Player continued his duty on Thursday morning as one of the honorary starters, joining Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer on the first tee at 8:05 a.m. ET.
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American journeyman Jim Herman, a Masters debutant who earned the final spot in a field of 90 for this year’s edition by winning the Houston Open on Sunday, struck the tournament’s first competitive shot by teeing off at the opening hole.
Tom Watson gives some pointers to Cheng Jin, of China, playing in his first Masters, on the second tee during a practice round at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Ga., on Tuesday.
My first Masters was in 1973 and I thought we were going to get a British victory because Peter Oosterhuis was well up there before being beaten by Tommy Aaron.
“I’ve got mine”, Nicklaus says.
The Masters is the only Major that is played at exactly the same course every year, surely allowing players to get used to it and eventually master it (pardon the pun).
He was reminded that’s the same age Nicklaus was when the Golden Bear was 7 under on the final nine holes and won the Masters in 1986, a moment that ranks as maybe the greatest in golf history. “I hit the shot, looked at it in the air and I knew it was just flawless”.
“You’ve probably got three or four different ways to handle that situation”. A security guard stopped the man widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all-time on one of the sport’s most hallowed grounds and asked to see his badge. “One thing that I don’t have – and it’s the only golf club that I don’t have of all the major championships and tournaments I’ve won – is the putter”.
A photo was snapped and video captured of perhaps the most famous Masters champion trying to pass through the scrutiny of guards for the dinner hosted by last year’s champion, Jordan Spieth.
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“He was pounding drives up the first fairway”, Podolak said. “I got loose with that because we had fun with it”. At 28 and now a father of two, he seems to have found an inner peace off the course and on it with a game he once tried to push and shove and fight because of his desire to be the best.
