In Memory Of Golf’s Master Crenshaw Wins One For Mentor

The most mystical Masters of all came to a fitting conclusion Sunday when Ben Crenshaw put the last lesson to good use. He did exactly what his teacher, Harvey Penick, told him to do, just before he passed away at age 90 last week.

He took dead aim, to use Penick’s famous phrase, and putted his way to victory.

In a final round fraught with emotion and with the kind of breaks and bounces, good and bad, that Augusta National always provides, Crenshaw prevailed. He did it by making every big putt he had to make and by shooting a final-round 68 for 274 to beat his friend Davis Love III, who shot 66, by one stroke.

Throughout the brilliantly lit, warm afternoon, Crenshaw, 43, fought to keep his emotions in check and his game under control. He almost never wavered.

There were many taut moments, but from the time he took the lead with a birdie at the second hole, he never relinquished it. He had many opportunities to do just that, but something wouldn’t allow it.

And when the final putt fell at the 18th, putting an end to his arduous climb to his second Masters title, Crenshaw bent over at the waist and wept, his tears falling on the green and on his hat, which had tumbled from his head.

His caddie, Carl Jackson, rushed over to embrace him, and there were tears in many eyes in the throng at the green that rose as one to cheer him.

“So many times here at Augusta, you feel blessed,” Crenshaw said. “I felt that way this week. I had a 15th club in the bag this week. That was Harvey.”

It had been a trying week for Crenshaw, on and off the course. On Wednesday, he and Tom Kite flew to Austin, Texas, for Penick’s funeral. Love, whose late father also was one of Penick’s students and played for him at the University of Texas, was thinking about going, too, but Crenshaw called him to advise against it.

Crenshaw told Love, who had to win the Freeport McMoRan Classic in New Orleans last week just to get into the Masters, that he should save his energy, that Mr. Penick would understand.

“That’s the kind of guy Ben Crenshaw is,” Love said, “and that’s why I’m really happy for him.”

Not that Love and everybody else in the field weren’t trying to beat Crenshaw.

But one by one they were undone by the marvelous workings of Crenshaw’s putter. He didn’t have a threeputt all week on Augusta’s treacherous greens.

And they were beaten by their own mistakes and bad breaks - bounces sometimes accompanied by the eerie feel of a seance in progress.

Greg Norman once again had a chance to win the Masters, only to be rebuffed at the last instant, rudely slapped like an unwelcome suitor. He started the day three strokes behind Crenshaw and Brian Henninger but quickly leaped into contention with birdies at the second and sixth holes.

He was only two strokes behind Crenshaw by the time he holed a chip shot at the 10th hole, and he was rolling into the par 5’s.

Maybe, just maybe, Norman’s luck was about to change at Augusta. By the time he birdied the 13th to go 11 under par, he was tied with Crenshaw and Love. He barely missed an 8-footer for eagle at 15. He made a spectacular two-putt par at the 16th, curling a 60-footer down the hill to 4 feet.

Love, meanwhile, bogeyed the 16th from almost an identical spot. Crenshaw’s birdie at the 13th gave him the lead at 13 under, but when Norman stepped on the 17th tee he thought he was tied for first.

Then it happened. After a perfect drive, with a sand wedge in his hand, Norman made bogey. He pulled the shot left and long and three-putted. It was over for him. Only Love and Crenshaw remained.

Emotions also washed over Love as he watched Crenshaw finish. He had played as well as he could, and now it was out of his hands.

Crenshaw won the Masters at the 16th hole, the fiendish, 170-yard par-3 hole that has been so pivotal in the 59 pervious Masters.

There, he took a 6-iron and played a wonderful, drawing shot that hit the right side of the green, took the slope and started creeping down toward the pin, cut close to the water, just where it had been when Jack Nicklaus won his sixth Masters in 1986.

When Nicklaus birdied it that day, he became the oldest Masters winner. Now Crenshaw, at 43 the secondoldest, did the same.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Masters leaderboard Top finishers, final-round scores and winnings (par-72) Crenshaw, $396,000i…………68-274 Love III, $237,600 …………66-275 Norman, $127,600 …………68-277 Haas, $127,600 …………70-277 Frost, $83,600 ………….71-279 Elkington,$83,600 ………….72-279 Mickelson,$70,950 ………….73-280 Houch, $70,950 ………….73-280 Strange, $63,800 ………….73-281 Couples, $57,200 ………….75-282 Henninger,$57,200…………..76-282