THE MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT : Nelson and Wrenn Breeze to Take Augusta by Storm

Some of the worst winds Jack Nicklaus has seen in 30 years of playing in the Masters blew across Augusta National Thursday, when shooting par or better was anything but a breeze.

So how bad was it?

“I would describe the conditions in one word--very difficult.”

Uh, that’s two words, Jack.

“OK. Tough.”

The leaders after the first round are in four words--Larry Nelson, Robert Wrenn.

Nelson, the 41-year-old 1987 PGA champion, and Wrenn, the 28-year-old 1987 Buick Open winner, shot three-under-par 69s to take a two-stroke lead over Bernhard Langer, Mark Calcavecchia, Sandy Lyle and Don Pooley.

There would have been a three-way tie for the first-day lead except that Gary Koch had to play the 18th hole.

Koch, playing in the next-to-last twosome, shot himself out of a share of the Masters lead with a triple-bogey 7 on No. 18.

A cold front that had brought rain Wednesday brought swirling winds from the northwest. They gusted to 38 m.p.h., spraying some golf balls into pine trees and sending others rolling across greens while players were trying to putt.

Doug Tewell had to replace his ball 12 times on one green when the wind kept blowing it away. At these times, the ball was doing a number of unusual things.

Said Scotland’s Ken Brown: “Wiggling about.”

Said Nelson: “Quivering.”

Conditions were such that Nicklaus, who finished with a 75, thought he had just managed a pretty good score, even though he three-putted four times.

“I don’t think you can win the tournament today, but you could lose it today,” Nicklaus said.

Wrenn finished just before dusk, nearly 11 1/2 hours after the first group teed off. He equaled Nelson’s round of 69 when he birdied No. 18, knocking a 5-iron from 166 yards away within 8 feet of the cup. Then he rolled in the putt.

But if Wrenn finished fast, he found nothing was as fast as the greens.

“Those greens aren’t exactly like hitting into peat moss,” he said. “As fast as those greens have gotten with the wind, you could be out there putting all day. You need to pack a sandwich out there.”

Wrenn is a Masters rookie and that may have helped him on the 500-yard 15th. After his drive, he was 242 yards to the pin into the wind. Wrenn decided to go for it.

“You don’t get to the Masters too often, what the heck, might as well give it a lash,” Wrenn said, recalling his thoughts.

He hit a 3-wood close, chipped within 2 feet and made a birdie. Wrenn said he preferred not to think about being nervous.

“When I start thinking, it’s all over for me,” he said.

The wind was a big problem for most. Just about everyone seemed to have problems. Lee Trevino, who hates this course anyway, shot an 81 and can probably begin packing his bags. Trevino’s playing partner, J.C. Snead, had a 79.

“I just want to go somewhere and hide,” Snead said.

Trevino was also thinking about leaving. “It was just a matter of getting it over with,” he said of his round. “I just play my 36 holes and get the hell out of town.”

Ian Woosnam, one of the pre-tournament favorites, also shot an 81, as did Jay Haas. Greg Norman had a 77. Arnold Palmer was at 80. Only six players completed the first round under par.

Seve Ballesteros was not one of them. He had a 73, although he was two under par through 14 holes, but then bogeyed the 15th and double-bogeyed the par-three 16th where he four-putted.

“Making four putts can happen to anybody,” Ballesteros said. “Unfortunately, it happened to me today.

“I’ve never seen so much wind here and I’ve never seen the course in so difficult a condition as today,” Ballesteros said.

Ben Crenshaw, who finished with a 72, as did Tom Watson, said his score was extremely hard to come by.

“On a day like today, you just get mentally wracked,” he said. “You’re on the rack every hole.

“Putting, you think about a certain speed, you think about a certain break and then you add wind to it and you want to tear your hair out,” Crenshaw said.

Nelson may have been the only player in the field of 90 who wasn’t bothered by the wind. He said he never noticed it. He was joking, of course.

This is Nelson’s 10th Masters, and in his other appearances he has blown both hot and cold. Nelson has 5th-, 6th- and 7th-place finishes, but in his six other Masters he’s never finished higher than 31st.

In his last two tournaments, Nelson missed the cut at the Players Championship and tied for 71st at Greensboro, N.C., so many wondered if his game was on the upswing now.

“I’m hoping I peak about Sunday,” he said.

Nelson was even after 11 holes, but made three birdies the rest of the way when he put the ball close to the pin on approach shots.

At the 12th, Nelson’s 7-iron was 10 feet from the hole, and he made the birdie putt to go one under par. Nelson sank a 2 1/2-foot putt on No. 14 and and a 2-foot putt on the 17th for his other birdies.

Wind? What wind?

“It wasn’t windy, was it?” Nelson asked facetiously. “I’ve played here when the weather was perfect and didn’t shoot a 69.”

Wind isn’t an unusual condition on golf courses, but when gusts blow through Augusta National, they pose special problems. Many of the tees are elevated, with fairways sloping down to the greens. There are also numerous gaps along the tree lines, which make the direction of the wind inconsistent.

This leads to many problems, mis-clubbing only one of them.

“You had to hit it high to stop it on the green,” Nicklaus said. “You had to hit it low to get it through the wind.”

Crenshaw found himself struggling to keep it together. “Another dimension,” he called it.

“You need to hit it low, but you can’t do that because you have to hit it over the bunkers and because of the tight pins (placements),” he said. “You’ve got to throw it up there somehow. You have to hope you have the right club and catch the right wind.”