Martin Kaymer of Germany plays a bunker shot on the 15th hole during the completion of the first round of the 2011 WGC- Cadillac Championship at the TPC Blue Monster at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa on March 11, 2011 in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)Scott Halleran/Getty Images
At this most American of events where the sacred and the profane are separated by a hedgerow, and the traditions, history and mystery are part of a single fabric, everything old is new again.
Or at least like the 1990s.
The Masters is always a step through time and place, where the crass, low-end commercial hustle on one side of Washington Road in Augusta, Ga., is forgotten across the street in the lush gentility of the golf club Bobby Jones opened in 1932.
Way back when - the 1990s, we mean - the golf world turned its eyes to Augusta National and asked for a translation, and not only to make sense of Welshman Ian Woosnam.
The top four golfers in the world as of March 15, 1992, were Europeans: Woosnam, Nick Faldo of England, and Jose Maria Olazabal and Seve Ballesteros of Spain.
Woosnam was the defending Masters champion, marking the fourth consecutive year a U.S. Ryder Cup opponent had made off with the green jacket. It was part of a 20-year stretch in which the Europeans arrived, remarked on the funny accents of their hosts and won the first major championship on the golf calendar 10 times.
And then?
Silence, at least as far as European golf's dominance was concerned. Tiger Woods had a lot to do with that. Since he won the 1997 Masters by a record 12 shots, only Olazabal in 1999 has cracked the code that keeps Augusta National's famously tricky greens on lockdown.
This could be the year that changes, or changes back. Certainly if you were to handicap the most likely scenario a week Sunday there would be a healthy European contingent in contention.
As was the case in 1992, the top four spots in the current world ranking belong to Europe's best, with 2010 PGA Championship winner Martin Kaymer leading the way.
The German is followed by England golfer Lee Westwood, who was clipped at the wire at Augusta a year ago, and then Luke Donald of England and Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell, who broke Europe's 40-year drought at the U.S. Open with his win at Pebble Beach last summer.
"I think it's a reflection of European golf at the moment. It's very strong," said Westwood, who succeeded Woods as world No. 1 last October before slipping a spot. "[We've]got established players playing well and young players coming through playing well, like Martin [Kaymer]and Rory [McIlroy, the 21-year-old Northern Ireland golfer and world No. 8] We have got some great players right now, and you know, not afraid to play well all over the world."
Woods, quite accidentally, has helped the cause, struggling and falling to No. 5, his lowest point since he won in 1997 and started a stretch of dominance when he out-majored all of Europe 14-3.
Just as a generation of European Tour players gained confidence from each other's successes, there is a momentum building among this latest generation of talent which is both wide and deep.
The putts really began falling in 2010 when an unprecedented year of European success culminated in Europe's mud-caked, champagne soaked victory at the Ryder Cup over a largely overmatched and outranked U.S. team at Celtic Manor in Wales.
"There was this sense of opportunity at the start of the year," Ian Poulter of England said late last season. "Everything that happened to Tiger gave the rankings a more open feel and made you believe there would be plenty of big trophies and ranking points to be won. … There wasn't just one of us, but a group. Why? Well, I've always believed in the chain effect. You see your mate winning and you're happy for him; but inside you're burning. You've seen him doing it, now you want to show you can as well. That's credit to the European Tour and to the camaraderie it fosters and to the friendship we all have. And, of course, to the Ryder Cup."
The first among equals is Kaymer, who has won seven times worldwide in the past two years, including the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. No one player has stepped into the considerable void left by Woods as convincingly as the 26-year-old, and his solid driving game and feathery putting would seem to serve him well at Augusta National.
The only problem is that this is golf and this is the Masters, where - as Westwood found out when his one-shot, third-round lead promised to make him the first Euro Masters winner in 12 years a year ago - things can seldom be predicted. Phil Mickelson famously ripped his approach off the pine straw and through the trees at the 13th hole to separate himself from Westwood and win his third Masters title.
And despite all his success elsewhere, Kaymer has missed the cut in all three visits to Augusta National - last year despite the careful tutelage of countryman Bernhard Langer, who won the Masters twice in that 20-year stretch when Europeans took Southern hospitality to its golf extreme.
There is the argument that too much can be made of the world ranking, which reflect a rolling two-year calculation of a player's accomplishments rather than who is playing well at a given moment.
And while the Europeans have earned their way to the top, there's no guarantee they'll stay there, or that they'll solve the 12-year continental divide at the Masters.
Las Vegas odds makers weigh the experience of U.S. Masters champions Woods and Mickelson heavier than the current form of Westwood or Kaymer. The two Americans have seven Masters wins between them, one reason why, despite being in top form they're going off at 6 to 1 and 8 to 1, respectively, while Westwood and Kaymer come in at 14 to 1 and 15 to 1.
Golf doesn't know a passport, but during Masters week, a new wave of European talent will be looking to punch their ticket into the sport's history.
The time, it would seem, has come.
"You know, if you keep getting close," Westwood said last week, "then, you know, the law of averages, sooner or later the door is going to open."