LLANYMYNECH, Wales - In the Trophy Room at Augusta National Golf Club is the 4-wood Gene Sarazen used to score the double eagle that made the Masters Tournament famous in 1935.

In the Grill Room is a masterful collection: the wedge local hero Larry Mize chipped in with to win in 1987; the driver Tiger Woods tamed the course with in 1997; the 4-wood Ben Hogan won with in 1951 and '53; 1-irons from the first victories of Arnold Palmer (1958) and Jack Nicklaus (1963); the 8-iron that set up Phil Mickelson's winning birdie putt in 2004.

The clubs of most Masters champions are displayed somewhere on the club property. Ian Woosnam's are not among them.

To find the Maruman Conduc-tor Pro irons that carried Woosnam to his only major victory in 1991 and the No. 1 ranking in the world, you have to go a very long way from Georgia.

You'd have to fly across the Atlantic and then drive the rural roads about 90 minutes south of Liverpool into Wales. In the village of Pant, turn right up "The Hill" and carefully wind along a lane so narrow that the hedgerows lap at both sides of the car.

At the top of the road you'll find the spartan clubhouse for Llanymynech (pronounced Thla-nee-MY-neck) Golf Club. Through the pro shop, you'll reach the cluttered broom closet that serves as the office of head professional Andy Griffiths.

From there, look up on the wire shelf. Scattered loosely under piles of unsold golf-shoe inventory is a full set of blades with "I. WOOSNAM" etched into the soles.

"These are the clubs he used to win the Masters," said Griffiths, a childhood golfing mate of Woosnam. "We haven't got around to putting them up yet."

In the 16 years since Woosnam reached the pinnacle of the game, his childhood proving ground hasn't exactly been converted into a shrine. The clubhouse at Llanymynech has only two pictures of Woosnam among the hundreds on the walls - the same number as his father and one more than his mother. The caption under one reads simply, "We Are Proud of Ian."

There's plenty to be proud of. Woosnam has defied the doubters who have dogged him his entire career. In September, the pint-size and pint-enthusiastic Welshman reached what he called the pinnacle of his career by leading Europe to a second consecutive rout of the Americans in the Ryder Cup in Ireland. A couple of months later he received the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire - two rungs below knighthood.

Although one British scribbler noted that Woosnam has never been confused with Winston Churchill for his oratory or guile, his golfing instinct and pugnacity have never been questioned. That intuitiveness and fighting will are what carried the diminutive Welshman from his father's dairy farm to the peaks of golf.

"You believe in your dreams, it doesn't matter who you are, they'll come true," Woosnam said. "Mine did."

As for why his treasured Masters clubs ended up in the clubhouse at Llanymynech, Woosnam merely says: "That's where it all began."

It was from Llanymynech - which straddles the border of Wales and England on the spine of a hill - where Woosnam envisioned a career beyond the panoramic views of Shropshire and seven other counties.

As a farmer's son growing up in Wales, Woosnam was initially more inclined to boxing. His father boxed, and Woosnam attended holiday camps and became so good as a young lad that nobody wanted to fight him.

Golf was not a part of Woosnam's life until his father tagged along one Sunday to the club with Griffiths' father to watch an exhibition match between British Open champion Kel Nagel and Max Faulkner. Harold Woosnam was intrigued and picked the game up quickly.

Woosnam's older brother, Keith, started next.

"Then this tiny little thing came, which was Ian," said Griffiths, a few years Woosnam's elder.

One day on the practice green as the wee pugilist showed off his boxing form, the taller Griffiths held a hand to Woosnam's forehead to stave off the blows and talked sense into him.

"He still wanted to be this boxer," Griffiths said, "and I told him, 'No, you'll be a golfer.'"

At age 12, Woosnam quickly approached golf with the same fierce competitiveness he had for boxing. Losing any match crushed him.

"I remember seeing Woosie crying in the car because his brother (Keith) beat him," said Ivor Morris, a past president at Llanymynech.

Said Griffiths, who competed in two British Opens before injuries pushed him to return to Llanymynech as the head pro: "Woosie wanted to win at all costs, and he didn't want YOU winning."

Always the underdog because of his size and pedigree, Woosnam fed off the perceived slights to his skills. County junior rival Sandy Lyle got all of the publicity and honors, and Woosnam was driven to surpass him.

"When you have someone like Sandy Lyle who was so advanced, he was always a bit like Tiger (Woods) and how he is," Woosnam said of Lyle, the eventual Masters and British Open winner. "It takes you to the next level. I knew if I wanted to be any good as a professional, I needed to beat Sandy Lyle. Unfortunately I couldn't really get to that level because I was working on a farm. It wasn't until I turned professional that I had time to practice and do what I did."

At 17, with a handicap of 1, Woosnam followed the lead of peers and turned pro despite the skepticism of club members.

"A group of former clubmates and county player colleagues spent days pleading with him not to take such a drastic step because they reckoned he was no better than thousands of other amateurs, including themselves, and one day would come to regret the foolish decision," the club's Web site recounts.

They weren't too far from being right. Woosnam struggled to obtain sponsorships and earn his European Tour card. His father sold the dairy herd to have more time and money to help Woosnam, who traveled the tour in a camper van eating - and earning - beans.

"I was penniless," Woosnam said. "Apart from my clubs, the most important piece of equipment in (the van) was a tin-opener to take the lid off the tins of beans that I ate all the time.''

After Ian's third trip to qualifying school, his father wrote to nearby Oswestry Golf Club to secure a club pro position for his son.

"Fortunately, he wasn't qualified to be one," Griffiths said.

Woosnam almost quit after a drive out of bounds cost him qualifying for the 1981 British Open. Through his first five seasons, Woosnam earned a scant 5,000 pounds while childhood rival Lyle had risen to the status of European star.

At the urging of his parents, however, Woosnam persevered and earned the breaks that pushed him through. An ace in a tournament in Zambia won him a Range Rover, which he promptly sold for the cash. A 5,000 pounds-a-year sponsorship from MTM Engineering took the pressure off of his father to fund him.

"When the hardship went from him, that's what did it," Griffiths said. "It was pressure on him that he was spending his dad's money."

In 1982, Woosnam won the Swiss Open. In 1983 he qualified for the first of eight Ryder Cup teams. In 1988 he won eight events and topped the European Order of Merit.

In 1991 he matched Lyle's prior feat by winning the Masters, and exceeded him by claiming the No. 1 ranking in the world for 50 weeks.

"He's a genuinely nice bloke, but he's got this side to him that's ruthless," said Griffiths, who attended the 1999 Masters as Woosnam's house guest. "That's what you have to have to get to the top. This produced the world's No. 1 golfer.

"It's amazing how he won so much, because everyone I speak to now always beat him."

Woosnam chuckles robustly at the suggestion he was an easy mark at his hometown course.

"That's probably true," he said in Ireland as the golden Ryder Cup rested on the stool in front of him. "But I got the last laugh, didn't I?"

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.