Not Just Another Soggy Saga

At 8:05 on a dark gray Thursday morning when the Masters was supposed to start, it didn’t. Thunderstorms were roaming the area and they didn’t need tee times.

A new starting time was set for 9:30, then 10:30, then 12:30 p.m., then 1, then 1:30. If it had been delayed much longer, the Masters would have started, well, today.

Instead, the 69th edition of the Masters began, rather hesitantly, Thursday afternoon, but only after the gates were opened and the fans allowed in.

It was a sight to see. They stormed in, looking a lot like early shoppers at the big department store Labor Day sale.

For hours, they had waited, standing shoulder to shoulder, huddled under umbrellas to ward off the persistent drizzle.

Once inside Augusta National Golf Club, swaddled in foul-weather gear, they roamed the course, their paths marked by the squishing sounds of footsteps in spongy grass.

Wet as they got, though, nothing was as saturated as Billy Casper’s golf balls on the par-three 16th hole. He pumped five of them into the water, reached the green in 11, then three-putted for a 14.

Casper, 73, celebrating the 35th anniversary of his thrilling playoff victory over Gene Littler in 1970, was well on his way to a Masters record for misery, a round of 34-over-par 106, but he stuck his scorecard in his pocket and officially withdrew.

So, his score didn’t count, and a few more players might have considered his ploy, if they had been able to choose their moments.

There was more than enough misery and mud to go around:

* Tiger Woods putted off the green and into the creek at the 13th, then hit the flagstick at No. 1 and the ball caromed into the bunker.

* Nick Faldo pulled a muscle in his back and walked off the course after eight holes.

* David Toms had two double bogeys and a bogey in his first five holes.

* Gary Player either bogeyed or double-bogeyed 12 of his 16 holes.

* Ernie Els played 11 holes and managed one birdie.

* Paul Casey shot a quintuple-bogey 10 at the 13th.

* Thomas Levet made par on nine consecutive holes. They should have pinned a medal on him.

Opening day became so hard to handicap, David Duval had the lead at one point and so did Palmer -- Ryan, not Arnold.

It was an awkward start to the first major of the year, although it’s doubtful Chris DiMarco, Mark Hensby, Luke Donald or Vijay Singh saw it that way, since they had little problem negotiating the place.

Still, there seemed to be something missing. Maybe the late starting time or players starting off both the first and 10th tees or the uncompleted round or yet another addition to a long list of rain-delayed tournaments. Whatever the reason, there simply wasn’t a whole lot of buzz.

The round, or what they played of it, was as dour as the day.

In blooming-dogwoodland, this just won’t do. The weather forecast is better for the rest of the Masters, which could also offer hope to the players. Even Casper quickly put his disappointment behind him and went out to dinner with friends and family.

He was in a good mood before he left, saying that he’d kept a bunch of turtles in the pond at the 16th hole busy collecting his golf balls.

Jack Nicklaus was busy too. In what may be his last Masters, he trudged 12 holes, bogeyed three of the last four and is looking at 24 holes today.

He said he usually has trouble walking 18 but that he expects to be fine.

Nicklaus said that, for him, par at Augusta National was not 72, but 77. That probably would be a popular choice for many after the first day, which went into the books much like Casper’s tee shots at the 16th, disappearing into the water, out of sight and out of mind.