By Frank Pingue
AUGUSTA, Georgia, April 9 (Reuters) – For a good stretch of the Masters on Thursday, two-time champion Jose Maria Olazabal made it feel like 1999 again at Augusta National Golf Club.
The 60-year-old Spaniard who can no longer match the bombers off the tee reminded a new generation what course management and short-game wizardry can do at golf’s most cerebral major, seizing the outright lead in the opening round before a late collapse left the Spaniard at two-over-par 74.
Playing in the day’s third group alongside 21-year-old South African power hitter Aldrich Potgieter — who leads the PGA Tour in driving distance this season — Olazabal birdied the second and third holes and reached the turn at two under, becoming the fourth player aged 60 or older to reach that mark through their first nine holes of a Masters.
It was a moment that even Olazabal had to savour.
“Everybody was in shock,” he told reporters. “Of course, yes, I look at the leaderboard. I saw myself two-under par, and for a little while I said to myself, ‘hey, I’m leading the Masters. There you go.'”
The birdies at two and three were followed by 10 consecutive pars before the back nine extracted its toll. Olazabal dropped four strokes over a brutal three-hole stretch, including a double-bogey at the par-five 15th where his approach spun off the green and into the water fronting the putting surface.
“I felt I didn’t mis-hit the shot, to be honest,” Olazabal said of his third shot at the 15th. “A couple more yards, it would have been perfect, but it’s one of those things. I mean, you know, Augusta is like that.”
Still, Olazabal finished 10 shots clear of Potgieter, who is making his second Masters start — and first since 2023 — and endured a far rougher afternoon.
The contrast between the two playing partners told the story of Augusta National itself: raw distance counts for little if the mind and wedge aren’t equally sharp.
Olazabal, who claimed the second of his Green Jackets in 1999, has played this course more times than most of the current field have been alive, and he leaned on every one of those years.
“I’ve been playing this golf course 37 years. You know, that helps, to be honest,” he said. “My short game was really nice today. It has to be in order to put a decent score, because I’m going to miss a lot of greens hitting woods onto the greens.
“As hard as the greens are, I know I’m going to miss a lot of greens. So, first of all, you have to think about what will be the best side to miss, which side will give you the best chances to up-and-down, and you play from there.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Augusta, GeorgiaEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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