Jack Shows Gary He's No Master Past

At the Heritage, Player said he went through the whole tournament mainly trying to adjust to the six-hour time change. Still he played superbly. He shot rounds of 71-70-70-74, winding up tied for 13th. He then pronounced himself right on schedule for Augusta .

"I don't think about the Masters in the way some of the other fellows do," Player said. "All I'm concerned about is getting my swing in shape the way I want it. You can talk about all the Masters strategy you want to, the type of shots you need and so forth, but that isn't how you win the Masters. You win the Masters, or any of the other major championships, with nerves. You've got to have the nerves on the last six or seven holes on Sunday."

Fine, so how does one practice nerves?

"I know how to do that, too, but I don't think I want to reveal it," he said, retaining some of the mystery that accompanies many of his worldly triumphs. Still, there doesn't seem to be too much Gary could say that Jack Nicklaus doesn't already know.