What’s it like to play Augusta?
A round at Augusta National is one of golf’s true bucket list experiences. Former Golf World editor Nick Wright was lucky enough to tee it up the day after Tiger Woods’ epic victory in 2019.
During the entire week at every Masters, hundreds of writers, photographers, journalists and reporters walk around the immaculately manicured grounds of Augusta National Golf Club guarding a flimsy one-inch-square slip of paper as though their lives, and the lives of their families, depend on it. The light green stub is rather ordinary – just like any other lottery or raffle ticket, in fact – but the winning prize for 28 of these tickets is very much extraordinary – the opportunity to play the coveted course the day after the tournament!
The Media Monday tradition comes with some prime touches. The course is prepared to the same final round condition, the pins are untouched from their traditional Sunday positions and the winners are treated to a “member for a day” experience – the opportunity to drive down Magnolia Lane, access the Champions Locker Room, eat in the clubhouse and warm up on the expansive practice range. The club even provides a caddie… free of charge and with the tip included.
The draw takes place on the Saturday morning and the news of who is playing spreads like wildfire. Notification of a tee time at Augusta National reaches you almost instantly. As I walked in off the course at the end of the third round, two German journalists gave me a thumbs up from across the press centre auditorium, Sky Sports Golf’s Keith Jackson, who was lucky enough to play Augusta a few years ago, tagged me in a good luck Facebook message. Friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends knew I was playing long before I did.
Ever since my first Masters in 1994, my own clubs have accompanied me back and forth across the Atlantic in the hope and expectation of a Monday morning tee time, only to return with me untouched. With each passing year, I had managed to convince myself that I was destined to be unlucky. Typically, however, this was the one year I had decided to leave the sticks at home. I had just over 24 hours to find some playable clubs. Eventually, I secured a set of Nikes from a friend of an old business partner from my living in Atlanta days. Admitttedly, they wouldn’t have been my first choice to take on one of the world’s most iconic golf courses but if they were good enough to win Tiger several Green Jackets, who was I to complain…
My invitation instructed me to arrive one hour ahead of my 11.10 tee time. After planning the three-hour drive from my airport hotel to the course with almost military-like precision, I pulled up to the security gate at 10.06. A gruff-looking sheriff in sunglasses peered in through the open driver’s window and inspected my invitation. He advised that I was four minutes early and instructed me to exit the grounds. “Take a spin round the block,” was his suggestion. There was nobody in the line behind me so I suggested to the sheriff that I should just wait in the car. “That won’t be possible, sir,” he retorted in his southern drawl. “But by the time I do that, it’ll be 10.10,” I protested. “Exactly, sir,” was his response. He stood watching, hands on hips, a walkie-talkie affixed to his lips, as I spun the car around and pulled back out onto Washington Drive.
An hour later, having changed shoes in Zach Johnson and Tommy Aaron’s locker, introduced myself to my caddie, took some wild divots out of the club’s pristine range turf and stroked about 30 nervy practice putts, I was ready to go. “Remember, it’s only grass,” was my caddie’s reply when I asked him if he had any readily available tips for dealing with Augusta National’s notoriously rapid putting surfaces.
The strangest thing about playing Augusta for the first time is that you know exactly what’s coming. I had watched every Masters on TV since the early 1980s and had walked the course countless times in the 25 years that I had been attending the tournament as a writer, a reporter and a spectator (note: the Masters is always referred to as a ‘tournament’ and never as a championship). The Masters is the only major’ championship’ that doesn’t offer journalists and photographers an enhanced viewing experience. At the Open, US Open and USPGA, the media are provided with arm bands that allow them to walk inside the ropes in order to get a better view of the action. At Augusta National, the patrons take priority and the media receive no special viewing privileges. From a reporting perspective that can cause some challenges since the course is not especially viewer friendly, especially on the back nine. Marshalling is strict and navigating your way around the course can be time-consuming.
Despite this, I felt I knew the course intimately. After a steady bogey at the 1st and a safe par at the par-5 2nd, I got my first taste of the course’s fierce side at the par-4 3rd. For the world’s top golfers, this 350-yard hole asks the following question: do you lean on a driver and attempt to make your birdie with an awkward chip from a heavily contoured lie, or do you lay up and take your chances with a precise wedge shot. Not that option one was ever a genuinely viable one for me, I was forced into the latter option after a weak drive. I then pulled my 120-yard approach into the back left bunker. Unable to fire at the flag given the very real possibility of sending the ball off the front of the green with any hint of a thin contact, I listened to my caddie and played sideways, leaving myself a 10-footer for par. I read the putt as a couple of inches from the left, as did my three partners. My caddie calmly said, “It’s an inch from the right.” I stuck with my original read and missed by several inches on the low side as the ball seemingly moved uphill. Lesson No.1: You can’t trust your eyes at Augusta National. Lesson No.2: You can and should trust your caddie!
The front-nine, although not as well televised or recognisable as the famous back nine, boasts some great holes. The par-3 4th is one of the most difficult par 3s anywhere in the world. It’s followed by a long, dog-leg par 4. It’s not until you reach the elevated tee at the 165-yard par-3 6th that you face a shot that actually looks inviting. Of course, danger lurks everywhere. The back right pin is squeezed into a slither of green behind a steep false front. The very next hole is, at face value, a straight-forward par-4 but from the sunken fairway, a trio of white bunkers prevent you from seeing the putting surface.
With wide open fairways and generous recovery options from the manicured pine straw, Augusta National isn’t punitive from the tee. Its main defence, as you may have already figured, is its greens. Huge swales and false fronts mean there are no-go danger zones on pretty much every hole – and those zones can change daily depending on the pins. The bunkers are mischievously used to tempt you into taking on a risky shot rather than as outright hazards.
Overall, Augusta National off the members’ tees was eminently playable. As an 8-handicapper, I felt I had a chance of a par at every hole. With no double-bogeys on the card, I felt I coped well – the highlights being playing the four-hole stretch from 10 to 14 in just two-over par, and making a birdie at 16, the day after Tiger knocked in a two-footer for his. My putt was a little longer – a 20-footer with about 10 feet of break. I wouldn’t have come anywhere close to holing it had my caddie not intervened and told me to double the amount of break I was playing!
Overall, I enjoyed the freedom of opening my shoulders on wide fairways and the opportunity to figure out the plentiful puzzles around the greens. With some spectacular chips, I saved pars from the left of the 5th green and the back of the 15th, while I scrambled a bogey at 13 with a smart pitch, having found the creek with my approach shot.
While Augusta National is not my favourite golf course, by any stretch of the imagination, just like the club itself, it is the course that has everything – beautiful scenery, variety, tranquillity, risk-reward, towering pines, grand elevation changes and just the right amount of water. A golf course architecture writer, far better versed in the subject than I, once wrote that “Augusta National’s greatest attribute is its ability to present the right type of challenge to each type of golfer.” And who am I to argue with that? I loved it!
