Twice as Tough

How does the defending Masters champion get himself ready to try it again?

For Jose Maria Olazabal, it’s like this: You play poorly leading up to the tournament, you think a lot about how you felt last year, you talk about your feet and, of course, you brush up on your cliches.

The defending champion’s news conference was held Tuesday afternoon at Augusta National and Olazabal sat behind a microphone and got rolling. What came out was pure Olazabalspeak, to be sure.

Question: Are you more pessimistic or less pessimistic than this time last year?

Answer: Come on, it’s only Tuesday. I don’t know.

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Q: How difficult is it to win this tournament?

A: Well, it is a hell of a job, I can promise you that.

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Q: As a past champion, is there a premium on experience?

A: Experience is always an advantage, without a doubt.

And so on. As interviews go, this one was lacking in the enlightenment department, but it probably doesn’t matter. The story line for Olazabal as he prepares to defend his Masters title is what he doesn’t have to say. He is playing badly.

Of course, that can change quickly, but the fact is that Olazabal didn’t exactly arrive at Augusta National with a fully formed golf game. Last week at the BellSouth Classic, Olazabal tied for 37th. He missed the cut the week before that at the Players Championship.

Olazabal hopes that the scenery around here will jolt him and cause his game to come around. That sounds like a lot to ask of a bunch of azaleas, dogwoods and pine trees.

“Makes you feel better about life in general, yes, that’s for sure,” Olazabal said. “But the game is pretty much the same situation. I’m still fighting my problems with the driver. It’s something that I don’t know when, but I will get it right, hopefully.”

The greens at Augusta National get the most attention, which is only natural. But the fairways are once again making news. Last year, the buzz was about the rough that was grown. This year, the players are finding that the rough has been brought in to narrow the fairways on several holes, notably No. 9 and No. 10.

This can’t be good news for a player who is having trouble with his driver. And there’s another issue with the rough. It’s being cut in a direction to cause the maximum amount of trouble.

“We realize that the golf course is changing in the last couple of years,” Olazabal said. “The rough is pretty much the same height, but they’re very clever on the way they cut the grass. They cut it from green to tee, so if you hit it in that rough, you’re not going to get a good lie, that’s for sure.”

The 34-year-old from Fuenterrabia, Spain, clearly knows his way around Augusta National, no matter which way they mow the grass. He won his first Masters in 1994 and his second one came five years later. He has three other top-10 finishes here and was the runner-up to Ian Woosnam in 1991.

Olazabal has won 17 times on the European PGA Tour after turning pro in 1985. He won twice as a rookie and has remained one of the dominant international players since. It hasn’t been an easy position for him to maintain, largely because of chronic foot pain that was misdiagnosed as arthritis.

Olazabal was forced to the sidelines for 18 months beginning in 1995. A specialist began treating Olazabal’s back and he began to feel better. He returned to the European PGA Tour in 1997 and won his third tournament after coming back.

His victory in last year’s Masters meant that Olazabal was all the way back.

“I mean, I really believe that things are meant to happen sometimes,” he said. “I think last year it was meant to happen.”

And this year?

“It’s going to be difficult for it to happen again,” he said.