“There is no doubt, no doubt that what the country needs most is a Summer Olympic Games,” COC chief Marcel Aubut told Reuters ahead of the organisation’s Sochi media summit this weekend.

“Toronto is going to deliver a great 2015 Pan Am Games and it should be the first step in going higher for the Olympics like Brazil did.

“If not we are going to look again at the Winter Games and Quebec is a very good possibility but the first goal is to convince people to go with Toronto in the Summer.”

Until securing the 2015 Pan Am Games, Toronto had never hosted a major multi-sport event and Aubut feels establishing a sporting infrastructure in Canada’s most populous city is key to improving the country’s future performance in Summer Olympics.

Canada has previously hosted the Winter Games in 1988 (Calgary) and 2010 (Vancouver) and staged the Summer Games in 1976 (Montreal).

If Toronto does bid for the 2024 Games it will likely face a strong challenge from the United States, which has not hosted a Summer Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta.

Having mended fences with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following a bitter revenue-sharing dispute the U.S. appears ready to make another run at hosting an Olympics after stunning rejections for the 2012 and 2016 Games.

Los Angeles, which has twice hosted the Games, has expressed interest in hosting the 2024 Olympics while Philadelphia and Tulsa are believed to be among several other cities exploring the possibility of throwing their hats into the ring.

With Summer Games having been held in Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012), headed to Rio de Janerio for 2016 and with Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul finalists for 2020, there is strong sentiment that the Summer Olympics will return to North America in 2024.

Rome, Paris, Doha, Dubai and Durban, South Africa, are also believed to be ready to test the Olympic waters but Aubut maintains that IOC would welcome a Toronto bid.

“There won’t be any political problems, there won’t be a problem with terrorism. They love Canada. It’s close to America. They love our country,” said Aubut, a lawyer and former president of the National Hockey League’s Quebec Nordiques.

“I can tell you what people think of our country and it is all positive, that is why I believe the IOC in Lausanne they dream to have a country like Canada hosting the Games.

“But we have to make sure the interest is there, the government support is there.”

While a bid committee has not yet been formed, Toronto has called for study to examine the possibilities of hosting the 2024 Games.

Toronto, ranked North America’s fourth largest city behind Mexico City, New York and Los Angeles, will host the 2015 Pan American Games in what many view as a dress rehearsal for an Olympic bid.

Rio used the game plan to great success hosting the 2007 Pan Am Games before landing the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“Each time we have done that, in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver we delivered the goods and more,” said Aubut, recently re-elected to a second four-year term as COC president.

“The Pan Ams will also deliver the goods and then they will see the place is safe and that sport is a passion for Canadians and also they will see the country can deliver.

“It is the perfect plan.

“A Pan Am Games close to the Olympic level then you have chance to FIFA, the Olympics, you have a chance to get everything you want after that.”

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

“There is no doubt, no doubt that what the country needs most is a Summer Olympic Games,” COC chief Marcel Aubut told Reuters ahead of the organisation’s Sochi media summit this weekend.

“Toronto is going to deliver a great 2015 Pan Am Games and it should be the first step in going higher for the Olympics like Brazil did.

“If not we are going to look again at the Winter Games and Quebec is a very good possibility but the first goal is to convince people to go with Toronto in the Summer.”

Until securing the 2015 Pan Am Games, Toronto had never hosted a major multi-sport event and Aubut feels establishing a sporting infrastructure in Canada’s most populous city is key to improving the country’s future performance in Summer Olympics.

Canada has previously hosted the Winter Games in 1988 (Calgary) and 2010 (Vancouver) and staged the Summer Games in 1976 (Montreal).

If Toronto does bid for the 2024 Games it will likely face a strong challenge from the United States, which has not hosted a Summer Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta.

Having mended fences with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following a bitter revenue-sharing dispute the U.S. appears ready to make another run at hosting an Olympics after stunning rejections for the 2012 and 2016 Games.

Los Angeles, which has twice hosted the Games, has expressed interest in hosting the 2024 Olympics while Philadelphia and Tulsa are believed to be among several other cities exploring the possibility of throwing their hats into the ring.

