91Èȱ¬

The 79-year-old Palmer, with that famous snatched follow-through, hit a fine shot and Nicklaus was up next.

"Oh dear," he said, peering down the fairway.

But he got a good one away, too. Player, who will tell you that he does more press-ups a day than you and I have done in a lifetime, is the fittest 73-year-old ever and also finds the green.

On the putting surface, playing to the crowds like a high-pitched Bob Hope, Nicklaus keeps up a running commentary. "I'm going to leave this one a bit out there, and bend it back in," he says and duly holes from 12 feet.

Player and Palmer stare at each other and shake their heads slowly.

The crowd are lapping it up and laugh at anything and everything.

But the initial bounce dies down after a few holes as Palmer's game struggles and Nicklaus, who doesn't know when to give up, edges into contention.

He reaches three under through six and is within reach of becoming the oldest ever winner of the par three at 69. Sam Snead won in 1974 at the age of 61.

Player is not letting his younger rival have it all his own way, though, and follows a tee shot into the water on the 9th with a second try off the tee that goes into the hole for
a par.

The Black Knight strikes a muscleman pose and touches fists with his partners, trying to emulate how the youngsters do it.

Nicklaus squanders a couple of birdie chances on the final two holes and ends three behind eventual winner Tim Clark of South Africa, who also made an ace.

But the Three Musketeers act is the one that will live longest with the patrons.

SEVE CALLING

Seve Ballesteros has always had a magnetic personality and he made his mark at the Champions Dinner despite being back home in Spain.

The 52-year-old Spanish great, Masters champion in 1980 and 1983, is undergoing his fourth series of chemotherapy after a cancerous brain tumour was discovered in October.

But he wrote a letter to the golfing Gods at Augusta, which countryman Jose Maria Olazabal read out during Tuesday night's bash.

Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said: "The letter was to his fellow champions. It was very emotional, very loving and as it was read you could feel in the air the reciprocation from his friends and former champions going all the way to Spain.

"It was an amazing, amazing moment."

At an eve-of-tournament press conference Payne paused to express "our heartfelt affections and prayers for the complete recovery" of Ballesteros.

"A true champion and fierce competitor, Seve continues to inspire us all with his passion and determination. We look forward to his return."

TAKING THE MICK

If Padraig Harrington is one of the more quirky interviewees, Phil Mickelson must rate as one of the more fun. Lefty is engaging and has a teasing sense of humour which always emerges at some point,

Take this:

Q. Was it a good practice round?

A. It wasn't bad. I broke 100.

Another reporter tried to stir up a bit of Woods rivalry, but Mickelson was ready for him with some well-judged diplomacy.

Q. Was it more enjoyable when Mike Weir put the Green Jacket on you, or when Tiger did?

A. Always the wise guy. To get that jacket from Mike and keep it among left-handers was cool.

And his keen mind pulled up another questioner on a point of semantics.

Q. Is there something about this course that suits your eye? And as an addendum to that, when you are working with Butch and Dave Pelz, do they mesh in terms of the information you receive?

A. I don't see how that's an addendum to your first question.

Q. I wanted to be a lawyer.

NOT SO SWEET 16

A final romp (fast walking, not running which is bad form) around the course before the serious business begins yielded some more eye-brow raisers for me.

On the telly, the 16th green looks like it's as steep and turny as a flight of spiral stairs, especially when you see players putting at 90 degrees to the pin or putting off the green.

Well, in the flesh it just doesn't look that slopey. It's probably the one thing here that has genuinely surprised me. Keep an eye out this week and you're guaranteed to see some horror stories here. It just looks so innocuous to the naked eye, but historically it ranks as the ninth hardest hole on the course averageing 3.17 shots.

Another thing which doesn't come across on TV but which everyone mentions when asked for their first impressions is how hilly the course is. To illustrate this I went down to the 12th tee, the lowest part of the property.

My watch has got an altimeter on it so I checked the height there and back on the plateau outside the clubhouse. For the record, the difference is about 46m, which is roughly 150 feet, almost the height of in London.

Oh, and by the way, my initial reservations about the club being smack bang in the middle of town - I've decided it's totally irrelevant. The Augusta National could be in the Bronx or , it really doesn't matter. It's all about the course, not what's outside the gate.

DINERS' CLUB

The Champions Dinner has always fascinated me. Who gets on with whom? Are there cliques within the clique - you know, multiple winners v first timers, are there some that just don't fit in? Who's the biggest wag?

I'm never likely to find out the answers to any of these but I did the next best thing and joined the 91Èȱ¬ TV crew on a stakeout of the front door of the Augusta clubhouse to film the champions arriving.

We got there about 1820 for a 1900 kick-off and first to arrive was , driving himself. The 1984 and 1995 champion, dressed in a navy jacket, was just ahead of the leather-jacketed (1982), aka 'The Walrus'.

