FINAL WORD Waiting is the Hardest Part From caddying at Inverness Golf Club to working for ESPN.com, the Masters has played an integral role in my life BY BOB HARIG T he annual rite of spring, it has been called, a cliché to reference the Masters that seemed rather ordinary until the moniker was all but taken away from us. The shock to the system was as big as anything in the sports world, but miniscule in relation to what is happening in the real world. Learning that the Masters, the year’s first major championship, was being postponed to some future date – hopefully – because of a pandemic was earth-shattering in the moment, a tournament of such reverence ripped from our hopes and dreams, the reality of the situation far more grave than a golf gath-ering. Still, from a purely sports perspective, it stinks, just as all the other games in all the other leagues are on hold, too. For the first time since World War II, a Masters won’t be played in April. For anyone who grew up or lives in the Midwest, that is a blow as cold as another blast of winter. We take these things for granted, and now while folks are grappling with the biggest of health issues, a decision to postpone such an iconic event was still hard to take. In my youth, the first signs of spring came weeks before the Masters, when the hopes of snow melting off the fairways and greens at Inverness Golf Club in Inverness, Illinois meant the possibility of throwing a bag over my shoulder and caddying for the first time in the new year. Those were halcyon days for a kid who would grow up to be a golf writer and well before any such dreams existed. Clanking those clubs around while wearing a ski cap, golfers playing to temporary greens as the snow still thawed and longing for warmer weather were all part of the early-season golf experience. Getting to watch the Masters with the sounds of birds chirping through the TV and the sight of azal-eas blooming through the screen only heightened the anticipation for another summer on the golf course. That, of course, led to other things one might not even fathom during those innocent days of youth. A 10-year caddying experience at Inverness; an Evans Scholarship at Indiana University and a journalism degree; a career in sports writing that has led to cov-72 | CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER | APRIL 2020 Bob Harig grew up in Barrington, caddied at Inverness Golf Club and has been at ESPN.com since 2007. He has also covered all 15 of Tiger Woods’ major championship wins. JOE FARAONI/ ESPN IMAGES ering more than 100 major championships, includ-ing all of Tiger’s major victories? Perhaps that is why the Masters announcement hit home. We take these things for granted, and now while folks are grappling with the biggest of health issues, a decision to postpone such an iconic event was still hard to take. Of course, it was the correct decision. For a time there was banter about playing the Masters at Augusta National without spectators, akin to having pimento without the cheese. In the case of the Masters, spectators are every-thing around Augusta National, their very presence a huge part of the experience. From the placing of chairs alongside various greensides – and knowing your spot won’t be taken when you come back – to the green-wrapper sandwich samplings, the Masters without “patrons’’ would be blasphemy. And that says nothing about the competitive aspect of spectators amid the dogwoods and azaleas, their cheers cascading through the pines and up the hills toward the clubhouse, a certain sound signify-ing birdies and bogeys and beyond. Then there is Tiger Woods’ epic victory a year ago at Augusta National. Imagine how different it would have been had there been no spectators jammed into Amen Corner when Woods’ tee shot safely found the 12th green, his playing partners Francesco Molinari and Tony Finau ruing their misfires into Rae’s Creek. Or a few holes later, Woods’ 8-iron tee shot bank-ing off the slope at the par-3 16th, trickling ever-so-slowly toward the cup, the noise level rising with every revolution until the sound was so deafening that Brooks Koepka and Webb Simpson had to stop what they were doing on the 17th tee. And for that scene at 18 to play out minus specta-tors, where Woods embraced his kids? “I had never, ever in all my years of going there and all my years of watching the Masters … I had never heard chanting at Augusta National,’’ Woods said. “I get goose bumps talking about it still. The chanting. The amount of support I had. So many peo-ple that wanted to see me do it. It was special to have that kind of support, that kind of backing.’’ Witnessing that victory was as good as it gets. Even better? A 2020 Masters, sometime in the fall – the ultimate golf tonic for what ails us now. ●
Chicago District Golfer April 2020: Page 72
