Funny old place Augusta. Each year old places have disappeared, new ones spring up. And there are always surprises to be had. I had one of these last night when half a dozen of us pitched up to decide who was to be the March Golfer of the Month on the European Tour.

The Blazer who organises these things booked a table at Rae's Seafood Cafe. This turned out to be a Jamaican style restaurant complete with reggae music and lots of spicy fish and chicken. Brilliant. Especially the stream that meandered outside and that turned out to be the same Rae's Creek that so dramatically embroiders Amen Corner at Augusta National.

Anyway, the point here is that after several bottles of the right stuff we still could not decide on who the top golffer for March was. Floored by this impasse we were rescued when The Divine Ponytail otherwise known as Miguel Angel Jiminez strode coolly into the bar area where we startled him by offering a glass of wine plus the chance to cast the deciding vote.

This, of course, he did with his usual laid-back approach to life, the universe and everything. Miguel was, however, a bit irritated. "How do you find this place?" he asked. "This is my place, my secret, every year I come here to eat and never before has there been anyone I know." Chastened, we promised never to come back again. We were, naturally, lying through our teeth. And who was the lucky winner of the March GoM? You'll have to wait I'm afraid as it's embargoed for a while.

Meanwhile, back at the National, things are starting to hot up. Well, to be honest, they are cooling down. Once again Augusta is unseasonally cool, the wind biting, the girls dressed in, well, too much. All disappointing to this point but I'm assured the weather will improve very shortly.

What wasn't disappointing was bumping into Rosie and Gerry McIlroy's mum and dad in the clubhouse. Turns out they are as delightful as I'd been told. They are having the time of their lives this week, as is Rory. I told Mrs McIlroy that she had raised a nice lad and she was suitably thankful for the compliment. I then added that I hoped he stayed that way. her reply is worth repeating. "Oh, don't worry, he will, " she smiled. "I'll put him over my knee if I have to to make sure." Must go now as it is the  International Media Dinner at the Augusta Country Club that abuts on to Amen Corner. Jackets will be worn and, I dare say, wine will be taken. Once again, it's not easy being me.

Bye-bye...

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1)    Arriving this morning and walking up to the clubhouse to see what all the fuzz was about. It really does take your breath away. The place oozes quality and to think of all the amazing events and memories that have taken place on this one course make the Augusta National so unique.

2)    Seeing Tiger. As a journalist, it is deemed pretty uncool to be in awe of the blokes you pursue, and while I didn’t quite flock to his side like so many, I did get slightly caught up in it all. It was like seeing one of the Beatles (not that I know anything about that) and it completely stole the thunder from Padraig Harrington, who was wooing the galleries by warming up on the 1st tee.

3)    Walking down to Amen Corner. The three holes that have determined so many Masters over the years. The 11th and 13th look as tough as they are, but the par-3 12th (Golden bell) looks slightly innocuous. However, leave it short, and you are in the drink, go long and you have possibly the toughest bunker shot possible on a downslope and down green. Fierce. Fittingly, I got to see Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam tee off here. This is the hole that very nearly cost Lyle the Masters in 1988. He hit the green on this occasion...

4)    Standing in the press area in the stands and watching the shot of the day: Rory McIlroy’s 7-iron on the 16th. He couldn’t have hit it sweeter. As straight as an arrow, and with the pin to the front left of the green, the galleries stood to applaud the teenager as his ball landed and sloped back down to within feet.

5)    More nostalgia, and more Lyle. Walking up 18, I reached the famous left-hand bunker that the Scotsman had hit his 1-iron into some 21 years ago. Considering Hunter Mahan, Stephen Ames and Sean O’Hair all creamed their drives here, and all were some 25 yards short of this bunker, suggests just what a great ball-striker the former world number one was. Shame he gets cold hands…

From Augusta

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Well, I wasn't disappointed. My first taste of the Masters was a nerve-tingling experience, and I haven’t even set foot on the course yet! This truly is an awesome venue for golf. Just walking through the gates and seeing glimpses of the fairways through the trees creates that gut-nervousness usually reserved for the kids at Christmas…

The town of Augusta was not quite what I expecting. It’s tiny. If you came here in mid winter – apart from the steak houses on Washington Drive that pay homage to all that is the Masters with their 19th hole ‘eat all you can for less than $10’ deals – it really would be difficult to believe golf’s greatest strokeplay spectacle has made its home here.

Already the streets are brimming. The town has vibrancy. On the strip, ticket touts – or scalpers, as they are known over here – are out in full effect. Local residents have packed up for the week; handing the keys to their homes in the return of over-the-odds-rental rates from families deep and far. Trust me, the sleepy town of Augusta has well and truly woken up.

