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It isn’t, in these days of top-50 exemptions and a PGA Tour that has
never been more cosmopolitan, too much of a factor any more. But with
three of the four majors played within the confines of the contiguous
United States every year, there was a time, not so long ago, when the
Grand Slam opportunities afforded those not directly related to Uncle
Sam were more than a little limited.
Consider this: in 1977 when the most significant European golfer of
the last 50 years, Seve Ballesteros, made his Masters debut at Augusta
National, there were only 12 other foreign-born players in the field.
Of those, but four were Australians – David Graham, who tied for sixth
place, Graham Marsh, Bob Shearer and Jack Newton – a miserly
representation that has only recently been doubled.
Indeed, it is something of a surprise, given that the land ‘Down
Under’ currently has more players ranked in the top-100 than any other
nation other than the US, that no Aussie has ever worn the green jacket
awarded annually to the Masters champion.
“It comes up every year in Australia,” signs former British Open
champion Ian Baker-Finch, who recorded three top-ten finishes in eight
Masters appearances between 1985 and 1996. “The Masters is probably the
number one rated telecast down there and as soon as the invitations go
out, the same old question comes up again: Can an Australian win?
“I wish I had a definitive answer. But there isn’t one really. It’s a
strange one, given how many great players Australia has produced over
the years.”
Still, for all that, just as Europe’s finest suffered from years of
American insularity and/or neglect when it came to entry into all three
US majors, the same can be said for the best Australians. Since 1970,
in fact, only 25 have played in the Masters, a number that will rise to
27 when Richard Green and John Senden make their Augusta debuts next
week.
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What makes Australia’s past collective absence from the year’s first major all the more regrettable is that Augusta National – at least the old Augusta National – was a course on which Oz’s best could reasonably have expected to do well. Australia’s most strategically challenging and acclaimed test of golf – Royal Melbourne – was designed by one Alister Mackenzie, the man who, along with Bobby Jones, laid out the original Augusta National course.
“It is a pity,” agrees Ogilvy. “The old Augusta National should have been more than familiar to our best players. So if you could play Royal Melbourne, you could surely play Augusta National. The same principles hold true. You have to be putting from below the hole on both. And you can – or could in the case of Augusta – use width to create the proper angles for your approach shots.”
Of course, Ogilvy’s point is rather moot, given that to win an event you have first to be in it. And it is only recently that Australia’s leading players have made the trip to Augusta in numbers more than five. Remarkably, not until 1992, when six Aussies started, did that happen. Until this year – when a record-high of nine will tee up - the biggest representation was a hardly stellar eight, a peak reached in 2005.
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Even before that arbitrary cut-off date, Devlin had become the first man in Masters history to break 70 three times and not win. In 1968 he was fourth, three shots behind Bob Goalby having shot three 69s and a second round 73 that included an eight at the par-4 11th.
That said, the most heart breaking of those many fine Aussie performances belongs to Norman, who came agonizingly close to winning on more than one occasion only to be foiled by a combination of great play from opponents, cruel bad luck and his own inner frailties. Those who saw the Great White Shark reduced to minnow status in 1996 – when Nick Faldo turned a six-shot deficit into a five-shot victory over the closing 18 holes – will never forget the mental and physical tortures the two-time British Open champion went through during that unforgettable final round.
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“The following year was really hard though. When Larry Mize chipped in to beat Greg that really hurt Australia. It was a huge deal, especially as Greg really did nothing wrong. And if you look at the videotape, you’ll see the putt he hit on the 18th green. How it did not go in is still a mystery. So he was really unlucky that year.
“He had a few near misses after that, but ’96 was the most traumatic, both for him and Australia. I have to think that everyone going to work that Monday morning was in a very poor mood. That was a dark day for Australian golf. Everyone was pretty sad about that.
“Unfortunately, everything conspired against Greg that year. Faldo birdied the last hole on Saturday to get in the last group alongside him. If that hadn’t happened, Greg would have been fine. And so many bad things happened in the final round. If you look back knowing the result you can see how horrible it was. By the time he hit that awful shot into the pond at the 16th, you could hardly watch. It was so sad. Had Greg won there, it would have elevated him to the level he should have reached, one of the best golfers ever.”
For all that, that elusive green jacket still hasn’t happened, not for Norman and not for Australia. And the search for reasons why continues.
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“The mistake I made was changing my style of putting. I’d spend hours and hours on the putting green trying to get used to lagging those big swinging breaks. But when it came to the tournament I tended to get caught between what was normal and what I was trying to do for one week.
“It surprises me that Greg never won though. But by the end the pressure on him was enormous and probably became too much for him to handle. That was evident in ’96 when he lost to Faldo. And it’s the same for Aussies in general; the longer the drought lasts, the harder it will become for anyone to end it.”
Still, the prospects of an Australian victory have never been brighter since the days when Norman started almost every Masters as one of the favourites. Not only are the Aussies there in greater numbers, the collective quality of their representation has never been higher.
“All in all, I have to think it is a historical quirk that no Aussie has won the Masters,” contends Ogilvy. “It’s at least becoming one, now that we have more players in the field. It’s a bit like it was for the Europeans. Before Seve came along in the late 1970s, very few of them were even invited. But when he started winning, it opened the floodgates. The Europeans dominated the event throughout the 1980s. So maybe it will be the same for us. If an Aussie wins, we might go on to win a few.”
Then again, they might not. Strange game golf…
