonstrated the most exceptional combined qualities of leadership, positive image, athletic ability and academic performance.” According to his college coach, Herb Page, this sums up Conners perfectly.
“I’m really proud of what he accomplished and how he did it,” said Page, a Canadian who is in the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame. “A lot of young men hit a little wall or they don’t keep pushing ahead. But, he kept advancing and getting better. And now he’s at the Masters.”
Conners drove down Magnolia Lane – the entrance-way to Augusta’s hallowed grounds – for the first time a few weeks ago.
“It didn’t feel real,” he admitted.
But, it is. And it all starts next week.
Click here to listen in to a media teleconference with Corey Conners and Canadian golf journalists recorded March 21, 2015.
Stricker, out since December, plans return at Masters
Steve Stricker intends to play the Masters next week, his first competition since back surgery four months ago.
Stricker recently returned from Naples, Florida, where he tested his swing and his strength. He had surgery two days before Christmas on a bulging disk in his lower back that was causing recurring hip problems.
“I was playing, walking, just to see what I had,” Stricker told The Associated Press by phone Monday. “It’s the first time I played since December, and it was good. It felt good. Just a little stiffness here and there. I walked the last three days just to play like I would be playing.”
The 48-year-old Stricker last played Dec. 7 at the Hero World Challenge, where he finished 14th in an 18-man field at Isleworth. He has been playing a reduced schedule since 2013 and last year failed to reach the Tour Championship for the first time in the FedEx Cup era.
The original plan was to play the Shell Houston Open this week to warm up for Augusta National. His doctor and physical therapist told him, however, that returning from surgery might take its toll during the second straight week.
“I think the biggest concern was putting in back-to-back weeks, with the second week being a little more fatigued,” Stricker said. “I still feel it’s a bit early to be pushing it a lot, so I want to take it cautiously.”
Stricker qualified for the Masters by being ranked in the top 50 at the end of last year. He finished the year at No. 41, and has since fallen to No. 75. That’s his lowest ranking since he was out of the top 100 a week before the 2006 PGA Championship.
He played his last three days at Calusa Pines, where he said the greens were firm and fast, and a good way to prepare for the Masters.
“I didn’t fix a ball mark in three days – not because I missed the greens,” he said with a laugh. “I just couldn’t find any ball marks.”
Stricker plans to visit Augusta National this week for practice rounds. He said he would be in Indianapolis for the Final Four to watch Wisconsin play Kentucky on Saturday and then return to Augusta on Sunday.
LPGA Tour extends Commissioner Mike Whan’s contract
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Whan has agreed to a six-year contract extension through 2020.
Mike Trager, the chairman of the tour’s board of directors, announced the deal Tuesday in a letter to players and staff.
The 50-year-old Whan took over the tour in January 2010, replacing Carolyn Bivens. She resigned in July 2009 after a group of players wrote a letter to the board of directors calling for her to quit.
Whan has helped the tour grow from 23 events and $40 million in total purses in 2010 to 33 events and more than $60 million in purses.
The tour’s first major championship for the year, the ANA Inspiration, starts Thursday at Mission Hills.