AUGUSTA, Ga. — Let’s talk for a moment about who isn’t here, who won’t be playing in this year’s Masters. David Duval, for one. Seve Ballesteros, for another.
Duval is on extended paternity leave, his wife having recently given birth. Seve phoned in sick with an aching back. Thus, for the first time since 1976, Augusta will be minus the charismatic, photogenic Spaniard, who has won twice here and come darn close a couple of other times.
For Duval and Ballesteros, though, it’s their golf games that are the real issue. To be blunt about it, they’ve lost them. David has been missing putts and cuts for two years now, and Seve has been down and out for so long he’ll lose his exemption on the European Tour in October.
Their play in last year’s Masters kinda said it all. Duval shot an 83 in the second round and Ballesteros needed 85 strokes — the highest scores they’ve ever posted at Augusta. Seve, poor fellow, hasn’t broken par in his last 20 rounds here.
Still, his absence leaves a void. “It feels a little awkward,” his protege, Jose Maria Olazabal, says. After all, in the early days of Olly’s career, Ballesteros was always around to look after him.
Besides, it’s not like Seve is a candidate for carbon dating. He turns 47 tomorrow — a year older than Jack Nicklaus was when he made off with his fifth and last green jacket. (And it wasn’t the Golden Bear’s final roar, either. In 1998, at 58, he tied for sixth in the Masters.) Duval, meanwhile, is positively young, a mere lad of 32 … and a player who not so long ago (1999) was ranked No.1 in the world.
Such are the vagaries — and mysteries — of golf. Ian Baker-Finch could still be out on the tour, trying to add a second major to his 1991 British; instead, he’s retreated to the broadcast booth, his confidence undermined by a mound of mis-hits. Duval, it would seem, is in a similarly fragile state. One day he breaks the course record at Avenel with a 62, the next two days he shoots 73-74. And now he’s saying he needs more time to work on his game and enjoy his new family. No, it doesn’t look good for David.
Valiant Seve, on the other hand, keeps coming back for more. At the beginning of the year, he vowed to return to full-time golf — after playing a limited schedule in 2002 and 2003 — and “die like a soldier on the battleground.” Alas, his fortysomething vertebrae may not allow him to.
Duval and Ballesteros, two of the most talented players in the last 25 years, have lost their bearings — but Jay Haas marches on. Go figure, huh? Haas turned 50 in December, which makes him eligible to play on the Champions Tour, but he’s doing so well against the young guys that he’s in no hurry to. He finished third in the Hope earlier this year (at 29 under!) and took sixth in the Players Championship two weeks back. He’s still, after nearly three decades on the PGA Tour, the 22nd-ranked golfer on the planet.
“A lot of the younger [players] tell me, ’Go pick on somebody your own age,’” he says. “I enjoy that. It’s great to still be competitive with the best in the world. … It’s like that old saying, I guess: The more I practice, the better I get. There’s no reason, just because I’m 50, I shouldn’t be able to play out here. I’m not going to let my age tell me I’m done, I’m going to let my golf tell me I’m done.”
And right now, it’s telling him anything but. The Masters, I’ll just remind you, isn’t the easiest tournament to get into. A player like Haas, who hasn’t won an event since 1993 and isn’t a past champion at Augusta, really has to earn his spot in the field. No special invitations for him (a la Greg Norman two years ago). Amazingly, though, he’s found a way into the Masters 21 times, 20 as a pro. And five of those times he placed in the top seven, including a tie for third in 1995.
But he knows he can’t keep this up much longer. So, naturally, he’s making contingency plans. He intends to play in three of the four Senior majors this year and ease onto the other tour. That’s why he got such a charge out of playing a practice round yesterday with Tiger Woods, Mark O’Meara and Charles Howell.
“I’m kinda taking it all in and enjoying it as much as possible,” he says, “because I realize there aren’t many more [Masters] left for me. To be able to qualify at 50 is very special. I was 22 when I came to Augusta the first time [as a senior at Wake Forest], and I never would have thought that 28 years later I’d be back here.”
But he’s here, all right — and David Duval and Seve Ballesteros aren’t. In the game of golf, you just never know.
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