Executive Golf Magazine

Mention the name Jose Maria Olazabal and what comes into your mind? His remarkable partnership with Severiano Ballesteros in the Ryder Cup, his success in the Masters or his quiet dignity at the time of that incident with Justin Leonard in the 1999 Ryder Cup?

What about his cha-cha-cha on the green at Muirfield Village in 1987 after Europe had won the Ryder Cup in the United States for the first time or, indeed, the brave way he has fought off a career-threatening injury.

For me it is the complete harmony that exists between him and Augusta National golf club. Rarely do you see a golfer whose individual skills seem so perfectly tailored to meet the challenges of one particular course. The supreme example is Tiger Woods at Augusta where the world No.1 has never finished worse than 22nd as a professional but Olazabal is the next best.

Down the years the Spaniard has been a byword for pinpoint precise iron play, magnificent work around the greens and day-in and day-out as good a putter as the game has seen. When he is on form his iron play can be breathtakingly precise. He hits the ball so cleanly his clubhead doesn’t so much hit the turf as bruise it.

I received a personal demonstration of just how good he was when I interviewed him at his home in 1984 and watched him hit shots on the practice ground under the eye of his teacher. After a half-hour of this and that Olazabal turned to me and said: “I am going to show you something. I am going to hit five high iron shots, five low iron shots, five curving left and five curving right. All with the same club, a 5-iron.”

I rocked back on my heels preparing to watch this display of precociousness. Olazabal had just turned professional, winning the British Boys’, British Youth’s and Amateur Championships on the way and now, on this bleak practice ground in northen Spain, so close to the French border as to be almost in France, I saw why.

“Olazabal turned to me and gave a mock bow. He blushed slightly. My God, I thought to myself, this man can play golf”

The first five shots flew away from the clubface and soared high before falling to the ground. The next five barely reached the height of his golf bag. The third five were all arrow-straight at first before rising quickly and veering left, like planes leaving the deck of an aircraft carrier. And the last five? You know what I am going to say. They were five of the most perfect fades you could hope to see.

Olazabal turned to me and gave a mock bow. He blushed slightly. My God, I thought to myself, this man can play golf.

That demonstration came to mind as he won the Masters in 1994, beating Tom Lehman by two strokes. It came to mind again in 1999 when he won at Augusta again, also by two strokes, this time from David Love III. By the time he came third in 2006, when he was in his 41st year, the memory of that slight boy with the gentle face and dark hair hitting a stream of well controlled shots on the practice ground at Fuenterrabia had faded somewhat. But not his skills.

Down the years Olazabal has had one well documented weakness. Give him an iron from the tee and he is as happy as a sand boy. Put a driver in his hands and he struggles. He has a tendency to hook his drives. At Brookline on the eve of the 1999 Ryder Cup, John Jacobs spent hours with him working on this part of his game. Indeed, it may be said that Jacobs was flown there primarily to keep an eye on Olazabal, who had won his second Masters five months earlier.

On the practice ground Jacobs went through his mantra again and again. And again and again an Olazabal tee shot would veer left. There were a few Spanish swear words and a few sighs by Jacobs. To help, Jacobs would bend down and press Olazabal’s golf ball firmly on to its tee, so that it was only an inch or so off the ground. “It is hard to hit a hook from such a low tee” Jacobs reasoned. Again and again Olazabal would bend down and raise the ball by pulling the tee several inches out of the ground.

“Now Augusta is longer and it is narrower, better for the longer hitter. I know Zach Johnson won there but he is the exception. Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods have won in three of the past four years. They are both very long hitters”

Jacobs did what he could but at the 11th hour Olazabal was not considered for inclusion in the first morning foursomes when his inaccuracy from the tee could have been expensive. He didn’t play in the second day’s foursomes either. But he and Miguel Angel Jimenez won their fourballs on the first day and halved their fourballs on the second before Olazabal halved his singles against Justin Leonard on the third day.

Let us now move on to last December when Olazabal flew to London to receive the PGA Recognition Award for his services to golf. If ever an award was deserved this one was. Few golfers have conducted themselves with so much dignity as Olazabal during his near 25-year professional career and few are as popular. He rolls from side to side when he walks so that he resembles a sailor taking his first steps ashore after months at sea. But he has an innate dignity and he carries himself with bearing. Ian Poulter would have looked as out of place at such a gathering as a piece of coal in a snowdrift but in a dark three-button suit Olazabal blended in well with the businessmen.

Olazabal knows that if he is to win at Augusta for a third time it will be against the odds. “It used to be a golf course that suited me,” Olazabal says. “It was not very demanding off the tee. The trees were far away from the fairway and there were not many bunkers in play. It was extremely difficult around the green.

“Now it is longer and it is narrower, better for the longer hitter. I know Zach Johnson won there but he is the exception. Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods have won in three of the past four years. They are both very long hitters.

“I can’t stop a 4-iron on those greens and if a long hitter is hitting a 7-iron in to the same greens then he has an advantage. They are making it more demanding in all departments. At the 11th you need a good drive and it will still be a 5-wood or a 2-iron. That green is not built for that shot.

“A lot of the changes are good but I think the lengthening of the 1st hole is too much. The bunkers on the 5th are ok. The 18th? Touch and go. A few yards less and the course would still be ok. The course is close to being all right but not 100 per cent.”

The same might be said of the man himself, who was injured towards the end of last season - again - and faced a race to get into top form for the Masters. But then that is quintessentially Olazabal, the battler against the odds. It would be a foolish man who would bet against him winning one more green jacket.

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