Masters: Food poisoning, a broken finger, swing demons and the ‘flu – Australian supergroup is walking wounded at Augusta

Cam Smith is still recovering from food poisoning. Min Woo Lee has a broken finger and the ‘flu. Jason Day is fighting swing demons. They’ve had better Masters preparations.

Cameron Smith on the 17th hole during a practice round on Tuesday ahead of the 2024 Masters.

Jason Day, Min Woo Lee, Cam Smith and Adam Scott are to the right of the 11th green. The spot where Larry Mize chipped in to thrust a dagger into the saddened heart of Greg Norman. It’s unrecognisable. The vista has completely changed. Mize’s bunt and run skipped across virtually flat terrain but now you cannot see the putting surface from a valley so deep you could fill it with Norman’s tears.

Mize’s shot will never be repeated because the area has been transformed. Toughened up. Augusta National designers dug a hole and created a gully so substantial that Mize’s famous flick of the wrists has become impossible to replicate. There’s a 10-foot drop to force a perilous lob wedge that may roll back to your feet or fly the green and land in the drink if you get it wrong. Norman could have won the Masters if the changes came in 1987 instead of 2022. Sometimes a bloke just cannot take a trick.

Day, Lee, Smith and Scott have joined forces for a practice round. They might be tempted to play Men At Work through some loudspeakers. They couldn’t be more of a supergroup if they had a lead singer, bass guitarist, keyboard player and drummer. Wouldn’t be a more awesome foursome if they were rowing a boat. Around the back nine they go, the walking wounded. We’ll explain in a sec. The drop from the elevated 10th tee to the fairway is the height of the Statue of Liberty, more or less. Then comes enough rises and falls to ski across if there was snow. You could use a few chairlifts around here.

Two notable announcements have just been made by the good and meticulous folks of Augusta National. Their attention to detail is second to none and almost good for a giggle. I bet every committee member makes his bed of a morning. Hear ye, hear ye – the first announcement relates to the length of the grass for Thursday’s opening round.

Under the wonderful headline of “News Bulletin, Mowing,” they reckon the hallowed turf on the tees shall be 5/16ths of an inch. And not a single 1/16th of an inch longer, ya’ll hear! The fairways shall be 3/8ths of an inch. The second cut shall be 1-3/8ths of an inch. The collars shall be ¼ of an inch. The greens’ surrounds shall be 5/16ths of an inch and the greens shall be 1/8th of an inch. Just to be magnificently precise.

Adam Scott and Jason Day during their practice round.

The second announcement pertains to the groupings for day one. Day will play with American Max Homa plus five-times Masters champion and the raging sentimental favourite Tiger Woods, guaranteeing the better part of 30,000 patrons will follow them as if Pied Piper has been added to the group.

“Who, me?” Day says when told of his draw. “I had no idea. That’s exciting. I’m happy about that. That’s a good pairing. I had no idea. As long as I beat that old man, I’m happy.”

Lee has been laying low. After being been laid low. He reveals a broken ring finger on his right hand and what he calls a fresh dose of the ’flu.

“I hurt my hand last week. Broke it,” Lee says. “I have it bandaged up right now. Honestly, it’s actually amazing how fast the recovery was. It’s bruised, still swollen, but not actually that painful, which is really strange. It’s somehow recovering very good. I’m icing and elevating as much as I can. I guess it wasn’t the best prep. And I got the flu two days ago. Yeah, it’s going great.”

Lee says of the broken finger: “I dropped a dumbbell on my hand. I was in the gym last Saturday. I was just doing a side-bridge glute thing and it was literally my last rep … I threw the dumbbell down and somehow clipped my right ring finger. I went to the doctor and I thought it was okay because I could move it. It was just red. I thought it would be fine. Then they came in and said, ‘You’ve broken it.’

He adds: “There’s been a lot of anxiety. This is the first time telling the public. We didn’t know as a team whether to tell or not. I felt like I should tell people because I guess there’s a lot of pressure on me playing well. Recovery was miraculously good. I still went to the gym last week as much as I could. Obviously didn’t do that exercise. Every time I looked at that 20 pound dumb bell … gave it a death stare. You’re going to hear it from my voice that I’m not 100 per cent yet. Other than that, I feel very all right. Could have been a lot worse.”

Min Woo Lee, a dark horse for the Masters, is nursing a broken finger and recovering from the flu.

The Australian supergroup came together after a supergroup text message from Scott. “Scottie initiated it last week about a practice round,” Lee says. “That’s how late I guess we organise things. We all were on par with it. We said, ‘One o’clock, back nine.’ It was nice. These three guys are one of the best guys out here.”

These three guys are one of the best guys out here? You could indeed build a formidable player using the finer qualities of Day, Scott and Smith, who’s slowly coming good after a severe bout of food poisoning.

“I probably just tried to do a little bit too much and body just kind of shut down on me,” Smith says. “Spent the weekend in the bed, which wasn’t the greatest preparation, but I was just saying that today is probably the first day where I feel like I’ve got a little bit of energy. I’m sure I’ll be pretty cooked tonight.”

Smith nearly went swimming with the fishies in Rae’s Creek after trying to jump across it. “I just tried to get on a couple of rocks, and I had metals in my right shoe and I slipped,” he says. “A bit of comedy for the crowd there. The only thing I was thinking as I was going down was to not get wet. I managed to actually do all right. I had to throw my glove out and my shoes were a bit wet, but that’s about it.”

Day has gone within 1-3/8th of an inch of winning the Masters. His four top-10 finishes have included a second and a third. He admits his confidence is down. He’s fighting a few swings demons. He’s wearing a green jumper in the absence of a green jacket in his wardrobe. He’s asked if Augusta owes him one. “No,” Day says. “Augusta doesn’t owe anyone.”