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Longevity worth noting at Masters Tuesday, Apr 15, 2008 By Harry King AUGUSTA, Ga. - Skewed by juiced batters and juiced baseballs, home run records are out of whack. In basketball, the 3-point shot corrupts scoring averages. In football, the culprit is an extended schedule that means an NFL running back who nets barely 60 yards per game will gain 1,000 for the season. Longevity, now that's something of substance, and worth walking the hills and dales of Augusta National to witness. On the very first hole of his record 51st Masters, Gary Player moved quickly to his right, eager to get in behind D.J. Trahan's putt and track his playing partner's line so he could glean info for his own putt. At 72, Player still competes. When a TV man complimented Player for breaking Arnold Palmer's participation record, Player quickly corrected him. The record, Player said, was not Palmer's alone; he, too, had played in 50 previous Masters. Two-thirds of a trio once prominent enough to have a TV mini-series, Player and Palmer still snipe at each other. Palmer, who quit competing in The Masters after failing to break 90 in 2002, was asked about Player's decision to compete this year. If he's not embarrassed for himself, Palmer said, then I won't be embarrassed for him. On Wednesday, the competitive nature of the Big Three oozed forth in the par-3 tournament. On the ninth and final hole, Palmer led off with a tee shot inside 10 feet. Player followed with something better and Jack Nicklaus outdid both of them. Player last made the cut at The Masters 10 years ago when he moved from 62nd to 35th with an even-par 72 on Friday. A year ago, his second round 77 was crafted on a wet golf course that measured 7,445 yards and accomplished from the same tees as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and all the youngsters of the smash- and-gouge generation. He said this year that he would play again in '09 if he broke 80 and he turned in a 78 on Friday - a bold stroke for geriatric golfers. Six groups behind him, Fred Couples was pursuing history, trying to make the cut in his 24th straight appearance. Couples got behind the 8-ball early on Thursday. On No. 4, both Couples and playing partner Jerry Kelly were in the front bunker - the same spot from where Tiger Woods made bogey on Sunday. Couples watched Kelly's explosion turn left toward the hole and then fall off the back tier and trickle to the certain bogey on the bottom level. Next up, Couples avoided Kelly's mistake but made one of his own and bogeyed from behind the hole. On Friday, he missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole and recorded one stroke too many. He said he set his sights too high on Thursday and "tried to hit better shots than I could ..." Missing the cut, he said, was not a big deal. "I don't think I'm going to make it, but I don't know anyone who goes to a tournament where they're hoping to make the cut," he said. ___ Justin Rose is fast-developing an unwanted reputation. Rose led or shared the lead in The Masters in each of his last three appearances. In 2004, he went 67-71-81-71. Last year, it was 69-75-75-73. This year, he shot 68-78-73-76. ___ Seven of the 94 players in this year's field qualified by winning a PGA event, an accomplishment that The Masters reinstated as an automatic invite. That's about the limit for The Masters, where all players go off No. 1 every day unless weather interferes. At the weekly PGA Tour stop, where the field is often 156, players start on No. 1 on the first day and No. 10 on the second or vice versa. It is important that the process for earning an invitation be designed so that the field is in the mid-90s, said Masters chairman Billy Payne, "and any additions would put that at great risk and something we would not look at favorably." ------- Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com. |
