ESPN 2009 Masters

Originally Published: April 15, 2009

Augusta: Even harder than it looks

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By Bob Harig
ESPN.com
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AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The roars had long since subsided, replaced by an eerie peacefulness. The smell of pine trees filled the air, and the only noise was the occasional smack of a golf ball, the birds chirping or rain pelting the beautiful fairways.

Augusta National was in all its glory Monday, the day after Angel Cabrera dispatched Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell in a sudden-death playoff on a drama-filled final day at the Masters.

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Harry How/Getty ImagesThe tee shot at Augusta National's No. 18 can be one of the most daunting in golf with trees lining both sides of the narrow chute and a bunker staring you in the face if you manage to hit a straight shot.

The gallery ropes were gone, and a sense of openness returned without all the exuberant spectators filling the last bit of space near every tee box, down every fairway and around every green.

The big scoreboard adjacent to the 18th green still told the story that the playoff participants had managed to finish at 12 under par. If you did not witness it, you could get a sense of the year's first major from that towering structure. That leaderboard shared all its red numbers to signify a day of birdies and bogeys, ups and downs, euphoria and anguish.

On the day after, adrenaline would be replaced by sheer awe, the proceedings put into perspective.

And there is no better way to achieve that kind of view than to play the storied Augusta National.

Among its many traditions, the Masters annually allows a few dozen of us media types to play the course the Monday after the tournament. It is a remarkable gesture, really. Augusta is among the more private clubs you will find, and it will close for the summer in about a month.

Don't they want their course back immediately? Do they really want to risk desecration of this hallowed ground by us computer-lugging chumps?

Nonetheless, I got the tap on the shoulder this year and was more than thrilled to drive down Magnolia Lane, change my shoes in the clubhouse, warm up on the range, hit a few putts on the still-slick practice putting green and proceed to the first tee.

Now before you go off weighing in with taunts of how great my job is, please understand that playing golf for me really is work. It is typically an exercise in great frustration, and one I partake in far less than you would think, given my proximity to the game.

So I will not subject you to a rundown of my round, a hole-by-hole of my bogeys, chunks, hooks, slices and various screwups. (Okay, I did birdie the 13th, so that was cool.)

Instead, there were several observations to be made during a five-hour tour of Augusta National, not the least of which was an already high level of appreciation for what the best in the world do at a place where the fine line between success and failure is thinner than Cabrera's hair.

It's just downright impressive what these guys can achieve against such a demanding test, under duress.

To give you an idea. …

Length: The Masters tees weigh in at a stout 7,445 yards, while we played from the member tees, which are far more respectable and playable at 6,365 yards. On the first tee, I stepped off an 80-yard difference. There are some holes at which it is a jaw-dropping advantage for the members. The par-3 fourth has a 70-yard difference, for example.

But two holes really stood out: the par-4 seventh and par-4 11th. There has been considerable griping about these holes in recent years, as they were lengthened and toughened. At No. 7, the teeing ground difference is 120 yards. At No. 11, it is 105.

The seventh is especially brutal, even for us mortals (triple-bogey 7, thank you very much). The main concern is that the green is not meant to accept mid- to long-iron approach shots. But given the added yardage, that's what is now required. And when you get up on that very narrow green, you can understand. There is simply no room for error. Phil Mickelson's spinning approach shot Sunday from the right rough to set up a birdie is even more impressive from this view.

Caddies: Fuzzy Zoeller, who played in his 31st and final Masters this year, has long scoffed at the notion that a first-timer can't win the Masters, even though he is the last to do it in 1979. It is Zoeller's contention that players today could benefit greatly by using one of Augusta National's caddies, if not during the tournament, then at least in practice rounds.

Zoeller makes an excellent point.

My man, Ian, was exceptional, doing far more than just lugging my clubs around in the rain. (Oh, yes, did I mention it rained? From the 6th green through the 18th fairway it never stopped. Oh, well.) He was invaluable, even for someone who doesn't have the ability to put all of his knowledge to use.

