Augusta Is Expected to Take a Firm Stance

The course down Magnolia Lane is not what it used to be, and neither is Arnold Palmer, yet this year golf fans cheerfully indulge both.

Augusta National has tried its best to outrun 320-yard-drive technology and keep up with bulked-up players and their boot-camp fitness trainers.

Yet, when Ireland’s Darren Clarke walks away from the beer keg, trades suds for sit-ups, loses 40 pounds and falls in love with a Swiss (medicine ball), what chance does any par-five have?

The 68th Masters tournament will start today, and, frankly, Augusta National can’t wait to throw its first counterpunch.

Heavy rains the last two years negated course-toughening measures taken in 2002 to make sure Tiger Woods never wins three Masters again by the aggregate 46 under par.

This week’s forecast, the report every Masters planner prayed for, calls for a light sprinkle today -- “doesn’t sound like enough to put an umbrella up for,” as one official put it -- and sunshine through Easter Sunday.

Eagerly deflecting questions regarding membership business and Martha Burk, tournament Chairman Hootie Johnson steered talk toward a golf course he thinks has been sufficiently pumped and primed.

A few players have grumbled that some of the charm has been face-lifted out of Masters.

Thirty-six pine trees have been added on the 11th fairway, and the greens are already bowling alley lanes. There is added oomph on the seventh and 18th holes plus rough Ben Hogan never had to consider.

So much for someone shooting 30 on the Sunday back nine to make a dramatic charge.

“You won’t see too many 30s now,” Woods said.

The proprietors see it in another context.

“This is what we’ve been looking for,” Johnson hooted.

Yet, in other ways, the old course is everything it used to be.

Vijay Singh pulled into Augusta National this week and passed the 61 magnolia trees planted as seedlings in the late 1850s.

“You get the chills going again,” said Singh, the 2000 champion.

No matter how many tee boxes it moves or how much Martha dust it kicks up, the Masters never lacks for tree lines and story lines.

Here are a few of the latter:

* Palmer will play in his 50th and, he says, final, Masters. He is 74, a four-time champion, but he hasn’t made the cut since 1983.

And it doesn’t matter. Based on the “Army” that followed Palmer’s group for Wednesday’s practice round, it could have been 1958.

It is true Arnie can’t hit them as far as he used to.

After watching practice-round partner Davis Love III lace a tee shot on the par-five 15th, Palmer turned to the gallery Wednesday and said, “I couldn’t carry it that far in my pocket.”

Someone asked Palmer to pick his favorite single day in 50 years at the Masters.

“I’ve had 50 years of single days,” he said.

Get out your hankies.

* Will Woods ever win again?

He hasn’t won a major in his last six tries dating back 21 months.

Surely, this has to be the most confounding, picked-over, over-analyzed drought in his career?

Well, no. Woods went 28 months without a major win from the 1997 Masters to the 1999 PGA Championship.

There must be a woman to blame, some even suggesting Woods’ recent engagement might have diverted his focus.

“Golf is what I do for a living,” Woods confessed this week. “I love it. I love to compete. But it doesn’t define me as a person.”

See?

Or, maybe it’s just hard to win a major.

* John Daly. He has only three top-10 finishes in the majors, but two of them were victories (1991 PGA and 1995 British Open). He qualified by the skin of his 10th-place standing on the money list and, this week, his fourth wife pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges.

Frankly, you still never know when Daly will dominate a golf course or walk off it.

* Mike Weir. The Canadian tries to defend his title while he wards off questions about the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs.

“You want my analysis of the playoffs?” Weir, as if he had nothing else to do this week, responded to a reporter’s question. “Wow.”

Weir, being one of the nicest guys on the PGA Tour, offered, “We’ll see, the Ottawa-Toronto series, that’s going to be a battle right out of the gate.”

* Always a first time. There have been five consecutive first-time major winners going back to Rich Beem’s victory at the 2002 PGA Championship.

Here’s a breakdown of five guys who might break through this week.

1. Phil Mickelson. OK, everyone in unison, Isn’t it Phil’s time?

Forget for a moment Mickelson is winless in 46 major tournament starts because Mickelson says, “I don’t dread these weeks. I look forward to them. I can’t wait.”

OK, also in unison, Augusta sets up beautifully for his game.

Mickelson has seven top-10 finishes in 11 Masters starts and has finished as the show horse (third) the last three years.

“If I could have saved a shot a round, I would have had two wins and a tie,” Mickelson said.

2. Clarke. He shot 66 to lead last year’s first round at the Masters and then huffed and puffed to rounds of 76, 78 and 74, prompting Clarke to drastically alter his lifestyle with a six-days-a-week fitness regimen.

You talk about losing a load.

“There isn’t three cans, three tins, whatever you call them, three trays of beer in front of me when I’m swinging,” Clarke said.

3. Padraig Harrington. We’re thinking Ireland again. Green country equals green jacket? He finished fifth in the 2002 Masters and British Open and has a solid, all-around game.

Oops, scratch that. Wednesday evening, Harrington won the annual par-three tournament. No par-three winner has ever won the Masters.

“I’m Irish, there can’t be a jinx for me!” Harrington argued. “I have my own lucky leprechaun in my pocket.”

4. Adam Scott. He leads the list of up-and-coming Australians. Scott, of course, has patterned his swing after Woods’ and scored his biggest victory so far at this year’s Players Championship.

5. Chad Campbell. The 10-gallon talent from Texas had a shot at his first major title last August until Shaun Micheel hit a seven-iron on No. 18 to within inches to clinch the PGA Championship. Campbell won the Tour Championship, finished second in two other 2003 tournaments and this year was the winner at Bay Hill.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Woods at the Masters

Tiger Woods has earned $2,920,760 in his nine Masters tournaments. A year-by-year look:

*--* Year Finish Rd. 1 Rd. 2 Rd. 3 Rd. 4 Total Par Earnings 2003 T-15 76 73 66 75 290 +2 $93,000 2002 Win 70 69 66 71 276 -12 $1,008,000 2001 Win 70 66 68 68 272 -16 $1,008,000 2000 5 75 72 68 69 284 -4 $184,000 1999 T-18 72 72 70 75 289 +1 $52,160 1998 T-8 71 72 72 70 285 -3 $89,600 1997 Win 70 66 65 69 270 -18 $486,000 1996 CUT 75 75 150 +6 0 1995 T-41 72 72 77 72 293 +5 0 (amateur)

*--*