ShareThisAUGUSTA, Ga. - For a treacherous course that looks benign, given its spacious fairways and huge greens, think of Augusta National Golf Club, where the Masters starts Thursday. The golfer who doesn't focus more intently than at just about any course will be gone, gone, gone by the end of the second round. That's especially true around and on the greens.
"This course without these greens is relatively defenseless, even with the changes (the yardage that's been added over the years, that is)," six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus said. "These greens make this golf course."
Nicklaus obviously learned how to handle the greens. Meanwhile, nobody was better than Nicklaus when it came to hitting the right shots into and around the greens. He had that necessary focus on the shot at hand, which can be elusive but which major champions possess.
That's also the way it was for Curtis Strange when he was on. Strange, now 55, won the 1988 and 1989 U.S. Opens. He also shot 80 in the first round of the 1985 Masters, followed with 65-68 and led the Masters with six holes to play. Then he found water on the par-five 13th and 15th holes and wound up tied for second.
But why bring up Strange now, a day before the Masters begins? It's because of his thoughts on the importance of focusing -- when he had it, he really had it. He knows what it takes to win on a course where a small mistake can lead to a big number.
That happens regularly at Augusta National. The greens complexes, in particular, are so treacherous that a player must be ready for anything. A pitch shot that just misses a slope can roll back to a player's feet. A 25-foot putt hit a bit too hard can run 40 feet by the hole.
"It's such a fine line out there," Strange said. "There's very little difference sometimes between good and bad. It's not that you get bad breaks on the course when it's set up on the edge like this for the Masters, but it's more rub of the green."
Strange had an attitude when it came to the majors, and it was one that players eventually learn to emulate. If they don't, they have no chance.
"I looked at it as a black and white situation," Strange said. "If I hit a shot on the green and it rolled back 30 feet, it was a bad shot."
That takes a mature golfing mind, and Strange could get hot for sure during his impressive career. But he knew that at majors he had to keep as cool as possible, not that it was always possible for him.
Augusta National can play havoc with a player's mind. More than length influences the result, much more. The short game and putting determine the outcome to a degree rarely seen at tournament courses.
"It's all because of the contours on the greens," architect Tom Fazio said of the evil events that can unfold. "When the pin is on the front of the first green, for instance, it takes a high degree of skill to hit those little flop shots to get anywhere near the hole. Sometimes you can't get near it. This is one of the hardest courses for these shots."
Fazio would know, because he effectively holds a post-doctoral degree in Augusta National's nuances. He's the club's adviser on all architectural matters. He gets out and watches the play, as he will do during the first round. Fazio agreed that the greens can ruin a player's round, and so he had better be prepared for anything. He better have pinpoint focus.
This brings us back to Strange, and, inevitably, to Tiger Woods. The world No. 1 will be playing his first tournament since winning the Australian Masters almost five months ago. This is a far different Masters, on a treacherous course meant to test a player's mental strength.
"You have to be mentally rested," Strange said. "You don't want to be frustrated out there. Everything in your life has to be pure and simple. That's why I don't think Tiger will do well."
Padraig Harrington is one player who could do well. He's notorious for messing with his swing, but he's won a PGA Championship and two Open Championships and he has a deft short game. He can also putt when a major is on the line, as he demonstrated when he holed a series of mid-length putts over the last few holes to win the 2008 PGA Championship. His eyes got big. He was focused, as he'll have to be here. Still, he's played eight Masters and he knows it's impossible to practice every shot that could arise.
"Just that there's a lot more to deal with this golf course probably than virtually, certainly any course I can think of, really ... you can't cover all of the options at this event. There's just too many," Harrington said.
Or, to put it another way, as Stewart Cink, the 2009 Open Championship winner did, "It's a very stressful course to play when you're in a major championship. It's a really difficult test and it comes at you with every shot. ... If you are wavering in any way, the course just identifies that and it just spits you out."
The spitting begins early Thursday morning, minutes after Nicklaus and four-time Masters winner Arnold Palmer hit their ceremonial tee shots to get things going. That will be it for them.
For the competitors? For them, the task is clear: Focus, focus, focus, or fail, fail, fail.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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