Considering this is a practice day (there are some early questions being asked as to how many will turn up following Houston) it is already packed with spectators. The course has caught some heavy rain over night, but it just reeks of class. Everything is done in an immaculate manner.

Under normal circumstances, a 19-hour round-trip like the one I endured – and at times tackled – yesterday would have done me in for most of the next day. But after over 4,000 miles; one eight-and-a-half hour flight; 180 miles on the road taking in a world record sighting of 41 Waffle Houses on the way, my Masters week has finally begun.

Now I’m sure there is a half-decent track round here somewhere…

From Augusta

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Here, in no particular order, are my top 10 moments, places and people that have influenced me during the 29 weeks of my life spent watching someone else win an unfashionably constructed green jacket:

1. Sitting on the first floor veranda of the clubhouse early on a Monday morning, ordering corned beef hash and watching the good and the irritatingly dodgy of the golf world gather on the lawns beneath. Sometimes finishing off with a Bloody Mary while absorbing the waiter’s advice to have a nice day and to take it easy on the booze. Usually, I do. Have a nice day that is.

2. Standing on the same veranda in 1997 as Tiger Woods awkwardly stepped forward to receive his blazer after winning by 12 strokes. This was Tiger’s first Major and for me, his most important, certainly his most relevant victory. On the one hand it cemented the view that he possessed an unnatural talent for the game and on the other he struck a huge blow for non-white people everywhere. As I watched that evening a posse of young black waiters jigged and high-fived each other down beneath where I stood. Somewhere a bloke called Barack Obama sat up straight and began to plan his own journey as suddenly a lot of previously unthinkable things began to seem possible.

3. Wandering down the 10th fairway in the early 1980’s and coming across a well-known American golfer who had pushed his drive into the trees. Only a few of us observed his recovery and of these, perhaps I was the only one who spotted a moving ball offence as he swung at his ball. He failed to call a penalty on himself and so I was left wondering what to do. Was it any of my business really? Well, he ended that day just one shot off the lead and so I took advice from Tony Jacklin, who urged me to see how he finished, before opening up a very big can of worms. Fortunately, this guy slipped down the field, a collapse I put down to the bad karma I was flinging in his direction.

4. Sitting with Arnold Palmer on the veranda outside the clubs barber shop – yes, they have their own barbers – for an interview with the great man. I was told that he could spare me ten minutes max and that I should have my questions well prepared. Arnie emerged from the barber’s – he always used to have his haircut at the same time each Tuesday afternoon – and greeted me in his usual friendly fashion even though we had never met properly before. I had questions arranged in careful order, but after the first half-hour I screwed them up and just enjoyed the moment as one of the most charismatic sportsmen I have ever interviewed chatted to me about his life, my life and everything in between. In the end, this ten-minute chat turned into a two-hour conversation complete with beers that Arnie had ordered from the clubhouse bar.

5. Walking 18 holes watching Sandy Lyle during his second round in 1988. This was the greatest display of Major golf I have ever seen anywhere, any time, by anyone. Right from the start Sandy was splitting fairways and zeroing in on flagsticks no matter how pernicious their placing. He was that day, as never before and never since, truly in the zone. Everything I have seen since has been second rate by comparison. If he had holed all the genuinely makeable putts available to him that day then Sandy would have broken 60. Everyone else remembers his 7-iron out of the bunker at the last on Sunday, but I recall all play on that golden Friday.

So here we are again. This time to Augusta via Savannah and a few days R&R to get over jet-lag before swimming into the Masters and a small river of decent white wine and, some even more decent friends.

What’s new here? A lot actually. Since last year the club has bought several acres of adjoining land, crunched the houses and constructed a new and massive car park. Probably cost several million dollars but, hey, the credit crunch does not appear to be affecting the fantasyland that is this week at Augusta.

Take the room I stayed in at the Partridge Hotel here on Friday and Saturday evenings. I paid $149 for the privilege. Checking out on Sunday morning I innocently asked what my room would cost this week. “Oh, that would be $1,000 a night sir,” said the man swiping my credit card. Are there any rooms available? “No sir, we have been fully occupied for this week since last year.”

To recover from all this I took myself off to the lawn area in front of the clubhouse where I bumped into the always-admirable Jose-Maria Olazabal. After a chat about Seve and how the great man is doing – fine, relatively – I asked Ollie if he could clear up the continuing confusion over whether or not he has agreed to be Monty’s assistant captain for the 2010 Ryder Cup.

