TWELVE years have elapsed since a British golfer, Nick Faldo, won the Masters. On the evidence of Sunday's calamitous closing round at Augusta National, the wait for a fresh British face to join Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle at the champions' dinner any time soon promises to be longer than many hoped.
Although Ryder Cup stalwart Lee Westwood produced a gritty effort of 73 on Sunday to claim a share of 11th place, England's young guns spent the afternoon firing blanks. Ian Poulter, 78 for 292, slumped to 25th, Paul Casey, 79 for 288 dropped out of
the top ten, and Justin Rose, 76 for 295, was 36th.
Given that Rose and Poulter made big splashes on Thursday and Friday and Casey put himself in a position to win the tournament on Saturday, these final round slumps suggest this group of players still have plenty of work to do if they want to follow Ireland's Padraig Harrington into the major club.
Woosnam, Europe's Ryder Cup captain at the K Club, made the point on Sunday that once one Briton wins a major, then his success will surely inspire his friends because they know the deed can then be done. That said, the Welshman also believes this generation need to improve their short games and add mental strength to their armoury if they want to wear a green jacket one day.
Lyle believes lack of experience at Augusta may be a factor – he'd spoken to Rose on the putting green and the young Englishman acknowledged he'd made some damaging mistakes – rather than any shortage of talent. Lyle himself played in six Masters before winning at the seventh attempt in 1988.
Rose, who shared the lead with Trevor Immelman in the first round, confessed that he'd found it hard to put his shoulder to the wheel after falling out of contention. "I was just disappointed with the week overall," he said. "It was a weird week and I suppose it turned out to be the short game which let me down. The first couple of days I felt my long game was in good shape but I didn't score well and as the week went on my short game didn't help me.
"I found it very difficult to grind this week once I slipped out of the tournament. Ball striking wise everything was in good shape. There is no issue with that part of my game. It didn't happen this week. Last year I putted great but this year I struggled to read the greens and I started second-guessing the stroke and second-guessing the read. I lost a bit of confidence and it became tough."
The concern for Casey was how his round went to pieces after finding a tricky lie at the short fourth hole and leaving his first wedge shot in the bunker.
"It's very difficult to rationalise," he said. "The disappointing moment was the fourth hole. I had a difficult lie in the bunker and probably compounded it with a poor bunker shot. That really was the moment I hit the two poorest shots I hit all week and walked away with a double bogey there and having a ball move on me on the sixth took the wind out of my sails.
"It was so difficult out there. Everybody made mistakes out there. Bogeys you can handle, doubles – well it looks like everybody's made one – but when the ball moved I was thinking, make a par, right the ship and end the bogey streak. That is out of your control and very difficult to handle. As they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and I've still had a great week."
Whether Casey's positive spin was accurate or not, it was echoed by Poulter, who felt he just had one of those days when every time he hit "a half-decent shot I ended up on the wrong side of the hole. I hit a couple of loose shots but I didn't really do a lot wrong."
While the perils of Augusta can inflict damage on any golfer, it was illuminating to compare the defensive reflections of the Brits with the frank analysis offered by the Open champion. Although Harrington demonstrated the kind of steel on Sunday missing from the make-up of his younger Ryder Cup colleagues, the Irishman was unimpressed with a share of fifth place.
"At majors, you need to be in the right mental state because if you do that you know good things will happen," he said. "I am not satisfied with a high finish. It won't go down on my CV. Finishing fifth or whatever in the Masters is nice. But we are all about getting out there and winning."
It's a motto Generation Next would do well to emulate.
The full article contains 812 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
