GOLF MASTERS NOTEBOOK : Huston Gets Off on Right Foot at Augusta

John Huston shot a six-under-par 66 Thursday in the Masters and trailed the leader, Mike Donald, by only two strokes.

But that accomplishment didn’t seem nearly as significant as the shoes he once wore.

That’s right. The writers here wanted to know all the details of why Huston had to get another pair of shoes before the Honda tournament last month.

“The shoes that I have been wearing for almost two years were built up on one side,” Huston said. “It’s supposed to help you stay balanced.”

Huston was warned, though, by a shoe company official that his shoes might not pass inspection by United States Golf Assn. officials.

Sure enough, Huston got a call from an official 10 hours before he was to tee off at the Honda tournament, informing him that his shoes were illegal.

“It doesn’t change your swing,” Huston said, referring to the shoes, “although they might help a high-handicap player a lot.”

So Huston complied, winning the Honda tournament with more conventional shoes. You could call him a shoo-in.

Huston said he once attended Auburn University.

“I was on the golf team for two semesters and in school for five minutes,” he said.

Asked about the courses he took, Huston said: “I wasn’t there long enough to hear them say what they were.”

And his golf coach was sort of a mystery man.

“He was just a guy who drove us around,” Huston said.

Huston was asked who caddied for him Thursday.

“Brad Krosnoff,” he said.

The name rang no bells.

“The Brad Krosnoff,” Huston explained.

Primed for a run at his first Masters title, Paul Azinger shot 80 and probably won’t make the cut. Lay the blame on a 10 at the par-five 13th hole that dragged him to a nightmarish back nine of 43.

Azinger’s tee shot sliced into the trees. He had to play into the 14th fairway. Then he toed a six-iron into the water. He took a drop, dubbed the next shot short of the water, then dubbed the next shot back into the water. Azinger dropped again, reached the green and two-putted.

Record high on that hole remains Tommy Nakajima’s 13 in 1978.

Heavy-hitter Chris Patton, the 305-pound amateur who broke par in his Masters debut, pleasantly joked before his round of 71 that should he have a big day, the next day’s headlines might read: “Fat Guy Leads Masters.”

He already has heard some of the gags going around:

--”Hey, Chris! You sure hit that shot fat!”

--”Quick! Lift him out of the sand and back into the water!”

--”There goes Patton: Old Blood and Gut.”

--”Question: How’s Chris’ slice? Answer: Delicious.”

--”Question: What hole is Patton on? Answer: 10, 11 and 12.”

His mother, Linda Patton, doesn’t quite see the same humor in it. She told Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution: “Sometimes it is cruel. I just try to ignore it. Size isn’t important. The person is important. And Chris is a very friendly, loving person.”

The U.S. Amateur champion, Patton, who stands 6 feet 1, appreciates that where the Masters’ green jacket is concerned, one size fits all. Jack Nicklaus, Billy Casper and Craig Stadler were not exactly beanpoles when they won their first.

A crackdown on counterfeit spectator badges led to the confiscation of at least 40 illegal passes Thursday, tournament officials said.

No tickets are sold for the Masters, where even the concept of a waiting list was abandoned as long ago as 1978. Only original badge holders and invited guests may attend play Thursday through Sunday, and even they must pay premium prices. However, a recent glut of remarkably authentic bogus badges has led to at least two arrests and compelled Augusta National’s security forces to redouble efforts to detect the phonies.

“But we have no idea how many may have slipped through, or how many may still be out there,” Masters Chairman Hord Hardin said. “We’ve had this problem before, a few years ago, but this appears to be on a grander scale.”

An agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Ron Rohlfs, said: “There are more counterfeits than originally thought. There could be thousands.”

Authentic badge-holders caught selling their tickets are subject to removal of privileges.

“In Georgia, scalping tickets is only a misdemeanor,” Rohlfs told the Journal and Constitution. “You get scratched from the Masters’ list, now that’s the ultimate penalty.”

If only to get the gallery’s pulses racing, 60-year-old Arnold Palmer birdied two of his first three holes.

Alas, after an even-par front nine, Palmer triple-bogeyed the par-three 12th and faded to a 76. Arnie did, at least, give the crowd a last buzz with a birdie at 18.

Several other gray panthers outplayed Palmer, among them George Archer (age 50) with a 70, Nicklaus (also 50) at 72, Gary Player (54) at 73 and Casper (58) at 74.

All former Masters champions get automatic invitations. Oldest player in the field, 67-year-old Doug Ford, was playing in his 38th Masters. Ford carded a 78, including a birdie, to tie the likes of Greg Norman and out-shot seven other players--six of them less than half his age.