NOWHERE in the world
of golf does syrupy sentimentality quite like Augusta National. The 87th Masters is almost upon us and by the time we reach the ceremonial tee-off on Thursday, the levels of saccharine schmaltz and honeyed veneration will be so high, footage of the opening men’s major of the year will probably be accompanied by a warning from the Food Standards Agency about the excessive consumption of sweet things.
We jest, of course, but, my goodness, they do like to lay the pomp and pageantry on in mighty dollops. We probably wouldn’t have it any other way, though. The Masters, after all, remains a comforting haven of sameness; a golfing rite of spring in which familiarity breeds cooing contentment.
They do say that Augusta is the closest thing to heaven for a golfer. And it’s just about as hard to get into. For those who do get inside those golfing pearly gates, of course, the Masters memories endure.
It’s 25 years now since Craig Watson, that well-kent stalwart of the domestic scene, played the Augusta showpiece in 1998 as the reigning amateur champion. The 1990s had been a good time for Scotland’s leading lights in the unpaid game. Stephen Dundas, the Amateur champion in 1992, played in the Masters of 1993 while gentle giant Gordon Sherry just about had to crouch his way up Magnolia Lane to avoid dunting the branches when he took up his Augusta invitation
in 1996.
When Watson had Georgia on his mind in ’98, his trip coincided with the inauguration of the Georgia Cup, a now established annual tussle between the US and British Amateur champions the week before the Masters. It wasn’t quite the casual batter aboot Watson was anticipating, though.
“I was asked if I would like to play Matt Kuchar, who was the reigning US champion, and I thought it would just be a bounce game,” recalled the East Renfrewshire member. “I got to the pro shop and it’s full of Georgia Cup flags, hats, bags, head covers, everything. It was like walking into a merchandise tent at the Open. I said to the pro, ‘What’s this Georgia Cup?’ He said, ‘That’s what you’re playing in against Matt Kuchar tomorrow’. So that was my introduction to it. And I lost 3&1.”
As for Watson’s introduction to Augusta National? Well, after the perk of being handed the keys to a courtesy Cadillac that he could “parade about in for a week”, Watson found himself veering off the straight and narrow when play actually started. “I was standing on the 10th tee and was six-over,” reflected the 56-year-old of that opening round.
“From there you can look across and see the scoreboard for those players coming up the 18th. Ben Crenshaw, a former Masters champion, was 10-over through 17 and I thought to myself, ‘**** sake, surely I can beat that’. Thankfully, I did. I parred every hole from the 10th through to 17. And then, typically, I three-putted the last
for a bogey in a 79. At least I’d broken 80.”
Watson may not have set the azaleas on fire with his opening day effort but at least a second round re-draw put him alongside some fairly exalted company. “If you had a rubbish score, there was a good chance you’d get to play with a legend,” said the former GB&I Walker Cup captain. “And I got Arnold Palmer.”
In 1998, old Arnie, a four-time Masters champion, was pushing 70 and was very much a ceremonial campaigner. “He didn’t hit it very high off the ground but he out drove me on the first,” said Watson, who was never one of golf’s big bombers. “He must have shaken hands with just about everybody on the way round too. I should’ve tried to talk to him a bit more, but I was just trying to take it all in myself. It was quite an experience.”
A true career amateur, Watson can always say he made it to the Masters. The man he beat in that Amateur Championship of 1997 to get there, meanwhile, went on to make his own mark at Augusta. In 2008, South African Trevor Immelman slipped into the green jacket. “I’m sure he never wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I wonder what my life would’ve been like if I’d not lost to Craig Watson?’” said the Scot with a chuckle.
