AUGUSTA — The Georgia Bulldogs will be well represented at the 86th Masters, as usual. But they’ll be one short.
Harris English, who remains the top-ranked Dog in the world at No. 23, will not play this year. He had hip surgery in February and has been rehabilitating ever since. While he probably knew at the time of the procedure he’d miss the chance to play in his fourth Masters, English did not officially withdraw until last Friday.
“Regrettably, I’ve informed Augusta National that I will not be able to compete next week,” English posted on his Instagram page. “It’s very difficult to miss my favorite golf tournament, but I have to exercise an abundance of caution as I return to play.”
Dr. Marc Philippon of Vail, Colo., performed a labrum-repair procedure on English’s right hip on Feb. 14. It was projected then that English would be sidelined several months. English was ranked as high as No. 10 in the world last year. He finished in a tie for 21st in last year’s Masters, his best career finish.
English, 32, would have given the Bulldogs seven alums in the 2022 Masters field this year, which would have been a UGA record. It also matches UGA’s largest alumni representation of six in 2015. As it is, six is the most of any college program in this year’s field.
Georgia actually could count seven players, but the program doesn’t recognize Patrick Reed as a letterman. Reed played one season with the Bulldogs before transferring to Augusta State, which defeated UGA in the national championship final the next year.
Sepp Straka is the newest Bulldog to play his way into the Masters. The 28-year-old Valdosta native – by way of Austria – birdied three of his final five holes in the pouring rain to claim his first career victory at the Honda Classic on Feb. 27 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
“My dream is for them to be in a seven-way tie at the end. Once the playoff hits, I won't care who wins it."
Straka teed off on No. 1 at 1:20 p.m. Monday for a practice round with former Bulldog and Masters veteran Kevin Kisner. The 27th-ranked Kisner is playing in his seventh Masters. He’s missed the cut in the last two after recording a career-best T21 in 2019.
Kisner let Straka have honors on the first tee Monday, and the big, tall Austrian/Valdostan hit a towering drive over the hill and up the left side of the fairway. Kisner followed by hooking his tee shot badly to the left. He re-teed, then stroked his next drive right down the middle but well short of the long-hitting Straka.
Before walking down the fairway, Kisner turned around to bump knuckles with 4½-year-old Henry Kisner, he and wife Brittany’s son.
“It’s cool, man,” said Kisner, who played only nine holes Monday. “We obviously have 10 or 11 on Tour that are highly successful. You know, it’s close to home; we get to come here every year when we’re in Athens. Those guys are playing exceptional golf, and they continue to.”
Russell Henley and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson also played nine holes earlier in the day Monday. They were joined by Georgia Tech graduate Larry Mize and Wake Forest alum Webb Simpson.
Brian Harman, who comes in with a world ranking of 53, is coming off a 12th-place finish here last year. Harman opened with consecutive rounds of 69 to go into the third round one stroke behind leader Justin Rose. The Savannah native is playing in his fourth Masters.
Hudson Swafford rounds out the Georgia contingent. Swafford is playing in his third Masters after winning the American Express Championship in January in Palm Springs, Calif. He’s ranked No. 79 in the world.
Harman credits Kisner for getting the “Dawgs on Tour” movement moving.
“I think it’s got a lot to do with the competitiveness that all kind of started with ‘Kiz’ at Georgia,” said Harman, a 35-year-old Savannah native. “He was a senior when I was a freshman. When I was getting recruited, the negative recruiting against Georgia was that we couldn’t put guys on Tour. That was the pitch from the other schools, that you go to Georgia, there’s nobody on Tour now. It’s nice that we’ve sort of changed that narrative.”
While they are a tight-knit group, typically there are no Bulldog get-togethers during Masters week. Coach Chris Haack is with his current team at a tournament in Naples, Fla., through Tuesday. He plans to come to Augusta National on Wednesday, thanks to some practice-round tickets he received from a member.
But any interactions Haack has with his former charges are mostly casual.
“When these guys get to majors, everything gets a little bit more heightened,” Haack said. “They rent houses, most of them have family come in, and they kind of do their own thing and stay in their own routine. It’s one of the few weeks that they really don’t want any distractions whatsoever.”
Haack was talking about how much he’d like to get a picture with the Masters’ Dawg Pack this year, but it’s a complicated endeavor, what with varying tee times and family and corporate obligations. Somewhere there is a photo of the six Bulldogs who played in 2015. But there’s a good reason they were able to pull off that one.
“Billy Payne was the chairman (of Augusta National Golf Club), and he requested all six of them to meet him for a picture with the flag,” Haack said of the famous UGA alum and Georgia football letterman. “But he’s not chairman anymore.”
Haack is known as an exceptional recruiter and credited with matriculating a cavalcade of future PGA players through Georgia. But after a while, he said the phenomenon has kind of built on itself.
When Swafford won earlier this year, it put Haack’s Hounds over the $200 million mark for career earnings in professional golf. Eleven different Haack players have won on the PGA Tour.
That tends to get good players’ attention.
“I’m not sure how much these kids watch golf, but certainly the parents do,” Haack said. “And I think as much publicity as we seem to get about it on a week-to-week basis helps. It definitely helps from a recognition standpoint because I get a lot more requests from kids wanting me to recruit (them) these days.”
As usual, Haack wasn’t willing to pick a “Bulldog Most Likely to win.”
“My dream is for them to be in a six-way tie at the end,” Haack joked. “Once the playoff hits, I won’t care who wins it.”
It has been a while now. Watson’s last win here came in 2014, and this year marks the 10th anniversary of his incredible hook shot out of the woods on No. 10 to win in a playoff in 2012.
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