Masters opens with a tribute and a Tiger to tame

Augusta, April 6: Golf legends Byron Nelson and Sam Snead fired the ceremonial first tee shots to open the 64th Masters here Thursday with...

Augusta, April 6: Golf legends Byron Nelson and Sam Snead fired the ceremonial first tee shots to open the 64th Masters here Thursday with Tiger Woods looming as a favorite in the first major tournament of 2000. On a chilly morning under clear blue skies, the 1940s golf stars paused for a moment of silence to remember the late Gene Sarazen, who joined them in serving as honorary starters until his death last May at age 97.

"The Squire" was not replaced because, as Augusta National Golf Club chairman Will "Hootie" Johnson said, "We don’t know how you go about replacing Gene Sarazen." Snead, 87, was a three-time Masters and PGA Championship winner and also captured the 1946 British Open. Nelson, 88, won the Masters and PGA twice each as well as the 1939 US Open.

Nelson’s 11-event win streak remains an all-time PGA record, although Woods made the best-ever run at it before his streak was stopped at six in February. World number one Woods, the 2000 money leader with three PGA titles and three second-place showings, is favoured among the field of 95, which includes a record 35 players from outside the United States. Woods goes off near the middle of the pack alongside playing partners Stewart Cink and Australian Open champion Aaron Baddeley, the 18-year-old Aussie amateur who received a special invitation to play here.

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The most celebrated trio of the day will be the "Old Glory" lineup of six-time Masters winner Jack Nicklaus, 60; four-time winner Arnold Palmer, 70, and three-time Augusta champion Gary Player, 64, of South Africa. England’s Lee Westwood has struggled with food poisoning and seen limited practice time this week while Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke is worried he might have chicken pox because his 20-month-old son has the viral disease.

Amateur Kim Sung Yoon becomes the first Korean to ever play in the Masters and is the youngest golfer in the field at 17. Kim plays alongside American Indian Notah Begay and Fuzzy Zoeller, whose racist remarks in 1997 as Woods was winning the Masters in record fashion made the pairing with non-caucasian golfers especially ironic. "I never thought of it until you mentioned it," Zoeller said. "I don’t see black and white. Never have."

France’s Jean Van de Velde makes his Masters debut, hoping to avoid plunking a ball into Rae’s Creek at Amen Corner the way he did into the water on the 72nd hole to lose last year’s British Open.