Masters: Jack Newton, Rodger Davis, Bob Shearer among Aussie golfers to reminisce over Augusta experiences
Competing for golf's fabled green jacket has created a vibrant history for Aussies beyond Greg Norman and Adam Scott at Augusta that stirs the blood even with no Masters this week.
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Sketching rich recollections from the Masters on to this week's empty fairways at Augusta is the only way to fill the void like the day a knockabout Aussie once tagged “Jack Slazenger” made a run at the green jacket.
This week's announcement that the tournament has been rescheduled for a November 12-15 timeslot is huge for golf lovers who are dealing with the news that there will be no British Open at all this year.
Golf fans will know our mystery golfer better as Jack Newton and it's hard to believe it is 40 years since he challenged the late Seve Ballesteros on the closing nine at the 1980 Masters before finishing joint second.
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Newton was so taken by the golfing wonderland amid the tall Georgia pines that he called his home “Augusta” with a shingle on his fence when you drive up to where he lives outside Newcastle.
Newton, Greg Norman, Steve Elkington, third-round leaders Craig Parry and Stuart Appleby, Jason Day and Adam Scott seemed to turn the Masters into an endless run of near-misses and heartache for Aussies from 1980 until Scott's unforgettable heroics in 2013 broke the hoodoo forever.
Newton is now 70 and yearns to watch his Newcastle Knights back playing in the NRL.
He will probably be one of the first to know when the health crisis might allow it if son Clint gives him a wink from the trenches as Rugby League Players' Association chief.
Newton was a strapping, big-hitting figure in 1980, with the 1979 Australian Open title under his belt, when he sat third entering the final round of the Masters with rounds of 68-74-69.
He was a whopping eight shots behind Ballesteros with no realistic shot at the prize but Sundays at Augusta do funny things to golfers and in this case to a Spaniard trying to become the youngest winner of the Masters at 23.
Newton made up a staggering six shots on Amen Corner, where faltering Seve twice found Rae's Creek.
The Aussie got back to just two behind his playing partner before a three-putt par on the 15th took the wind out of his challenge.
“I actually had a pretty good run at Augusta, something I won't forget on a wonderful golf course,” Newton said.
“I drew Seve in the last round that year. He won and I think a few more of the American golf writers believed what I'd said a year earlier at the Masters when I told them he could become the best golfer in the world.”
In 1979, Newton had accepted an invitation from an American friend to partner him in a money game at Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.
Hustle was a better word.
"'Jack', my mate said, 'I want you to come up and play a group of farmers (wealthy cotton or tobacco farmers I think) for money'," Newton said.
"We got to the course and I was introduced as 'Jack Slazenger' which was fine because I was carrying a Slazenger brand bag at the time with the name in big letters."
Newton played his part too well. He shot 66 to fleece the farmers once and 64 to do it again in the afternoon when a second 18 holes was played.
"Basically, I cleaned up and got out without being donged on the head with a driver," Newton said.
On the practice putting green before the final round of the 1979 Masters, Newton was suddenly interrupted by a voice with a southern twang.
"This bloke just said 'Jack Slazenger, you son-of-a-bitch, I oughta shoot you' and I recognised him straight away as one of the farmers," Newton said.
Thankfully, the anxious moment before one of Newton's most important rounds diffused just as quickly: "He was a decent fella and that was it."
Newton won nearly twice as much hustling the farmers than his $3740 cheque for joint 12th that year.
PETER Senior played just a single Masters in 1990 after earning a prized invitation for winning the Australian Open, Australian PGA and Johnnie Walker Australian Classic in a bumper 1989.
They were four days never to forget.
"It was just the guys I played with... Fuzzy Zoeller, Tom Watson, shooting the easiest of 67s, and Raymond Floyd," Senior said.
"Tom Watson was pretty much my hero growing up so you can imagine I never slept knowing I was to play with him on a Saturday at the Masters.
"Tom played so much better than 67 in the wind, his ball striking was as good as you'd see and he just didn't make that many putts."
One Masters' tradition is the awarding of a pair of crystal goblets to any player who grabs an eagle.
"I hit a three iron to 10 feet on the 15th and holed the putt for eagle in the second round," Senior said.
"My name popped up at the bottom of the leaderboard briefly... and those two glasses sit in the trophy cabinet."
One big no-no in the old days was publicly questioning why no Masters invitation was in the mail, as Rodger Davis did, after he had won the Australian and New Zealand Opens in late 1986.
"Augusta National took its time to accept the world rankings concept. It was 'invitation only' to the Masters and I was in something of a vacuum as an Australian golfer behind Greg Norman and David Graham." Davis said.
"Two Aussies getting an invite to Augusta was enough it seemed.
"I was upset and made a few comments. That's part of life. I did get an invitation to play the 1988 Masters and to experience the greatest brain-teasing course in the world."
He returned in 1992 and shot a fine second round 68 which included an eagle on the second hole where he chipped in.
"I used to drink my vodka and tonics out of the two crystal glasses I won for that until I was told to leave them in the trophy cabinet as part of a huge diet. I did lose 24kg," Davis said.
Queenslander Rod Pampling was fifth behind Tiger Woods in 2005 and calls Augusta National an amazing throwback to what sports used to be like.
"There are a lot of rules and people behave a lot better. There is none of the 'get in the hole' yelling. It’s like it used to be. There is no running allowed. It’s all walking," Pampling said.
The one-time greenskeeper at Caboolture Golf Club enjoyed the thrill of his late father Kenny watching him play on Augusta's manicured fairways.
