Schwartzel wins the most exciting Masters ever
As the curtain comes down on the most exciting Masters ever, when anyone of 10 talented players could have captured the Green Jacket, the golfing world has been served notice that an eclipsing of a generation of great golfers by a whole new crop of startlingly skilful young golfers is beginning now.
Rio Ishikawa and Matsuyama of Japan are just two of hundreds thrusting forward to emerge into the limelight. Similarly, from across the many countries of Europe, and from Australia, South Africa, Latin America etc. the pipeline of talented youngsters is open and full. From India, always only a rising nation in golf, the prospects are dim because the politicians, who can allocate land resources, still think that golf is an elitist game. If only they realised that, just like in the developed countries, small towns of even fifty thousand population can support relatively inexpensive municipal courses. Such courses develop huge ecosystems for employment (caddies, professionals, coaches and trainers, equipment suppliers, course management staff, ensuing tourism and hospitality, etc), green lungs for the city, centres for physical training and the beginnings of a serious pipeline where young men and women from all economic strata of society may begin this game early enough for potential championship material development. From such talent pools, out of a population of 1.2 billion, surely a Major champion will emerge within 25 years. Fifty? Is anybody listening? CII? Ficci? Bureaucrats? Politicians of all hues? People at sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety years age do not play that couch potato game called cricket but they can and do play golf. It’s healthful, it’s outdoors, it’s exhilarating, it’s wholesome and it’s fun. India should set up a Golf Facilities Development Council to move this idea forward. So, rise India and shine a light on this great game of life.
Who would have thought that of all people, Tiger Woods’ mind would get unsettled, that the hands that delivered such deft touches around and on the greens would tense and that his considerable knowledge would temporarily recede at that critical stage where exactly the opposite is expected, if one is to win. Of the umpteen theories floating around in the Press room of why this happened, the consensus seems to be that Tiger had so dominated the game in an era when there were not so many highly skilled, extremely fit and strong, long driving youngsters in competition that he had come to think that stropping them was his natural entitlement. So, he plays an unbeatable game when he is cool and sort of detached; his body language switches to all positive. But when he turns aggressive and tries to dominate again, a mishit, a poor shot, an occasional three putt causes his body language to turn negative, his shoulders to slump somewhat and the expected result not to be. He lost this major by turning aggressive and dominant in the second half on Sunday when a couple of missed shots caused his body language to switch to negative and his performance to fall well below the required level. Had he stayed cool and collected as he was in the first half on Sunday, or as he was on Friday, when his performance was as of yore, he would not only have won this event handily but also smashed the course record on Sunday. Imagine playing only level par on the much easier back nine to go with a minus five in the first half! It is felt that he is getting better at managing himself in this regard and shortly the results will show it.
Dressed in his standard battle colours of a red shirt/black trousers on Championship Sunday, he appeared much calmer than on Saturday, heralding a potential charge. The twenty deep crowd gathered at the first tee at 1.40 pm to see Tiger tee off started rumbling ominously as he walked the thirty metres from the putting green to the tee with first a few, then a few hundred and then thousands shouting, “Go Tiger Go!”. And then he plucked his driver from his bag, and swung it back and forth, rhythmically, as he surveyed the “field”. The crowd fell dead silent; you could have heard a pine needle drop; it was as though we were in the presence of —-! Just as a ray of sunshine pierced the overcast sky and lit up his already sweat lined face, he swung beautifully through the ball to launch his challenge to the accompaniment of huge encouragement from the gallery. As he progressed, par - birdie - birdie, the gallery swelled and at places was thirty, forty deep. With each birdie, the adoring gallery roared, but the roar that went up when he eagled the eighth, and again when he made the improbable par on the ninth, emanating from at least twenty thousand throats, seemed to rent the skies and reverberated powerfully through all the Georgia pines at Augusta National. He was a co-leader with Rory McIlroy!
Meanwhile, even though Rory had dropped a shot to par by the turn, and at least ten great players were nipping at his heels, he appeared controlled and in charge. But his drive on the tenth tee was so astoundingly poor that he choked and came completely unstuck. He could no longer score and even four putted the par three twelfth from about twenty feet. He forgot what his mind and body knew through rigorous training, he started thinking too much and, therefore, simply fell apart. Reminiscent of Norman’s choke after his poor approach to the ninth when he led by six to finally lose by four, or of Yana Novotna serving at five-zero for the match against Steffi Graff for the Wimbledon ladies title and choking to finally lose the championship. He finally finished ten shots behind Schwartzel. Fortunately for Rory, this lesson has come to him at the beginning of his career rather than at the end, as with Norman. Choking is certainly an integral part of any championship and the spectators lap it up as it adds to the drama. I raise a glass of Guiness to Rory nonetheless, together with all of Ireland and good Irishmen all over the world (including my good friend in South Africa who will no doubt raise an additional glass for the plucky South African champion, Charl Schwartzel).
Schwartzel’s victory was leavened by a spirited challenge from a trio of Australians who could have broken the jinx of an Aussie never having won the Masters if the leader slipped up. This time, the Australians did not lose it with both Adam Scott and Jason Day making huge strides with great confidence; the South African won it in a remarkable international battle which included heavy hitters from Australia of course but also from Korea/Argentina/England and from the United States.
This drama will be hard to match in succeeding years, but for the moment, hats off to Charl Schwartzel, a great champion who did not choke even under intense pressure. He will surely have lifted the spirits of not only all South Africans but the golfing world, especially as he has won on the fiftieth anniversary of the first South African to win the Masters (Gary Player).
Till next year...