Monday, April 4, 2005 | 9:36 a.m.
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Read closely to learn the inside scoop on the seemingly fruitless endeavor of firing up Ryan Moore.
Don't ask about carding an eagle in Amen Corner on his 14th-ever tournament stroke at Augusta National, or about rewriting national records with his mythical Amateur Slam last summer. No, get away from his many highs and rare lows on the links. The self-made stoicism that fastens his game can't be punctured on the golf course or by talking about what happens there.
The dirty trick is bringing up his beloved Washington's loss to Louisville in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament, when Francisco Garcia's impromptu square dance with Nate Robinson somehow put the Huskies' star guard in first-half foul trouble that doomed his team.
"That had to be the worst call I've ever seen in my life," said Moore, a Seattle area native, skewering the officiating throughout the game while he was at it.
That's free advice to Phil Mickelson, Moore's first-round playing partner and the defending champion in this week's Masters. Hey, Lefty might need it against the 22-year-old UNLV senior who said last month he could win golf's holy grail right now, before ever earning a dollar on the PGA tour.
That is, if you are listening to Moore, who caught plenty of ears last month by marking himself as a contender.
"I haven't gotten too many who thought I was crazy," Moore said. "Amazingly enough, I get a lot of people who think I can (win.) I guess I can. I wasn't talking like a crazy person."
There is no precedent to support him; no amateur has ever finished higher than second at the Masters, even in olden days when amateurs were as good as pros. There is also no one sporting enough to openly doubt Moore, who would fuel on such a challenge in his second Masters appearance in three years.
"I just would never count him out, him being a such competitor," UNLV coach Dwaine Knight said. "He's got a lot on his shoulders, but I think he's enjoying it."What's not to enjoy? Moore is spending the house money earned in his U.S. Amateur and U.S. Amateur Public Links victories, floating through berths in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open with only however much pressure he chooses to accept.
That quantity, as usual, is none. He doesn't even see calling himself a Masters challenger as pressure because Moore boils golf down to individual shots, as the greats can.
"All of that stuff is kind of self-produced," Moore said. "It's all what you want it to be, all what you make it.
"A 7-iron is a 7-iron is a 7-iron, whether it's the 17th hole at Augusta or at my home course in Washington."
Not impossible
Easy as it seems to dismiss Moore's confidence as youthful or arrogant, it might be neither. A look at his first trip through Augusta National in 2003 suggests that Moore can at least be a factor in the tournament, especially when factoring in his enormous improvement in the past two years.
It took Moore just four holes to dent red numbers, going 2-under on Thursday with an eagle at the par-5, 510-yard 13th hole, the final of three in the famed Amen Corner. There were just seven eagles at the hole last year.
Moore tallied six birdies to go with the eagle in his first two rounds, handily making the cut at 3-over. Until his Sunday round ballooned after the turn from even-par to 7-over -- thanks in part to double bogeys at Nos. 13 and 18 -- Moore stood to finish in the top 30 and still placed 45th.
The most intriguing facet of that week is Moore's assessment of how he played.
"I was hitting the ball awful that entire week," Moore said. "Bunkers, trees, the worst part of the greens - I wasn't controlling my golf ball."Yet Moore still impressed. Despite battling against his game while taking on the world's best players, Moore improbably hung around for 63 holes. He refuses to devour himself even in bad times, and this was before Moore really began to become a Zen master handling pressure.
Don't get him wrong -- Moore feels the pressure. He just refuses to let it grasp onto him.
"Everyone feels pressure," Moore said. "It's a matter of how you deal with it. As long as I can keep it that way, that's when I'm happy.
"It's a game, it's a sport. I try to keep it that way. It's not a serious profession. I'm just a golfer."
He sees it like Andres Gonzales, his roommate and UNLV teammate, does.
Gonzales caddied for Moore at Augusta in 2003 and recalls the carefree approach they both took.
"We'd be walking up the fairway and just start laughing," Gonzales said. "Because we were at Augusta."
Knight sees that time and the fall season that followed it as the turning point for Moore in that respect of his game.
"He started figuring out that part of being a great player is having fun with the game," Knight said.
Course outline
Augusta, as it works out, is a course made for the intuitive approach of Moore. It is not just a long hitter's course, as some suggest, nor is it solely a putting contest. It is a course that rewards dreamers who can invent ways to make shots stick on greens that want to discard them, and then to invent putts on curvature that could be used in one of those car commercials designed to show off a vehicle's handling.
"There's a lot of imagination you have to have around those greens, in particular putting those greens," Knight said. "I think he'll enjoy that challenge. Augusta works out well for him."
He did not practice any specific shots or techniques for the course, even after seeing it in tournament conditions two years ago. He doesn't want a local caddie to suggest shots or read greens; he'll use his other roommate, Kirk Brown, instead.
Moore just wants to let the mind's eye that Knight considers the best he has seen at UNLV lead the way.
"I try to make the golf course fit my game rather than change my game to fit the course," Moore said.
Moore is not one to overdose on preparation, as he admits. He is, as Knight calls it, a "feel" player. The feel that he gained midway through his junior season is still nearly perfect, as Moore has won three of his six college starts this year and has not finished outside of the top six.
Confidence, which really began to come out in his words this summer, is in ample supply against the Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh-caliber of players he'll see here starting today.
"My game is there to compete with those guys now," Moore said.
Moore is smart enough to understand why his confidence is a head-turner for the uninitiated.
"I'm sure people are thinking, who is this kid?" Moore said. "I could think, 'Oh, what did I do?' But I really believe it."
And if his name is sandwiched among the greats on Sunday afternoon?
"I won't be as surprised as everyone would think I would be."
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