'Undertaker' first victim of 'Aussie curse'

GOLD COAST, Australia — Adam Scott’s breakthrough at the Masters Tournament can’t be fully appreciated without reviewing Australia’s history at Augusta.

If Sydney native Jim Ferrier had lived up to his “Undertaker” nickname 64 years ago, he might have spared future Australians the burden of the Masters.

Ferrier had earned the moniker from the Australian press for his penchant for burying opponents on the course during a decorated amateur career Down Under that included back-to-back Australian Amateur and Australian Open titles in 1938-39.

In 1940, Ferrier moved to the U.S. with his wife, Norma, to play in the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open and cover the professional tour for the Sydney Morning Herald. But the USGA decided his golf writing breached his amateur status, and he turned professional. He became a U.S. citizen in 1944 and served in World War II. He became the first native Australian to win a major, the 1947 PGA Championship.

With his combination of power and a deft short game, he proved a worthy rival to American greats Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, especially at the Masters, where he was the first Australian to tee it up in 1940.

When the Masters resumed after the war in 1946, Ferrier became a fixture on the leaderboards. He finished tied for fourth, sixth and fourth from 1946-48. So when he took a two-shot lead over Hogan into the final round in 1950, few doubted he could close it out.

Ferrier expanded his lead to five strokes on the front nine and went to the 13th tee still three ahead of Jimmy Demaret, who posted birdies on 15 and 16 and retired to the clubhouse to wait for Ferrier to finish.

What happened next rivals any major meltdown. Ferrier hooked his drive on 13 into the tributary of Rae’s Creek and suffered a bogey. Demaret later called it “the death hole.”

Ferrier three-putted for bogey on 14 and his lead was down to one. After failing to make birdie on the par-5 15th, his confidence was reeling. He missed an 8-footer for par on 16 and fell into a tie with Demaret. The lead was gone after a bogey from the bunker on 17.

Needing a birdie at 18 to force an 18-hole playoff, Ferrier three-putted instead to finish second to Demaret by two strokes.

Masters not on their radar

Even though the Masters was little known to Australians, Ferrier’s heartache would establish a theme for the next six decades.

“We hadn’t really thought about it,” said Michael Clayton, a former European Tour pro from Melbourne. “No (international player) had ever won the Masters except (Gary) Player. No one spoke about Ferrier, and it was a complete mess he made of it.”

The Masters was so far off the radar that Peter Thomson didn’t know of its existence before the early 1950s.

“I was wandering around the (United) States, looking for somewhere to play,” Thomson said. “Jimmy Demaret was very kind to me. He said, ‘I’ll get you an invitation to the Masters.’ I had to say, ‘What’s the Masters?’ Never heard of it. That was the fact of the matter in ’52 or ’53. I learned that it was sort of a (Bobby) Jones picnic, and he invited all sorts of people to come and play in his tournament, which was quite unusual at that time. I learned what it was and went and played in it. It suited me, and I was happy with it.”

Thomson, who won five British Opens from 1954 to 1965, played eight times at Augusta from 1953 to 1969, finishing fifth in 1957. More often than not, he declined his invitation and chose to play the conflicting Indian Open instead.

“I was busy establishing the Asian circuit,” he said. “Tony Jacklin came to me in India and said he had an invitation to the Masters and had to leave the tour. I said I’d like to do that, too, but I can’t. It meant forgoing Augusta. Regretfully, I’m one of the few players to turn it down.”

Turning down invitations to the Masters wasn’t that unusual back then. Harry Berwick, a plasterer and great amateur from Sydney, received an invitation to the 1957 Masters after winning the Australian Amateur, The Lakes Open and New Zealand Open the previous year.

“Didn’t tell anybody and just never went,” Clayton said. “He was too embarrassed to ask anybody for the money.”

Getting invited wasn’t easy. Kel Nagle won the British Open in 1960 and was U.S. Open runner-up in 1965 but played Augusta only nine times through 1968. Peter Senior was ranked consistently in the top 50 from 1989-96 and got invited to the Masters only in 1990.

“There’d been a plethora of great Australian golfers, and we’d checked every box except the Masters box,” Greg Norman said. “Maybe we had one or two Australians at the top of their game who actually could contend … who could really push the needle forward in terms of winning that tournament. At the end of the day, you look at the odds, it reduces dramatically.”

Eventually, more Australians started making the trip to Augusta and getting into contention. But the green jacket remained as elusive as the Mulgowie Yowie (Australia’s Bigfoot).

Through the years, nine Australians won 15 majors: nine British Opens, four PGAs and two U.S. Opens. Despite 41 Aussie players making 252 starts in the Masters before 2013, all they had to show for it was eight runner-up efforts – and heartache.

Bruce Devlin started the final round in second place in 1964, birdied the first two holes and drew within three shots of the lead before finishing fourth, behind runaway winner Arnold Palmer. Devlin started the final round only one back in 1968 and shot 69 but finished fourth again, three shots behind.

In 1972, Bruce Crampton tied for second, three shots behind wire-to-wire winner Jack Nicklaus.

“Nobody was doing anything, nobody was making a move and nothing was happening,” was Nicklaus’ account of the day.

