{"id":9666,"date":"2012-04-05T15:51:47","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T13:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/golf-big-three-launch-76th-masters-at-sunny-augusta\/"},"modified":"2012-04-05T15:51:47","modified_gmt":"2012-04-05T13:51:47","slug":"golf-big-three-launch-76th-masters-at-sunny-augusta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/golf-big-three-launch-76th-masters-at-sunny-augusta\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf-‘Big Three’ launch 76th Masters at sunny Augusta"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mark Lamport-Stokes<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

AUGUSTA, Georgia, April 5<\/span> (Reuters) – Watched by huge
\ngalleries, golfing greats Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary
\nPlayer launched the 76th Masters on Thursday as Charl Schwartzel
\nprepared to begin his title defence later in the day.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Under clear sunny skies at Augusta National, four-times
\nchampion Palmer, three-times winner Player and Nicklaus, who won
\na record six green jackets, hit the ceremonial first shots at
\nthe par-four opening hole.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Palmer struck a solid blow up the middle of the fairway
\nbefore Player, on his debut as a ceremonial starter, outdrove
\nhim by around 50 yards, his ball ending up above the crest of
\nthe hill some 250 yards from the tee.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Nicklaus, the third member of golf’s ‘Big Three’, then hit
\nhis drive midway between the two, also splitting the fairway
\nbefore an excited fan shouted out: “Play on”.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Ten minutes later, American Craig Stadler, the 1982
\nchampion, struck the tournament’s first competitive shot by
\nteeing off at the opening hole.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South African Schwartzel, who won last year’s title by two
\nshots, was scheduled to tee off with PGA Championship winner
\nKeegan Bradley and U.S. amateur champion Kelly Kraft a little
\nunder three hours later.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Four-times champion Tiger Woods, who ended a
\ntwo-and-a-half-year title drought on the PGA Tour with victory
\nat last month’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, was grouped with
\nSpaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez and South Korea’s Bae Sang-moon.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

British world number one Luke Donald, Italy’s Francesco
\nMolinari and American Nick Watney will tee off one group after
\nWoods, Jimenez and Bae.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy was paired with 2009 Masters
\nwinner Angel Cabrera and American Bubba Watson.\t<\/p>\n

(Editing by Julian Linden)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}