No holding back for Olazábal
By Melanie Hauser
GolfWeb contributor
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It's not quite as terrifying as looking at Rae's Creek from the 12th tee, but it's darned close.
And your ball? It's found its way over this expanse of concrete topped with slick bent grass and is resting on a downslope some 30 yards from the pin.
Your only choice is to bump it into the bank and pray it pops lightly onto the green at precisely the right spot and releases ever so slightly. An inch here or there and you're watching the bouncing ball. Too quick a release and the ball will take off and head straight into the water -- at warp speed. The margin for error is about the diameter of a golf ball.
Yet it's bone-chilling shots like that are inspiring José Maria Olazábal.
His game is made for them. That explains why, when faced with that shot Friday afternoon at Augusta National, the 1994 Masters champ pulled pure magic out of his bag once again and commanded his ball to settle a few inches from the pin and set up his fifth birdie of the day.
No one this side of Seve Ballesteros has as delicate a touch around these greens. And it was that feel, that instinct that triggered Olazábal's best round of the year -- a 6-under-par 66 that put him atop the leaderboard heading into the final 36 holes of this 63rd Masters.
His 66, which tied his best round here, left him at 8-under-par 136, one shot ahead of Scott McCarron and three ahead of Greg Norman and Lee Janzen.
"I haven't had a great round this season so far, so it was really nice to have two good rounds in a row here, to somehow believe more in what you can do,'' Olazábal said.
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| Olazabal is free of pain and regaining his confidence. (AP) |
Believing. Trusting. Never doubting. Those were the words Ballesteros used in a note he tucked into Olazábal's locker before the final round in 1994.
Chema, as he's known to his friends, took Ballesteros' words to heart that day and beat Tom Lehman to win the green jacket. He used them Friday to put himself into position to win another.
The odds listed him at 50-1 coming into the week and with good reason. His best finish all season was at the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship where he bowed to John Huston 2-and-1 in the quarterfinals. He's won just two events, period, since returning from an 18-month absence for painful foot problems.
Yet we should know by now the 33-year-old Spaniard has a special bond with this course. He's been in the top 14 here in eight of his last nine Masters and he's not been out of the top 20 in any of his last 14 rounds here. Makes perfect sense when you remember he grew up idolizing Ballesteros, whose touch here is legendary.
Olazábal knows this course as well as anyone in contention. He's played here for 11 of the last 12 years, missing only the 1996 Masters when he was unable to walk because of the painful foot condition. It turned out the problem was in his back and a German physician relieved the condition with a combination of physical therapy, exercise and injections in Olazábal's lower back.
Through it all, he never doubted he would be back. And back on top.
He came through for Europe in the 1997 Ryder Cup. He won his third tournament when he returned. He won again last year. Now, he's staring down another major.
And a star-studded leaderboard: Norman, Janzen, Nick Price, Davis Love III, Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer.
"It's a wide-open golf tournament,'' Olazábal said. "Two more days. We've seen many, many things happen in this tournament on this golf course.''
Few things were better Friday than that chip of Olazábal's. The magic started early with a sand wedge to five feet for birdie at the second and he added a 6-iron from the tee at the par-3 sixth that landed six feet from the pin for another birdie. A 4-iron to four feet at the 11th. That chip. A 9-iron to 10 feet at the 18th. And, while we're at it, a pair of great saves at the fifth and sixth.
At five, he coaxed a slick 8-footer down the hill for par, while he wedged to 12 feet at the seventh and made that putt for another par.
It's days like these that win Masters. Days were everything falls into place; where the malaise of a so-so opening round is replaced with that confidence Ballesteros talked about.
It's also shots like one Olazábal had Thursday where he hopped an approach -- off a downhill lie -- over the creek at the 13th and set up an eagle.
"You know, sometimes you have to have good breaks,'' he said with a smile, "and that was a good break for me … I hit the ball a little thin and the ball came quite low, just short of the ditch and the second bounce was against the face of the green. It stayed there. It was a good break. I haven't had too many good breaks in my life, so I'll take that one."
In 1994, Olazábal had won the month before he played here. He was brimming with confidence and, after finishing second three years earlier, ready to show he belonged. Now, he's ready to show he's back. All the way back.
He's been aggressive when he's had the chance this week -- who else would hit a 1-iron to the 15th green? -- and he's been patient on a tweaked course he says is playing 1½ shots harder than before.
He knows he doesn't have to shoot lights out to win. He just has to fight through the bad shots, bad breaks and days when nothing feels 100 percent.
And, no matter how scary the shots, he has to keep trusting and believing -- in himself and that magic he pulls out of his bag.
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