OK, WE ALL seem to be pretty much in agreement: "40 winks" would have been a more appropriate name for the 72nd Masters. For the second year in succession, golf's most important tournament (the other three majors are championships) induced waves of apathy rather than excitement among the game's fans around the world.
Certainly, it does seem that an enormous number of those based in the UK were in bed last Sunday night long before Trevor Immelman holed out on the 18th green. It was not, to put it mildly, a Masters that will linger long in the memory. "Brutally dif
ficult" does not, at least in the hearts and minds of those paying to watch, apparently equal "fun".
Which is not to say there weren't at least some talking points:
THE WINNERImmelman has long looked a good and potentially great player. You have to love his technique, which is one of the most orthodox on tour, even if he has long taken an age to hit even the simplest of shots. That he and Brandt Snedeker (my new favourite name in golf) took five hours to complete 18 holes on the last day was nothing short of disgraceful, even if this was the most important round of their lives.
Having said that, Immelman deserves a huge amount of credit for the quality of the shots he eventually hit. In every significant statistical category, the 28-year-old Springbok was among the most proficient. His driving was particularly impressive; fourth in distance and the leader in accuracy (48 of 56 fairways), the longest club in his bag was a solid base in his impressive win. But he also excelled elsewhere; only one man hit more greens in regulation and but three required fewer putts once they reached those distinctive surfaces.
Immelman merits even more praise for the way in which he has recently battled back from serious illness. A mere four months ago, a benign tumour was removed from his diaphragm, leaving him with a seven-inch scar across his lower back.
TIGERAs one who subscribes to the notion that the world's best golfer is never more interesting than when he is playing at something less than top form, at least in one respect this was a fascinating Masters.
Struggling with almost every facet of his peerless game, Woods (below) still managed to finish second. His putting was, not for the first time in major championship play, not far removed from pathetic. Perhaps only in the 2005 US Open at Pinehurst, where he ranked second-last on the greens, has the Tiger been so comprehensively de-clawed.
Hamstrung by an almost total inability to hole any kind of significant putt, that Woods managed to battle his way into something resembling contention is nothing short of remarkable. Anyone else playing as Tiger did last week would surely have missed the cut.
Another admirable part of the Woods package is his reluctance to make excuses. It would have been easy for him to point to the left knee on which surgery was performed last Tuesday as the reason for his struggles at Augusta, but there was never the slightest verbal hint of anything amiss. Tiger shows up, plays hard and plays to win, no matter what; his is an attitude many others would do well to emulate.
One last thing: the period of rehabilitation his knee requires means that Woods will almost certainly miss the upcoming Players Championship and surely represents final proof – if any were needed – that the so-called "fifth major" is anything but.
THE COURSEYes, the windy conditions on the final day had something to do with the fact that only four men managed to break par. And yes, the almost peerless pressure of a fourth round in any major championship invariably pushes up scoring. But the biggest factor in the dumbing-down of a Masters "Toonamint" that has rapidly gone from stimulating to stultifying is the set up of the golf course. Both longer and tighter with the addition of both trees and rough, the course built and devised by Alister Mackenzie and Bobby Jones is all but gone, stretched and tweaked like a Joan Rivers face-lift gone mad into a scary caricature of its former self.
Where once there was excitement and drama, now there is only tedium. Where once the virtues of imagination and flair were rewarded, more prosaic and pedestrian values now prosper to a point where the end result is less interesting to watch and to play. Gone are the strategic angles once available to those good enough and inventive enough to come up with them. Instead, the tournament committee – US Open-style – apparently decides how each player should play each hole.
Given all of the above, it is no wonder that, in this new era of maudlin Masters, the players look so glum and the crowds are so quiet. There is little or nothing to get energised about. Defensive golf and damage control is boring, a fact obvious to everyone except those running the show at Augusta National.
It used to be said that the Masters didn't start until the back nine on Sunday. Nowadays it is a bonus if it gets going at all. Nowadays a leader with any kind of edge knows he can plod along, safe in the knowledge that no-one is going to embark on the sort of charge Jack Nicklaus made when he so memorably won his sixth and last green jacket in 1986.
I mean, the winner this year shot a 75 in the final round and still won by three strokes. A 75! And he was only eight under par for the week, hardly the sort of score that leaves whole fields far in its wake. Come on Billy (Payne, the Masters chairman)! Give us our tournament back!
THE EUROPEAN 'CHALLENGE'While there will be some who will point to the fact that as many as five European golfers finished in the top 11 – a record – the hard truth is that the overall impression left was one of disappointment.
So, while Open champion Padraig Harrington deserves credit for a solidly-played tie for fifth and Miguel Angel Jimenez's best-of-the-day closing 68 is worthy of praise, the harsh reality is that only one player from this side of the pond, Paul Casey (right), started the final round with any kind of realistic chance of victory. For the so-called "generation next", this was yet another major championship where, collectively, they flattered to deceive.
Indeed, Casey apart, the only other flashes of brilliance came from Justin Rose on day one and Ian Poulter, who managed to stay in contention until fading in the third round. Legitimate questions remain to be answered by all of the above, as well as the likes of Luke Donald and Nick Dougherty. As Harrington said after his closing 72: "Finishing fifth is nice, but it isn't something that will ever appear on my cv."
In other words, majors, not money, are what really count, boys.