“No, I am sorry I cannot,” he grinned. “Monty has not asked me to do anything up to now.” But he says he has, I counter. Olazabal’s response was to hold his arms wide and shrug his shoulders. Spoke volumes I thought. What is it about the Ryder Cup captaincy that seems to be driving our men slightly barking in recent times?

Anyway, the sauvignon blanc remains as good as ever, as does the peach cobbler available in the clubhouse where Jim Furyk was in typical friendly form. Furyk really is one of the best of the American stars, a nice bloke with an interest in many things away from the golf course. He tells me he is playing well and that he feels as confident as ever. Just in case, I have placed a few quid on him.

When I relayed this fact to R&A boss Peter Dawson, the old boy snorted and told me that he felt everyone should keep an eye on Ben Curtis. “Everybody may have thought it was a one-off when Ben won The Open, but he’s won several other tournaments since and I feel that he has the game to win at least another Major before he is done.”

So, yes, a few pounds have now gone on Curtis. Well, I had to do it. Don’t you agree?

By the way, best quote yesterday came from the teenage lips of Rory McIlroy. Asked by an American journalist if he felt overwhelmed when he walked into Augusta National, the Belfast star grinned and said that, no, he didn’t. “Don’t get me wrong,” he added. “I’m very excited to be here, but overwhelmed, no. I can’t afford to have feelings like that if I want to do well this week. I have to try to think about this as another golf course and another golf tournament.”

That’s my boy. Keep it going Rory…

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Iain Carter talks to the reigning US Masters champion, Trevor Immelman, on how he overcame a cancer scare as well as the world’s best golfers to scoop the 2008 title and Green Jacket at Augusta. 

Last year must have been the most amazing time of your life as you went from white coats to a green jacket?
That’s a pretty dramatic way of putting it, but it’s fairly true. Out of the blue I got a pain in the right side of my rib cage. I was struggling to breathe. We did all the scans and you could see this tumour clear as day. Two days later the doctors pulled it out and it was just smaller than a tennis ball. I was in tremendous pain. I had an epidural for five days and morphine. We had to wait two more days to get the results and were all very relieved when they came back and it was benign. When you come back you’re not 100 per cent sure whether it is all going to be there. I didn’t want to go too hard because I had this six or seven-inch incision across my back.
I definitely think my perspective on life and golf changed, so I don’t feel like the same person really. To go from that situation to winning at Augusta was just really mind-boggling. I don’t think I have 100 per cent dealt with the two craziest things in my life: going from having a tumour to winning the Masters. But if I’d had the wrong results on the tumour then I’d have been getting alternative treatment and as a result probably wouldn’t have even been able to compete in the Masters.

Is making sure you don’t compromise your golf the most difficult thing about being a Major champion?
You’ve got to take hold of the opportunities that come your way, but make sure your game stays in decent shape. You’ve got to be disciplined. Padraig Harrington admitted he wasn’t disciplined enough after his first Major win and I’ve tried to learn from that. Hopefully by the time this year’s Masters rolls around I’ll be energised and ready to go again.

Is it true you asked Harrington about how to handle life as a Major winner?
Paddy is a nice guy to talk to because he’s very smart and he can get his point across to where you can understand it. I quizzed him quite a bit and picked his brains, and he gave me some valuable advice. To be honest Padraig has always done that ever since I joined the Tour. Golf is slightly different because you are playing against other guys, but the course is really your main opponent. Not all guys are as up front as Paddy. I knew he was a guy who wouldn’t shy away from helping me out and I really appreciated his honesty.

What was the best tip he gave you?
He just said you have got to be patient and you can’t be too greedy. At the end of the day you are going to make your living playing the game and playing the game well, and so you need to do the things that are going to help you play well. That ounds pretty simple, but it is easier said than done.

What do you remember about your final round 75 at Augusta last year?
I remember going to the 18th tee knowing that I was doing well and if you can get that last tee shot away you’re probably not going to make a double bogey. I really knuckled down and focused on that shot, and hit one of the best drives of my life. I walked down there and my ball was in a divot; it was all just crazy stuff. I hit my second to the lower level to about 20 feet and only then asked my caddie how we stood.

So it’s true that you had to ask your caddie on the last hole where you stood in the tournament?
Well the whole back nine I knew I was doing well, getting nice ovations from the crowd. I knew I was leading, but then I hit it into the water at 16, which was my worst shot of the week. I two-putted to make my 5 and everybody was still applauding me, so I figured maybe I was still in the lead. My caddie said: “You’re doing fine.” So I had a sneaky suspicion that if I parred the last two I’d win. After getting it up and down at 17, people were congratulating me and after I hit the green on 18 he said we were three ahead and that I could go and enjoy the walk.

