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Billy
Casper, right, is carried by cart back to the 11th tee after
he was unable to find his ball during first round play of
the 2005 Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta,
Georgia, on Thursday.
AP
Photo
PAR
FOR THE COURSE
BY
NEIL GIUSEPPI
“Take
kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the
things of youth.”
That quotation is from “Desiderata,” a piece I consider
to be one of the most inspiring ever written and which holds
pride of place on the desk in my office.
It is a pity that more people don’t live by that credo
and gracefully surrender the things of youth.
You may recall that in one of my early articles in this magazine,
I lamented what I saw as the direction in which the annual
Caribbean Golf Championships were being taken.
I had written and I quote:
“So
instead of encouraging the top golfing stars of the Caribbean
and expanding the Hoerman Cup, the Caribbean Golf Association
has turned the annual Caribbean Championships into an ‘Old
Boys’ Club’ where players who have passed their
prime can continue to make annual trips and renew whatever
friendships they have developed over the years.”
Today, I want to take this peeve of mine into the arena of
the most prestigious tournament in the world, the
Masters at Augusta, Georgia in the United States.
It is every golfer’s dream to play at the Masters. That
is perhaps the ultimate recognition that a player has
“arrived.”
Last week, T&T’s own Stephen Ames made his Masters
debut. Unfortunately, because of deadlines required by the
Guardian, this article has had to be
submitted prior to the end of the second day’s play and
so I am unable to comment on anything but his first day
performance and the start of his second day’s play. A
commendable 73 saw him in 28th position at the end of the
first round and he further moved up the Leaderboard to 14th
position after two holes in the second round, a birdie on
the second hole taking him to even par when play was stopped
because of bad light. I can but hope that he continued to
improve.
But today, it is not my intention to write about Stephen Ames.
My article today is going to deal with 73-year-old Billy Casper,
one of the greatest golfers ever to have played the game.
In a career spanning some five decades, Casper won national
titles on three continents and is credited with more than
60 professional victories, 51 of which were won on the PGA
Tour. Among the many titles that he won
are the Canadian Open in 1967, the US Open in 1959 and 1966
and the Masters in 1970.
And here is where my problem starts: When do you hang up your
“guns” and give youth the place that is rightfully
theirs? The criteria for playing in the Masters, strict though
they may be in certain areas such that young guns like Justin
Rose and Arron Oberholser cannot gain entry in 2005, allow
former Masters' winners like Casper, Charles Coody, Gary Player
and Tommy Aaron to play until the day they die.
And so, last Thursday, Casper teed off with 92 other golfers
in the 2005 Masters. He started with a triple bogey on his
first hole, the par 4 10th. Another triple bogey followed
on his second hole. Two pars and two bogeys then brought him
to the par three 16th hole which took him 14 shots to manoeuvre.
Two more bogeys at his eighth and ninth holes saw Casper making
the turn in 57, 21 shots over par.
His second nine was only marginally better, a 13 over par
49 for a total of 106, the worst score in the history of
the Masters. His dismal performance caused him to withdraw
from the tournament at that stage.
Coody and Player, meanwhile, each shot 88 in the first round
and had both continued the slide to reach 19 over
par in the second round when play was suspended. Aaron was
the best of the lot on the first day with 79 but had
descended to 12 over par by the time I had to send in my article.
It is clear that these players, great though they
were in their time, can no longer compete at this level.
Now, if allowing them to play is not making a mockery of a
great tournament, I don’t know what is.
And it could have been worse. When the field for this year’s
tournament was first posted on the PGA’s official website
at pgatour.com, it included a number of other players long
past their prime who should have been spending their winter
years assisting young players to develop their skills instead
of trying to relive their past glories and embarrassing themselves
and the entire golfing world.
Among that list was 93-year-old Byron Nelson, another one
of golf’s legends. Fortunately, in his case, good sense
prevailed. What sort of message does this send to the young
people of the world? Are we telling them that there is no
room for them? Are we telling them that it’s all right
to hang on merely to satisfy your own egos even if it is at
the expense of others who are more deserving?
And then we wonder why the youth rebel!
Now let’s head for the 19th hole.
THE
LIGHTER SIDE OF GOLF
Burkett
and Webb were two bitter rivals who didn’t trust each
other’s arithmetic. One Saturday, during their club’s
monthly tournament, they were engaged in a heated battle and
were watching each other like hawks.
After finishing the fourth hole and marking his own six on
the scorecard, Burkett asked his opponent what he had had.
Webb went through the motions of mentally counting up. “Six!”
he said and then hastily corrected himself. “No, a
five.” Calmly, Burkett marked the scorecard saying audibly,
“Eight.”
“Eight?
I couldn’t have had eight,” said Webb.
“Yes,
you could,’said Burkett. “You claimed six, then
changed it to five. But actually you had seven.”
“Then
why mark down an eight?” asked Webb.
“You
get a one-stroke penalty,” said Burkett, “for improving
your lie.”
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