Augusta Diary

If you're going to get a crack of a golf ball over the head, one of those golfers you don't want to have propel the missile is a certain gentleman by the name of John Patrick Daly.

Spectator uses his head to help Daly

But on the seventh hole of yesterday's first round, Mr Grip-It-'n'-Rip-It himself pushed his tee-shot towards the trees and was astounded to arrive up the fairway to find his ball just a couple of inches from the fairway rather than buried in deep trouble.

The reason for the ball's unorthodox arrival to a point close to the fairway was that it had ricocheted some 20 yards off the head of an unfortunate spectator, who had discovered one of the hazards of being behind the ropes when errant golf balls go flying.

From Kentucky - or, as he described it, "the barbecue capital of the world" - David Blincoe heard the roar of "fore" but still took the force of Daly's drive full on the head. The crack of the ball meeting his skull was akin to it hitting a tree, but Blincoe, remarkably, showed no ill effects from the meeting of skull and ball.

Albert Lee, the president of the GUI, who was nearby when the incident occurred, gave the poor spectator a lapel badge of the union for his troubles . . . and Daly offered a handshake and a "thank you" to Blincoe.

Charlie proves to be

no jinx on the bag

Jinx? What jinx? Padraig Harrington refused to believe there was any bad luck attached to winning the pre-tournament par-three competition on the eve of the US Masters. "I'm Irish, I've got all the luck that I need," quipped the Dubliner to an American who enquired if he was worried that winning the event - for a second straight year - would prove to be a hex. No winner of the short-course event has gone on to win the Masters.

Harrington finished on four-under for the nine-hole competition, the same mark as Tiger Woods (who holed out with his tee-shot to the ninth) and Eduardo Romero. Woods, though, had "a prior engagement" and couldn't make the play-off, which was won in birdie by Harrington at the third tie hole.

On the bag for Harrington was none other than Charlie Mulqueen, golf correspondent of the Irish Examiner, who did a fine job (even if he did forget to rake the bunker on the sixth). And, unlike other caddies for the day who went round with no more than three or four clubs, Charlie was required to carry the full set of clubs. Could it have been a set-up by Harrington's full-time caddie, Dave McNeilly?

Anyway, one trick that Harrington and McNeilly had planned for the poor scribe never materialised. "Padraig was going to mark his ball on a green, take an old ball from his pocket and throw it past Charlie into the lake . . . and see if Charlie would go into the water to retrieve it. But Padraig bottled it," quipped McNeilly.

Weir falls foul

of import ban

Mike Weir's special night did not quite go as he originally planned at Augusta. As the holder of the Masters title, Weir, the first Canadian to lift a major, played host to the Champions Dinner and chose the menu.

Caribou and elk was his choice and he had a hometown chef to prepare it, but US agriculture regulations meant the meat could not be brought into the country and American elk was served instead.

Watson's long-time

caddie dies

Bruce Edwards, who caddied for his friend and eight-time major winner Tom Watson for more than 30 years, died yesterday at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, aged 49.

Edwards was diagnosed with a degenerative wasting disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, in 2003, but continued to caddie for Watson until he could no longer cope with the job he first started in 1973.

Edwards's plight touched the hearts of the American public and the golfing fraternity and he had said he wanted to use his position to help others with the disease.

The news of his death was announced by his biographer, John Feinstein, who has spent the last year working on a book called Caddie For Life: The Bruce Edwards Story.

"He is not with us in body any more but he is with us in spirit," said an emotional Watson, who learned of Edwards's death as he arrived at Augusta.

"He could make you laugh at the worst times and he kicked me in the butt when I needed to be kicked in the butt. His spirit is wonderful. He did his job with aplomb and a respect for the game.

"When we left here last year, Bruce was crying in the parking lot because he thought that would be his last Masters . . . and it was.

"Like they said last night at the awards, he was the Arnold Palmer of caddies. He will be missed."