One Thing About Every Hole at Augusta National

On Saturday morning at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, before shuttling from the press building to the golf course, I said to myself, “I’m not going to end up writing one of those clichéd ‘here’s what I noticed on my first-ever visit to Augusta National’ articles.” Two hours later, as I tried to memorize the contours of the 17th green, I said to myself, “I may have to write one of those clichéd ‘here’s what I noticed on my first-ever visit to Augusta National’ articles.”

As I told Andy and Brendan on The Shotgun Start, I felt like the Sam Neill character in Jurassic Park—an archaeologist seeing real dinosaurs for the first time: “They do move in herds.” I’ve watched Augusta National on TV every year for the past three decades, studied it, and read many other first-timers’ accounts of it, but as I walked down the 10th fairway, I still found myself in a state of mild wonder: “The hills do look bigger in person.”

I’ll spare you more of my sentimental reflections and dive straight into the nitty-gritty. Here’s one detail that stood out to me on every hole at Augusta National:

No. 1—The terrain and strategy blend seamlessly. If you hedge left, away from the fairway bunker on the right, your ball will kick farther left, toward a poorer angle. However, if you carry the bunker (as I saw several ANWA competitors do from the members’ tees), another slope will propel your ball toward the green.

No. 2—This green is strikingly subtle. It sits flush against the hillside, making the back-to-front slope is very severe.

No. 3—I love the cheeky mound just behind the green. It’s a remnant of MacKenzie and Jones’s original shaping at Augusta National, which was more overt, abrupt, and strange than it is today.

Behind the third green at Augusta National (courtesy of Augusta National)

No. 4—You’re in serious trouble if you miss long on the fourth hole when the pin is in the back. From the tee, you think there’s a backstop behind the green, but there’s actually a swale before the upslope. In the final round of the ANWA, Rose Zhang found herself back there, and she was barely able to keep her chip on the green.

No. 5—My rough estimate is that the fairway bunkers on the fifth hole are 90 feet deep.

No. 6—I talked to No Laying Up’s Cody McBride on Saturday at the ANWA, and I’ll borrow this take from him: on the sixth hole, you almost feel like you’re hitting over the 16th green. This intimacy is a big reason why the dell where the sixth, 15th, and 16th holes converge is one of the best spectating spots on the property.

No. 7—Not my favorite hole at Augusta National, but the ridgetop green has more internal movement than I previously thought: a sideboard on the right, a central spine feeding into a middle-right channel, and a wicked run-off on the left.

The seventh green at Augusta National (courtesy of Augusta National)

No. 8—I’m far from the first person to say that the mounds to the left of the eighth green are huge… but man, they’re freaking huge.

No. 9—A member told me and Meg Adkins that Clifford Roberts ordered the creation of the stair steps on the downslope of the ninth fairway because his tee shots often ended up there and he didn’t enjoy hitting approaches off of downhill lies. Meg correctly pointed out that if Mr. Roberts disliked downhill lies, he must despised several other holes at the course he helped create.

The ninth hole at Augusta National (courtesy of Augusta National)

No. 10—Everything about this green—the way it’s perched on a knoll, its right-to-left tilt, the sudden drop-off on the left—makes approaches from the right side of the fairway, where the slope encourages a right-to-left ball flight, uncomfortable and difficult.

No. 11—The circles of pine straw underneath the trees in the fairway look as absurd in person as they do in photos.

No. 12—The sensory experience in this lowest section of the property is eerie. You can’t feel the wind, but you can hear it in the trees above you.

No. 13—In addition to the well-known right-to-left tilt of this fairway, there’s a large dip between about 220 and 180 yards from the green, making shots from green-light distance more difficult. Also (and forgive me for breaking my own “one thing” format here), I wish the club would cut back the trees on the left between the landing zone on the green. The position by the creek should be ideal, not blocked out by overhanging limbs.

No. 14—There’s a type of green at Augusta National that the 14th represents particularly well. These greens—which also include Nos. 1, 5, 6, 17, and 18—have run-offs in the front and shelves on each side in the back for difficult pin positions. Friendlier pins can be found in bowl sections toward the front or in the middle. This structure is vaguely reminiscent of the Walter Travis genre I described in our profile on the Country Club of Troy.

The 14th green at Augusta National (courtesy of Augusta National)

No. 15—Pushed-up, crowned, shallow, and set between two ponds in a way that makes it look like an island, the 15th green is terrifying to behold from the fairway. I can’t imagine going at it with a 3-wood, as numerous players did this past week.

No. 16—Robert Trent Jones’s exterior contouring around the 16th green is somewhat bland, in contrast to the elaborate earthwork around the other 17 greens.

The 16th green at Augusta National (courtesy of Augusta National)

No. 17—Speaking of which, the ledge that props up the back and right sides of the 17th green is massive, Langford & Moreau-like in its scale.

No. 18—When you look up the chute to the 18th fairway, your field of vision is dominated by the two fairway bunkers 230-250 yards from the members’ tee. It’s hard to visualize a successful drive. Add this to the multitude of ways in which I can relate with Jordan Spieth.

If you’ve seen Augusta National in person, what are some under-discussed details that struck you?