What did that victory mean to you?
It is so surreal for a young guy from South Africa who is such a sports fanatic. I’ve taken so much joy out of people getting to the top level in sport, so for me to win a Major really was something quite incredible.
I’ve always respected guys who have won Major championships because that’s how we are remembered in this sport. It took a while for me to get used to being in that same league. It just shows that anyone from any corner of the globe can go and do it. I’ve always had this theory that every person can have their moment in the sun and I think you just have to be dedicated enough and patient enough to wait for that moment.
People also look at you in a different light. It took me a little while to get comfortable with that. The Masters is such a huge tournament, everybody is aware of your victory and so you do feel that extra bit of pressure.

What will it be like driving down Magnolia Lane for this year’s Masters?
There will be a lot of emotion. There will be a lot of memories – you’ve just got to enjoy it. But I still feel my best golf is ahead of me. I don’t mean that to sound arrogant, but I’ve just turned 29. I’m still gaining experience and I feel like my best golf will be in my thirties.
The nicest thing is that in the back of your mind you know that your best golf is going to be good enough in the big events – and that’s something that I can take with me to every Major.

Where next?

- Augusta hole-by-hole guide
- Pictures of the main contenders for the 2009 Masters
- Latest US Masters news

As the clock ticks down to this year’s US Masters, there has been a huge sense of excitement on my part with the plane ticket booked and press pass approved. In the past, Augusta weekends have been reserved for Bank Holiday recoveries with only part-time viewing material courtesy of Steve Rider (now Gary Lineker) and the rest of the BBC crew.

But this year, I will be heading up the GM team coverage as I walk down Magnolia Lane for the first time. As ever, the tournament promises to be one of the most eagerly anticipated events in the golfing calendar.

Always being one for nostalgia, many of my finest golfing memories stem from a time way before I had even considered swinging a club with genuine anger. Indeed, 23 years have now passed since I first took in the importance of this tournament, watching the remarkable back-nine destruction of Jack Nicklaus as he cut his way through the closing holes on the way to his sixth Green Jacket in 1986. This was when I first woke up to how great golf was. Putter raised in the air like a victorious swordsman, Jack walking in his downhill 15-footer on the 17th; it remains one of the game’s most indelible images.

It is the stirring moments of undiluted passion that the Masters delivers: Larry Mize’s winning chip in ’87; Sandy Lyle’s bunker shot in ’88; Ian Woosnam's gutsy ’91 victory; Nick Faldo’s brilliance at the expense of a hapless Greg Norman in ’96, and Tiger Woods' new dawn a year later.

Putting Jack’s stroll to one side, it is difficult to pick one moment that stands above all others. Rather, the European domination of the late eighties through to the mid nineties reserves a period of special praise. From Lyle’s success to Faldo’s third Green Jacket eight years later, only twice was our continent’s stronghold released by the home players (Freddie Couples in 1992 and Ben Crenshaw in 1995).

Since Woods rewrote the record books in ’97, European success has been thin on the ground with the exception of Jose Maria Olazabal’s second win in ’99. But today, there is a feeling that the current crop of talent from this side of the Atlantic, most notably from the home nations, creates cause for greater optimism.

Paul Casey’s thrilling but consistent form has lifted him up to 12th in the world rankings, while Padraig Harrington goes in search of his third Major victory on the spin. The likely lads of Justin Rose and Ian Poulter are now recognised as genuine tournament threats, and the power of Ross Fisher combined with the consistency and all-round brilliance of Rory McIlroy means a Sunday challenge to Woods and co is a serious prospect.

This is a great time to be a European golf fan, and so with nostalgia and Jack consigned to the record books, I’m looking for the new dawn to do something special at Augusta this year.
Here’s to a great week in Georgia, and some new memories to add to the overspilling tank…

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US Masters 2009 - The Contenders

10th - Camellia
Par 4 – 495 yards

All downhill, but a monster. Drive OK. Stop for a photo opportunity but fail to see the funny side when the bloke asks me to take a picture of him and his wife in front of the Butler Cabin. Hit second into huge bunker in the middle of the fairway about 120 yards short of the hole. Recover well with sand wedge just to the right of the green. Caddy persuades me to chip and run, which I do only to knife it into far right trap. Cue expletives and more finger jabbing. Triple bogey seven.

11th - White Dogwood
Par 4 – 505 yards

Best drive of the day, runs on to about 270 yards. Decide to hit my rescue club in. Catch it fat and leave it well short. Wedge on and two putt. Bogey five.

