By Travis Puterbaugh, World Golf Hall of Fame Curator
“Be patient today. Remember, you are the best player. Wait for the others to make their mistakes and you will win.”
On the morning of April 10, 1994, two-time Masters champion Seve Ballesteros wrote these words of wisdom on a note for fellow-Spaniard José María Olazábal and placed it in his locker at Augusta National. Ballesteros had already been where Olazábal wanted to get, having won the Green Jacket in 1980 and 1983. He remembered receiving a note from Gary Player prior to his final round in 1980 which shared similar sentiments. A mentor to Olazábal, Ballesteros paid forward a gesture to his young protégé which he hoped would inspire him to win his first Major Championship. Olazábal carried these words with him onto the golf course, literally, as he placed the note in his pocket.
“It was very nice,” Olazábal later said of the note. “Seve has had a great influence on me. He’s given me courage and confidence to keep on playing.”
While many Majors and great things were expected in the career of Olazábal, in April 1994 he had yet to maximize his potential. Though he had long made a name for himself on the European Tour, racking up 14 wins since his professional debut in 1986, as well as in Ryder Cups pairing with Ballesteros to form the much-feared “Spanish Armada” pairing, he had yet to break through to the elite status one achieves by winning a Major Championship. His 12-stroke win at the NEC World Series of Golf in 1990 announced his presence as an up-and-comer, but in 1991, Olazábal let his chance to win a Green Jacket slip away on the 18th hole with a bogey, allowing Ian Woosnam to beat him by just one stroke.
Following that disappointment, Olazábal would only win five tournaments in the ensuing three years, and just once on the PGA TOUR. He came close to winning The Open Championship in 1992, finishing two stokes back of winner Nick Faldo, and had achieved ranking of No. 2 in the world. His resume wasn’t bad, but for a player dubbed the “next Seve,” it was incomplete. Ballesteros had predicted in 1990 that Olazábal winning a Major Championship would happen soon “or something’s wrong.” Staring at a mere one-stroke deficit in the final round of the 1994 Masters to leader Tom Lehman, Olazábal knew it was his time to seize the moment.
Jostling for position all afternoon with Lehman and Larry Mize, the tournament finally swung on the 15th hole. Leading the tournament by a single stroke, Olazábal found himself 208 yards from the green after his tee shot on the 500-yard par-5 hole. His next shot in – a five iron – cleared the pond guarding the green but the ball bounced back and stopped at the top of a bank, barely one foot from rolling to a disastrous, watery grave. Fate intervened on his behalf, and Olazábal rewarded the favor by sinking an improbable 30-footer to make eagle and take a two-stroke lead.
“When you see things like that happen,” he said, “you think maybe it is your time to win.”
Lehman didn’t go away, however, and on the 17th had a chance to tie Olazábal with a 15-foot birdie putt that just missed. Olazábal then gave a stroke back with an ill-timed bogey, just his second of the weekend, to take a one-stroke lead into the final hole. Lehman, teeing off first, launched his one iron 265 yards into the lower fairway bunker. With a difficult lie, his next shot landed 30 yards shy of the green. Olazábal sent his second shot over the green and needed only to avoid three-putting in order to close out Lehman who ended up bogeying the hole. Cool as ice, Olazábal chipped to within five feet of the hole. He sank his putt to make par and capture the Masters by two strokes.
Olazábal celebrated his first Major Championship with an understated, low-key celebration. The man who once danced on the green after Europe won the 1987 Ryder Cup gave a confident fist-pump, but nothing more, before shaking hands with Lehman.
“This is Augusta,” he said afterwards. “You have to behave properly.”
It was a fitting end to a tournament that saw Olazábal play nine under par, overcoming a 74 in the first round, and following that up with three sub-70 rounds (67, 69, 69). His win also extended a streak of European dominance in the Masters, with a European winning the Green Jacket in six of seven years, and eight out of 12 years overall extending back to Ballesteros in 1983. Appropriately, the Masters turned out just as the sage Seve said it would: Olazábal stayed patient while others made their mistakes, and the best player ultimately won.
