Phil Mickelson scents the sweet smell of Masters success again
The American, chasing a fourth title at Augusta, looks in good shape after changing his routine in the tournament buildup
Manners matter around Augusta. The club’s official guide for spectators opens with a short note from Bobby Jones on the proper “Conduct, Customs and Etiquette”. In golf, Jones wrote, “etiquette and decorum are just as important as rules”. Which might be why there seem to be so many unmentionables, like exactly who is a member, and just how much they pay in dues. “It’s Augusta, you just don’t ask too many questions,” said Dustin Johnson this week. Which must be why no one ever seems to publicly discuss just how godawful the place smells on a rainy day.
It takes an awful lot of fertiliser to make this place look so pretty, and as soon as the ground gets wet the scent of all the fragrant azaleas, pine sap and cigar smoke gets overwhelmed by the stench of something a lot more funky and agricultural. So yes, the unfortunate truth is that when it’s raining Augusta National is redolent with the unmistakable smell of barnyard manure, cut with the sanitary tang of whatever chemicals are in the green kitty litter the groundskeepers throw down to soak up all the water. On Wednesday, when it was really heavy, the smell got so overpowering that there were stewards complaining it was giving them migraines.