With Summer Games having been held in Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012), headed to Rio de Janerio for 2016 and with Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul finalists for 2020, there is strong sentiment that the Summer Olympics will return to North America in 2024.

Rome, Paris, Doha, Dubai and Durban, South Africa, are also believed to be ready to test the Olympic waters but Aubut maintains that IOC would welcome a Toronto bid.

“There won’t be any political problems, there won’t be a problem with terrorism. They love Canada. It’s close to America. They love our country,” said Aubut, a lawyer and former president of the National Hockey League’s Quebec Nordiques.

“I can tell you what people think of our country and it is all positive, that is why I believe the IOC in Lausanne they dream to have a country like Canada hosting the Games.

“But we have to make sure the interest is there, the government support is there.”

While a bid committee has not yet been formed, Toronto has called for study to examine the possibilities of hosting the 2024 Games.

Toronto, ranked North America’s fourth largest city behind Mexico City, New York and Los Angeles, will host the 2015 Pan American Games in what many view as a dress rehearsal for an Olympic bid.

Rio used the game plan to great success hosting the 2007 Pan Am Games before landing the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“Each time we have done that, in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver we delivered the goods and more,” said Aubut, recently re-elected to a second four-year term as COC president.

“The Pan Ams will also deliver the goods and then they will see the place is safe and that sport is a passion for Canadians and also they will see the country can deliver.

“It is the perfect plan.

“A Pan Am Games close to the Olympic level then you have chance to FIFA, the Olympics, you have a chance to get everything you want after that.” (Editing by Frank Pingue)

the Maple Leafs, back in the postseason for the first time in nine years, are now staring at an early playoff exit as they trail the best-of-seven first-round series 3-1 with Game Five set for Boston on Friday.

Krejci’s third goal left a capacity crowd at the Air Canada Centre stunned in disbelief after the Maple Leafs had largely controlled play during a thrilling overtime that was played at furious pace.

Breaking in on a two-on-one with Milan Lucic, Krejci picked the short side on Toronto netminder James Reimer for his fifth of the playoffs 13 minutes into overtime.

“I was looking to pass the whole way but Lucic is a lefty and he was on his backhand so that kind of made my decision a little easier,” Krejci told reporters.

“I also had (Zdeno Chara), I was really thinking about leaving it for him for a one-timer because he’s got the best one-timer in the league but they took him away at the last second so I just tried to shoot it.

“In overtime there is never a bad shot. It wasn’t a perfect shot but it went in.”

Toronto had jumped out to 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Joffrey Lupul and Cody Franson before Boston stormed back with second period tallies from Patrice Bergeron and a pair from Krejci to move in front 3-2.

But the Boston lead lasted all of 44 seconds before Clarke MacArthur answered for the Maple Leafs when he slammed home a big rebound past Tuukka Rask.

Toronto had a glorious chance to regain control of the contest when they were handed a two-man advantage for the final 41 seconds of the period but could not find the back of the net.

In the third period it was Boston’s chance to retake the lead when Toronto’s Nazem Kadri was given four-minute penalty for high-sticking Chris Kelly in the face but Toronto killed off the man-advantage bringing the capacity crowd at the Air Canada Centre to its feet.

Neither team could find the back of the net during an edge-of-your-seat third period that sent the contest to overtime.

“It feels like a dagger after the effort that was put forth by our group,” said Toronto coach Randy Carlyle. “It was a man’s hockey game out there. There was a lot of energy, a lot of physical play but that’s the way the playoffs are played.”

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

But the reclusive winger had little reason to smile on Monday as his team’s first home playoff game in nine years ended in a 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins, leaving Toronto trailing the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final 2-1.

Despite four productive seasons in a blue-and-white Maple Leafs jersey, Kessel’s contributions have never been quite enough to satisfy the team’s demanding fans.

Kessel found the back of the Boston net for the second consecutive game but was also guilty of a costly miscue that led to a shorthanded Bruins goal and gave the visitors a 4-1 second period lead.

“I thought we worked hard and did a lot of good things but our execution level and the mistakes that we made aren’t going to allow us to win a hockey game,” lamented Toronto coach Randy Carlyle. “You have to give the opposition credit, they came in they played hard, they forced us and we made some mistakes and they won the hockey game.”

