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LORNE RUBENSTEIN
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | If The Masters is a
rite of spring, it’s also a means of getting
to know new players. The Masters by its
invitation policies intentionally brings golf-
ers to the world’s attention. The invitation
is to writers as well as golfers: It says, take
this opportunity to learn about players you
probably didn’t know, as a first step in fol-
lowing their progress in the game.
Chang-Won stayed in the Crow’s Nest
at the top of Augusta National’s clubhouse.
He played a practice round with fellow
Korean K.J. Choi. He’ll attend college in
Korea next year, and faces two years of
mandatory military service. It will be inter-
esting to see how he combines his com-
petitive life on the course with school and
other obligations.
For me, The Masters has always been
a feast of international golf. It’s where I
four million golfers in China now, and that
the country will have the world’s largest
golfing population by 2020 given the cur-
rent growth rate. The Mission Hills Golf
Series that was launched in January brings
higher-handicap juniors in every Sunday
and is full into September.
Watching Ballesteros provided a course in
golf appreciation.
come year after year to learn what’s up in
world golf, and the game only gets bigger
around the world. I’ve always agreed with
the late and much-missed English writer
and broadcaster Henry Longhurst that golf
is the Esperanto of sport – its universal
language. This isn’t meant to insult soc-
cer, which is also a global sport. But golf
started in Scotland and it’s truly traversed
the world. That’s always evident at The
Masters, and also at the Open Champion-
ship.
For further evidence of the game’s
spread, I had a chat this week with Tenniel
Chu, the executive director of Mission Hills.
He told me that there are three million to
It’s been great fun following last year’s
British Amateur champion this week as he
made the cut and finished at 4-over-par
292. Phenomenal. He played the first two
rounds with Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters
champion. He shot 71-76. Two interna-
tional players. Weir and Manassero are
separated by 24 years but they were joined
by their journeys around Augusta National.
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