Sara Lee Elder, in the capacity of honorary starter, to kick off Thursday at the 85th edition of the Augusta Masters, and this is certainly not a coincidence. Elder was the first African American to play the tournament in 1975, long before Tiger Woods appeared and fifteen years before America’s most exclusive club admitted a black to its membership. It is a signal, a way to remember everything that has happened after the George Floyd tragedy and the fact that this happens in Augusta, Georgia, the state where baseball did not want to play the All Star Game, and on the lawns of the old Wasp Bastion, the club of presidents and CEOs of the most powerful multinationals, cannot be underrated.
Tiger will be missing this year, committed to recovering from the road accident in which he risked his life, will be missed by everyone, fans and opponents. Here Tiger has won five times, the first in 1997, the last two years ago, and if today golf is no longer what it used to be and so has the Augusta National, whose co-founder (with Bobby Jones) Clifford Roberts still in the 1980s he only wanted black caddies because, he argued, “whites play and blacks carry bags”, it is also, if not above all, thanks to him.
But beyond the names of the shareholders, who are co-opted and only in 2012 did they admit women (the first was Condoleeza Rice), of the extraordinary history of those 140 hectares that Jones, in 1942, when the activity of the club stopped due to war, thought of turning into a pasture buying 200 head of cattle to keep the grass under control (it went very badly: the cows ate the azaleas and, after those, they went to storm the trees), beyond traditions (the caddies strictly in white overalls) and stories (in 1983 a certain Charles Davis entered the proshop, took five hostages and said he wanted to talk to Ronald Reagan who was playing), beyond all that, the Masters remains the tournament in which everyone would like to participate and everyone would like to win. “It’s not like the other tournaments, the other Majors – explained the Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, former world number 1 -, here everything is special. It’s like staying at Disneyland for a week. “
Disneyland will be less populated this year, but more crowded and greener than the last edition, moved to Covid in mid-November. And on the fields it will be the usual battle. Dustin Johnson, defending champion and tournament record holder (20 strokes under par) is the favorite, but his win pays 8 to 1. Hitting the winner in golf is very difficult and if in Tiger’s golden years everyone knew how it would turn out , now the balance is widespread and many can dream of walking through Magnolia Lane wearing the green jacket destined for the champion.
Jordan Spieth also dreams of it, who beat everyone here in 2015, when he was 21 and seemed destined to become the heir of the Tiger. Spieth returned to success on Sunday, Easter Sunday, in Texas, after 4 years of bad golf and long months spent trying to understand what had happened to him: “I knew I would win again, I didn’t think it would take so long”. And with Spieth who knows what not come back Francesco Molinari too. Here, in 2019, the year of Tiger’s resurrection, he cherished triumph, missed it and has been looking for ever since.
April 6, 2021 (change April 6, 2021 | 23:37)
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