Painfully shy, Kessel, unless pressed, rarely shares his thoughts with a veracious Toronto media and was nowhere to be seen following Monday’s game, his skates hung up in an empty locker leaving linemate Tyler Bozak to sum up his performance.

“I thought he played good,” Bozak told reporters. “He generated a lot of shots for himself, he set up plays to me and a few other guys, the puck was around him a lot, he was carrying it so I thought he did a good job.”

A pure scorer with blazing speed and a lightning quick release, Kessel has been Toronto’s leading scorer every season since Boston traded him to Toronto four years ago.

He has generated 119 regular season goals for the Leafs but just three have come against his former team.

CRITICISM MOUNTING

The 25-year-old winger was held scoreless by Bruins during the regular season, the frustration and criticism mounting with each barren shift.

The Bruins have been Kessel’s personal nemesis ever since he was dealt to Leafs in September 2009 for Toronto’s first and second round picks in the 2010 NHL draft and another first round selection in 2011.

It was a viewed as a spectacularly high price to pay for a gifted but one-dimensional player.

The Bruins used the 2010 pick to select highly-rated Tyler Seguin second overall and in 2011 grabbed Dougie Hamilton. It is those two talents against which Kessel’s value is weighed.

Bruins fans certainly believe they came away the big winners in the trade, gleefully gloating with a chant of “Thank you, Kessel” each time Sequin scores against Toronto.

It is a trade that has obsessed Leafs Nation.

Dissected time-and-time again, there remains no clear verdict about who won one of the most controversial trades ever consummated by the Original Six rivals.

Kessel’s performance in his first playoff series with the Leafs will not end the debate but only add to it.

Part of key to Kessel contributing more to the Toronto cause will lie with Carlyle and his ability to keep his leading scorer away from towering Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, who has shadowed the two-time All-Star and driven him to distraction.

Carlyle says that no matter how he juggles his lines, Kessel is going to find himself matched up against Chara and will have to find a way to meet the challenge.

“It’s not as easy as you think knowing he (Chara) is going to be out there for every defensive zone faceoff,” explained Carlyle. “You can try and work around it but in some situations you have to play your offensive players.

“There were shifts he had to play against Chara. That has to happen sometimes.”

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

Collins, a veteran basketball player, stepped into the national spotlight on Monday when became the first male athlete in a major U.S. professional league to publicly reveal he is gay. That is expected to be the first of many similar announcements in the coming months in major sports leagues.

The deputy commissioner of the NHL, composed of U.S. and Canadian teams, said he was not personally aware of any gay players in the league but made it clear the NHL is treating any coming out as a high priority.

“Certainly this is something that is very important to the National Hockey League, it has been and I think our partnership with ‘You Can Play’ is demonstrative of that,” Bill Daly told a Toronto radio station on Monday. “I applaud (Collins) and my guess is you are going to see more of that going forward.”

The NHL says it is committed to becoming not only North America’s but the world’s most inclusive professional sports league.

While it has dragged its feet on several issues, such as anti-doping and drug-testing, the NHL has sought to take the lead in fighting discrimination on the ice and in the stands, particularly when it comes to a player’s sexuality.

As far back as 2005, the NHL and NHL Players Association (NHLPA) included article 7.2 in their collective bargaining agreement that says member clubs cannot discriminate against a player because of his sexual orientation.

More recently the NHL and NHLPA entered into a formal partnership with the You Can Play Project, an advocacy organization that fights homophobia in sports.

“We have always prided ourselves in being inclusive,” said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman when announcing the deal on April 11. “We believe diversity is strength and this is another step forward with respect to an important portion of the population and no matter what your national origin, what your color, what’s your sexual beliefs and practices, we want you to feel comfortable being part of the NHL family.

“We don’t want any segment of society to feel alienated from the game be the subject of slurs to feel uncomfortable whether as a fan or in the locker room.”

The gay issue is one that hits close to home for the NHL.

The You Can Play Project was founded just over a year ago by Philadelphia Flyers scout Patrick Burke, son of former-Toronto Maple Leafs and 2010 U.S. Olympic hockey team general manager Brian Burke, after his brother Brendan, an openly gay student athlete, was killed in a car accident.

