Freaks & Flukes: Golf vocabulary is changing

AUGUSTA — Welcome to the Freak and Fluke Masters.

Those words have actually been spoken here in the sanctity of Augusta National Golf Club this week as we prepare to kick off the 2008 Masters Golf Tournament.

Neither word is considered customary language in this grand old game that prides itself on gentlemanly behavior and decorum.

Indeed, they seem oddly out of place.

Like suddenly seeing a couple of dirt bikes flying down the hill on the 10th fairway.

Or somebody fishing in Rae's Creek from the Hogan Bridge at the par-3 12th.

Or a bathing beauty in a bikini sunning in the bunker next to the 18th green.

To hear these words uttered in the context of professional golf is akin to hearing a preacher cuss in church or a Mercedes rumble by without a muffler.

And yet, they are now part of the vernacular, the official record of the game's most prestigious and pious golf tournament where wordsmithing was once considered a gentleman's sport unto itself.

In a good way

The first was uttered by last year's champion, Zach Johnson, when trying to describe Tiger Woods, the most dominant player in the game.

When asked about the impact of Woods on the game today, the defending Masters champion said, "I think having the best athlete in the world and most recognizable athlete in the world, the most dominant athlete in the world playing our sport is by far and away the best thing that could happen to us.

"He's transcending golf. He's bringing it to another level.

"He is, from a fan base, from a tour base, he's making the PGA Tour a lot better than it was.

"And from another player's standpoint, from my standpoint, he makes me want to get better.

"He says he can get better, which is absolutely scary. It makes you want to work harder. He's a freak, in a good way."

Herbert and O.B.

The latter was issued by a reporter this week when asking Johnson if he was ever irked when people described his victory last year as an aberration.

"I'll be completely honest," Johnson said. "It seems like for every one article, for every one media blurb about it being a fluke and condition-based and how Tiger lost it, Zach didn't win it; for every one of those it seems like there have been 20 or 30 articles where Zach Johnson went out and won it.

"I don't get caught up in the negative stuff. I went out and won again (AT&T Classic), then I had a couple of other decent finishes, played pretty well in the Presidents Cup, and nearly won the Tour Championship.

"So, you know, it is what it is. I don't care. They can say what they want."

And they do.

Which means golf has finally, and sadly, caught up with other trash-talking sports.

Alas, the days when golf writers like Herbert Warren Wind of New Yorker magazine coined terms for places like Amen Corner and when O.B. Keeler of The Atlanta Journal waxed eloquently about the silky swing of Bobby Jones seem more and more distant with each passing year.

Reach Ken Burger at 937-5598 kburger@postandcourier.com.