This is a Masters Week Special!

We all have memories of childhood and our parents. My late father was a “sporting nut”. He loved all sport and his favourite newspaper was The Daily Telegraph, not because of its news coverage, but because of its excellent sports reporting.

One particular memory from my childhood (when I was perhaps eight or nine) was a Christmas present dad was given: possibly by my older brother Denis. It was a recently published anthology of sports reports from the fabled Telegraph sports reporters. It was simply entitled “I was there”.

The Preface from the 1966 sporting anthology “*I was there*”

Dad loved it. I came to love it as well and over the following years would occasionally dip into the beautifully crafted words of great journalism describing great events and great sporting heroes.

My father’s original copy is long lost but I recently managed to find a copy from an online seller of old sporting books. It brought back so many memories of my father, my childhood and sport. Here are just two.

One that stands out was being in our purple Ford Cortina (registration NME154 – how on earth do I remember that 58 years later!) on holiday in the summer of 1968. The crucial Ashes final test match was being played. In the absence of a car radio my crucial job was to hold a small transistor radio and adjust dials and its position so that the BBC commentary could be just about heard while Dad was driving us on holiday. Underwood’s wickets in the final overs secured a win so tieing the series.

Another was being woken up in the early hours of a Saturday in the summer of 1971 to sit with Dad and to listen, again on the radio, to the commentary of the first All Blacks versus The Lions test from Dunedin where The Lions famously won 9-3. A win that set the scene for the famous series win! Five decades on Mike Gibson, who played centre in that team, is a member of Royal Belfast GC where I play golf and Mike Roberts, who was a second row forward in the ‘71 Lions squad, is my next door neighbour in La Manga. Dad would love to have met them!

He always wanted to get to be at a major sporting event: an Ashes series, a Lions tour, The Open, the FA Cup Final or similar. He never did.

Sadly he never really got to say “I was there”.

This is my tale of one very special week in 2019 when I was extraordinarily fortunate to be able to say “I was there”.

The best week of the sporting year

Early in April is one my favourite weeks of the year: The Masters.

One of the four majors in men’s professional golf, The Masters has been played in the first week in April at the same venue, Augusta National Golf Club since it was founded by Bobby Jones and Clifford Robert’s in 1934. Designed by Alister MacKenzie the course was built on hilly terrain that was formerly a horticultural nursery. That history explains the naming of holes after plants and shrubs, and the prominence of azaleas that bloom in the spring.

Hilary and I always watch the Masters TV coverage, rarely missing a shot. We had always wanted to go to Augusta. It was the pinnacle of our “bucket lists”! Our 120th birthday in 2018 (aggregate score as Hilary and I are the same age) gave us a perfect excuse to arrange to go. It was a difficult thing to organise but we managed. Everything was arranged for April 2018 but unfortunately some difficult family circumstances led to that being cancelled. Luckily we were able to reschedule for 2019.

How lucky we were!

With no understatement the 2019 Masters was “one for the ages”!

We flew from Belfast to Heathrow with BA and on to Atlanta. All uneventful. Overnight in an airport hotel (not so great) and an early rise to pick up a rental car and drive the 150 miles to Augusta. After getting our tickets we were soon through the tight, but polite and efficient, security and onto the pristine grounds of Augusta National Golf Club. Jaw dropping!

Our first day was the last practice day: the only day when cameras are allowed and we took the following images. The sun shone and we were in golfing heaven.

The thirteenth green with azaleas behind.

The fifteenth green: narrow, wide but water in front

A striking feature of the extensive grounds and the course are the elevation changes. While you get some sense of this on tv, and commentators make much of it, it’s only by being there do you realise just how big the elevation changes are. The 18th fairway is a seriously uphill incline!

The rules and regulations for patrons (as spectators are curiously called) are pretty strict. No bad thing perhaps! You can’t run. On competition days you cannot have a phone or camera on your person. Shouting is essentially forbidden: so no “in the hole” or “mashed potato”! Punishments are Draconian: non compliance results in permanent expulsion. In addition, numbers are limited so while busy, the crowds are not ridiculous. Food and drink are of good quality and prices are very reasonable. While I never saw this myself it seems that buying alcohol in excess is not permitted and this clearly benefits everyone. Is behaviour perfect? No, but the ambience is better than other sporting events I’ve been too! Indeed I would contend it’s the best run and managed large scale event I’ve ever attended.

The scoreboards are old fashioned (I prefer the term traditional) manual boards and since all mobile devices are banned these scoreboards are the only source of scoring information,

The drama of the 2019 Masters

A recent podcast from Golf Digest reviews the whole event, the context, the build up, the play and the aftermath in detail. Highly recommend.

Our second day in Augusta was the first competition day. By the end of that days play Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka were tied at -6 but the leader board was ‘stacked’. Nine within one shot of the lead.