Shortly after, (1998) piled out of a full car clutching a host of replica pin flags. (1958, 1960, 1962, 1964) was next, chauffeured to the door in a golf cart, virtually the only one to be already sporting his Green Jacket.

(1994, 1999) already seemed to be in and was stalking around the upstairs balcony.

Then (1989, 1990, 1996) drove himself up in a black car, before we had a flurry of champions with Fred Couples (1992) closely followed by the black-clad (1961, 1974, 1978), who inexplicably walked to the door arm-in-arm with former tennis star and James Bond actor .

"You've played in this 52 times, I can't believe it," said an excitable Vijay. "I know, I'm lucky to be alive," the jocular Player cracked back.

The looked slightly less assured than Player and hovered at the door for a while to check a valet would actually take his car. He did have the sharpest trouser creases and shiniest shoes, though.

Crenshaw by now had donned his Green Jacket and popped onto the balcony, while Vijay Singh (2000) skulked in under the radar from a different car park.

(2004, 2006) looked quite cool as he cruised up in a white shirt and red tie, though his dark aviator shades and slicked back hair made him look unnervingly like bad-guy caddie D'Annunzio in Caddyshack.

With seven minutes to chow time, Raymond Floyd (1976) swung in, and, old stager that he is, offered a big, confident wave to no-one in particular as he got out of the car.

Then (1979) emerged onto the balcony, drink in hand, with a swagger reminiscent of . "Y'all look like a bunch of lost puppies down there, you know that," he fired at the camera crew. "It's not cold is it?"

Er, no Fuzz, though I could barely read my notes back my hands were shaking so much at the time of writing.

Last, and very far from least, Tiger Woods hared up in the passenger seat of a golf cart seven minutes late. The four-time winner jumped off almost before it stopped and marched straight in.

And that was that. No Woosie, Sandy, Jack, Bernhard...though we were informed that they may have stayed in the clubhouse from earlier. We were expecting some more schmoozing on the balcony, a few laughs, maybe a line or two - in past years there's been a bar set up in the corner - but it was just too darn cold.

Of course, they may have all been lording it up on the balcony facing the course, but we could only be in one place at once. If I come back next year, maybe I'll rethink my strategy. Some sort of elaborate mirror system to monitor both sides of the building perhaps....

THREE, THE MAGIC NUMBER

Wednesday means it's the famous par-three contest at Augusta. Played on the separate 1,060-yard par-27 course around Ike's Pond and DeSoto Springs Pond, it's a fun gig for the players and a good way to ease into tournament mode as the crowds, the hype and the competitiveness are cranked up.

The only caveat, of course, is that no par-three winner has ever gone on to win the Masters in the same year.

Most are quite happy to take their chances, and when pushed will talk of how they might be the first to break the mould. "I'll take any trophy I can get from Augusta," said Oliver Wilson, who is making his debut this week.

, is a two-time winner of the par-three but, perhaps with one eye on the legend, isn't taking it entirely seriously.

"The only preparation I've done is to order a little golf bag for my son to carry around," he said. He also let us into a trade secret as to what might be in his bag. "In the past I've gone seven iron up but I might go eight up this time."

Tiger Woods, however, was asked if he will be playing and if his daughter will be caddying. (She's not yet two, so obviously not). "No and no," he batted straight back.

Other famous caddies, though, are thought to include for Ian Woosnam, Lee Dixon or Vernon Kaye for Ian Poulter and Matt Dawson for .

Over the past 10 years, the par-three winner has missed cut in the ensuing Masters five times. One winner was an honorary invitee and didn't play the main event, while David Toms, who tied eighth in 2003, is the best of the five players to have made the weekend (Harrington and Toms shared the win in 2003, hence there actually being 11 winners over last 10 years).

You have to go back to 1993 for the closest a par-three winner has come to clinching a Green Jacket when Chip Beck came second, four shots behind Bernhard Langer. Ray Floyd also came second in 1990 when he lost a play-off to Nick Faldo.

The closest between par-three wins and Masters victories was , who won his second Green Jacket in 1981 and clinched the par three the following year.

PADRAIG'S POSERS

Padraig Harrington is a fairly complicated chap, in a good way of course. The Irishman is a deep thinker and an inveterate tinker and can never be accused of a dull press conference.

"I've been adding loft to my driver the last couple of weeks due to some work I did on my swing over the winter," he said.

"I put one driver - 10 degrees - in the bag last week that went well at times, but it looks like it's got the sack now.

"At the moment the driver I used here two years ago is going in the bag. It's nine-and-a-half degrees but with a slightly longer shaft, so it comes out higher.

"But I won three majors with an eight-degree driver."

Do you have a mantra for this week?

"I will have plenty of mental thoughts, and part of these couple of days is establishing which ones I will use from the many I have built up over the years," he said.

"They are not set in stone at this moment but come Thursday morning I'd better have an idea of what I'm trying to do."

You wonder how he gets dressed in the morning.

PS I never thought I would come to the Masters and have to scrape ice off my car windscreen in the morning. I did today though!