New master bided his time to become an overnight success

Philip Reid Masters review: Deliverance Day, when it comes, affects different people in different ways. On Sunday evening last, as Mike Weir stood on what is the practice putting green wearing a jacket that seemed slightly too large for his shoulders, it was hard to believe how calmly he behaved.

He'd just won the US Masters, yet here he was like a child in the school playground who had just beaten his friend in an arm-wrestling challenge. It didn't seem like any big deal.

Winning the Masters, though, is a big deal. And, for Weir in particular, the victory - the first by a Canadian golfer, the first by a left-hander - provided redemption for a career of battling against the odds and finally eliminated a heart-wrenching final round experience in a previous major from the memory banks. It was in the US PGA at Medinah in 1999 that Weir first burst onto the scene and was cast in the role of underdog when playing in the final pairing with Tiger Woods. Weir shot 80.

After that dramatic final day collapse, Weir got a 'phone call from his fellow-countryman, ice hockey star Wayne Gretzky who told him he would bounce back and that he'd learn from it. And those words of wisdom proved to be correct, but only because Weir had the ability to see the bigger picture.

"I've built up a lot of experience since then," said Weir. "I worked hard on my swing, made it more consistent, and got my game to tighten up. I worked hard on my putting, and that was the real difference this week. That was a very difficult day for me in Medinah but, at the same time, I did observe how Tiger managed the victory there, like the clutch putt he made on the 17th, and how he really stayed with his game. I took a lot in that day. It was a tough day for me, but I still took a lot of positives out of it."

Such an assessment gives an indication of the mental fortitude of Weir. Of course, he arrived in Augusta for his fourth Masters, with a previous best finish of tied-24th last year, as a proven winner. Among his five previous successes on the US Tour was the American Express Championship in 2000 and, until a slump last year, he had won on each of the three previous seasons on tour.

An interesting part of Weir's routine is the slow, deliberate backswing in the moments before he strikes the ball, a tip he got from Nick Price. Weir actually abandoned that routine for much of 2002 but returned to it this year, with dramatic results. His win at the Masters was his third victory of the season.

Calm and collected as he is, the route to becoming a major winner was not easy. Growing up, he wanted to be an ice hockey player - just like all the other kids in the area - but, in the summer, he would play golf, "as a kind of seasonal sport." But then his dad put up a net in the garage, and he'd find himself drawn to hit balls into it. In the winter, he found himself drawn to the nearby Lake Huron where he would stand on the shore and smash balls out into its frozen waters.

After taking up golf competitively while at university, Weir's initial foray into the professional game was not successful. It took him six attempts at qualifying school before he won his US Tour card and his early life on the circuit was spent playing in Asia, Australia and Canada. "It's an unbelievable progression," he admitted, "to think that I've finally gotten here. But, even back then, I believed I would get here somehow."

He always had self-belief. As a 13-year-old, just as the golf bug was biting, he wrote to Jack Nicklaus asking if he should continue to play golf left-handed, or should he switch to playing right-handed. "I'm mixed up," he explained. "I write with my right hand, play racket sports with my right hand, but I throw with my left." Nicklaus wrote back and told him to 'stick with your natural swing', and so he stayed playing as a left-hander.

His win here in Augusta meant he became the first left-handed player since Bob Charles in the 1963 British Open to claim a major title. "It's great. I am a left-handed golfer, but when I am out there, I don't think of myself like that. I'm a golfer."

That a so-called leftie should win was, perhaps, fitting in a tournament where the focus had been on Woods' attempt to become the first player to win three successive Masters titles - he finished tied-15th, giving him his seventh consecutive top-20 finish here - and on protests about the club's all-male membership policy. "It's been a little odd," conceded Weir, "what with the things going on outside the gates and with the weather . . . but I didn't pay much attention to it. I was here to play golf, and once I was inside the ropes I wanted to be very focused. I was able to do that."

The score of seven-under 281 posted by Weir and Mattiace was the highest 72-hole total since Nick Faldo's 283 in 1989 and the field posted a cumulative scoring average of 74.65 for the week, the highest since 1988 when the scoring average was 74.84.

Weir's winning putt, when it came, was a mere tap-in. Mattiace pulled his six-iron approach to the first play-off hole, the 10th. "I just didn't get enough fade off a hook lie," he insisted.

That was to prove crucial, as he was blocked out by a tree from going at the flag with his chip shot. He hit it too hard, and found the far side of the green which left him with a slick putt which he raced 10 feet by the hole. He missed that and Weir had the task of two-putting from six feet for a winning bogey.

While Weir adjusted to his new status as a major champion, the two Irishmen in the field headed off from Augusta on Sunday with vastly different plans.

Padraig Harrington - who missed the cut by a shot - remained on the practice ground for some work on Sunday morning before heading home to Dublin, and he won't resurface on the circuit again for another three weeks when he plays in the last-ever Benson and Hedges International at The Belfry.

Darren Clarke gets another taste of what life will be like on the US Tour. Clarke, who last week took up a special membership, and who intends to take up a full card next year, plays in the Heritage at Harbour Town. His tied-28th place finish in Augusta won him $43,500 in prizemoney and he also took home some Masters crystal (for having the low score in the first round, and for recording two eagles during the tournament).