Sutton hoping to break bad Masters run

Hal Sutton looked at the bright side today. His best performance in The Masters came in 1983, right after he won The Players Championship.

He arrived at Augusta National one week after beating Tiger Woods on the TPC at Sawgrass, his confidence as high as ever, and his game in the best shape it has ever been.

The downside?

No one has ever won The Players Championship and The Masters in the same year. That's double trouble for Sutton, who hasn't even made the cut at Augusta since 1985.

"I'm expecting more out of myself this week than I have ever performed -- but that's not a lot," Sutton said with a laugh.

"I'm expecting to play well. My game is at a level I can expect that out of myself."

Next comes the hard part -- proving it.

Sutton blames his problems on being too aggressive. Early in his career, he played with such reckless abandon that he often wound up on the wrong side of the hole, and Augusta can be the most unforgiving course in the world.

"In my early years, my short game wasn't up to the standard it needed to be to perform well here," he said. "The last few years, my short game was better but I attacked the pins too hard. I need to be more patient with my irons."

Sutton can understand why no one has even added a green jacket so shortly after winning The Players Championship, a grinding week on a difficult course.

He returned home to Louisiana and found 33 messages on his answering machine. He also found himself out of gas.

"It does take a lot out of you, especially leading it wire to wire, and going a fifth day on top of it," he said. "I don't mind telling you I was tired last week and did very little practicing. Plus, it was raining the whole time, so that gave me a built-in excuse.

"That doesn't mean I can't win here."

Sutton's complete Masters record

BIG THREE?

While Tiger Woods figures to be the star attraction when The Masters begins Thursday, don't be surprised to see a threesome that might grab the nostalgic gallery at Augusta: Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus.

They were called the "Big Three," trading major championships like heavyweights in the ring. At least one of them won a major championship from 1958 to 1968, and they combined to win eight out of nine Masters from 1958 to 1966. (Art Wall won in 1959.)

For the second year in a row, The Masters will be played in threesomes instead of the traditional twosomes to take better advantage of daylight.

Defending champion Jose Maria Olazabal will play with U.S. Amateur champion David Gossett, along with a third player.

Also, tee times will be switched so that each player goes off in the morning and afternoon in the first two rounds. Until last year, tee times depended on the leading scores after the first day.

LONG DRIVE

Gabriel Hjertstedt might have hit the longest drive in PGA Tour history last week during the BellSouth Classic. Sort of.

During the third round, Hjertstedt's drive on No. 10 strayed to the right. After a couple of minutes searching for it, a spectator said he thought the ball landed in the back of a maintenance cart that was collecting trash.

"I said, 'Where's the cart?' He said it took off," Hjertstedt recalled while having lunch today in the Augusta National clubhouse.

He asked a television crew to track down the cart, which was found about a mile away. Sure enough, his ball was in the back. Hjertstedt took a drop, hit his approach, and made par.

LEFT OUT

Butch Harmon, the coach for Tiger Woods the past seven years, finally got a chance to play Augusta National. And it proved why he's a better teacher than a player.

"These greens are way too fast for me," said Harmon, who failed to break 80.

Claude Harmon, his father, won the 1948 Masters by five strokes.

The son also played the PGA Tour and was the first winner of the B.C. Open. But that was before it was an official tour event, in a time where winning didn't guarantee a trip to The Masters.

ON THE BAG

Mark Calcavecchia once used his wife as a caddie. George Archer had his daughter on the bag. Ken Green hired his sister.

British Amateur champion Graeme Storm is about to top them all. His caddie will be his mother.

Jane Storm has been carrying the bag for about five years, and when he qualified for The Masters by winning at Royal Count Down last year, thoughts turned to Augusta.

"It just happened, really," Storm said. "She would drive me to the golf tournaments and then stay around and caddie for me."

Mrs. Storm went to the caddie shack on Sunday and tried on three white jumpsuits before they trimmed 6 inches off the legs and arms to make it fit.

MASTERS TIDBITS

The last three Masters champions previously played as an amateur. Only Tiger Woods made the cut, a tie for 41st in 1995 when he was 19. ... Fred Couples, who withdrew from the BellSouth Classic because of a sore back, will try to extend his consecutive cuts in The Masters to 16. ... The Masters has not gone to a playoff in 10 years. ... Sergio Garcia, who parted ways with Fanny Sunesson two weeks ago, has hired Glenn Murray as his caddie. Murray previously worked for Retief Goosen.