By Mark Lamport-Stokes
AUGUSTA, Georgia, April 5 (Reuters) – Watched by huge
galleries, golfing greats Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary
Player launched the 76th Masters on Thursday as Charl Schwartzel
prepared to begin his title defence later in the day.
Under clear sunny skies at Augusta National, four-times
champion Palmer, three-times winner Player and Nicklaus, who won
a record six green jackets, hit the ceremonial first shots at
the par-four opening hole.
Palmer struck a solid blow up the middle of the fairway
before Player, on his debut as a ceremonial starter, outdrove
him by around 50 yards, his ball ending up above the crest of
the hill some 250 yards from the tee.
Nicklaus, the third member of golf’s ‘Big Three’, then hit
his drive midway between the two, also splitting the fairway
before an excited fan shouted out: “Play on”.
Ten minutes later, American Craig Stadler, the 1982
champion, struck the tournament’s first competitive shot by
teeing off at the opening hole.
South African Schwartzel, who won last year’s title by two
shots, was scheduled to tee off with PGA Championship winner
Keegan Bradley and U.S. amateur champion Kelly Kraft a little
under three hours later.
Four-times champion Tiger Woods, who ended a
two-and-a-half-year title drought on the PGA Tour with victory
at last month’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, was grouped with
Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez and South Korea’s Bae Sang-moon.
British world number one Luke Donald, Italy’s Francesco
Molinari and American Nick Watney will tee off one group after
Woods, Jimenez and Bae.
U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy was paired with 2009 Masters
winner Angel Cabrera and American Bubba Watson.
(Editing by Julian Linden)
