Gearing Up For Another Easter at the Masters

There’s a lot of giddy anticipation in the sports world right now. It’s one of the most exciting times of the year. Spring and baseball are both upon us, and the Kentucky Derby is but weeks away. All things are reborn. Not to mention the fact, as so often happens, 2009 finds two of the glorious symbols of spring sharing the same day on the calendar, as the final round of the Masters coincides with Easter Sunday once again in a happy marriage of one of sports’ most venerable rituals and the most joyous holiday of the Christian year. ↵↵This Sunday will mark the third time in the new millennium that the Masters and Easter have fallen on the same day. The first was in 2004. Need I remind you what happened on that overcast afternoon in Augusta? Do the words “white men can’t jump” trigger any memories?↵

↵↵Yes, yes, I’m sure they do, as Phil Mickelson ended a career of major disappointments that day with a rollercoaster round punctuated with an 18-footer for birdie and a lead-footed victory leap for all mankind. ↵

↵↵It was an Easter Golf Sunday to remember, as was the next Easter at the Masters in 2007, although for slightly less celebratory reasons, as the weather raged and a veritable U.S. Open broke out at Augusta National. In a blustery and wet affair, unlikely champion Zach Johnson won for only the second time in his PGA career, holding off the likes of Retief Goosen and a certain stalking Tiger to grab the green jacket with a cumulative score of one-over-par 289. That’s the highest winning score ever recorded at Augusta, tying a mark set twice back in the 50’s. ↵

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↵↵The second Easters/Masters difecta in the 90’s was to my mind one of the most memorable Masters of all time, the 1998 edition, where Mark O’Meara prevailed by a stroke over Fred Couples and David Duval (where have you gone, David Duval?) with birdies on his 71st and 72nd holes, only the third champion in history to close out a Masters victory in such fashion. It ended quite a streak of major futility for the 41-year-old O’Meara, who had played 15 straight Masters without winning, the longest such streak ever before actually winning a green jacket. ↵

↵↵Great as O’Meara’s win was that day, however, at least some of his thunder was stolen by the greatest Masters champion of them all, none other than the 58-year-old Jack Nicklaus, owner of six green jackets. The Golden Bear made an unlikely bid for a seventh blazer that Easter Sunday, shooting a blast-from-the-past 68 and at one point finding himself only two strokes off the lead. ↵

↵↵As long as I live, I’ll never forget the tension of the back nine that early evening in Augusta, with Couples, O’Meara and Duval battling it out and Jack bringing deafening gallery roars that must have been heard throughout the entire state of Georgia. Playing together in the final pairing, O’Meara and Couples went to the 18th hole tied atop the leaderboard, with Duval in the clubhouse also holding a share of the lead. Three gigantic golf personalities -- the beloved, swashbuckling former champ (Couples), the young, budding superstar (Duval) and the affable, aging hard-luck story taking one last shot at glory (O’Meara). The Masters simply doesn’t get any better than that.↵

↵↵Unless, maybe, it was the inimitable Fuzzy Zoeller beating Ed Sneed and Tom Watson in a playoff in ‘79. Which also happened on Easter. I’m telling you folks, Easter just has a way of bringing out the best in this tournament. So come this Sunday, get yourself to church early and don’t dally in finding those dyed eggs. Cause come the back nine you’re going to want to be in one place and one place only, slouched on the couch in front of the tube with a chocolate bunny in one hand and a glass of Chardonnay in the other (mmm … chocolate bunnies chased with white wine …) and your belt unbuckled. The magnolias, the birds chirping from the miked trees, the mellifluous whisper of Jim Nantz. Bring it on, Easter at the Masters one more time, a tradition like no other.↵

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