"I can remember people being so polite that they actually knew he was my father and made way for him behind the ninth and 18th greens so he could watch me. That’s Augusta for you. They’ll do that. I remember seeing him and thinking 'how did he get in there?',” Pampling said.
In 1977, Victorian Bob Shearer had the low-round of 67 in the second round in a field flecked with greats like Jack Nicklaus and Watson.
"I was fortunate enough to be at the Masters four times and to play once with Sam Snead," Shearer said of playing with the three-time champion from the 1940s and '50s.
"He was in his 60s by then and as we get older, we all get a bit frustrated by the young blokes hitting it longer off the tee.
"I remember playing the long par three fourth, Sam with a three wood and me with a five or six iron.
"He turned to me, 'You young blokes... it's against the rules that sort of stuff'."
Shearer could also reveal a little Augusta National secret from the 13th hole where that large section of Amen Corner is always roped off to the public.
"The azaleas were out but there were also plastic flowers in amongst them to help colour things up, perhaps because the weather hadn't been quite right that year," Shearer said.
CRAIG Parry is busy with golf course design, most recently upgrades at Bayview Golf Club on Sydney's northern beaches, but in 1992 he was right in the thick of the hunt to be the first Aussie to win a green jacket.
It was a disrupted Masters in more ways than one with Saturday afternoon thunderstorms forcing Parry and other leading players to complete their third rounds on Sunday morning before the final 18 holes could begin.
Parry played exceptionally well tee to green and was the third round leader at 12-under-par after shooting 69-66-69.
Late in the third round, a local fan blurted out a taste of what was in store for Parry in his final round pairing beside crowd favourite Fred Couples.
"'Why don't you guys let an American win?' was the line and 'Woosie' (Welsh playing partner Ian Woosnam) told him where to go," Parry said.
"If I'm watching my Western Bulldogs play in the AFL, I'm vocal and want them to win but this is golf and there's a level of respect.
"Had I already experienced a Presidents Cup and those parochial fans, I would have handled things better that day but I'd never had anyone barrack against me before."
Fans in the galleries would rock on their (deck) chairs and the subtle squeaks would be in Parry's head when he was playing around the greens.
Parry led by three shots with 16 holes of the Masters to play when he birdied the downhill par five second but shots slipped away after that for a 78 and 13th.
Some time later, he also nutted out some of his costly three putts: "The practice green had been cut low and fast between the third and fourth round on that Sunday but the greens on course were not cut so low and I kept leaving putts short."
Parry still has wonderful memories of Augusta and oil paintings of the fourth and eighth holes hang at his home.
Returning in 1993 gave him another because he was ringside for one of the greatest shots he has ever witnessed as playing partner beside Nicklaus for the opening round.
"Jack hit this one iron over the pond to the 15th that came down like a butterfly with sore feet... eagle. Magnificent," Parry said.
GREG Norman’s quest to win the Masters is indelibly inked into the tournament's history and watching on TV stirred a young Adam Scott to dream of that same stage one day.
He had six top three finishes, fired a brilliant 63 to open 1996 and lost his swing and a six-shot lead to end the same week.
That collapse still causes pain for a generation of Australian golf fans but his first Masters in 1981 also gave Norman something that lives with him to this day... one of sport's most bankable nicknames.
"I was tied for the lead after my first-round 69 but nobody knew who I was when I was ushered into the press room," Norman said in his 2006 book, Greg Norman: The Way Of The Shark.
The questions delved into his past and Norman's chatter about the Great Barrier Reef, surfing, diving and spearfishing gave the American media the colour they were after.
"Do you like sharks?" was the next question.
"No," Norman said, "They would frequently feed from the fish I caught. Actually, I would love to shoot them."
The next day, a headline writer in the Augusta Chronicle fired up, "Great White Shark Leads Masters". The rest is history.
Former British Open champion IAN Baker-Finch had a best finish of sixth (1992) but rues putting poorly in his final round.
For over a decade, he has been a broadcast staple with American network CBS and his Masters perch for commentary was on Amen Corner for Scott's win in 2013.
"He was nothing short of 'Australian of the Year' in my opinion," Baker-Finch said.
"What an emotional roller coaster ride for me on the Amen Corner Tower with CBS as a nation watched one of their own finally wearing the green jacket.
"The Masters is my favourite week of the year and I'm now looking forward to November."
Just heading to Augusta National Golf Club stirs an excitement and self-belief within ADAM Scott that only previous winners share.
It almost feels like a home course such are the vibes that start when he opens his locker where his green jacket hangs beside that of three-time winner Gary Player.
Past winners have a separate champions' locker room at Augusta and only they are invited to Tuesday night’s champions’ dinner.
After his epic 2013 triumph on course, Scott put an Aussie twist to his 2014 menu with Moreton Bay bugs topping wagyu steak and mum Pam’s pavlova.
Scott loves the traditions of the Masters and he created some fresh rituals of his own when he had the green jacket throughout 2013.
For weeks after his victory, he’d just slip on the jacket any random morning at his luxury home in the Bahamas to eat breakfast or down a cup of coffee.
“When someone was coming over I sometimes just left it hanging over the sofa. The look ‘Are you kiddin’ me, is that the…?’ was pretty cool to see,” Scott said.
More than 40 Aussie golfers had poured every effort into challenging for the Masters over the decades and, in their own way, helped Scott finally push to the summit.
See you in November at Augusta.
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