the times | Tuesday April 5 2022 2GM 67Sport
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18Camellia
Tee: 315ft
Fairway: 242ft
Green: 206ftAzalea
Tee: 177ft
Fairway: 184ft
Green: 202ftChinese Fir
Tee: 190ft
Fairway: 216ft
Green: 220ftFirethorn
Tee: 209ft
Fairway: 223ft
Green: 205ftNadina
Tee: 219ft
Fairway: 229ft
Green: 246ftHolly
Tee: 232ft
Fairway: 259ft
Green: 288ftRedbud
Tee: 193ft
Green: 207ftWhite
Dogwood
Tee: 209ft
Green: 170ftGolden
Bell
Tee: 173ft
Green: 177ft4 495yds 4 520yds 3 155yds 5 510yds 4 440yds 5 550yds 3 170yds 4 440yds 4 465yds
Nelson’s
Column
to scale
(169ft)
5.5 miles
Total distance
walkedTe e
Te e Te eTe e Te e Te eTe e Te eLowest point
170ftjust get by? What will he settle for? Can
he make a deal with himself that
involves limited ambitions?
That three-ball that walked off down
the front nine essentially contained
three generations. The Thomas gener-
ation — one that knows they can win.
The Couples generation — one that
has made peace with the fact that they
won’t. And the Woods generation —one that is simultaneously still trying to
beat Thomas and postpone the day
when they join Couples.
At some point you become Couples.
If Woods thinks there is a chance that
he might become Couples at the 2022
Masters, you suspect he will pack up
and go home. Yet he is still here, still
determined to prove that this isn’t
the case.May
March 2022
playing in a tournament with his son Charlie, and making the golf hall of fameF
orty years ago a decision was
made that changed the faces
of the Masters. The alleged
decree of the former Augusta
National chairman, Clifford
Roberts, that while he was still alive
the players would all be white and the
caddies black was no more. “Loopers”
with nicknames such as Iron Man,
Cigarette Jones, and Stovepipe faded
from view and were forgotten. For the
black community it had an enduring
impact as a much needed paycheque
was cancelled.
“The Patch” is about three miles
from the manicured lawns of Augusta
National. Between a small airfield and
a veterans’ centre with a tank outside
and a sign advertising bingo, some of
the old caddies still gather. The
official name is Augusta Municipal
Golf Course and it costs a modest $75
(about £57) for a month’s membership.
Next month the scuffed fairways
will stage a tournament to mark the
50 years of service by the Augusta
National’s black caddies up to 1982.
All funds raised will go to support the
local black history museum. Up at the
Masters there will be little if any
mention of the landmark decision of
1982.
Tommy “Burnt Biscuits” Bennett
survived what became known locally
as “The Change” and did work at the
Masters after players were no longer
obliged to use Augusta National’s
caddies in 1983. In 1995 Earl Woods
wanted someone with local
knowledge to help his son, who was
19 and finished as the low amateur.
“I remember being on the putting
green on Thursday and seeing Tiger
had only three balls in his bag,”
Bennett says. “He said he’d be fine
but I said, ‘This is Augusta National.’ I
remember him being nervous and I
tried to calm him down, but some of
the shots!”The forgotten heroes that
Augusta should be saluting
Woods finished as the best amateur.
“It is here I left my youth behind and
became a man,” Woods wrote in a
letter to the club. After two rounds he
visited Bennett’s neighbourhood,
Sand Hills, and did a coaching clinic
nearby. Sand Hills is a historic
African-American district flanking
the Augusta Country Club where
black caddies would learn their trade
for three bucks a round before
progressing to the Masters.
Bennett’s success led to a mural of
him in his white boiler suit on a Sand
Hills wall, but he was fired by Augusta
National for being late in 1997, the
year Woods won for the first time. “I
haven’t been back for 25 years,” he
says. “I just don’t feel comfortable. It
was a good job back then. I started at
ten at Augusta Country Club for a Mr
Slaughter but I ran out of gas and he
had to carry me and the bag.
“I made the Masters at 15. I
probably got $6 at Augusta National,
but the Masters was good.” Indeed,
with the course closing for half a year,
the Masters money was a godsend.
Without it many club caddies took
other jobs. Some went to other clubs.
Although the system of black
caddies for white players was a
symptom of the segregated South,
becoming an Augusta National caddie
was a source of pride for men more
often besieged by prejudice.
