Another Augusta Question

Just consider this with regard to the earlier post on Tiger Woods and the 15th hole as the turning point.

If Tiger has a clear shot at the 15th green Sunday instead of having to hit some silly cut around a Christmas tree, is there not great potential for the kind of explosive golf that so clearly defined the Masters in the previous century?

In other words, with a shot at the green and the potential roar of an eagle putt (and birdie at worst), does that reverberate through the property and influence Zach Johnson's play on 17 or 18? 

Comments

[Hawkeye]

There were many great comments to the previous post, I don't need to repeat the sentiments. But just because Tiger's "silly cut" didn't come off, that doesn't mean he didn't have a shot at it. Think off it this way instead: If he had pulled the shot off (it certainly wasn't impossible, he really put a crap swing on it), wouldn't the roar and the excitement have been greater than if he had hit a mundane, to-the-back-of-the-green 4-iron? After all, there's no guarantee he would have done something spectacular from a perfect lie.
Enough griping about the 15th - it's still a great hole. Let's turn the attention to the tragic holes the 7th, 11th and 17th have become instead...

[BobC]

The answer is yes.

There were many such instances. On 11 we might have seen him try to find an extremely difficult pin from the fw. As it was we saw a hack out of the woods and make a good chip.

[Bif]

Sorry, I'm not buying it. Contenders have to hit hooks and cuts around Christmas trees on the left side forever. We didn't make excuses for them. Tiger had his chance. He still had his chance a hole and two holes later and trees did not keep him from making birdies. What hurt him at 15 was the fact that he had not replaced his 4-iron, eliminating that option. Some reports say he wanted to hit 4, but had to hit 5. Can it really be that he and his keepers did not have a second set of irons on premises? Amazing.

[Al]

Please lets not forget this:

1. Tiger could have drove the ball in the fairway so he didn't have to worry about fading the ball around the Xmas tree. Just because you can hit it far, doesnt mean that you should have a clear second shot.

2. The Tiger/Stevie braintrust could have figured out on the tee box that a blasted drive would have landed precisely at a yardage that they did not have a club for and adjusted the strategy to hit a combo of 3wood / 3 iron.

[Pete the Luddite]

I hesitate to join a debate about someone not hitting the green after an errant tee shot.

Why is this an issue? He missed the fairway and left himself an overly challenging shot at the green. I hate to wonder how Jones would have responded to this issue. Would he be pleased that the risk/reward challenge from going from the green from such a tenuous position was appropriately difficult? Miss the fairway, fail to leave the proper angle in to the green, and you are left with a greater risk to reach the reward. Classic golf design, eh?

[NRH]

So the roar on 13 wasn't enough to influence Johnson, we had to have two eagles to determine a proper champ? Would Johnson not to be able to hear a birdie roar if Tiger laid up and stuck a wedge? Or if Tiger pulled it off and had a tap-in for birdie, would the roar be as loud? Making birdie on 16 while Tiger was 2 back and bouncing back from a bogey on 17 with a perfect chip on 18 wasn't enough of a test for Johnson?

Regardless of the trees and second cut, that shot didn't even come close...it bounced before, or even with, the water. Even after he made par on 15, he missed a good chance at birdie on 16 (by then he had to have known that Johnson made 5 on 17) and botched his approach on 17.

[noz]

What a stupid woulda, coulda, shoulda debate this is. You all need to get a life!

[86general]

I think there's drama either way--whether it's an open shot or one requiring a boomerang, if he hits the green and makes eagle, it's exciting. I prefer the open course where the eagles are easier to come by, but I don't think that particular shot is anything we can point to as a singular example of the problems with the changes at Augusta.

But that's not the most interesting thing about Tiger's final back 9, for me anyway.

Tiger missed fairly short, makeable putts on both 14 and 16. He tried a very, very difficult shot on 15, when one could argue he didn't need an eagle but definitely needed at least a birdie, which he could have made fairly easily with a lay up, as many players did that day. He hit his approach well short on 17, into the bunker.

Had this been the 4 hole stretch of Phil Mickelson in a similar position in the tournament, he would have been grilled 15 different ways by the announcers and all the blogs for being "reckless," or not thinking his way around, or choking on the crucial putts, etc.

But Tiger gets the free pass. Maybe he's earned a few free passes, but someone should at least state for the record that, under the pressure, this time, Tiger made some pretty questionable decisions and some very indifferent shots.

[Josh Hoisington]

The only reason this might be an issue is because Tiger didn't really miss the fairway by much. I don't remember exactly how far he was into the "second cut" but his drive was not that far off, and he might have had the same issue if he were just on the fairway.

Still, that's barely an issue. The trees over there are kind of hard not to be aware of, so Tiger probably should have just taken his medicine and hit his drive where Tom Fazio wanted him to.

[Smolmania]

If Tiger could have hit his drives where Tom Fazio wanted him to, he would have. Isn't that why he hit 3 wood on the tee on # 8? The driver isn't going where he wants. Is it time to put a Titleist driver back in the bag?

