Player comes from behind for brilliant Masters win

Press, 11 April 1978, Page 30

Player comes from behind for brilliant Masters win

NZPA-Reuter

Augusta (Georgia')

Gary Player, conquering age, heat and the perils of the formidable Augusta National golf course, rewrote the record book yesterday with a blistering eight-under-par round of 64 that earned him his third U.S. Masters title.

The diminutive South; African stood on the first , tee yesterday, at the start of< the final round, seven' strokes behind the overnight, leader, Hubert Green, but he reeled off nine birdies against one bogey on his; way to a winning total of 277 and the first prize of! $U545,000. The defending champion, Tom Watson, Green, and Rod Funsetl. all had a chance of taking Player to a sudden-death play-off by l sinking putts on the last | green but they all missed to share second place on 278. In winning his third Green! Jacket, awarded to the Masters champion, Player set!

ene record and tied several others. At 42 he became the oldest golfer to win the title, one year older than Sam Snead was when he, too, won for the third time in 1954.

He equalled the record lowest score for a single round, set by Lloyd Mangrum in 1940 and tied by | Jack Nicklaus in 1965, Mau-| rice Bembridge (Britain) in] 1974 and Hale Irwin in 1975,! matched the lowest score for the inward half — 30 — and the number o f birdies in one! round — nine.

Player expressed in-| dignation with the American! press, which he said had i been describing him as over the hill as he had not won; on the American tour since the 1974 Danny Thomas-: Memphis Classic. He pointed' out that he won the last! three events he played in last autumn and has won all over the world. “You say I haven’t won over here in four years,” he; said. “I haven’t played much] over here in four years.” “I enjoy playing everywhere in the world,” he continued. “I’d advise a young player to do the same.” i

ii In fact, there is one special young player — his son, Wayne Player — who ini tends becoming a professional, and the Masters champion said he hopes he ; plays world-wide. Player also joined Snead and Jimmy Demaret in winining three Masters titles, a total exceeded only by Nicklaus, with five, and Arnold I Palmer, with four. His pre-; vious wins came in 1961 andi 1974, and he also has three British opens, two P.G.A. I championships and one U.S. Open title. “I’m really pleased to win I the championship 20 years after winning nv first tourinament,” he told reporters.

11 Player disclosed that he 'had changed his putting ac--Ition in the last two weeks , from the jab he had used for i the last 24 years to a , I smoother stroke. It did not ii seem to work in the first three rounds, but yesterday 1 it helped him sink one putt of ;|9m, another of 7,6 m and -ifour between 3.7 m and 4.6 m. t “I putted very, very poor--jly the first three days, and; H played very, very well , I today,” he said after his vic-1 • tory. I Player said a memory! lifrom the 1962 Masters! : helped him hole a crucial j • | 2.3 m putt on the short sixteenth. ‘‘ln 1962, when I was, I defending, I was two shots ■ ahead, and Arnold (Palmer) 1; chipped in. But my putt, ! from the same spot where I | was today, did not break,” II he said. I Player missed that putt. i Yesterday he remembered there was no break — and sent it straight into the hole. Watson, failing in his bid, : for a second Masters title in ■ II successive years, had prob-! lems all week with his put-| ting, and blamed this for his . failure. “Six three-putts for 72 -holes did not help myi

[chances,” he remarked. Yesterday he holed a 6m • putt for an eagle at the • thirteenth on his way to a [69 but immediately undid 'the good work by threeI putting at the next hole from [only I.Bm. I Watson, the British Open I champion, came to the eighteenth needing a birdie to (beat Player and a par to tie i him. But he hooked his [ drive into the trees, pulled [his next left of the green [and wound up with a bogey. As it turned out, the United States Open champion, Green, had the best chance of tying with Player. He swept a beautiful eightiron a mere 80cm from the cup, but had the heartbreaking experience of seeing his putt slide just wide. “I’m a little disgruntled,” the 31-year-old Alabaman said. “I came here to win and I should have won. But Gary played a great round.” As for Funseth, a 45-year-old who has picked up a winner’s cheque only twice in 17 years on the tour, he said he was happy enough with the outcome, even though he would have been delighted to hole his 60cm putt on the eighteenth. It just curled away at the last moment.