An example: At the par-5 second, I managed to get my third shot on the green, but I was a good 40 feet from the pin (all the hole locations were the same as Sunday). If I were on my own, I might have played about 5 feet of left to right break. It just didn't appear to be much more severe than that. Ian got a good chuckle, then pointed to a spot on the green that was at least 20 feet to the left of where I would have aimed.

I somehow got the putt to roll in the vicinity of where he told me, and sure enough, it almost went in and I had a tap-in for par.

These sort of revelations occurred throughout the day. Ian, a South Carolina native, has been caddying at Augusta National for more than six years. He knows the greens, and he continually had to point me in a direction I did not comprehend. But I listened. You hear about how everything breaks toward Rae's Creek or that putts break uphill. Some of it contradicts what your eyes tell you.

I am not suggesting that any of these caddies take the place of Stevie Williams or Bones Mackay on Tiger Woods' or Phil Mickelson's bag, but there is much to be said for the knowledge of these guys in the white jumpsuits.

Where do they put all that stuff? It occurred to me as we moved along that Augusta National has an abundance of television towers, scoreboards, concession stands and the like that appear to be permanent structures. They are not. They blend in nicely during the tournament, but when it's just a few people out there, I got to wondering about it.

Turns out it all gets taken down. Even the concession stands, some of which are huge buildings. Within a few weeks, it will all be tucked away in one of the spectator parking lots.

The 12th green: This, of course, is where no one gets to go during the tournament. Only the players, caddies and officials get to make that trek over the Hogan Bridge to the narrow green fronted by Rae's Creek and backed by a couple of menacing bunkers. It is only 30 feet deep at one point. The typical swirling winds also make it problematic.

Mickelson didn't commit fully to his 9-iron shot Sunday and paid the price, his ball hitting just short of the fringe and rolling back into the water. After an incredible front-nine 30, his mistake cost him dearly. He ended up three strokes out of a playoff.

The 13th fairway: One of the most famous par-5s in golf, "Azalea" is considered an "easy" birdie hole most of the time, and it was once again an important factor in the tournament outcome. It yielded 14 eagles for the week and 124 birdies, and ended up playing as the second-easiest hole on the course.

Still, what is striking is the slope of the fairway from right to left, how dramatically a ball can be above (or below, for a lefty) your feet. We all assume these guys should knock it on that green in two shots. But depending on the kind of lie they get, that's no given. And yet they seem to make it look easy.

Putting: Reading the greens is an Augusta National art, and trying to figure them out can drive you to exasperation. Ask Woods, who had 122 putts for the tournament, which is an average of more than 30 per round. That is usually not going to get it done, and yet Tiger missed a playoff by just four strokes. Tiger has now played 15 Masters, so learning the greens is an ongoing process even for him.

And sure, it's easy to suggest that Mickelson should have made that eagle putt at 15 or the birdie putt at 17. Both were within 4 feet, and he missed both. He probably should have made them, but … Campbell probably should have made his par-saving 4-footer on the 18th to stay alive in the playoff, but … Let's just say you come to learn that nothing outside a tap-in is assured on these greens.

The 18th: The finishing hole is 465 yards for the pros (385 for us), and you can see from the back of the tee why it causes fits. You must whistle your drive through a chute of pines, and then curve it to the right so it doesn't land in one of the fairway bunkers, which are basically a straight shot.

That's not Kenny Perry's ball flight. He hits a draw, so if he catches a drive and doesn't get it to fade, he's in the bunker, as was the case during regulation Sunday. Or you overcompensate and hit it into the trees on the right, which is what happened to both Woods and Cabrera, with far different results.

Amazingly, Woods never hit this green in regulation and made three bogeys and a par for the tournament. Campbell, after hitting a perfect drive on the playoff hole, bogeyed it to drop out of the playoff.

Somehow I got up and down for a par, and by now the rain had finally stopped. I would say that the 5-footer on the last that dropped into the cup would keep me coming back, but of course, the same would be true even if I rolled it off the green and down the fairway … which at Augusta National is quite possible.

Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.