What Difference Does 35 Yards Make?

Header photo courtesy of Eureka Earth

If the USGA and R&A’s rationale for creating a Model Local Rule for a reduced-flight golf ball could be summed up in an image, it would be this one: the new championship tee for the 13th hole at Augusta National Golf Club, shoved back into the Georgia pines behind the famous 12th green.

It is Finished… 💚⛳️

Augusta National has finally extended the 13th hole. 🌺

No. 13 – Azalea – Par: 5

1934 yardage: 480
2022 yardage: 510
2023 yardage: ???

(📸 ©19NOV2022 David Dobbins/EurekaEarth)#EurekaEarth #NotDrone #Tetelestai #IYKYI pic.twitter.com/K229zPGtNX

— Eureka Earth® (@EurekaEarthPlus) November 22, 2022

At the upcoming Masters, the par-5 13th will stretch to 545 yards, up from 510 last year. It’s an awkward sight, and a symbol of the difficulties the club has had preserving the strategic integrity of its course.

As weird as it looks, though, it might work.

Last week during a Zoom call with media, reigning Masters champ Scottie Scheffler gave his initial thoughts on the hole.

“I usually hit a big, hooking 3-wood off that tee, and now I hit drive on a little bit of an angle. So it’s definitely changed the hole significantly,” he said. “Whereas if you hit a really good drive before, you could kind of get around the corner and have maybe a mid-iron in, now you’re kind of hitting into that slope in the fairway and you may be ripping 3-iron at that green. So you could see more guys laying up to that hole, especially depending upon pin position.”

This is good news. A little backstory…

As part of its “Tiger-proofing” (or, more accurately, “titatnium-driver-and-solid-core-ball-proofing”) efforts in the late 90s and early 00s, Augusta National added trees on the outside of the dogleg on the 13th hole. The club wanted to prevent the pros from bombing it down the right side and leaving themselves a mid- to short iron in. After the changes, players couldn’t get within comfortable go-for-the-green distance unless they hit a controlled right-to-left drive between the trees on the right and the tributary of Rae’s Creek on the left.

Twenty years passed, and while this tee shot remained tricky, an important factor had changed: most pros had gotten so long that they could get around the corner with a 3-wood.

(For a more in-depth account of the evolution of strategy on the 13th hole, check out this article I wrote two years ago.)

For right-handers, clubbing down was a no-brainer. Most current pros find it difficult to hit a draw with a driver. There are multiple reasons for this phenomenon. Here’s a relatively simple one: in order to hit a reliable draw, you need plenty of spin. Without sufficient spin, a draw can fall out of the air and turn into a snap hook. Since today’s elite players use low-spinning clubs and balls, most of them prefer a fade or a straight ball off the tee; those shots are better bets to stay aloft. Draws in the low-spin era are unpredictable and dangerous. With a 3-wood, which produces more spin than a driver, that threat isn’t as acute. This is one reason that players often reach for a fairway wood on the 13th tee at Augusta National.*

But if Scheffler is right, a draw with a driver may now be required to get in position to go for the green.

This shot could be particularly challenging for Scheffler himself. Like many of the top players on the PGA Tour, he uses very little spin. This season, he is in the bottom 10% of the PGA Tour in spin rate, a distinction he shares with Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm. When I watched Scheffler in person at last year’s PGA Championship, I was struck by how down-the-line his delivery was and how straight his drives flew. Unlike Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, Scheffler doesn’t work it both ways off the tee. He just hits a high ball that occasionally finishes to the right.

He’ll be pushed out of his comfort zone by the new 13th at Augusta. So will most of his competitors. Maybe, as Scheffler predicts, there will be more layups. Or more Faldo– and Kupcho-like fairway woods and hybrids into the green. Maybe we’ll even see a few guys nudge their lines off the tee to the left, hunting flatter lies near the creek. That’s what Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie hoped the boldest players would do.

One can dream.

It’s a shame that the governing bodies’ negligence has forced Augusta National to tinker repeatedly with one of the greatest par 5s ever designed. Still, I’m looking forward to seeing this year’s field reckon with something resembling the challenge that Jones and MacKenzie envisioned.

* This is random—and perhaps TMI about my YouTube habits—but if you’re interested in the spin issue, I’d recommend this fascinating “what’s in the bag” video Rocco Mediate did with 2nd Swing Golf. (Yes, I just called a “what’s in the bag” video “fascinating.” Don’t judge me.) Mediate explains why old-school players who play a draw off the tee have trouble with modern equipment: in order to control a draw, you need spin, and a lot of 21st-century drivers just don’t spin enough.