Stadler backs into play-off and fights his way out

Press, 13 April 1982, Page 36

Stadler backs into play-off and fights his way out

NZPA-Reuter Augusta, Georgia Slipping into a green Masters championship jacket that might have been ordered from the Big and Tall Men’s Shop, Craig Stadler said he hoped it fitted.

This was perfectly understandable. Stadler would not have wanted to feel any tightening around his collar for a second time yesterday afternoon. From a lead so large that he was thinking about the award ceremony half-way through his round, to a finish that threatened to make him leading contender for goat-of-the-year honours, Stadler saw it all yesterday. Not until Dan Pohl, who started the day 122nd on the professional golf tour's earnings list, missed a 5-foot putt on the first play-off hole, could Stadler exhale a victory sigh of relief. • “I'll take them any way I can get them," Stadler said. The way he won the Masters was by backing into the play-off and then fighting his way out. After a 3-under-par 33 on the front nine, Stadler needed 40 strokes to play the last nine holes. He bogeyed three of the last five holes.

including the eighteenth. Stadler and Pohl, who shot his second consecutive 67.

went immediately to the tenth tee where Stadler got on the green, about 40 feet from the pin, in two. Pohl's second shot went over a bunker and landed on the back .fringe. Pohl putted to within five feet and Stadler followed by reading a break in the green that took his first putt all the way around the hole before coming to rest about 18 inches, away. “I'm going to make this

and put the same feeling on him that I had on 18." thought Stadler, who had missed an 8-footer there. He did and when Pohl's putt for par ran by the hole to the left, Stadler had won the tournament he had nearly given away. “It looked like he hit a pretty good putt." Stadler said of Pohl's final chance to keep the play-off alive, “but it started going left half-way. to the hole and it was ‘Oh. my God. he missed it.' It took eight or 10 seconds for it to sink in." Two interested parties taking all this in. standing on a bench near the green, were the golfers’ wives. “I screamed and raised my hands," said Sue Stadler when Pohl's putt failed. “Then I realised I shouldn't have done that with Mitzi there. I was embarrassed and I apologised.” Pohl, freely admitting to a case of Masters nerves, said

he played too passively on both his second shot from the fairway and his first putt.

The reason was simplicity itself. “When you haven't been in that position, it's tough to just bang it in the hole," said the 27-year-old professional from Mount Pleasant, Michigan. “Everybody talks about Tom Watson being such an aggressive putter. If I had half a million dollars in my pocket, I'd be aggressive too, but I've won less than $6OOO this year." The victory earned $64,000

for Stadler, who won at Tucson this year, and made him the leading moneywinner for 1982 with almost $225,000. Pohl, whose best previous finish was a tie for thirty-first, earned $39,000. Severiano Ballesteros, who shot a 73 on a clear and relatively wind-free day at Augusta National, tied for third with Jerry Pate, who had a 71 after a long birdie putt, which would have put him in the play-off came up short. Tom Kite (69) and Tom Watson (71) tied for fifth while Jack Nicklaus. who began the day six shots behind Stadler, knocked himself out of contention with a 75 that left him tied for fifteenth place. Tom Weiskopf. four shots back at the start of play, also had a 75 and wound up tied for tenth. Final scores for the leaders were (U.S. unless stated).— 284—Craig Stadler 75. 69. 67, 73. 284- Dan Pohl 75. 75. 67. 67.' 285- Ballesteros (Spain) 73. 73. 68. 71; Jerry Pate 74. 73. 67. 71. 287—Tom Watson 77. 69. 70. 71; Torn Kite 76, 69, 73. 69. 289— Ray Floyd 74. 72. 69. 74; Curtis Strange 74. 70. 73. 72; Larry Nelson 79. 71. 70. 79. 290— Tom Weiskopf 75. 72. 68. 75; Fuzzy Zoeller 72. 76. 70. 72; Andv Bean 75. 72. 73. 70; Mark Hayes 74. 73. 73. 70. 291— Bob Gilder 79. 71. 66. 75. 292— Gary Player (South Africa) 74. 73, 71. 74; Yutaka Hagana (Japan) 75. 74. 71. 72; Jack Nicklaus 69. 77. 71. 75. 293— David Graham (Australia) 73. 77. 70. 73.