12th - Golden Bell
Par 3 – 155 yards

Give it everything with a 7-iron, watch in amazement as the ball sails high and long….. into the bunker behind the green. Faced with a downhill lie and the downslope of the green, I bottle the first attempt and spray sand all over my opponent, then thin the next one straight into Rae’s Creek. Agree to pick up as Gary Player and Trevor Immelman are giving it the Monty-hands-on-hips look back on the tee.

13th - Azalea
Par 5 – 510 yards

Top my drive, still embarrassed from last hole. Cream my 3-wood another 220 yards. Duff a 7-iron, wedge on and hole 20-footer for the worst par in US Masters history. It’s a victory, of sorts...

14th - Chinese Fir
Par 4 – 440 yards

Find the green in regulation with driver and 6-iron. First putt is 15 feet short, second rolls down the distinctive slope at the front of the green. Throw my putter to the floor and am booed by the crowd. Three more putts. Triple bogey seven.

15th - Firethorn
Par 5 – 530 yards

Good drive finds the fairway. Lay up with sensible 7-iron. Wedge into the water. Drop another one down and wedge on second time. Misread a monster 40-foot putt that breaks the other way. Turn round to have another go at my caddie, but realise he left me on the 14th green. Give myself a very generous triple bogey eight.

16th - Redbud
Par 3 – 170 yards

Opt for my 6-iron off the tee. Push it right, just avoiding bunker. Duff first chip, then nobble the second to within eight feet. No break on putt but still leave it short. Double bogey five.

17th - Nandina
Par 4 – 440 yards

Slice drive, this time onto 15th fairway. Play back with a safe 7-iron and then hit wedge to ten feet. Two putt and give it another needless fist pump and grit of teeth Harrington style.

18th - Holly
Par 4 – 465 yards

Don’t like the look of it from the back tee, so aim far left a la Ian Woosnam in 1991. Unlike Woosie, fail to fly the left-hand bunker and am left with a rescue club in. Strike it well, just short of green. Putt just past fringe, then take another three from there. Tip cap again and sign scorecard. Then throw it in the bin when I realise I have shot 101 minus the no score on the 12th…

Walk back to the media centre to get on with the day job...

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6. Watching as Seve Ballesteros ripped into Augusta National on his way to his first victory there in 1980. He had won the Open the year before, but it was this win that placed Seve at the top of the game’s hierarchy. He was young, good looking and cavalier. Augusta has never seemed more exciting than it did that Sunday when he won. That evening at his celebration party he revealed to a handful of us present that his spine was damaged and that he had played in pain. He showed us the trapeze he hung upside-down from each morning for 20 minutes and encouraged me to try it. I lasted 20 seconds. Seve laughed, but we all knew how potentially serious this damaged back was to his career. Eventually, of course, it finished him and all but drove him mad in the process.

7. The first time I wandered along Broad Street in the centre of town and wondered at the breadth of this boulevard and the flowers that dance along its centre. The same sort of thought must have occurred to General William Tecumseh Sherman when he had led his troops into Augusta during the Civil War. Sherman was the arson-loving Yankee who reduced much of Atlanta to rubble prior to entering Augusta. As his men prepared their torches, Sherman is said to have raised an arm and said: “leave it alone. This place is too pretty to burn.”         

8. Standing awkwardly in front of Greg Norman after his collapse in the face of Nick Faldo’s relentless pursuit during the final day of the 1996 Masters. I had consoled this decent bloke who I’m proud to call a friend several times before after Major losses. Usually I had achieved this by making him laugh, but that evening I found I had nothing to say. So we just looked at each other. Eventually we embraced. “Shit happens, Billy,” said Greg. And we left it at that.

9. Taking an evening off from bar duty to go to see Mississippi Burning in an Augusta cinema. In front of me that night a young, black woman sobbed her way through the last 20 minutes. She wasn’t alone. The next day I asked the ever-dignified Arthur, head barman at the club at the time, what it had been like to be a black guy in Augusta back then. After collecting himself for a couple of minute, his eyes never leaving mine, Arthur eventually took my hand in his too say: “Mr Elliott, you don’t want to know sir.” No explanation could have been more vivid.

10. I turned 60 in 2005. I only mention this because my birthday is April 4 and so often falls when I am at the Masters. This one, however, was special. My day started when I played the Par-3 course as the guest of Sandy Lyle and ended with dinner in a downtown restaurant during which the house band played Happy Birthday. The band, it turned out, was made up of musicians who usually performed as James Brown’s backing group. This band played me the soul version of Happy Birthday and it ran on for 15 minutes, by which time the entire restaurant was jumping.

Where next?

- Augusta National hole-by-hole guide
- US Masters Action Replay: Greg Norman and Nick Faldo 1996