In 1980, Jack Newton shot 68 on Sunday to sneak into a tie for second, four shots behind Seve Ballesteros. Newton’s estate in New South Wales is called “Augusta.”

None of these relative near-misses, however, stirred much emotion in Australia. Only the last had been televised since the Masters broadcast first reached Australia in 1979.

Norman drama riveting

Australia’s interest in the Masters increased when Norman first showed up at Augusta in 1981, shared the first-round lead and finished fourth in his debut. Norman versus Augusta became an almost annual melodrama for the next two decades, a Charlie Brown saga with a series of Lucys pulling the ball out from under him every time he looked close to kicking in the door to the Champions Locker Room.

“Greg looked like he was going to win it every year,” said Phil Scott, Adam Scott’s father. “A whole generation of kids watched Greg do it and became like Adam.”

In 23 starts, Norman finished runner-up three times, third three times and in the top five twice more. Each close call came with a different manner of painful drama.

Adam Scott doesn’t remember 1986, the year Norman led all four majors entering Sunday and won only the British Open. He bogeyed the last at Augusta and let 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus slip on the green jacket for a sixth time.

But he does remember Norman’s playoff loss in 1987. Scott, then 6, was introduced to golf that year at a par-3 course in Adelaide.

“I remember it clearly because obviously it finishes early Monday morning here in Australia, and ’87 went to a playoff with Larry Mize,” Scott said. “Mom is the one I remember at home, and she was watching the playoff, and I was late to school at that point. I just remember Larry Mize chipping in and going nuts and all of us devastated.”

Said Scott’s father, Phil: “At 6 years old he was crying, so somehow we must have made it quite a big thing in his life. Probably not great parenting.”

By 1996, Scott was playing in the Australian Junior Championships in Tasmania during Masters Week. Norman’s Augusta drama was reaching a crescendo.

“We were out on the course, playing, and word came in that Greg had just finished his first round, shooting 63,” Scott said. “The immediate thing everyone said was, ‘This is it. He’s going to win.’ ”

By the time Sunday arrived, Norman had a six-shot lead, and Australians decided to forego work Monday morning to watch the coronation.

At Royal Queensland Golf Club, where Norman and Scott both played as juniors, members gathered for a festive breakfast to watch the telecast.

By the time Norman rinsed his shot on the par-3 16th, ending any chance of beating Nick Faldo, the clubhouse in Queensland had all but cleared, and most of the food remained uneaten.

“I’m getting nauseous again just thinking about it,” club historian Ian Lynagh said. “Thanks for asking.”

Peter Lonard, a PGA Tour pro from Sydney, said the scene was the same at Oatlands, where he was serving as a club pro.

“Just being at the club, it was like someone had died during the day,” Lonard said. “Every golfer ... felt sick for Norman and for Australian golf.”

Norman said it was the only time in his career that he went home from a tournament and wept.

“I laid on the beach and cried because I felt like I’d completely screwed up a tournament that I wanted to win,” he said.

It was that day the “Australian curse” at Augusta took firm root.

“I guess everyone just expected Greg to win ultimately and that it would never be a thing,” Scott said. “But when 1996 happened, maybe they realized that it might not happen. It’s certainly been a big talking point every year, at least since I’ve been playing the Masters.”

‘Aussies curse’ lingered

Norman wasn’t the only one to suffer bitter defeat at Augusta as the idea of an “Aussie curse” blossomed right up through Scott and Jason Day sharing a clubhouse lead in 2011. Charl Schwartzel passed them with an unprecedented four consecutive birdies to finish.

In 2007, Stuart Appleby let his 54-hole lead slip away with double bogeys on the first and 12th holes.

Perhaps the most bitter non-Norman moment of all was suffered in 1992 by Craig Parry.

A stocky Victoria native, Parry expanded his 54-hole lead to three shots over crowd favorite and playing partner Fred Couples after a birdie on No. 2. A poorly timed cough from the crowd prompted a short missed putt on the third green that started a run of three consecutive bogeys. Still, Parry was in a three-way tie with Couples and Raymond Floyd when he headed to the seventh hole.

That’s where things turned ugly. The Masters hadn’t had an American winner in four years, and the crowd was heavily backing the popular Couples. One partisan fan crossed the line by getting in Parry’s face as he made his way through the crowd between the sixth green and seventh tee.

“Hey, why don’t you let our guy win?” the patron said in a menacing tone.

Couples heard the comment and apologized immediately to Parry. But the shaken Parry bogeyed 7. After bogeys at 10, 16 and 18, he signed for 78 and left the course nearly in tears with a tie for 13th place, eight shots behind Couples.

‘‘More than two decades later, the memory of the incident still stings Parry.

“I was up three with 15 to go, so I had a pretty good opportunity,” he said. “It was one of those times where we came back to finish the third round early in the morning. It was a beautiful day, and a few of the patrons had a bit too much to drink and they wanted who they were barging for to be known. It’s history as far as I’m concerned.”

The Augusta “hoodoo” grew as Australians eventually ticked off grand accomplishments in every other sport the country cared about.