Four-time Major victor Ernie Els suffered a nightmare start to the Masters, taking an incredible six putts on the opening hole. The previous high score at the first hole had been a quadruple-bogey 8, most recently in 2007.
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But Saturday was a new day, one that hopefully would start better for Els on the first hole.
That’s when the drama began. He followed that by making a testy 4-footer to save par at the ninth, which put a little more bounce in his step as he made the turn. Els finally used a nonchalant one-hand swing to tap the ball back toward the cup and it lipped out, prompting him to reach over and again one-hand the ball, this time mercifully into the bottom of the cup.
Els had played the hole unremarkably, hitting his approach through the green 16 metres from the hole.
By this time, Els carelessly one-handed his next putt from 11 inches.
Els talked afterward about having “snakes in my brain” and acknowledged that he has struggled with short putts at times over the last several months.
Fowler opened the Masters with an 8-over 80 on Thursday as he tries to shed that label of best player without a major title.
“I’m not sure what I did”, he said.
“I know it was tough, but it wasn’t as tough as I made it look”, he said.
He rolled his first putt up to two feet but then stabbed his second wide to gasps from the crowd. Whatever you do, the ball just won’t go home.
Going out to play early in the wind, Phil Mickelson surmised that even par would be a good score. 12, 13 and 15 before a bogey on No. 17. I couldn’t get the putter back.
Watson said he was bothered by allergies and a sinus infection. His only salvation was what was originally reported as a seven-putt 10 was corrected to be a six-putt nine.
“Just an unbelievable test. I don’t think I’ve ever been tested like that ever before”.
He had three greens that he had 3 putts or more and finished with 39 for the round – or 14 more than first-round leader Jordan Spieth, who happened to beat him by 14 strokes.
Els could have quit during the opening round of the Masters, after he missed six putts inside 3 feet on the very first hole. But you love the game and you got to have respect for the tournament and so forth, but it’s unexplainable.
Though he drove it wide right, Els recovered nicely and was hole-high left, from where he played a deft pitch to 3 feet.
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‘It’s the last thing that you want to do – do that on a golf course at this level. “I heard some people yelling, ‘Fore!’ and then I felt it”, he said.