“I’m not disappointed, he said. “I played well and finished second. I didn’t throw anything away.” All four were involved in a thrilling battle for the lead over the back nine. Green helped matters by dunking his ball in the pond by the eleventh green, even though he escaped with a bogey. Watson, who parred 10 holes in a row after a birdie a‘ the second, suddenly and briefly went ahead with his eagle at the thirteenth. His three-putt fourteenth pegged him back, but he recovered with birdies at the next two. Then there was Funseth, birdying the tenth, thirteenth and fifteenth, but also threeputting at 14 like Watson. But it was Player, remorselessly chipping away at the leaders, who lasted the pace. He birdied holes 10, 12, 13, 15, 16 and finally the eighteenth where he took the lead for the first time in the tournament. And he could not have chosen a | better time. , Wally Armstrong fired a j6B and Bill Kratzert a 69 to (share fifth place on 280, one (better than the pre-touma- , ment favourite, Nicklaus, iwho at last hit form with a

67. But for Nicklaus it came too late.

“It just happened to be one of those weeks I didn’t get the ball in the hole,” he said, adding, “I felt I was playing better than the four tournaments when I came first or second.”

Hale Irwin, another of the major contenders, turned in a 71 for sole possession of eighth place on 282, one better than Joe Inman (69) and the Australian Open champion, David Graham, who started strongly with two birdies in the first six holes but fell back with two bogeys for a 72.

It turned out to be a good tournament for foreign golfers. There was Player winning the event, Graham sharing with ninth place, Peter Oosterhuis (Britain) tied for fourteenth, Spain’s (Severiano Ballesteros, cele- | brating his twenty-first birthday yesterday, in a large group placed eighteenth, and Player’s compatriot, Bobby Cole (72), on

Ballesteros may have failed to win his seventh successive tournament, but he made a great impression on the gallery and his fel-low-professionals alike. At one time, in fact, he moved to within five shots of the lead with seven holes to play, but his progress stopped there and he was brought back to earth when his tee shot at the short sixteenth splashed into the pond, ending in a doublebogey five. He then bogeyed the seventeenth and ended the day with a disappointing Results (American unless stated). — 277— Gary Player (South Africa) 72, 72, 69, 64. 278— Tom Watson, 73, 68, 63, 69; Rod Funseth, 73, 66, 70, 69; Hubert Green, 72, 69, 65, 72. 280— Wally Armstrong, 72, 70, 70, 68; Bill Kratzert, 70, 74, 67, 69. 281— Jack Nicklaus, 72, 73, 69, 67. 282— Hale Irwin, 73, 67. 71, 71. 283— Joe Inman, 69, 73, 72, 69; David Graham (Australia), 75, 69, 67. 72. 284— Don January, 72, 70, 72, 70; Jerry McGee, 71, 73, 71, 69. 285— Peter Oosterhuis (Britain), 74, 70, 70, 71; Lee Trevino, 70, 69, 72, 74. 286— Ray Floyd, 76, 71, 71, 68; Lindy Miller (amateur), 74, 71 70. 71. 287— Severino Ballesteros (Spain), 74, 71, 68, 74: Jerry Pate, 72, 71, 72, 72; Lanny Wadkins, 74, 70, 73, 70; Gil Morgan, 73, 73, 70. 71; Tom Kite, 71, 74, 71 71; Ed Sneed. 74. 70, 70, 73. Other foreign scores:— 289—Bobby Cole (South Africai, 77. 70, 70, 72. 302—Peter McEvov (Britain, amateur), 73, 75, 77, 77.