You Can Play is not only committed to changing the locker room culture within the NHL but also educating fans and media to better prepare a welcoming environment for any player, from junior to professional, who decides they want to reveal their sexuality.

Last year the NHL and You Can Play, with the help from 60 players, developed a series of public service videos asking for tolerance and understanding from the fans.

You Can Play representatives will also appear at the league’s rookie orientation program to educate incoming players about the NHL’s inclusiveness policy.

“When an NHL player comes out, we will rely on You Can Play’s expertise in this area in addition the myriad support systems that already were part of our structure and the NHLPA’s to help that player in any way we can,” NHL spokesman John Dellapina told Reuters in an email. “Our view is that we would do as much or as little as any player needs or wants. “

The NHL is also being helped by initiatives at the grassroots level.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have reached out to the gay community offering support and assistance to the Toronto Gay Hockey Association, which claims to be the world’s largest gay hockey league with over 10 teams and 150 members.

Craig Brownstein, the Washington based vice-president of media relations for Edelman, the huge public relations firm, turned his passion for Washington Capitals into a popular blog Puck Buddys blog (“for boys who like boys who like hockey”).

The blog, developed with the help of Brownstein’s longtime partner, gives a voice to gay NHL fans.

“We kind of write about the game from the gay perspective,” Brownstein told Reuters, and gave credit to the NHL and the NHLPA for their partnership with You Can Play.

“Proud that it was my sport was the first one to take the step in doing this.”

(Reporting by Steve Keating; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

A compacted 48-game schedule that began in January with NHL players and owners apologizing to disgruntled fans and promising a season packed with unpredictable results delivered in spades, setting the stage for an equally fascinating playoffs.

The top-ranked Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference and Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference begin as clear favorites to meet in a best-of-seven games Stanley Cup final that will be played in steamy late-June temperatures.

But if there are any lessons to be taken from past years, it is that anything can happen. The Los Angeles Kings proved this just last season by sneaking in as an eighth seed and upsetting the Western Conference’s top three teams before defeating the New Jersey Devils to claim the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

The Kings are back in the postseason ready to open defense of their crown against the St. Louis Blues as part of a 16-team playoff for hockey’s ‘Holy Grail.’

To get their names engraved on Lord Stanley’s famous mug, however, players must survive one of sports’ ultimate tests of endurance and win four punishing best-of-seven series before finally hoisting the silver Cup.

No team knows more about the playoff grind than the Detroit Red Wings, who are in the postseason for a 22nd consecutive year while the Toronto Maple Leafs snapped what had been the longest active playoff drought by returning to the postseason for the first time since 2004.

The Red Wings, who needed a win in their final regular season game to extend their streak, open against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday while the Maple Leafs face the Boston Bruins in an Original Six matchup starting on Wednesday.

For hockey purists, the playoffs will provide a blast of nostalgia with all six original NHL franchises (Boston, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers) competing for the first time since 1996.

The opening round will also feature the first playoff clash between clubs from Montreal and rival Ottawa since the Montreal Maroons and the original Senators franchise faced off in 1928.

Not since the Canadiens celebrated the last of their 24 Stanley Cups in 1993 has the treasured trophy been paraded through the streets of a Canadian city and the country is thirsting to see that drought end.

PLENTY OF FIREPOWER

Canadian attention will be focused on Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and the Vancouver Canucks, who will all carry the hopes of a hockey-mad nation into the playoffs and try to return the Cup to its spiritual home.

Pittsburgh and Chicago enter the playoffs as the betting favorites with good reason after record-smashing seasons.

The Blackhawks, who open against the Minnesota Wild, spent the entire campaign atop the West standings earning points in each of their first 24 games to shatter the longest previous season-opening streak of 16 games set by Anaheim.

With plenty of firepower, led by Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, the league’s stingiest defense and spectacular play from journeyman netminder Ray Emery, Chicago lost just seven times in regulation to claim the franchise’s second Presidents’ Trophy, as the NHL team with the best regular season record.

