The greens are firm and fast. Spectators are back. The course is blush with azaleas, not autumn’s colors. For young players, this tournament is an opportunity for a more traditional Masters experience.
C.T. Pan had an exceptional Masters Tournament debut last November, finishing 10 under par for a tie for seventh place and $358,417 in prize money. But the coronavirus pandemic and the tournament’s timing meant that one of sport’s most hallowed stages was not itself. “This one definitely feels more like my first Masters,” Pan,29, said this week. “I played nine holes out there with people following, a couple tee shots I had goose bumps just hearing people rooting for me.” For the 13 golfers who contested their inaugural Masters tournament in November and are in the field again this week, this year’s competition can seem like a second try at a first dance with a childhood crush. In November, with Augusta National Golf Club almost empty but autumn’s hues abundant, they found a soft course that played long and was susceptible to plugged balls. Now there are fans ready to offer masked roars amid the athletic and aesthetic splendors of a Georgia spring: greens that are fearsomely fast and firm, and azaleas so vivid that their pinks dazzle even from a driving range or more away. “In November, it was very soft so I knew where to land it and I was confident it was going to stop,” Sungjae Im, who tied for second and had the lowest 72-hole score of any first-year Masters player in history, said through an interpreter. “I need to be strategic on exactly where to land the ball.” Experience, a hard-earned edge at any tournament, is often seen as essential at the Masters. No player has won in his debut appearance since Fuzzy Zoeller conquered the course 42 years ago. Even though 14 first-timers made the cut in November, a Masters record, ask one player after the next, and nearly every one will preach at length about how Augusta National is particularly prone to rewarding the men familiar with it. “The more you play it, the more you understand it,” said Bubba Watson, who won the tournament in 2012 and 2014.
