Pieters taking different path to Green Jacket

Bob Weeks

TSN Senior Reporter

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As history can attest, first-timers don’t have a very good record at the Masters. Outside of the inaugural run of the tournament started by Bobby Jones back in 1934, only Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 has managed to slip on the Green Jacket in his maiden run. 

But Thomas Pieters doesn’t seem to be paying attention to what’s happened in the past. Nope, he has no interest in any records.  

“I don’t care about that stat,” he stated, when informed of the rookie mark.

After battling strong gusts and a treacherous Augusta National course, the long hitter from Belgium sits tied for the lead at four-under and is half-way home to ending Zoeller’s reign as the answer to a game of Masters Trivial Pursuit. 

Now for those who haven’t read the Big Book of Belgian Golfers, Pieters is a talented player from Antwerp who had his coming out party at last year’s Ryder Cup where he was a bright light for an otherwise dim Euro team, earning four points in five matches. He’s currently 35th in the Official World Golf Rankings and a three-time winner on the European Tour. 

Thomas Bjorn, who will captain the next European team at the 2018 Ryder Cup, believes Pieters has the ability to be more than just a good golfer. He thinks he can be the best in the world. It’s just about how badly he wants it and whether he has the desire to work for it. 

The Masters, then, would seem to be a good place to start the climb to the top of the Official World Golf Rankings. But if you ask him about being a co-leader at the year’s first major, you’d think maybe he was leading his local club championship. 

“People talk about Augusta [National] so much and it’s a lovely course and it’s very special but it’s just another golf course,” Pieters said. 

Now perhaps this is jut his way of trying to ease the pressure, of keeping things in perspective as best as he can. But it’s also a bit of who he is. 

Pieters is a laid-back, pragmatic person who rarely seems to buy in to any form of hype. He is a bit of an outlier when it comes to professional golf in many ways, and his approach to the Masters is just one. 

He also comes from a country where golf is way down the list of popular sports, well back of soccer and cycling. Last year, while I was on a trip to Belgium, I met a man named Tom Pieters. He was our tour guide in the town of Brugge. As we toured the famous town, I jokingly asked the astute, 30ish fellow if he got mistaken for the famous golfer. He didn’t know whom Pieters, the golfer, was and looked at me as if I was making a joke. Belgium and golf go together like pimento and peanut butter. 

Maybe that’s why Pieters approaches things a bit differently. Take his preparation for this week. While most Masters rookies arrange plenty of practice rounds ahead of the tournament, Pieters first set foot on the course on Monday morning. He played nine holes that day, 18 the next day and another nine on Wednesday. It’s a bit of a cram session, but it’s his style and so far, one that seems to have worked. 

Pieters got it to five-under through the first 10 holes of his opening round before stumbling in with two double bogeys to post a score of even par. 

On Friday, he bogeyed the first and then followed with a clean sheet for the next 17, putting up three birdies and an eagle. It’s been a lot of hard work for the first two days and Pieters is happy the forecast is for calmer conditions on the weekend.

“Hopefully it won't blow as much tomorrow, and you can hit some straightforward golf shots,” he said. “Although I like playing in this kind of wind. It's just really tiring at night. You just kind of pass out when you get home.”

Now all this talk of the Masters being as plain as white bread doesn’t mean Pieters isn’t thrilled to be here or feeling the grandeur of the tournament. It’s something he’s thought of since he first started playing golf and watching the tournament back home in Antwerp. He’d love to slip on the Green Jacket. 

“I've holed the winning putt about a million times,” he said. “I've watched it my whole life, as do all those guys. We've all had that in practice, that winning putt. Hopefully one day.”

If he keeps playing the way he has so far, one day might be Sunday.