We skipped the second competition day to play golf at Palmetto Golf Club in nearby Aiken. In our absence, the play at Augusta was clearly exciting and the day ended with a five-way tie at -7 with Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Louis Oostheizen and Francesco Molinari. One shot behind were Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Justin Harding and Xander Schauffele.

Moving Day saw Molinari make four straight birdies from holes 12 to 15 on his way to a round of 66 (−6) and to a two-shot lead from Tiger Woods and Tony Finau after 54 holes.

So to the Sunday. The final round of the 2019 Masters Tournament delivered one of the most dramatic and emotional Sundays in modern golf. It was a day shaped not only by brilliance, but by tension, shifting momentum, and the unforgiving subtleties of Augusta’s fairways and greens, especially across its storied back nine and Amen Corner, the treacherous 11th, 12th and 13th holes.

Play began early because of the threat of an afternoon thunderstorm. Unusually play was in three balls and because of that Molinari and Finau were joined in the final group by Woods. Woods had not won a major in 11 years but when in the final group on the last day he usually triumphed. Maybe that would play on the minds of the others in the group?

Going into Sunday, Molinari had not made a bogey all week: a remarkable statistic given Augusta’s treacherous greens and swirling winds.

The early part of the round saw cautious, controlled golf. Woods, starting two shots back, opened steadily, avoiding mistakes and quietly building momentum. Molinari, meanwhile, continued his composed play, extending his lead with birdies on the front nine. By the time he reached the turn, he appeared firmly in command. Augusta, however, rarely allows a final round to proceed without drama.

The back nine on Sunday

The turning point of the tournament, and one of the most memorable sequences in Masters history, came at the par-3 12th, the centerpiece of Amen Corner. This deceptively short hole, guarded by Rae’s Creek and swirling, unpredictable winds, has undone many champions. On this Sunday, it would do so again.

Playing alongside Woods and with a 2 shot lead, Molinari struck his tee shot with apparent confidence. But the ball drifted subtly in the air, carried by a breeze that is often invisible but always influential at Augusta. It landed short of the green and spun back into the water. It was his first mistake of the week and it proved costly.

Woods took a conservative line. His tee shot found the heart of the green, safely beyond the danger. Two putts later, he walked off with par. Molinari’s double bogey abruptly erased his lead, pulling him back into a tie with Woods.

There was more drama at the 15th hole and another pivotal moment. Molinari, needing to regain ground, went for the green in two. It was an aggressive, perhaps necessary decision. His shot drifted right and splashed into the water. Another double bogey followed, effectively ending his challenge.

The relative positions of Molinari and Woods in the final round. Molinari’s collapsed with double bogies on the 12th and 15th while Woods surged with birdies on 13, 15 and 16.

Johnson, Koepka and Schauffele were close behind all three finishing on -12. Johnson birdied 4 of the last 5 holes. Despite a double bogey on 12, Koepka eagled 13 and birdied 15. Schauffele had charged mid-round but failed to capitalize on the par 5 15th. They had got very close!

The 17th provided another test. Woods found the fairway and green, again taking par, while his closest pursuers could not quite produce the birdies needed to overtake him. By the time he reached the 18th tee, Woods held a two-shot lead from Johnson, Koepka and Schauffele.

The last round at the 2019 Masters. Molinari’s double bogeys on the 12th and 15th, both with “water balls” destroyed his two shot lead and his chances of winning. Woods patiently built a lead. Adapted from Wikipedia.

The final hole at Augusta is lined with towering pines, framing a narrow corridor to the fairway that is quite steeply uphill. Two good shots left him just short of the green. A chip and two puts followed. Bogey five but a one shot win.

As his final putt dropped, the significance of the moment became clear: after years of injuries, personal struggles, and doubts about whether he would ever contend again, Tiger Woods had won his fifth Masters title.

Hilary and I had walked much of the course that day but rarely could get near to the Woods, Molinari, Finau group because of the crowds. But! … But we had seats at the 18th green and we saw all the last groups come through. We were there, cheering with all the other patrons as Woods won. The scenes were quite amazing. Unforgettable! Spare a thought for Molinari who until the 12th was in the lead and seemingly without peer.

The scenes that followed, Woods embracing his children near the 18th green—echoed his iconic victory in 1997, bringing his career full circle. It was his 15th major championship, but perhaps the most meaningful, given the adversity he had overcome.

Did Woods win or did Molinari collapse? In the end, the 2019 Masters will be remembered not just for who won, but for how it unfolded: a shifting, unpredictable drama played out on one of golf’s most iconic stages. The back nine, in particular, encapsulated everything that makes the game compelling: skill, risk and reward, triumph and heartbreak.

Postscript

Then the following year the Covid pandemic struck. With time on our hands and sometimes little to do we watched a recording of the full Sky coverage of the 2019 Masters final day.

Every single minute!

At 387 minutes into the coverage, with Woods crouching to line up his final put on the 18th green, Hilary stopped the recording. She’d spotted something.