[Martin Del Vecchio]

Smolmania, it's not the driver, it's the player doing the driving.

[Smolmania]

Martin, I was in Arizona a couple of weeks ago trying out a Nike Sumo that I had purchased on E-bay. After two rounds, I traded it in for the new Cobra, and that went back to Golfsmith where I persuaded them to sell me back my F Speed Cobra. When you talk about guys at the highest levels, who get fitted using vectorlaunch monitors, there's a great deal to be said for the equipment being designed to match the arrow to the Indian. I bought the Sumo because I had a lot of success at a demo day with one last fall. Maybe it was the shaft on my E-bay model, but my last round (at Troon North's Pinnacle course, not a wide-open desert course), I hit 11 fairways with my old Cobra.

Obviously Tiger could beat any of us with a Dr. Pepper bottle (ala Mr. Trevino many moons ago), but Phil wasn't too far off when he said a couple of years ago that Tiger was using "inferior" equipment. He's got the graphite shaft now, but I'm not convinced that Nike makes the best clubs, for him or for anyone. . .

[Four-putt]

This is a non-discussion, Monday-morning quarterbacking at its worst in an attempt to denegrate the changes.

Tiger hit a bad layup, period. It simply went too far, no fault of the design or changes. To blame a broken (and unavailable) club is sophomoric. Being one of the game's finest shotmakers, even if the proper club was unavailable he could have dropped down a club and choked up on the grip to kill some yardage. Others do it all the time, myself included.

What I did note was that while Frank Hannigan's opinions are generally revered here, his post-Masters commentary contained a line of thought that somehow slipped through here:

"We live in an age of high anxiety. We crave to believe in something that is not run for profit and comes with flowers. It all happens, for me, on what is an over-rated golf course. Try this hypothetical: there was no connection with Bobby Jones and the course, otherwise exactly as it is today, has not entertained an annual tournament. Dozens of courses come instantly to mind that I'd rather play..."

Blasphemy? Heresy? Or is the guy right?

I'll start it off by agreeing with him and saying thanks for telling it like it is.

4p

[MJF]

The thing that baffles me is the lack of discussion about 17. All day long Oostie lets us know about the accessible pin position there. Yet every group that went through there that had 8 iron to wedge in left it short. Then the oft quoted "What the hell just happened there?" comment from TW. What did happen there? Did they all get bad yardage from ANGC? I find it compelling that everyone was at least one club short on all approach shots.

[DAW]

If I can remember the story correctly, an amateur playing in his first Masters, directly in front of Ben Hogan's group, noticed Mr. Hogan had layed up on 13 and 15. After he completed his round this young golfer bumped into Mr. Hogan where he asked Mr. Hogan why the layups on both par 5's, Mr. Hogan explained he didn't need to make eagles, just birdies.

The lesson I get from Mr. Hogan's explanation is one must do what is prudent under the right circumstances (like tiger's play of the 72nd hole at the CA Championships at Doral) which means one must play with the odds in his favor, not stacking the odds against yourself. Tiger needed to make sure he ensured himself the chance at making birdie without risking the odds in droping a shot to the field, which means you don't drop shots while playing the 69 - 70 - 71 - and 72nd holes.

Hell?, think about this guys, was he really going to make eagle anyway, and if he is the worlds number one player who can get up and down from the drop circle when he has to, can't he get it up and down from a layup position for birdie, where he runs virtually no risk of making bogey?

The fact is he committed a cardnial sin in Championship golf, he beat himself.

I remember a wise old hawk once telling me, "you can't make birdies off the tee on par 4's, you can't make birdies with your second shot on par 5's, but you can certainly make bogies or worse with these shots, birdies my friend happen on the green when your ball falls safely to the bottom of the cup, that's where birdies are made".

If Tiger wedges it up and down, does that make his birdie attempt on 16 any easier? Now he'd be playing 17 and 18 to win outright, could he have pulled that off?

Going about his second shot on the15th can simply be summed up one way, Tiger pulled a Phil Mickelson out there, instead of rolling his point he tried to throw a hard 8, god bless these fools for they crap out a majority of the time. But hey, lots of people love big gamblers, especially those who aren't afraid to lose house money!

[NRH]

Sorry to break it to you 4p, but Tiger was not attempting to lay up.

As for Hannigan, he has a point in questioning Augusta's rank if the Masters didn't exist. However, dozens of courses he'd rather play? I'd like to see that list. I can think of maybe a half dozen courses, but if there is one shot I would like to play it would be the tee ball on 12.

[The usual DAW]

The DAW two posts above is not me, but I generally agree with him about Tiger's decision on 15. It was the sort of thing Mickelson would try to do a few years ago.

[John M]

If the Masters didn't exist, Augusta National probably would not have made so many horrific changes to the course, trying to protect par and Tiger-proof it.

In that case we'd still have one of the great designs and courses ever conceived and made.

[DAW]

DAW stands for "Doesn't Always Win."

Which Tiger doesn't when he plays reckless and lose like Phil Mickelson. It's also known as choking.