Masters drought ‘embarrassing’
AUSTRALIA’S inability to win a US Masters title has been described as an embarrassment in the latest edition of American magazine Golfweek.
The magazine devotes eight pages of its 15-page Masters supplement to Australian efforts to break a 57-year Augusta hoodoo.
Australians have won nine British Opens, two US Opens and three US PGAs, but no Masters.
Australian golfers have finished second six times, including Greg Norman’s heartbreaks in 1986, 1987 and 1996.
Golfweek said it was baffling that a country with such a golf heritage has not had a winner at Augusta.
“It’s definitely our worst performance in a major and there’s no reason why,” said Wayne Grady, a former US PGA champion.
Only 33 Australians have played the Masters since Norman Von Nida became the first in 1950.
The magazine says Norman’s high-profile near misses, which also include three third-place finishes, weighs heavily on the collective consciousness of Australians.
Geoff Ogilvy’s breakthrough US Open triumph last June, the first major for an Australian since Steve Elkington’s 1995 US PGA success, was considered overdue given the depth of Australian talent.
Some 24 Australians are active this year on the US Tour, the most by any country other than the US.
Five of the top 25 players in the world are Australian, and six Australians won eight events in the US last year.
Golfweek says much of Australia’s recent success can be attributed to the “Norman effect”, with the current generation of players re-enacting Norman’s exploits of the 1980s and early 1990s.
“All the five and 10-year olds 15 years ago thought golf was really cool so they all picked up golf clubs,” said Ogilvy.
“So there are more 20- to 30-year olds now playing golf in Australia then there were 15 years ago and it’s really because of Greg Norman.
“Greg was Tiger Woods before Tiger was Tiger, really.”
The magazine named Ogilvy, Adam Scott and Stuart Appleby as the three likeliest contenders to break Australia’s Augusta drought, while Golfweek’s editor Dave Seanor has picked out a player who will not be competing next week at Augusta.
Seanor has gone for Queensland’s ultra-talented Jason Day saying: “Forget the usual suspects such as Ogilvy, Scott, Appleby, Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley. The Masters drought will continue until the next wave of Aussies come of age.
“Australia’s first Masters champ will emerge from a group of twenty-somethings that include Michael Sim, Andrew Buckle, Nick Flanagan, Aaron Price and Jason Day (all Nationwide Tour players).
“Sim and Day have the most impressive resumes in this group, but many believe Day has the most raw talent. Look for the Aussies to break through at Augusta no sooner than 2012, when Day dons the green jacket.'’
AAP