Major roll makes Price a favorite

The Journal Sentinel staff

Augusta, Ga. Nick Price is ranked 97th on the PGA Tour money list this year, behind such turfgrass titans as Tommy Tolles, Brian Kamm and Brandel Chamblee.

In the three tour events he has entered, Price has broken 70 just twice and has no top-10 finishes.

He gouged out a pair of 75s in the final two rounds of The Players Championship two weeks ago, and the last time we saw him, he was unceremoniously dumping a couple of balls into the water at No. 17. (Note to Price: You're supposed to hit the island green, Nick, not swim to it).

On the surface, it would appear that Price is not exactly on a roll going into the 59th Masters, which gets under way Thursday at the Augusta National Golf Club.

In truth, he is on a roll. A major roll.

Price, 38, won the last two major championships of 1994, the British Open and PGA Championship. He comes to Augusta in grim pursuit of a third consecutive major, and to put that in historical perspective, nobody has won three straight majors since Ben Hogan did it in 1953.

"It is in the back of my mind," here Price admitted Tuesday. "But more important to me is to win this tournament and get a green jacket. I'm not playing to win three in a row; I'm playing to win the Masters."

As much as Price tried to downplay the significance of winning a triple crown of sorts and keep alive his chance to hit for the cycle his friends know better.

"I know he's thinking about it," Greg Norman said with a Shark-toothed grin. "We started talking about it last year. But if anybody can handle (the pressure), he can."

In order to win, however, Price will have to prove once and for all that he can putt Augusta's infamous, lightning-fast greens.

And he will have to beat an international field of 87 golfers, including, in no particular order: Peter Jacobsen, a two-time winner this year and the PGA Tour's leading money-winner with $709,851; two-time Masters champion Nick Faldo, who appears to be on top of his game again; and Davis Love III, coming off an emotional victory in the Freeport-McMoRan Classic.

There are plenty of other story lines this year from 19- year-old phenom Tiger Woods to 55-year-old Jack Nicklaus, coming off a victory in The Tradition but none more compelling than Price's quest for the green jacket.

"I'm going to be as patient as I can and play within my parameters," said Price, who won five times in '94, counting the majors, and led the tour money list with $1,499,927.

"There's always a tendency around here to try to hit it 10 yards further than you can. I'm going to try very hard to stay within myself and play my game of golf."

In almost every respect, Price's game is good enough. He is long off the tee, a must at Augusta because more than half the field can hit all four par-5s in two. He is a marvelous iron player, also important because precise shots into Augusta's exacting greens are mandatory. And he certainly has enough confidence, experience and nerve to win here, or anywhere.

If Price has a weakness, though, it is putting on fast greens. He has always had trouble at Augusta, which has perhaps the slickest, trickiest, most unforgiving set of putting surfaces in the world.

Price has dominated the game for three years, but his Masters record during that span has been mediocre, at best. He missed the cut in 1993 and finished at 10- over-par 298 last year. In fact, since 1988, Price has shot more rounds in the 80s (2) than in the 60s (1).

Although he fired a course-record 63 in 1986, he admittedly has struggled with his putter here.

"I remember I shot a 79 in the first round in 1986, and I hit 16 greens in regulation," he said. "I must have three-putted six times. I was very frustrated. That 63 in the third round probably was partially the result of my anger and frustration."

The good news for Price is that he has felt confident on the greens in his practice rounds this week.

"I don't know if you ever get to feel comfortable on these greens," he said. "But today, I was not frightened by them, and that's a good sign."

Price, who was born in Zimbabwe and lives in Orlando, also seems to be more relaxed here this year than he was in 1993 and `94, when he went into the tournament as the overwhelming favorite.

"I don't have anywhere near the pressure I had on me the last two years," he said. "The focus has shifted away from me, which is fine."

Much of the focus is on Woods, the Stanford University freshman who earned his Masters invitation by winning the U.S. Amateur last year as an 18- year-old. Woods' interview session Tuesday drew an overflow crowd of reporters, many of whom followed him out of the room as Price was being ushered in.

Jacobsen, who has rejuvenated his career at 41, is a legitimate threat to win this week, and not only because he is on a hot streak with his putter.

"He is playing exceptionally well," Price noted.

Love, who has won nine PGA Tour events but never a major, had to win last week to get a Masters invitation. He did, beating Mike Heinen in a sudden- death playoff.