AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Masters still rocks, dude.
The old fuddy-duddies who run the joint wax poetic about the sweet scent of Magnolia Lane and a timeless tradition, but what makes this the best golf tournament on Earth is a beautiful noise you can feel inside your rattling bones.
Golfers played guitar heroes on Sunday.
Angel Cabrera won the championship in a playoff against Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell, but not before Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods nearly brought down the house with rallies that fell tantalizingly short.
“My ears will be ringing in the morning. There was so much sound out there . . . like a rock concert,” said Jim “Bones” MacKay, the caddie on Mickelson’s bag.
Have the cheers at Augusta National ever echoed louder or longer?
The volume got cranked to 11 by Mickelson with six birdies on the front nine, the excitement grew deafening when Woods roared into contention late in the afternoon, and by the time Cabrera had eliminated first Campbell and then Perry in two playoff holes, the sun was so worn out it had to set, but the crazies in the gallery got up to shout one more time.
This tournament began with fears the Masters had tried too hard and too long to become as buttoned- down and boring as the U.S. Open, threatening to make the thrills be gone forever.
Well, forget that. It’s time to again start handing out green jackets with earplugs in the vest pocket.
“A lot of magical things happen here,” Cabrera said. “It’s simply the Masters.”
Amid the crazy din, maybe the most delicious moment of nervous silence.
This is a course known for its landmarks, from the Hogan Bridge to the Crow’s Nest. But there is a stand of tall pines near the eighth green that could be dubbed the Worrying Trees, because this is where family members and friends of golfers often gather to catch a peek of a round of a loved one.
Beneath one of those pines is where Amy Mickelson walked up and planted herself next to me early on this unforgettable afternoon. Her husband was playing the final par 5 on the front nine with five birdies in his pocket and an army of brightly dressed fans rolling like Easter eggs in the wake of a marquee twosome that included Woods.
The fierce rivals had started the day at 4-under-par, seven daunting shots out of the lead but determined to cause a stir. They did.
As Mrs. Mickelson covered her mouth, she whispered “Go in, ball” as Phil struck a putt that could improbably pull him to a single shot from the top of the leaderboard before his workday was 2 1/2 hours old.
The ball rattled in the bottom of the cup at No. 8, sending Mickelson to a heady 10-under. With an eagle on the same hole that pushed him to 7-under, Tiger walked with that swagger every golfer fears.
And the gallery screamed like Springsteen was about to take the stage.
“Here we go!” declared Amy Mickelson.
Every time a reversal of fortune was posted on the scoreboard that towers over the 18th green, the reaction sounded like Times Square at 10 seconds before midnight on New Year’s Eve.
The crazy-good comeback story of Mickelson unraveled in Rae’s Creek, when he tried to spin a 9-iron shot into the famous par 3 at No. 12. Trouble was, he lost his nerve in midstroke and got punished with a wet ball and dreams sunk by a double bogey.
“That was really a terrible swing,” Mickelson said.
Woods gave a nation of TV viewers a better excuse than a coast-to-coast thunderstorm to shut down the lawnmower and gather round the tube to catch a charging Tiger.
Golf’s rock-star celebrity shot a gutsy 68, but the same balky swing that had Woods kicking his golf bag in frustration on the practice tee early in the tournament knocked him out of contention with back-to-back bogeys to end the round.
“Almost won the tournament with a Band-Aid swing,” Woods said.
Then, after hours of being ignored, 48-year-old Kenny Perry, Texan Chad Campbell and 2007 U.S. Open champ Cabrera were forced on center stage.
It wasn’t always pretty. But Cabrera somehow survived, despite chunking a shot from the fairway on No. 17 and chopping his way out of deep-woods trouble during the playoff.
“When they put on the green jacket, I had goose bumps,” Cabrera said. “I was shaking.”
And the whole golf world felt the tingle.
This was the staid, old Masters getting its ya-yas out, determined to again have a howling dog of a good time.
“And you’ve got to let it eat,” MacKay said.
MacKay has won at the fabled tourney as Mickelson’s caddie, but he wants you to know something about this particular Sunday: “It was the most fun I’ve ever had on a golf course.”
Nobody disagreed. Maybe we were all too hoarse to argue.
This Masters proved it:
Golf is best played loud.
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
