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Golf: Jordan Spieth goes back in time to try out the dress and hickory clubs of yesteryear
- March 31st 2017
- 2 days ago
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Rod Pampling returns to Augusta and older, wiser golfer, but his passion and will to win is unchanged.
EVEN Rod Pampling will go souvenir shopping at Augusta this week, with the famous yellow flag in his sights.
A decade after he last started in the Masters the 47-year-old Queenslander knows this could be his last chance to visit golf’s wonderland, so he’ll be soaking it all in.
Pampling has been to the Masters three-times before, three years in a row in fact from 2005-07. The Aussie veteran was at his peak powers then, and thought he’d be making annual trips in search of a green jacket.
But it took a “how did that guy win?” victory in Las Vegas last November for the well-regarded father-of-three to make his way back.
Pampling is not fancied by the bookies but is willing to back himself.Source:Getty Images
So this time he’s taking his wife, Angela, eldest son, Sam, and even flying his mum all the way from Caboolture in Queensland, where Pampling grew up, to “enjoy every minute” of their time at golf’s mecca.
“I honestly didn’t think I was getting back there but knowing we are, that’s why we are going in the Saturday before, just to enjoy it,” Pampling told the Sunday Herald Sun before setting off for Masters assault.
“Come Thursday tee-off I’ll be giving it everything I got, but I want to enjoy it.
“The first three years you think you are going to keep coming back so as much as you enjoyed it, I still didn’t take it all in. There will be more of that, not stressing as much.
“I have seen the course before. As long as I do my work in the right windows, and do a good job of it, you can enjoy your day, walks around, look at different bits of the property. Really enjoy the week.”
The value of an invitation to the Masters extends beyond the week of the event. As soon as it’s open for playing, after a winter closure and time for some fix-up work, anyone that’s in the tournament can get on for practice.
With age comes the experience needed to tame the ‘thinker’s course’ at Augusta.Source:AAP
Pampling took up the offer about a month ago, a “recon” mission as he called it, and discovered a way by which he could make the absolute most of checking out everything Augusta has to offer, without having to spend five hours on course every day.
One of Augusta chairman William Porter Payne’s most enjoyable administrative traits during his tenure has been his willingness to splash the mountains of cash the Masters makes for Augusta every year.
Spectators have certainly benefited, with low cost fare a Masters trademark, and even the players are envious of the new media centre which rivals anything, anywhere in the world.
But Pampling only had to see the new driving range, built in 2010, to know he’ll be able to get all his work in this week, with time to spare to check out everything else on offer.
“It was just an amazing set-up. You can practice every single shot you are going to come across on the course; uphill likes, downhill, side hill, all those different lies,” Pampling said.
“We saw the driving range and thought that was perfect. It saves having massive big days on Monday to Wednesday. We’ll just spread it out, play nine holes a day so we are fresh for Thursday.”
World no. 1 Dustin Johnson goes in to the tournament as favourite.Source:Getty Images
The bookies have Pampling way down the pecking order, a $251 chance, below even the infirm Tiger Woods earlier this week, who was pegged at $81 before he withdrew from the tournament.
Such a lack of expectation is hardly a deterrent for a guy who knows golf is not just about 400-yard drives, or being under 35 as seems to be the norm for winning these days.
He was, after all, ranked 451 in the world when he won in Las Vegas.
“And I guarantee you the other guys (at the Shiners) where thinking “how the hell is he up there?” And that’s great because they are thinking of me instead of themselves,” Pampling said.
“There are not many advantages to getting older but that’s one of them. They have a different pressure, worrying about being beaten by me. I got hot, made the putts, but that’s the beauty of the game.
“The young guys, their power is impressive for sure, to watch how far they carry a golf ball. But they work hard in the gym, more than we used to. Now you have to do it to keep up.
"But you still have to putt, chip, hit good iron shots, there are so many variables. That’s why drives everyone crazy.”
What would drive them even crazier is knowing they got beaten by a guy who includes trampolining with his kids as part of his workout routine.
Pampling’s stunning win in Las Vegas reminded everyone of his enduring class.Source:AFP
“There’s not as much Jim Beam, but I did gym this morning with my trainer. I do it at least three times a week when I am home,” Pampling said.
“But then I have a 12, a 10 and a five-year-old so I am on the trampoline every afternoon. It might not be the conventional training, I am not sure many guys do trampoline. But it’s a good aerobic work out. It keeps your heart rate up.”
His heart rate will rise again when he gets to the first tee on Thursday, and not just because it’s another shot at a Masters title he thought would never come.
It’s another tournament, another chance to test himself against the best, and that energy has kept him going for nearly 20 years on tour, an energy he won’t lose any time soon.
Especially not this week.
“It will never be removed. You get on to the first tee and the nerves will be running rampant, you can guarantee it. And you need that. The excitement it still there. It’s hard to not be excited,” he said.
Fowler continues to fire0:38
Golf:
- March 31st 2017
- 2 days ago
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“I still love the game and have a passion for it. If you lose that passion you are not going to play well. I still get excited hitting great shots and making big putts, it’s still a huge buzz.
“It might not happen as much as you would __like it to, but when it does, its phenomenal. You can’t lose that feeling.
“The goals haven’t changed, the events I want to win haven’t changed. Age is just a number. As long as there is no injuries, and I haven’t had any, there is plenty of opportunity to still win.
“I think I can still win, no question. Augusta is a thinker’s golf course, a whole package and if you are on that week, you have a very good chance of winning.
“My expectations of wining have not died one bit. And if you get little bit of luck, who knows.”
Originally published as Pampling in it to win it on Masters return
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