Stankowski Had a Masters Plan

Masters plans? Sure, Paul Stankowski had ‘em.

“I was planning on sitting in front of the TV all weekend, like I always do,” he said. “I was looking forward to it.”

Then he went out last weekend and won the PGA Tour’s BellSouth Classic.

Change in plans, dude. Big time.

The victory earned the Oxnard resident the 93rd and final invitation to this year’s Masters.

“Playing in the Masters, wow,” Stankowski said Thursday. “Way cool.”

He is 26 years old with a slacker’s tongue, a blondish goatee, a linebacker’s name and a longshot story.

“I just didn’t want to shoot 80,” he said after beating that by six strokes in the first round at Augusta National. Friday, however, he shot a 78 and at 152 missed the cut by six strokes.

He couldn’t begin to envision being in this tournament last week, last month, last year.

He wasn’t accomplished enough to play in the Masters, and he wasn’t a person who performed the stunning feats of derring-do needed to get him here.

“My life has been very mellow until now,” he said. “I haven’t had that much happen to me.”

Much of what had happened recently had been unpleasant. The Hueneme High graduate and three-time All-American at Texas El Paso lost his PGA Tour playing privileges last year after missing seven of the last nine cuts.

He got his privileges back at a qualifying school in December, but his career was so shaky he chose to sell a new house he had built before he moved in, and he and his wife rented a small apartment instead.

“I didn’t want to get stuck with a big payment and no money coming in,” he said.

Not exactly an advertisement for the power of positive thinking. But what was he supposed to think? He missed the first five cuts on tour this year, spraying the scoreboard with rounds in the high 70s.

He decided to drop down to the Nike Tour, golf’s version of triple-A ball. He made the cut at something called the Inland Empire Open, and then, glory be, strung together four consecutive rounds in the 60s to win the Louisiana Open two weeks ago.

Encouraged, he spent $500 to change his plane ticket and fly to Atlanta last week as an alternate for the BellSouth Classic. He was the last golfer to make the field when another pulled out with a bad back 12 hours before the tournament began.

By late last Sunday afternoon he was in a playoff with another no-name player, Brandel Chamblee, who put a 1-iron in the water on the first playoff hole. From nowhere, Stankowski suddenly was a Tour winner--the first golfer to win on the Nike Tour one week and the PGA Tour the next.

He was invited to the Masters by fax late last Sunday evening, got driving instructions from Atlanta to Augusta and took off. After a couple of breathless practice rounds, he teed off Thursday morning less than 100 hours after winning in Atlanta.

What did it feel like to stand on the first tee of the Masters with thousands of fans applauding?

“Cool,” he said. “Absolutely cool.”

*

He claimed he wasn’t awed, but his early play said otherwise. He bogeyed four of the first six holes, jabbing putts all over Augusta’s famously slick greens.

“I couldn’t get a putt close to the hole, much less in it,” he said. “You hear about Augusta’s greens, but you can’t understand how tough they are until you play them. There are subtle breaks all over the place.”

He was on the road to that 80 he had feared, but a birdie on No. 8 calmed him down, and birdies on the two par fives on the back nine brought him back to within a stroke of par.

He gave back a stroke with “a silly bogey” at No. 17 and parred the last hole for a 74. It wasn’t a terrific score on a day when the field skewered Augusta National and Greg Norman tied the course record at 63, but Stankowski wasn’t complaining.

“It’s not bad considering how far behind I am as far as knowledge of the course,” he said after his opening round.

After signing his scorecard behind the 18th green, he hugged his wife and parents and did a long group interview.

Someone asked if he would try to buy back that new house he had sold. A two-year Tour exemption, courtesy of his BellSouth victory, has finally provided stability in his career.

“My life has just changed completely,” he said, “but I’m not going to think about any of that stuff yet. I’m just trying to get through the Masters.”

Cool.