Sunday, April 14, 2019
Hello, friends.
With The Masters upon us, that phrase just seemed like the appropriate intro to our 2019 column.
For the seventh year now, I consider myself extremely lucky to have this weekly forum to share my thoughts on the game loved by so many.
To those who have read this space in the past, hello again. And to any first-time readers out there, welcome.
This week, as we all know, is one of the major weeks for our sport. To keep my “0-for” streak alive, I’m going to jinx a longshot and pick Marc Leishman to win The Masters. He’s a consistent presence at Augusta. And I just think with the energy around the big names: Tiger Woods’ comeback, Rory McIlroy’s Grand Slam chase, etc., there’s an opportunity for a “quiet” winner this week.
But to be honest, this week’s Masters will have to be one of the all-time greats to eclipse what I watched last week with the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
To be fair, let’s address the notion head-on that Augusta National hasn’t always been a forward-thinking club with a global goal to grow the game across all genders, races and ages. A simple Wikipedia or Google search will provide proof of that.
Let’s be clear: Augusta National Golf Club today is the most important and most forward-thinking club in the advancement of our sport globally.
The Masters has always been special. And I have always been a fan.
I remember myself at 10, renting the final round of the 1986 Masters from our local Blockbuster (yes, they actually rented it out on VHS). I could still to this day tell you every shot by Jack Nicklaus during his magical back-nine run to a record sixth green jacket.
As far as watching live golf goes, I can clearly remember two Masters final rounds. The first was in 1997. I remember being in awe of a 21-year-old Woods as his Masters performance arguably changed Augusta National, and the sport, forever.
His victory propelled Augusta National’s — and golf’s — level of inclusiveness to a place that only a year earlier seemed so far from reach, both in distance and in time to get there.
I can’t imagine ever being able to identify a singular tournament that changed the physical characteristics of our sport more than that ’97 Masters. Tiger’s distance and dominance of Augusta’s wider, single-cut layout forced Augusta (and courses around the world) to add length and create more demanding tee shots. With his historic first major victory, a “verb” was born; Tiger-proofing.
To this day, I can hear Jim Nantz’s call from the 18th tower: “A win for the ages.” It certainly was.
The other round I can still close my eyes and see is Tiger’s fourth win in 2005. Partly because of the fact that Mike Ferranti, Shawn Wire, Zack Krichbaum and I somehow ran a cable wire from our shared third floor apartment to the driveway out back. We used to have putting contests on the blacktop parking lot and rigged an old school TV up in the bushes. That round also included Tiger’s famous “stop… no, go in” chip on 16 to eventually catch and pass Chris DiMarco. Cue Verne Lundquist’s famous “In your life!” call.
I’ll never forget going crazy in our parking lot just as my future in-laws pulled into the driveway. They couldn’t see the TV we had rigged in the bushes and thought we were quite simply losing our minds.
But as great as those two rounds were, and with my apologies to both 1997 and 2005, I think last Saturday may have topped them both.
Jennifer Kupcho, Maria Fassi and the rest of the first women amateur competitors at Augusta National put on a show of both incredible golf and even better sportsmanship. And only Augusta National could create an event with the likes of our sport’s best female golfers ever as ambassadors — Nancy Lopez, Se Ri Pak, Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam.
As the final group birdied their way through the most famous back nine in golf, I found myself thinking about with the unusual dichotomy in front of me: that of something so new, yet also so familiar. I wondered if I was watching a revolutionary event pushing our sport forward? Or if it was the natural evolution of golf’s oldest and most cherished venues?
Unsure of that answer, and glued to the tournament’s finish on Augusta National’s famous 18th green, I did what I could only imagine generations of fathers had wished they’d been able to do before me. I grabbed my little Stella, held her tight, and as Kupcho’s winning putt caused a familiar eruption around Augusta National’s famous green, I paused, teary-eyed, and relished in my new ability to say to my baby girl: “Maybe that will be you one day.”
So thank you, Augusta National, for what you’ve already given us this week. And for the week to come.
Thank you, Annika Sorenstam and the other female ambassadors who helped make the ANWA possible. Your trail-blazing careers, both on and off the golf course, continue to make you inspirations to countless females — not only female golfers — around the world.
And thank you Valley golfers for joining us for another season. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2019.
Jonah Karzmer is a former golf professional who writes a Sunday golf column for The Vindicator. In his spare time, he sells commercial insurance and loves getting feedback on his weekly columns via email at Jonah@thekarzmerinsurance.com.