Augusta doctor a Masters tradition

A UGUSTA, Ga. | The good doctor does not understand why it’s a big deal. Television cameras? Newspaper reporters? He’s just lived a long time. He comes from good stock. His father lived to 96. The good doctor will be 93 in October. You know what they say in the movies. You just can’t keep those Baileys down.

Sure, Dr. Ed Bailey has done plenty in his life. He was a pediatrician here in Augusta, you know. Coaxed a lot of kids through sniffles and earaches, helped them cough up the various choking hazards that children always seem to find delicious. Through his years as a doctor in his hometown, Dr. Bailey took care of children, then he took care of their children, and then took care of their children. He helped raise his own kids, he played some golf, he even found time now and again, to drain a pint with friends and break out a stirring version of “Danny Boy.” It really has been a wonderful life.

So, he wonders, what’s the big deal?

True, Dr. Ed Bailey has been to every single Masters tournament.

“Which one is this for me?” he asks. When told it is his 72nd, he nods, and says that, in some ways, he’s really seen 73. They had a little tournament here with some of Bobby Jones’ friends and fellow golfers before the tournament began in 1934. Dr. Bailey says he was there for that one too. Well, he’s always liked watching people swing golf clubs.

“You know who has got a great swing?” he asks. “That Annika Sorenstam. She has just a beautiful swing. I watch her on TV, you know she’s been hurt, but she’s back now. I just like to watch her every move. She has one of the top four or five swings I’ve seen.”

He sits now on the practice range, in the front row, his favorite place, a place where he can watch the golfers’ swings. He’s watching Scott Verplank’s swing right now in the same place where he watched Sam Snead and Byron Nelson and his hero Ben Hogan. He likes that Phil Mickelson’s swing a lot. And Fred Couples. That Couples has a smooth swing. Tiger Woods? Good swing. But not smooth, like that Fred Couples.

Yes, he’s always liked watching swings. There’s a photograph of Dr. Bailey in the very first Sports Illustrated. That was 1954. In the photograph, you see a large gallery of people watching a shot at the 11th hole. The cutline reads: “The gallery almost visibly holds its breath in a tense moment.” Nobody really seems to be holding breath.

Still, there are hundreds of people in the photograph, maybe thousands of people, and some look a little tense. There’s a man wearing a bowtie, a woman with sunglasses stares right into the camera. There’s no missing the good doctor, though. He is stretched way over the ropes — so far over, it looks as if he might fall — just to get a better look.

“Well, there have always been a lot of tall people at the Masters,” he says.

He smiles. Another reporter comes over. Dr. Bailey still does not see the big deal. In those old days, they would beg people to come to the Masters, he says. People from the Augusta National would walk along Broad Street downtown and hand out tickets. Come to the golf tournament! See golf! A different world.

“Of course, it wasn’t called the Masters then,” he says. “It was called the Augusta Invitational or something like that. The Masters came later.”

Right. The Masters name began in 1939 — five years after the first tournament. But the Masters spirit and tradition emerged in 1935, the second year, when Gene Sarazen made his famous double eagle at the 15th hole. It would become known as the “shot heard around the world.” Sure, Dr. Bailey was there. He was standing by the 17th hole when he heard a few whoops and hollers. He did not see the shot. But he looked back and saw Sarazen pull the ball out of the hole. Later, he would share a pimento sandwich or two with ol’ Sarazen on the lawn by the clubhouse.

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To reach Joe Posnanski, call 816-234-4361 or send e-mail to jposnanski@kcstar.com.