“I am overjoyed and actually humbled,” stated one of many different two, two-time winner Tom Watson, 72, “because the way I look at these old goats right here, I can’t carry their shoes. I don’t kind of belong in the same realm as these two players here.”
“I get quite choked [up] when I get on that tee this morning,” stated the eldest of the trio, Gary Player, 86, a three-time winner right here. “I’m not embarrassed to say that. The enthusiasm is one of the great essences of life, and the enthusiasm here, you can’t compare it to anywhere else.”
Said Player, “I vividly remember getting up in the morning to watch Jock Hutchison and Freddy McLeod hit off,” when these two Scotsmen started the custom in 1963, “and it was like yesterday.”
Asked who had hit the farthest, Watson stated, “Oh, come on.”
“We all hit it,” Nicklaus stated.
“That was the key,” Watson stated.
They started a day on which second-ranked Jon Rahm shot a 74 and stated: “Played great golf, got four mud balls. What am I going to do about that?” Rory McIlroy hit it farther than anybody else (333.2 per), shot a 73 and stated, “I’m just pleased that I played well; I don’t really care where I’m at on the leader board.” Dustin Johnson shot a 69 and stated, “Yeah, I swung it really well.”
Others of be aware included two-time main champion Collin Morikawa (73) and three-time main champ Jordan Spieth (74).
As a distinction to Nicklaus-Player-Watson, take into account J.J. Spaun, an American born in Los Angeles with Filipino and Mexican ancestry, ranked 103rd on the planet. He certified for the Masters . . . on Sunday. He received the Texas Open in San Antonio as the top of a type of years-long struggles golf can wreak, along with his age at 31 and his variety of PGA Tour occasions at 147. He then proceeded to Augusta.
“A lot of nerves,” he stated, “especially with the lack of preparation I felt. I really didn’t have the time that I feel like a lot of people had to get ready. I mean, it’s a great issue to have, but with the rain, the weather delays, I kind of saw the course very quickly.” And the toughest half: “Well, I think the biggest difference is just not knowing how to picture shots around the greens because … it’s very blind up there.”
He didn’t know a key golf ingredient: “where to miss it.”
Even with all of that, he shot a 2-over-par 74.
Consider Min Woo Lee, an Australian ranked 59th on the planet, taking part in in his first Masters and second main match. He’s 23, the champion of the Scottish Open final 12 months and the youthful brother of Minjee Lee, No. 4 on the planet amongst ladies.
“Unbelievable,” Lee stated, and added of his shotmaking: “Every shot, I was pretty committed. Very committed to it. This course can bite you in the butt, so you have to hit some good shots.”
He additionally stated, “It’s the most people I’ve ever seen in one spot.”
Yet after 5 holes, he stood 2 underneath par, earlier than a “silly double” on No. 6, however he nonetheless wound up at 1-over 73.
And take into account Harold Varner III, an East Carolina graduate who has been preventing his method upward and who, at 31, reached his first Masters (and eighth main) through his hard-earned world rating of fortieth.
“I told myself I would never come unless I got an invite playing in it, and that makes it really sweet,” he stated.
To a query about nerves, he stated: “Yeah. Hell, yeah.”
Well, he shot a 71, with an eagle at No. 13 and birdies at Nos. 14 and 16, and he stated, “It’s just momentum, and that’s the great thing in sports.”
There he’s, on the sting of the chief board.