Thrill of Victory, Agony of the Feet : Jose Maria Olazabal Couldn’t Even Walk Last Year, but Now He’s Back at Augusta

The 1994 Masters champion watched the 1996 Masters from the sofa of his living room in Fuenterrabia, Spain.

The television set showed Jose Maria Olazabal what he was missing. Basically, playing golf.

Olazabal would have loved to have been there himself, but there was a small problem. He couldn’t stand up.

At least he was used to it. Since early in 1995, whenever Olazabal stood, his feet hurt so badly the pain nearly made him cry.

He didn’t touch a golf club for six months. He thought about quitting golf. Worse, he thought about life in a wheelchair. He wondered if he had reached the lowest point of his life and was pretty sure he had.

“You know, when you cannot walk at all, I think that is the lowest you can get,” Olazabal said.

Two weeks ago, Olazabal was crying again. The guy who was worried he might never be able to play golf again had just won the Turespana Masters, and all Olazabal could do was weep.

“It was a special moment,” Olazabal said. “I don’t think you have seen me cry many times on the golf course. I cried that day.”

His feet still hurt, but Olazabal can play again. And now, the 1994 Masters champion is back at the site of his only major title triumph--a two-shot victory over Tom Lehman when he played the last 54 holes in 11 under par.

It took 18 months for Olazabal to get to the point where he could walk a golf course without unbearable pain in his feet.

Olazabal sought advice from several doctors, and they all said he had rheumatoid arthritis in his feet. They advised rest. They advised medicine. They advised patience. They advised treatment.

So Olazabal did just what they said.

He stretched his toes. He stood. He worked on his balance. He exercised in the swimming pool. He walked on the sand.

He waited, but his feet didn’t get any better.

So in September, Olazabal traveled to Germany and met with Dr. Hans Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt, a homeopathic specialist, who told him something completely different.

The problem was not rheumatoid arthritis, Muller-Wohlfahrt said, but a biomechanical problem caused by a lower-back hernia.

Muller-Wohlfahrt prescribed injections, and lots of them. Olazabal was injected with iron, zinc, amino acids and shark cartilage.

Then Olazabal waited some more. He waited until Feb. 27 to try to come back, which was the Dubai Classic. Quite unexpectedly, he finished 12th.

He finished fourth in Portugal before coming full circle with his European PGA Tour victory in Spain.

It came as a complete surprise to many.

“We thought there was no chance of him coming back and thought he was going to finish in a wheelchair,” Spanish player Domingo Hospital said of his countryman.

Last week, Olazabal got ready for his return to the Masters by finishing tied for seventh at the Freeport-McDermott Classic in New Orleans.

Now, he’s back at Augusta National. He isn’t in a wheelchair and he doesn’t even care if his condition might have been incorrectly diagnosed for 18 months.

“Life is like that,” Olazabal said. “It happens.”

There he was Tuesday at Augusta National, pacing the course, playing the holes, making the trek up and down the hills and over the mounds.

He has had a lot of ups and downs recently, so this was nothing new.

“I’m just happy to be here. I think that should be obvious. I’m not 100% at the moment, but the problem is not too bad. I can cope [and] play 18 holes with a good deal of pain and that’s the best news I can have.

“It is a terrible period I have been through.”

The 31-year-old who turned pro in 1985 has won 20 times in his career, six times on the PGA Tour, but not since the 1994 Masters. Olazabal eagled the 15th hole on Sunday on his way to victory.

He had come a long way by then. Olazabal started playing golf at 6 when his mother took him to the Real Golf Club de San Sebastian late in the afternoons when there was no one on the course. Both Olazabal’s parents worked at the course, and the youngster became an outstanding junior player.

From 1986 to 1994, Olazabal won at least one tournament a year except for 1987 and 1993. If his career reached its zenith at the 1994 Masters, it might have bottomed out when his bad feet forced him to withdraw from the 1995 Ryder Cup.

He said his friends and family tried to help, but there wasn’t much they could offer besides good cheer.

“They did all they could,” Olazabal said. “But what can you do, you know? You see a guy that’s lying down and cannot walk at all, what can you say?”

Olazabal is back on his feet again and although the pain is still there, he said it’s at a level he can tolerate. He said he is no threat to win the Masters, but on the other hand, he is here again and that cannot be bad.

In a couple of weeks, Olazabal said he will see his doctor again and get new tests on his feet.

“It’s not over yet,” Olazabal said.

Maybe not, but at least he isn’t watching the Masters on television this time.