In the East, the Penguins also took a run at the NHL record book reeling off 15 consecutive win in March to become the first team to post a perfect calendar month (minimum, 10 games).

Already with a star-studded lineup featuring league most valuable players Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins loaded up for a Stanley Cup run at the trade deadline by adding former scoring champion Jarome Iginla from Calgary, Dallas forward Brenden Morrow and San Jose defenseman Douglas Murray.

Crosby, who was putting together another MVP campaign, missed the last month of the schedule with a broken jaw but is expected to be on the ice when the Penguins open against the New York Islanders on Wednesday.

With Crosby fit and Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin back in top form fans are anticipating a potential showdown between the league’s two marquee players.

Ovechkin opened the season in a funk but finished in a flurry by scoring 23 goals in his final 23 contests to capture the Rocket Richard trophy as the league’s top goal scorer.

The Capitals and Rangers will meet in the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons with Ovechkin going up against Henrik Lundqvist, the NHL’s reigning Vezina Trophy winner as top netminder.

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

The Leafs are clinging to fifth place in the Eastern Conference on 53 points but their grip on a playoff spot is starting to slip.

Four chasing teams – the Ottawa Senators (52 points), New York Islanders (51), New York Rangers (48) and Winnipeg Jets (48) – all made up ground with wins on Thursday, setting up a nail-biting finish to the regular season.

“We have to stop the bleeding and get back to what has made us successful but our lack of success the last couple of games has nothing to do with us thinking we have a playoff spot,” Leafs defenseman Cody Franson told reporters.

“We don’t work that way, we work one day at a time.”

Toronto have not reached the playoffs since 2004 and own the longest playoff drought of teams in the NHL today, while the surging Islanders, who have not reached the playoffs since 2007, took a step towards ending their own barren spell, moving to within a point of the Leafs.

Toronto, the only NHL franchise to have been valued at more than $1 billion by Forbes, are a massive success off the ice but for all their money cannot seem to buy a playoff spot.

When the Leafs last hoisted the Stanley Cup in 1967, the NHL was still a six-team league, players did not wear helmets and netminders had just discovered face masks.

‘BIG PICTURE’

With four games to play in the current regular season, Toronto’s postseason destiny is in their own hands but long-suffering fans have learned to take nothing for granted.

While ‘Leafs Nation’ may be getting a case of the jitters, players say there is nothing to panic about.

“It’s just the way it goes sometimes, I don’t think there is any reason to be panicked about it,” said Maple Leafs netminder James Reimer. “It’s just a couple of tough breaks and that’s it.

“You look at the big picture. We’ve played probably 40 good games out of 44 and that’s a good average.

“You’re going to have some tough games sometimes. Nothing to be concerned about we know we can do it.”

The Islanders, who ranked near the bottom of Forbes evaluations at $155 million, are proving to be good value as they picked up their fifth win in six games with the help of two goals from John Tavares, leaving him in the fight for league scoring honors with 26 on the season.

“We scored on our first two shots and thought we were on our way then we stopped,” said Leafs coach Randy Carlyle. “It’s back to the drawing board. The sun is going to come up tomorrow.

“We all hope anyway.”

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)

“I’m a proud Australian and I hope this sits really well back at home, even in New Zealand,” Scott told reporters with a laugh. “We had the kind of trans-Tasman combo out there with Steve on the bag.

With Scott trying to end decades of frustration and deliver Australia its first Masters green jacket, his ‘Kiwi’ caddie stepped up in the fading light at Augusta National to read the line for a 15-foot putt on the second extra hole of his playoff with Angel Cabrera.

Taking Williams’s advice, Scott calmly rolled home the putt to end a pulsating battle with the two-time major-winning Argentine and spark celebrations half a world away.

“The putt on 10, I could hardly see the green in the darkness,” added Scott. “Really, I was struggling to read it, so I gave Steve the call over.

“I don’t get him to read too many putts because I felt like I was reading good. I said, ‘Do you think it’s just more than a cup?’

“He said, ‘it’s at least two cups, it’s going to break more than you think.

“I said, ‘I’m good with that.’

“He was my eyes on that putt.”