Jariah Beard’s name is on the
honours board at The Patch after his
hole-in-one from 2012. He also
helped the rookie Fuzzy Zoeller to the
1979 Masters title. Beard said he was
like “a seeing-eye dog leading a blind
man” that year, and blames Hord
Hardin, then the chairman, for
succumbing to outside pressure from
Tom Watson and other players as golf
became more professional and the
stars wanted their own men.
“Clifford Roberts had our back,” he
told the Augusta Chronicle this week.
“But when Hord Hardin took over, he
turned his back on us real bad.”
After that 1982 press release
promising change, only 18 players out
of 81 stuck with local caddies the
following year.
Other tournaments had stopped
using club caddies and the number of
black faces on tour dwindled. “TheChange was coming,” Bennett says. “It
was inevitable. After that it was not a
great atmosphere. I kept going on
tour for years but a lot of guys just
stopped.”
Bennett says there is talk of a
plaque going up at Sand Hills but he
does not expect Augusta National to
mark half a century of work. “Forget
about that,” he says. “They ain’t doing
nothing.” And the Masters remains a
very white experience, in terms of
players and caddies and spectators.
Last year Lee Elder, the first black
man to play the Masters back in 1975,
became one of the ceremonial
starters. He died in November. The
press release from Augusta National
announcing Watson as the new
starter failed to mention that.
Much has been written about why
Woods, a mixed-race icon, did not
pave the way for a more diverse field.
Edward Wanambwa, who once
caddied for Elder in a legends event,
says Woods has had a “phenomenal
impact” but it does not extend to
increased numbers. “People thought
that when Tiger won the Masters in
1997 the floodgates would open. That
was naive. It sounds rude, but what
has Tiger really done for up-and-
coming black golfers?
“There’s a difference between being
compelled and obligated, and you’d
like to think Tiger felt compelled, but
he can only do so much.”
Debert Cook is the publisher of
African American Golfer’s Digest, a
quarterly publication selling 80,000
copies. She says the PGA of America
runs schemes and is ploughing
$700,000 into the grassroots: “That’s
a positive thing but it’s no money
when you think about what golf
brings in.” As for Augusta National,
she says: “I don’t really see how they
have done anything to make the
landscape more welcoming.”
Many of the caddies had grown up
together. Since The Change they have
grown old. Bennett says many have
died. One has cancer and Covid, but
some of those who lived through a
landmark moment in Masters history
will be there next month, down at
The Patch, playing in the fundraiser
to renovate a museum in which they
will always be remembered.Not even a plaque marks
half a century of
work by black
caddies, writes
Rick Broadbent
ANDREW REDINGTON/GETTY IMAGESBack on the
course only
14 months
after car crash
February 2021
December
‘If anyone can do it, then Tiger can’
Four-times major winner Brooks
Koepka, seeking his first Green Jacket,
played last year’s Masters after knee
surgery and struggled getting around.
“I was in somewhat of his shoes trying
two weeks after surgery,” Koepka said.
“This place isn’t exactly an easy walk.
But if anybody can do it, it’s him.”
Bryson DeChambeau, who is on his
way back from a torn labrum in his hip
and a fractured hand, said he would not
be surprised if Woods tees off on Thurs-
day: “Tiger is Tiger and you can never
count him out. He seems like he’s in a
really good frame of mind and he wantsto win. It creates a lot of hype. Even on
the driving range we could hear the roar
when he came out of the clubhouse.”
DeChambeau revealed he had ag-
gravated his own injuries when he
slipped on a marble floor playing table-
tennis with Sergio García and Joaquín
Neimann in Saudi Arabia. “I am 80 per-
cent,” he said. “I can’t go all out.” So far,
though, this year’s Masters has been
about one man. His swing and ball-
striking look good, but the problem will
be walking the undulating course for 72
holes after 17 months without competi-
tive action.Cameron Davis, of Australia, played
five holes with Woods on Sunday and
said: “He’s striking it well. I don’t see any
reason why he wouldn’t be able to put
rounds together out here.”
Davis said Woods was “a little slow”
going up the slopes on the 17th and 18th
holes, but Joe LaCava, Woods’ caddie,
said he was happy with the way he has
coped. Patrick Cantlay, the world No 5,
said: “Everyone’s excited about it. Even
last week hearing the potential for him
to play was exciting.”continued from back