THE MASTERS : Only a Few Can Master Greens--Cook Leads

Everything was green at Augusta National Golf Club Thursday except for the greens, some of which were so thirsty for water they were turning blue.

That also was the color of much of the language used by the players, few of whom could finesse their shots to hold on the rock-solid greens during the first round of the Masters.

“These greens are harder than Chinese arithmetic,” Lee Trevino had said after a practice round Wednesday. On Thursday, he shot an 80. Nine other players shot as high or worse.

The most exasperated player was Scotland’s Sandy Lyle, who hit all 18 greens with his approach shots Thursday but watched with increasing aggravation as his ball bounced off nine of them. He shot a 77.

It was bump-and-run golf.

“I’ve never putted on greens like these,” said John Cook. “I was trying to lag some four-footers.”

Cook, of Rolling Hills, didn’t hit many greens in regulation but scrambled into the lead at 69, three under par and one shot ahead of Augusta’s own Larry Mize.

They had the advantage of teeing off Thursday morning, before the sun and wind dried out the greens and made them play like sidewalks.

“They’ll get theirs tomorrow, when they have to tee off in the afternoon,” said Greg Norman, who shot a 73.

Of the 85 players, only 13 shot par or better. Among those at 71 were former champions Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer and this year’s leading money winner on the PGA tour, Corey Pavin.

Also at 71 were Calvin Peete, Payne Stewart and Curtis Strange.

Last year’s champion, Jack Nicklaus, began defense of his title with a bogey on the first hole.

“I hit the worst tee shot I’ve ever hit on the first hole,” he said.

But he birdied the second hole and was one under par through 11 before playing the next two holes at three over and finishing with a 74.

From a historical standpoint, that’s not a bad place to be. He also shot a 74 in the first round last year, when he won his sixth Masters.

“Relative to the field, I think it’s a better score,” said Nicklaus, who in 1986 was six shots behind the first-round leader, Ken Green.

Nicklaus said he couldn’t remember the greens being so firm and so fast at Augusta since 1966.

“I had set the course record in 1965,” he said of his 17-under-par 271. Only Ray Floyd in 1976 has shot as well here since.

“We knew they wouldn’t let us shoot for the record again. The greens were very, very firm that year. We had the same problem keeping the ball around the cup.”

That was the year Miller Barber said that chipping from the lush grass around the fringe onto the greens was “like hitting from a hay field onto the highway.”

Nicklaus won again in 1966 but with a score 17 strokes higher than the previous year’s, an even-par 288.

After last year’s Masters, Augusta National officials hired a new superintendent, Paul Latshaw from Pittsburgh’s Oakmont Country Club, which is notorious for its fast greens.

Players complained last year that the greens were too soft, that too many of their shots were spinning away from the holes.

Latshaw knew how to correct that, but the dry weather and wind conspired to make the greens harder than he intended.

“They’re going to have to put some water on a couple of those greens tonight to bring them back to life,” Stewart said.

Asked if he would agree with the players who’d said the greens were blue, Stewart said, “I think some of them were purple.”

The most agitated of the leaders was Langer, who won here two years ago. He hit a putt on No. 14 from 25 feet that rolled within six inches of the cup and then rolled back to him.

“I hit some perfect, pin-high shots that wouldn’t stay on the green,” he said. “I don’t think that’s right.

“I don’t think the course needs these greens. The layout is hard enough.”

But other players said they prefer to play under these conditions.

“That’s the way the major tournaments are supposed to be, especially the Masters,” said Pavin, one of the few players who didn’t have a bogey on the back nine.

Nicklaus said that Bobby Jones would have wanted it like this.

“He wanted seaside conditions on an inland golf course,” Nicklaus said. “This is very much that way.

“You wouldn’t see conditions like this on the tour. You’ve got to be composed and patient. You have to know when to be aggressive and when not to be aggressive. You know you’re going to take your lumps. But the best players are going to come out of it.

“Frankly, I like the golf course this way. It’s tough, but I like it.”

Watson also said that the best players would be rewarded.

“It makes you really think around the golf course,” he said. “You can’t hit the ball with anything except the proper spin and trajectory and get it around the hole.

“Nicklaus is right when he says this is a young man’s golf course. It takes a lot of nerve to play this course.”

Asked where the dividing line is between a young and old player, Watson, 37, said: “I don’t know. Some think I crossed it a couple of years ago.”

Watson hasn’t won a tournament since 1984, but he said it gives him confidence just to be in contention here.

“I’m happy with a 71,” he said. “That’s a darn fine score at Augusta National. I think four of those will win the tournament.”

But he didn’t want to elaborate about his chances.

“Let everyone else do the talking and ol’ Tom will stay quiet for the first few days,” he said.

“I’m sick and tired of answering the question, ‘What in the hell’s wrong with Tom Watson?’ I’m not close to where I was a few years ago, but I hit enough shots today to make me believe I can win.”