Williams, who was Tiger Woods’s bag-man for 13 of his 14 major wins before an acrimonious split in 2011, leapt into the air as the ball disappeared into the cup and embraced Scott as the gallery erupted around the rainy 10th green.

There was none of the tasteless gloating from Williams that overshadowed the pair’s first victory together in 2011 at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.

Williams crowed that Scott’s Bridgestone win was the ‘best’ of his caddying career, taking a swipe at his former boss Woods.

He later caused further controversy by making a racist remark about Woods before apologizing for it.

Scott stood by Williams amid the controversy, ignoring calls to fire the New Zealander, and the caddie re-paid the favor in spades on Sunday.

(Editing by Ian Ransom)

It is, as the old-timers say, where the four-day Masters tournament really begins in Sunday’s final round, the place where green jackets are won and lost.

It is a breathtaking piece of golfing real estate, an iconic stretch featuring holes 11, 12 and 13 that is tucked away in the far corner of Augusta National Golf Club and where reputations are often made and destroyed.

It is Amen Corner.

“I don’t know that it’s a great conglomeration of holes. I think it’s a great conglomeration of circumstances,” explained six-times Masters champion Jack Nicklaus. “They are all great holes, don’t get me wrong, because I like all three of them.

“But the thing is, you have got everybody and your brother there watching you play.

“People can sit there and watch you play all three holes from one location, and it’s just become such a great focus, not many places in golf that you can do that.”

With its dastardly tricky winds and the water of Rae’s Creek ready to swallow up misjudged shots, Amen Corner can produce plenty of thrills and spills as Kevin Na and defending champion Bubba Watson discovered on Sunday as both carded 10s at the par-three 12th.

But the real drama came later in the day when the leading pairs made their way in puring rain around White Dogwood (par-four 11th), Golden Bell (par-three 12th) and Azalea (par-five 13th).

Tiger Woods launched a back nine charge with a birdie at 10, followed by a spectacular shot from the trees to salvage par at the 11th. Another birdie at 13 and suddenly the world number one was at four-under and back in the title chase.

The Australian challenge that had stalled suddenly picked up pace at Amen Corner when Adam Scott birdied the 13th, then went on to beat Argentina’s Angel Cabrera in a high-quality playoff to give his golf-mad country its first Masters win.

“To be in the thick of it, to feel that excitement, to feel that pressure, to grace Amen Corner knowing you need birdies and trying to win a green jacket, that is the greatest thrill a golfer can possibly experience,” said Mickelson, a three-times Masters champion.

THUNDERING CHEERS

It was the great American golf writer Herbert Warren Wind, searching for a way to describe the trio of holes, who coined the name Amen Corner in 1958.

Wind would later reveal that the moniker came from the title of a jazz album he had liked called “Shouting in that Amen Corner” and fans have been roaring there ever since.

The thundering cheers from ‘Amen Corner’ have over the decades provided the Masters sound track.

While Augusta National is often referred to as the ‘Cathedral of Pines,’ Amen Corner is where thousands come to worship each year on the final day of the year’s first major.

When the gates to Augusta National swing open, patrons (who are forbidden from running on the Augusta grounds by an army of security staff) briskly make their way to the outer boundaries of the world’s most exclusive golf club and stake their claim to small patches of grass or a grandstand seats.

They then wait patiently for hours for the first golfers to appear.

While the on-course hospitality suites that dot nearly every other major golf tournament are not allowed at the Masters, Amen Corner is such a hot piece of property that enterprising companies hire helpers, load them up with folding chairs and send them early in the morning to grab the very best front row positions.

Caddies have also been known to set up a few chairs for family and friends while two men told Reuters their wives had come out to early to claim the coveted spots.

Amen Corner is a place of idyllic beauty but danger lurks at every turn as Cabrera found out when his second shot at 13 ended up in Rae’s Creek and he wound up with a bogey to drop back into a tie for the lead with Australians Scott and Jason Day.

Masters history is full of ‘Amen’ moments penned by some of golf’s legendary figures like Byron Nelson, who surged through the turn in 1937 with a birdie and eagle at 12 and 13 en route to the claiming the winner’s green jacket.

