Without a mask, without a bright shirt, Austin dominates
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
MARANA, Ariz. -- Woody Austin made no secret of how much he liked match play when he made his Presidents Cup debut last fall.
He thrived in the format, too -- winning hearts as well as matches when he fell, face-first, into the water while trying to play a shot off the bank beside the 14th hole at Royal Montreal.
This week's World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship is being played in the Sonoran desert, so Austin won't need any goggles. He did pick up where he left off, though, beating Toru Taniguchi 6 and 5 in Wednesday's opener.
"Well, it was pretty much a dream match up for me as far as the way I played," Austin said. "I just got off to the best start I could possibly get off to, and ... I did what I was supposed to in match play, I never gave him a hole.
"The idea is to never give it to him and make him earn it, and I was playing so good that I think he tried a couple times to force some birdie putts, and fortunately he didn't make any."
Indeed. Austin birdied his first four holes on Wednesday and never looked back. After he shot 5-under 31 on the front, it was only a matter of when, not if, Austin would win the match.
Now he'll face Adam Scott, who beat Brendan Jones 2 and 1, in Thursday's second round.
"Like I said before, The Presidents Cup, I enjoy the idea of playing one on one," Austin said. "I enjoy the mano-a-mano aspect of it. Irregardless of how you play or irregardless of how you feel like you're playing, anyone can play good enough on any given day to win, and that's the neat thing about it.
"I proved that today. I mean, I haven't played well at all this year, and all of a sudden my game showed up today."
Austin is normally a slow starter, though. While he was beating Taniguchi, the temperature back home in Derby, Kan., was in the mid-20s. So it's not like he gets in a lot of practice there during the offseason.
Not to mention, the native Floridian isn't a big fan of the poa annua grass in California after growing up on Bermuda greens. "You add those two factors, I get off to a bad start every year," Austin said.
He's coming off a career season, though. Austin won the Stanford St. Jude Championship and had a pair of second-place finishes, including at the PGA. He was even inducted into the University of Miami Athletic Hall of Fame last week.
But Austin won't be wearing those colorful, scenic Tabasco shirts this year. The company that makes the popular hot sauce tired of the "media ripping my shirts," Austin said. "They said it was too much of a negative on their brand."
And Austin doesn't understand all the critiques from the fashion police, in the first place. He thinks the bright colors show his personality.
"How can I be so bad off?" Austin said. "I'm not the one showing up in lavender purple pants and I don't show up with giant white belts and burgundy colored shirts and Fedora hats. I don't show up with a tie. I don't understand how a fun, colorful shirt is so bad as opposed to all that."
Of course, judging from the continued reaction of the fans, Austin probably needs to get an endorsement from a company that makes scuba diving masks. He good-naturedly donned one when he came to the 14th hole at Royal Montreal during the Sunday Singles last fall.
"Everybody from every line everywhere around is stay away from the water, don't fall in the water, hi, aqua man, where are the goggles?" Austin said.
In fact, three of his four pro-am teams have shown up wearing matching skin diving masks this year. And the locker room crew at Torrey Pines got their digs in after he dropped off his shoes to be cleaned.
"I came back the next day, and my ticket that has your name, ... they didn't put my name in there, they put "Aqua Man" in there," Austin said, shaking his head.
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