Player Notes: ‘Whirlwind’ puts Hadwin in Augusta

Adam Hadwin might be struggling to grasp what’s happened to him over the past month, but it brought him to a good place this week.

The Canadian notched his first career victory at the Valspar Championship on March 12 in Palm Harbor, Fla., to earn his first Masters Tournament invite.

He followed that up with a sixth-place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, then got married and closed on a new house.

Instead of a honeymoon this week, Hadwin made the trip to Augusta National Golf Club. He played 18 holes Sunday and nine Monday.

“It’s been kind of a complete whirlwind,” Hadwin said. “I’m still trying to figure out where I am and what I’m doing, but it’s a pretty good place to be.”

Hadwin has fired impressively low rounds on the PGA Tour so far this year, including 59 in the third round of the CareerBuilder Challenge on Jan. 22. He shot three rounds in the 60s to win the Valspar event and is riding the momentum of another solid finish at Bay Hill.

MIZE ANNIVERSARY: Larry Mize is back for his 34th Masters appearance, but this one holds perhaps a little more special meaning.

This is the 30th anniversary of the Augusta native’s Masters victory in 1987. Mize hit one of the most memorable shots in Masters history that year by chipping in on the second playoff hole, No. 11, to beat Greg Norman.

“There’s been a little more attention on me than in previous years with it being the 30th anniversary, so it’s been fun,” Mize said. “To reminisce and relive the victory from 30 years ago, I’m enjoying it.”

The chip on No. 11 is the obvious story for Mize to tell when looking back at his only major championship win, but he also mentions how he grew up working at the tournament as a boy.

“I’ve been retelling that as a local boy who came here and worked and won the tournament,” he said. “I felt like it was something where I was able to share the victory with everybody in Augusta, the whole city.”

Mize, now 58, made the cut two of the past three years.

WALKER’S TIME? History suggests Jimmy Walker could have a good Masters Week.

Walker is the most recent major champion, winning the 2016 PGA at Baltusrol by one shot over Jason Day with rounds of 68-67 on a Sunday when he and nine other players were forced to play 36 holes because of weather delays.

Walker has made three cuts in three starts at Augusta, with a tie for eighth in 2014 as a Masters rookie. He said that despite a slow start this season, he’s convinced that a game good enough to win one major is good enough to win more.

Since a stretch from 1994 to 1996 in which the PGA champion came to Augusta National Golf Club the following spring and missed the cut, the winner of the season’s final major has made the Masters cut 17 of 19 times the following year.

History also is on Walker’s side to at least play the weekend at Augusta. Since the 1998 Masters, eight of the 10 players who made the PGA their first major title made the cut at Augusta the following spring.

“I think you’ve done it once, I think it’s easier to do something again,” Walker said of contending in a major. “Winning at Baltusrol was huge last year and I played really well. Just a great week.”