“If you don’t pay it the respect that it deserves, they will bite you with a double,” said Mickelson. “I think that’s what’s so interesting is that you look at it on the surface, you need to make birdies if you’re going to win. You expect to make birdies on 13 and so forth.

“But, if you don’t give those shots respect, it bites you with a double. Especially 11.

“That’s the thing about Amen Corner is the respect that it demands.”

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

It is, as the old-timers say, where the four-day Masters tournament really begins in Sunday’s final round, the place where green jackets are won and lost.

It is a breathtaking piece of golfing real estate, an iconic stretch featuring holes 11, 12 and 13 that is tucked away in the far corner of Augusta National Golf Club and where reputations are often made and destroyed.

It is Amen Corner.

“I don’t know that it’s a great conglomeration of holes. I think it’s a great conglomeration of circumstances,” explained six-times Masters champion Jack Nicklaus. “They are all great holes, don’t get me wrong, because I like all three of them.

“But the thing is, you have got everybody and your brother there watching you play.

“People can sit there and watch you play all three holes from one location, and it’s just become such a great focus, not many places in golf that you can do that.”

With its dastardly tricky winds and the water of Rae’s Creek ready to swallow up misjudged shots, Amen Corner can produce plenty of thrills and spills as Kevin Na and defending champion Bubba Watson discovered on Sunday as both carded 10s at the par-three 12th.

But the real drama came later in the day when the leading pairs made their way in puring rain around White Dogwood (par-four 11th), Golden Bell (par-three 12th) and Azalea (par-five 13th).

Tiger Woods launched a back nine charge with a birdie at 10, followed by a spectacular shot from the trees to salvage par at the 11th. Another birdie at 13 and suddenly the world number one was at four-under and back in the title chase.

The Australian challenge that had stalled suddenly picked up pace at Amen Corner when Adam Scott birdied the 13th, then went on to beat Argentina’s Angel Cabrera in a high-quality playoff to give his golf-mad country its first Masters win.

“To be in the thick of it, to feel that excitement, to feel that pressure, to grace Amen Corner knowing you need birdies and trying to win a green jacket, that is the greatest thrill a golfer can possibly experience,” said Mickelson, a three-times Masters champion.

THUNDERING CHEERS

It was the great American golf writer Herbert Warren Wind, searching for a way to describe the trio of holes, who coined the name Amen Corner in 1958.

Wind would later reveal that the moniker came from the title of a jazz album he had liked called “Shouting in that Amen Corner” and fans have been roaring there ever since.

The thundering cheers from ‘Amen Corner’ have over the decades provided the Masters sound track.

While Augusta National is often referred to as the ‘Cathedral of Pines,’ Amen Corner is where thousands come to worship each year on the final day of the year’s first major.

When the gates to Augusta National swing open, patrons (who are forbidden from running on the Augusta grounds by an army of security staff) briskly make their way to the outer boundaries of the world’s most exclusive golf club and stake their claim to small patches of grass or a grandstand seats.

They then wait patiently for hours for the first golfers to appear.

While the on-course hospitality suites that dot nearly every other major golf tournament are not allowed at the Masters, Amen Corner is such a hot piece of property that enterprising companies hire helpers, load them up with folding chairs and send them early in the morning to grab the very best front row positions.

Caddies have also been known to set up a few chairs for family and friends while two men told Reuters their wives had come out to early to claim the coveted spots.

Amen Corner is a place of idyllic beauty but danger lurks at every turn as Cabrera found out when his second shot at 13 ended up in Rae’s Creek and he wound up with a bogey to drop back into a tie for the lead with Australians Scott and Jason Day.

Masters history is full of ‘Amen’ moments penned by some of golf’s legendary figures like Byron Nelson, who surged through the turn in 1937 with a birdie and eagle at 12 and 13 en route to the claiming the winner’s green jacket.

“If you don’t pay it the respect that it deserves, they will bite you with a double,” said Mickelson. “I think that’s what’s so interesting is that you look at it on the surface, you need to make birdies if you’re going to win. You expect to make birdies on 13 and so forth.

“But, if you don’t give those shots respect, it bites you with a double. Especially 11.

“That’s the thing about Amen Corner is the respect that it demands.” (Editing by Frank Pingue)