My Masters

THE COURSE

First impressions? The condition of the course is remarkable. The colours are ridiculously vibrant, impossibly green with flowers everywhere. The fairways are immaculate and there isn’t a weed in sight. But then you know that already.
It’s often remarked upon but nevertheless, nothing can prepare the first-time attendee for the elevation changes at Augusta. The 445-yard first looks flat on TV but actually drops about 50ft before rising again all the way to the green which is perhaps another 30ft above the tee. The par-five second falls steadily for almost 120ft over the first two shots before rising again to the putting surface. The tenth, where Rory McIlroy came a cropper on Sunday, looks like a ski slope, such is the startling change in altitude. The eighteenth is the opposite; from tee to green the terrain rises 60ft. In all seriousness, a modicum of fitness helps enormously, as this is certainly no stroll in the park.
The most striking architectural feature at Augusta are the mounds, which are seemingly everywhere. In many cases, the tee is the only flat lie on the entire hole. Bobby Jones and architect Dr. Alister MacKenzie deliberately used mounds instead of bunkers to penalize errant shots as “they are more pleasing in appearance, less costly to maintain and often serve well to emphasize strategic conceptions.” Undoubtedly true, but they are brutal up close. This is especially the case at the par-five eighth, where the green is hidden behind huge humps. Perhaps the shot of the tournament this year was Tiger's raked three-wood that skirted said mounds and wound up eight feet for eagle on the final day. Unfortunately, as at the eleventh where another large mound dominates the view from the right side of the green, these mounds aren't at all obvious on TV, which tends to flatten the topography.
The course itself has no official rating because in typical Masters fashion they’ve never asked for one. However, unofficial reviewers have suggested a course rating of over 78 and a slope rating as high as 148. To put that in perspective, Carnoustie is officially the hardest course in Scotland with ratings of 75 and 145. Given the lack of penal rough at Augusta these are very tough rating numbers and the scoring reflects well on the quality of the field. An interesting but little-known fact is that Clifford Roberts insisted that hole distances always be measured in five yard increments, which explains why you never see the famous par-three twelfth listed as 157-yards, for example.