Gary Player says he can still picture the moment. It was 1965, he said, when he, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer played practice rounds at Augusta National and decided the grass in the fairways was too long and too thick. One of the game’s most famous voices was sent to ask for a change, and the answer from Clifford Roberts was as sharp as the club’s reputation.
Player, now 90 and a three-time green jacket winner, said Nicklaus and Palmer told him they had taken a vote and he was the one going in to speak with the chairman. So he walked into Roberts’s office and asked that the mowers be set lower in the fairways. Roberts listened, Player said, then crossed his arms and answered: “The mowers are set as low as they can go, now good morning!”
Player said it was not many Masters later before the fairways were cut tighter. On Wednesday, the eve of the 90th Masters, he was scheduled to hit the ceremonial opening tee shot on Thursday morning, a role that keeps him tied to Augusta even after a few weeks of friction over a private round he had hoped to play with three of his grandsons. Augusta National denied that request, and Player said at the time he was disappointed.
Read Also: Gary Player watches horse win from San Antonio before Masters flight
The old story lands differently on Masters Wednesday because it says something about how Augusta has always worked: it hears a complaint, decides whether it improves the tournament and, if it does, moves quickly. Roberts, who helped launch Augusta National alongside Bobby Jones, was known as a no-nonsense and at times ruthless arbiter of club matters, and Player’s memory fits that history neatly. The fairways got tighter, the course changed and the relationship endured.
Read Also: Tom Watson blasts Brooks Koepka return as Masters week begins at Augusta
By Wednesday, Player said he had only positive feelings and “peace” toward the club. For a man who once walked into Roberts’s office nervous and came out empty-handed, that may be the most Augusta outcome of all.
