Europeans warm up for Masters
Six of the record 21 Europeans competing in next week’s Masters tee off in the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta tomorrow.
They include Ryder Cup aptain Ian Woosnam, whose last appearance in the event ended in highly controversial fashion.
Woosnam was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard in 2001, even though officials had been tipped off before the end of his first round a mistake might have been made.
Only after the former world number one had left the Sugarloaf course was it confirmed his two-over 74 was actually a 75 – and by then it was too late to save him.
Woosnam, Masters champion in 1991, shouldered some of the blame as well, of course, for not checking the card carefully enough.
He returns now for his first US Tour event since the US PGA championship last August and joins fellow Augusta-bound quintet Luke Donald, joint runner-up in the Players Championship on Monday, twice Masters winner Jose Maria Olazabal, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Thomas Levet and Joakim Haeggman.
Also playing this week, but not in next week’s elite field, are Londoner Brian Davis and Woosnam’s fellow Welshman Phillip Price, who can already testify that the bad weather dogging the American circuit this season is still a problem.
While the Players Championship was being concluded on Monday following a succession of rain delays, Price was playing in a pro-am in Atlanta and conditions were so cold the entire group quit after nine holes.
The forecast is not too bad except for Friday – thunderstorms and winds of up to 25 mph.
Tournament favourites are US Open champion Retief Goosen and Masters champion Phil Mickelson, although he was making a late decision whether to play because the Players Championship spilled into this week.
He indicated on leaving Sawgrass that the decision would probably be to stay with his original plan to play the BellSouth Classic.
Mickelson was heading first for Augusta to practise there but US Tour rules required him to be at Sugarloaf for his 6.40am pro-am tee-off time today or risk disqualification from the tournament.
Goosen has fallen foul of that rule himself already this year, being thrown out of the Nissan Open in Los Angeles in February after oversleeping and failing to get to the course in time for the pro-am.
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