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| From left, Mark O'Meara, Tiger Woods and Sean O'Hair skip golf balls across the pond on the 16th hole during a practice round for the Masters golf tournament Wednesday, April 4, 2012, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) | ||
When the 76th Masters Tournament tees off Thursday, a damp, rainy first round might greet the world's best golfers to Augusta, Ga. Thunderstorms Wednesday brought an abrupt end to the Par 3 Contest. But as the golfers say, a little rain might not be such a bad thing.
The tournament that has been billed "A Tradition Unlike Any Other" has a tradition of being a handful for the most skilled golfers, as the impeccably-manicured golf course pushes each competitor to the brink of their talents. Sometimes, the greens can only be slowed by a little moisture, and it appears Augusta National will play slower in Thursday's round at least.
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And if the rains come and the course is softer, expect to see more aggressive play from the golfers, as they attempt to score lower in the early rounds before the greens and fairways dry up again.
"It seems that some of the planning I have made may go by the wayside," Phil Mickelson (Masters Champion in 2004, 2006 and 2010) said during a press conference Tuesday. "As soft as the golf course is, you can fire at a lot of the pins. The greens are soft. I don't want to say they are slow, but it's just not the same Augusta. It's wet around the greens, and there's no fear of the course. You've got to attack it this week."
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Defending champion Charl Schwartzel also admitted that there is a weather factor to the tourney, and even the practice rounds leading up to Thursday's first round might not fully prepare the golfers for the real thing.
"It's always weather-dependent," Schwartzel said. "I've played a few rounds now, and I'm hitting the same clubs on the same holes and trying to get the same thought processes as I had."
In a sport where seemingly all of the professionals can blast a drive more than 300 yards and putting is crucial, the real key is to hit approach shots as close to the pin as possible. If the course is soggy, the players will have an added incentive to gun for the hole from the fairway because there will be a lower risk of the approach shot skipping past the green.
"Generally, if you hit it really close all the time, you're OK," Tiger Woods told reporters, with a grin.
The golfers are aware that the forecast calls for warmer, drier conditions as the weekend goes on, so the opportunity to attack the damp course won't be there in all four rounds. With state-of-the-art drying systems buried under the greens, rain might not allow the course to be vulnerable for as long as it used to be.
"There's so much slope out here, and as we all know, if they get dry conditions, as the week goes on, it's going to get awfully quick and those putts become even more difficult," Woods added.
Keep a close eye on the way the golfers execute this weekend, because weather conditions might play a pivotal role in determining the victor of the 2012 Masters.