Rain washes out practice round

The early washout of Mon­day’s practice round at the Mas­ters Tournament didn’t do any favors to players beginning their crash course in Augusta National 101.

Only 31 of the 97 starters made it to the course before play was temporarily suspended and the gates closed to patrons because of inclement weather at 10 a.m. The rest of the day’s action was canceled at 12:35 p.m., which closed the gates for good and prevented players from getting back onto the course.

“I knew my day was done when I heard the announcement over the loudspeaker (that fans were to leave the course),” said Earl Wilson, of Knoxville, Tenn., who was attending his first Masters with his wife, Janet.

Fans such as the Wilsons, who had arrived at 8 a.m., will be sent refunds and guaran­teed the opportunity to buy 2015 practice round tickets.

With just two days left before the opening round of the 78th Mas­ters, many of the record 24 Masters rookies will be in catch-up mode today and Wednesday as they try to learn the course’s secrets.

“There is a lot to take in out there,” two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw said.

Brandt Snedeker, playing in his seventh Masters, said it takes at least a few years to learn where to hit it at Augusta National Golf Club.

Then there is knowing where not to hit it, which Sne­deker said takes just as long to learn.

“And it’s just as important,” he said. “You have to know where to miss it around here and where you can’t hit it. You’ve got to realize that’s going to kind of dictate who wins the golf tournament – managing your misses. You’ve got to learn it a bunch.”

It all goes back to something Bob­by Jones, who designed the course with Alister MacKenzie, believed.

“Jones said it way back there: ‘I want to give them a thinking test,’ and he did it spectacularly,” Cren­shaw said.

Learning where to miss shots is one of the biggest challenges facing the talented first-timers in the field, one of whom might become the first to win in his Masters debut since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

The ever-confident Patrick Reed, one of those first-timers, dismissed the concept of learning where not to hit it.

“You definitely know in the back of your head where not to hit it, but at the same time what I like to do is focus where to hit it because if you focus where not to hit it, then you’re going to avoid that spot and you’re going to miss it two times farther left or two times farther right trying to stay away from an area,” said the former Augusta State University golfer, who has won three times in his past 15 starts. “I just try to keep positive thoughts in my mind and attack golf courses that way.”

Crenshaw said a first-timer could win, but he wouldn’t bet on it.

“What Fuzzy did in 1979 was against the norm, but that’s how well he was playing,” Crenshaw said. “You can’t pick this up the first year, usually. You need a few years under your belt usually.”

The average number of starts for a player before his first Masters victory is six.

Someone who fits that description is Rory McIlroy, who will be playing in his sixth Masters. He has learned – painfully – the value of staying away from trouble in his previous five Masters, including 2011, when he carried a four-shot lead into the final round, shot 80 and tied for 15th.

“Every time you come back here, you gain a little bit more experience from the previous year,” said the 24-year-old McIlory, who is ranked ninth in the world. “And, OK, you shouldn’t hit it there; or, you know, if you want to miss this green, you miss it this side, stuff like that.”

Larry Mize, an Augusta native, said that he learned where his misses should land during valuable practice rounds before he won in 1987.

“Some of it was trial and error, and some of it was you pick brains of guys who had been here before,” Mize said. “If you’re a young player coming here for the first time, I think it’s good to play with a past champion or someone who has played here a lot.”

Said Crenshaw: “It’s just so much more than just hitting the ball down the fairway.”