No event inspires more emotion than the Masters
Emotion can be a fickle thing. There's the warm, fuzzy emotion that makes even the toughest of men cry, and there's the frightful, sick-to-your-stomach emotion that forces us to look away in horror. No matter the feeling, the Masters over seven-plus decades has produced more emotional moments than any other sporting event. Here are 10 that we picked as the best of both happy and sad.
By Mark Spoor, PGA TOUR.com Producer
"Emotion" is a word often overused across the sports landscape these days. If someone hits a buzzer-beater to win a college basketball game between unranked teams in early December, or hits a walk-off home run to lift one cellar-dweller over another in June, suddenly it's emotional. Or, so the talking heads tell us.
In reality, true emotion comes from a confluence of circumstances -- and it's often a personal choice. After all, what is emotional for one may not be emotional for another. That said, a high percentage of the few things in sports that truly tug at that imaginary heartstring in all of us seem to happen at The Masters. For those four days each April, everyone's a golf fan and everyone has a stake in what happens.
Hence, we have emotion.
So here are 10 moments that had many of us smiling -- or reaching for the Kleenex -- over the illustrious history of this grand golf tournament:
1. Jack comes back in 1986
Ordinarily, those of us in the media aren't part of the story. Rather, we just cover it. However, in 1986, a newspaper columnist had a hand in one of the most special Sundays in Masters history.
Tom McCollister, the late golfwriter of The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, had used some not-so-flattering words to describe Jack Nicklaus prior to the 1986 tournament, essentially saying that Nicklaus had stayed too long at the fair that is the PGA TOUR.
The son of Nicklaus' longtime business associate John Montgomery saw the article, which Montgomery promptly taped to the refrigerator in the house Nicklaus and Montgomery were staying at in Augusta.
Nicklaus responded with a back-nine 30 on Sunday -- with his oldest son Jackie as his caddie. The galleries following Nicklaus that day got bigger as the run got more unbelievable.
Birdie on No. 10. Birdie on the 11th. Birdie on No. 13. Eagle on the 15th. Birdie on No. 16. Birdie on No. 17. The end result? A one-stroke win over Tom Kite and Greg Norman.
"I have been to a lot of sporting events, whether it be going to North Carolina basketball games at Carmichael Auditorium, football games, soccer matches ... but I've never heard that noise level, even at a concert," Jackie told The Augusta Chronicle. "I remember my ears were just ringing."
The final hug on the 18th -- before the sixth green jacket -- remains one of the most famous moments in Masters history.
2. Tiger Woods wins in 1997
It's hard to imagine that a sport with a history as rich as golf's could change so much after just one tournament, but it truly did after Tiger Woods won so convincingly in 1997. He captured his first green jacket by 12 strokes -- 12 strokes! Not since Tom Morris won the British Open in 1862 by a baker's dozen had there been such domination in a major.
And for this to be done by a 21-year-old African-American? You could almost hear the barriers being shattered and millions of children asking their parents for a set of golf clubs.
A new era had truly begun.
But even more than that, the sight of Woods fighting back tears, his lifelong dream fulfilled, the hours and hours of practice time justified as he embraced his father Earl and mother Tida, was enough to get even the most hardboiled of us choked up.
3. Mickelson wins in '04
In the era of 24-hour sports coverage, when a storyline gets legs, it really gets legs. Just ask Phil Mickelson.
For 12 years, almost invariably, whenever a major championship rolled around, there was Mickelson, answering some question about how he's the best player never to have won a major. Sports talk radio hosts debated whether Mickelson's legacy would be safe if he never did.
Talk about a monkey on your back.
However, on April 11, 2004, Mickelson simply would not be denied. He shot 31 on the back that day -- the best finish for a Masters winner since Nicklaus' 30 in '86.
Despite that, there was that final putt. The 18-foot putt that stood between Mickelson and the green jacket. The monkey firmly entrenched on his back, Mickelson drained the putt that had eluded him for a dozen years.
As a delirious crowd cheered its head off, and Mickelson leapt, flat-footed into the air, the monkey went away.
"It almost feels like make-believe," Mickelson said at the time. "My first thought was, 'I did it! I finally did it!' I knew I could, but I finally did it."
The radio hosts would have to find a new topic.
4. Arnie says goodbye
One of the biggest compliments you can give a professional athlete is to say people who don't know your sport know your name.
People who don't know golf know Arnold Palmer -- and know him well.
At The Masters, there were few who did it better. Four wins. The 11th-best scoring average in history and a total of 150 rounds played.
Number 150 in 2004 was his last.
"Well, if you just use your imagination, you will understand that emotion," Palmer said on that final day. "I've thought about how many times I've walked up that 18th fairway. I can think of the four times that I won the Masters. I can think of a couple of times that I didn't win that I felt like I should have won. I can think of the fans that have supported me and listened to them, and, of course, they all have something to say, or most of them have something to say about what I'm doing when I'm walking up that fairway.
