Mystery at the Masters

European golfers have failed to win the grand tournament for 16 years.


Afp April 04, 2015
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland hits an approach shot on the sixth hole during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 21, 2015 in Orlando, Florida PHOTO: AFP

PARIS: It’s a Masters’ mystery and no one it seems has the answer — what is stopping European players winning at Augusta National?

The last European winner of the fabled tournament was Jose Maria Olazabal, the Spaniard donning his second green jacket in 1999, edging Davis Love and Greg Norman down the back nine.

That emotional victory 16 years ago proved to be the last chapter in two decades of European supremacy at the best-known and loved golf course in the United States.

Fellow Spaniard Seve Ballesteros set the ball rolling with his breakthrough win in 1980 and over the course of 20 years, victory went to European golfers 11 times.

Since then there have been no successors to Olazabal, Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle and that too at a time when European golf has continued to thrive at the other majors and in the Ryder Cup.

No cogent reason has been put forward for such an anomaly other than the rub of the green and the ability to cope with the particular demands thrown up by Augusta National.

Next week once again European hopes are running high with world number one Rory McIlroy a strong favourite to win a third straight major and second ranking Henrik Stenson of Sweden in top form.

McIlroy for one believes that there is no one factor preventing a European player from winning the year’s first major. Asked to account for the winless streak the Northern Irishman, who was just a nine-year-old when Olazabal won, felt one of the reasons of the dry run was a certain Tiger Woods. “Woods has been one of the reasons,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s anything necessarily to do with European players, you know, I feel a few of us had had a chance, Lee (Westwood) had a chance in ‘10, I think. I had the chance in ‘11. Luke Donald was up there ‘11, ‘12. I don’t know. I don’t think there’s any reason.”

Of course most droughts come to an end at one time or another and at Augusta National, the case of the long-running Australian jinx provides encouragement. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5th, 2015.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation. 

COMMENTS

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