Mystery at the Masters

It's a Masters' mystery and no one it seems has the answer -- what is stopping European players winning at Augusta National ?
The last European winner of the fabled tournament was Jose Maria Olazabal, the Spaniard donning his second green jacket in 1999, edging Davis Love and Greg Norman down the back nine on the Sunday.
That emotional victory 16 years ago proved to be the last chapter in two decades of European supremacy at the best-known and loved golf course in the United States.
Fellow Spaniard Seve Ballesteros set the ball rolling with his breakthrough win in 1980 and over the course of 20 years, victory went to European golfers 11 times.

Since then there have been no successors to Olazabal, Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle and that at a time when European golf has continued to thrive at the other majors and in the Ryder Cup.
No cogent reason has been put forward for such an anomaly other than the rub of the green and the ability to cope with the particular demands thrown up by Augusta National down the back nine on Sunday.

Next week once again European hopes are running high with world number one Rory McIlroy a strong favourite to win a third straight major and second ranking Henrik Stenson of Sweden in top form.

Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer and Victor Dubuisson are all in the world top 20 and it would be foolhardy to write off the chances of such Ryder Cup standouts Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.
McIlroy for one believes that there is no one factor preventing a European player from winning the year's first major.