Azaleas, Dogwoods and Golf at Augusta

The golf season has “officially” opened. It’s Masters Week.

The azaleas and dogwoods are in bloom at the Augusta National Golf Club where Jack Nicklaus arrived early, as usual, and where Gene Sarazen, who rode a double-eagle to victory a half century ago, will be holding court on the magnolia-shaded clubhouse porch.

There are golf tournaments with bigger purses, stronger fields and more demanding courses. But this is the Masters, the legacy left by the legendary Bobby Jones.

Tournament play begins Thursday, but many of the expected 50,000 spectators will be on hand for the Monday-to-Wednesday practice rounds as a Mardi Gras spirit prevails throughout the week.

Despite efforts by PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman to gain the title for last week’s Tournament Players Championship, the Masters remains the first “major” of the year; the first step to the never-attained Grand Slam of golf that includes the U.S. Open in June, the British Open in July and the PGA Championship in August.

Unlike the other three, the Masters has only one home, the Augusta National--founded by Jones and played by presidents.

“It’s the first of our four majors,” said Nicklaus, who includes five Masters titles among his record 17 Big-Four championships. “Only the man who wins here has a chance at the Grand Slam so it carries a special meaning beyond its own mystique.”

Top performers in the Masters seem to go in cycles . . . Sam Snead and Ben Hogan in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s . . . Arnold Palmer in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s . . . Nicklaus, now 45 and unable to win here over the past decade, from the early ‘60s to the mid-70s. So based on their track record over the Augusta National, you have to include Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros and Tom Kite on this week’s list of favorites.

Watson, five-time British Open champion and the 1982 U. S. Open champion, has won the Masters twice (1977, 1981), lost in a playoff (1979), and finished second twice (1978, 1984) over the past eight years. He was fourth (1983), fifth (1982) and 12th (1980) the other three times during that span.

“My game is better now than it was going into last year’s Masters although there’s still plenty of room for improvement,” said Watson, who has won more than $121,000 this year with his best finish a second (behind U.S. Open champion Fuzzy Zoeller) at Bay Hill.

“I’ve been working hard at my game, but it takes me longer now to wind up the engine than it did a few years ago,” said Watson, 35. “Returning to Augusta will help. When you are at a course where you have played well in the past, it gives you a good feeling when you stand on the first tee.”

Ballesteros, from Spain, also is a two-time Masters winner, 1980 and 1983, and finished third in 1982. He failed to make the cut last year, but won the British Open for a second time just three months later.

Kite, a 35-year-old Texan who has earned nearly $2.5 million on the pro golf tour, has never won the Masters. But he has been a constant threat for the past decade, tying for second in 1983, for third in ‘77, for fifth in 1976, ‘79, ‘81, and ‘82, and for sixth in 1980 and ’84.

Defending champion Ben Crenshaw, who had second place finishes in 1976 and 1983 before last year’s closing round 68 enabled him to beat Watson by two strokes for his first major crown, has been struggling this year, winning less than $12,000 through the TPC where he was three over par.

If you go by the way the pros have been playing so far this year on the Tour, you’d have to lean toward Curtis Strange, Calvin Peete, Lanny Wadkins and Mark O’Meara--all two-time winners this year. But Strange, who has won $337,000 so far this year, and Wadkins have never been better than a tie for seventh at the Augusta National and O’Meara didn’t even earn an invitation last year.

Peete, who had his best Masters showing last year when he tied for 15th, picked up $162,000 last week when he won the Tournament Players Championship and vaulted into second place on the money list at nearly $270,000.

“I’d never won a major championship before,” said Peete, who has won 10 tournaments and $1.5 million within the past six years. “I feel this (the TPC) is just as much a major championship as any of those we call major. It certainly puts me in the right frame of mind for the Masters.

“My goals now are to win some more major championships--and another million dollars.”

But although Peete is one of the most accurate drivers on the Tour, his overall game--average length and questionable putting--isn’t really geared for playing the 6,857-yard Augusta National which features wide fairways with little rough and huge, undulating greens.

The power-hitters, like Ballesteros, Watson, ’82 champ Craig Stadler and ’79 champ Zoeller, have an edge because they can swing from their heels without worrying about the sort of trouble errant drives cause at most other courses.

“The course does give an unfair advantage to the big hitters,” said Kite, who weighs only 155 pounds. “But that is made up, for the most part, by the need for good putting on those big greens.”