"I think of all the things from the beginning, 1955 and '56 and '57, and I think of the times when I've teed it off at 10 and before I won the Masters and all of those things. I could go on and on and tell you things that are of no interest to you other than the fact it had something to do with my life and my playing golf here.
"Emotion? A lot. Sometimes I just get tired and the emotion overrules and runs away with me. I'm not upset about that. You know, if I can't handle it, that's my fault. But it's a part of me. That's pretty much it."
5. Jack says goodbye
The goodbye was simple. The career was anything but.
With a tap-in on 18, Nicklaus ended quite possibly the most storied Augusta career of all time.
Six wins. That's all you need to know.
But for all the fanfare Nicklaus earned in his heyday, the farewell was understated, just as Nicklaus wanted. This was no grand exit, to be sure, but fans knew what they were witnessing.
The true emotion showed itself, briefly, on the ninth, where Nicklaus waved to the crowd and brushed tears from his eyes.
"I don't think I'll venture out on the golf course for a tournament round again," Nicklaus said that final Saturday after shooting a 4-over 76 and missing the cut. "Unless I can gain 10 mph more club head speed, I'm not coming back. I don't think that's going to happen.
"If I'm ever going to come back, I've got as good a chance of not embarrassing myself this year," he said. "'Suck it up and get it over with.' That's how I looked at it."
6. Crenshaw wins one for Harvey in 1995
We've all got mentors, folks without whom we wouldn't be where we are today. For Ben Crenshaw, that mentor was Harvey Penick.
On the day before the start of the 1995 Masters, Crenshaw served as a pallbearer for Penick's funeral. He debated whether or not to even go to Augusta the next day. In fact, Crenshaw has said since the victory that if the tournament following the funeral were any other, he probably wouldn't have shown up.
Good thing he did.
Crenshaw garnered his second green jacket that weekend, covering his face and crying after the final putt dropped.
"I had the simplest thoughts that week -- really simple thoughts," Crenshaw told The Augusta Chronicle. "I was playing my favorite tournament and I was playing by instinct, trying to remember every shred of evidence that Harvey imparted to me, as well as my father.
"I started walking down the hill (on 18) and then I started walking back up and I starting thinking: God, this is going to happen. This will actually happen. I was really starting to get overwhelmed there."
7. Faldo soars, Norman collapses in 1996
Not all emotion is good.
Greg Norman started the final round of the 1996 tournament with a six-shot lead on Nick Faldo. What followed was one of the wildest days in Masters history. Faldo wiped out the deficit in the span of 11 holes, then watched as Norman went in the water twice for double-bogey 5s on the 12th and 16th in front of a stunned gallery.
After Faldo sank a 20-foot putt on the final hole, he had fired a 67, while Norman's day had backfired -- he shot 78.
While there was obviously joy for Faldo's determined Sunday, it was evened by sympathy for Norman's unthinkable collapse. Adding insult to injury, ESPN, as part of its 25th-anniversary celebration, ranked Norman's 1996 Masters mishap as the third-biggest sports choke of the last 25 years.
8. The 1960 Masters
This tournament was so good, CBS will show a 60-minute rebroadcast of the final four holes -- before this year's final round.
It was about more than the classic Palmer-Ken Venturi duel. A young Nicklaus was in the mix as were the legendary Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, and some guy named Bobby Jones served as tournament host.
But in the end, it was that battle.
Palmer choosing to leave the pin in on No. 16 and then hitting the center of the pin and missing a putt that could have given him the title. Venturi's clutch par on the 18th hole. Palmer's birdies from 30 feet at No. 17 -- his wife, Winnie, couldn't bear to watch -- and the 6-footer at the 18th that gave him the one-stroke win.
Quite a tournament, indeed.
9. Ray Floyd goes in the water to give the title to Nick Faldo in 1990
"I'll probably never get another chance like this."
That's what Sports Illustrated's John Garrity heard Ray Floyd say to no one in particular after Floyd finished his news conference in 1990 after losing a playoff to Faldo.
Floyd had entered Sunday's final round with a four-shot lead. In fact, he had a one-stroke advantage as he came to the 17th hole but a three-putt bogey dropped him back into a tie.
"I had a 9-iron from 138 yards. And I thought wrong," Floyd told Golf Digest. "I aimed for the middle of the green and should have been thinking birdie. Too defensive. Lost the playoff to Nick Faldo. So the pressure basically got to me. Isn't that choking?"
The crowning blow, however, came on the second playoff hole, when Floyd's approach went into the water at the 11th hole.
"That one really bothered me," he said. "I can handle losing, though. You have to. We all choke. We hate the word, but I've choked a thousand times."
10. Gene Sarazen's double-eagle leads to 1935 victory
Many say this single shot by the Squire helped put The Masters on the map. He trailed tournament leader Craig Wood by three shots as he strolled up to the 16th and famously holed a 4-wood for a double eagle. From there, Sarazen parred in to force the first 36-hole playoff in Masters history.
When it was over, Sarazen had what would turn out to be his final major victory.