Masters 2021: Saturday weather expected to be part of the opposing force

Young Will Zalatoris is so cool and collected that it would be no surprise if the green jacket were hoisted on his 74-inch frame, thus becoming the first player to win on his first time out in 42 yrs

The conditions on Friday were certainly more benign than the exceptionally dry and firm fairways and greens on Thursday. However, the competent leader, Justin Rose, was still playing to Thursday’s conditions and thus could not get going. He learnt better later but not before his timid putt from just off the green did not clear the fringe on the par three 4th near the green, and his putt on the par 3 sixth from 65 feet away tried its best to cross the ridge near the pin, just failed to make it, and rolled back 60 feet away. As a great gladiator, he licked his wounds and fought back valiantly but now his lead was cut to a slender single shot. 

Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, both major winners, were just two and three shots away and several who have been knocking on the door of winning majors were among the voracious wolf pack at his heels. They all ‘rose’ even as prestidigitators and pyrotechnicians who create magical shots and blast fireworks on their way to victory, including defending champion Dustin Thomson, just could not cross the cut line set at +3. Masters winners (Sergio Garcia, Danny Willett, Mike Weir, Dustin Johnson and Zach Johnson, Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer, Vinay Singh, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize) and major and multiple winners on the PGA tour (Rory Mcilroy, Jason Day, Brooks Koepka, Lee Westwood, Matt Kuchar and others) bit the dust too early; among them, the younger lot would not enjoy their weekend as they would like to compete, and to them I say, Carpe Vinum (seize the wine)! However, two times Masters champion José María Olazabal, at 55 years of age, made the cut at +2 and broke Langer’s record of being the oldest to make the cut. He was always a master at the short game although not long off the tee. The aforementioned greats who missed the cut have no excuse now. 

Jordan Spieth

Young Will Zalatoris, playing his first Masters after having come through the grueling grind of college golf, amateur competitive golf, and a victory on the Korn Ferry tour, which allowed him to squeak through into the top fifty to qualify for the Masters, is so cool and collected that it would be no surprise if the green jacket were hoisted on his 74-inch frame, thus becoming the first player to win on his first time out in 42 years. McIlroy is certainly down hearted and depressed and in a spin as, despite occasional flashes of brilliance, changing of his swing to become a better version of himself did not allow him to get anything going. Dustin Johnson, despite some great driving, had difficulty with his driver at critical moments. He lost five shots over two days on 17 and 18, which are really holes that often decide the victor. Even he could not figure out what was wrong and had a puzzled look on his face as the scene was quite different on the green of the eighteenth 147 days ago. Trailing, going into the two closing holes on the final day, Argentinian Angel Cabrera said to himself, “Bogey for him, birdie for me”, and so it came to pass. On the last hole he got into a playoff with Kenny Perry (who bogeyed the seventeenth on that final day, which was his first bogey in 42 holes) and Chad Campbell, which he finally won. You cannot let those last two holes get away from you without inviting disaster. 

Zalatoris considers himself an excellent ball striker and he considers Jordan to be best chipper and putter in the last 30 years (that’s a bit of a stretch because that covers the Tiger Woods era! Try ten years). The pipeline for youngsters to break through, in the US particularly but also in many countries in Europe, South Africa, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and even Thailand, is exceptionally strong. How many of them will be there near the top for at least ten years is not so clear. Those in the top 15 on the leader board are surely stayers and everyone who even momentarily takes the lead will be looking over his shoulder at who is behind him and how far. 

LEADER BOARD

POS	PLAYERS	R1	R2	R3	R4	TOTAL
1	ROSE	65	72	-	-	137
T2	ZALATORIS	70	68	-	-	138
T2	HARMAN	69	69	-	-	138
T4	LEISHMAN	72	67	-	-	139
T4	SPIETH	71	68	-	-	139
T6	WIES DERGER	74	66	-	-	140

The weather forecast for Saturday afternoon is 10-13 kilometres per hour with occasional gusts up to 20, and possible thunderstorms. That’s always the case in this tournament, the weather, the mysterious X factor. The early starters will have an advantage, but they are too far back to make any difference to the outcome. There are too many great players in the fray in the top 15 to make a prediction although all of them will be playing in the afternoon when the weather is expected to be part of the opposing force. 

Despite the absence of some great stars, the tournament is still bright enough to lighten the lives of TV audiences worldwide. Xander Schauffele is a very consistent player with much control and no ostensible weaknesses. Watch out for him to shoot into the night sky on Sunday night, from Southern California. 

The die is cast. There will be movements up the ladders and down the snakes of this Snakes and Ladders game. Let’s wait just a bit longer.