On news of plans filed to lengthen Augusta National's 5th hole, GolfChannel.com's Will Gray went to players with the premise and while Graeme McDowell could not get excited, former Masters champions Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth were largely positive about the concept.
“I’m a big fan of making the hard holes harder and the easy holes easier,” Mickelson said Sunday at the Genesis Open. “So making No. 5 harder, which is perennially a difficult par, or should be one of the harder par-4s out there, I’m a big fan of. What I’m not a fan of is taking a hole like 7 and making it the second-toughest par on the golf course. I think that’s a mistake. I think making 5 more difficult is not.”
Jordan Spieth believes the proposed changes would force driver into players’ hands on what he described as a “3-wood hole” given the pitch of the fairway, and added that firm and fast conditions could potentially push a longer fifth hole to the brink of playability.
“It would make an already very difficult hole even harder,” Spieth said.