claims another victim....146 yd 9 iron, maybe 8..toughest hole in golf. Wow...unreal...can't say anything more...
#12 at Augusta
- Thread starter bkmtnittany1
- Start date
Yeah, especially when a player was just chewing up the coarse, making a run of birdies, and then hits two into the water, plus a third into a bunker. I felt really bad for Jordan Speith, but I think he'll have more opportunities to win. He just seems like a guy who won't let it get into his head.
True, true - the false front and extremely narrow depth of the green give you an extremely small "target landing area" - both long and short are dead, albeit long is slightly less dead than short due to the automatic penalty shot on any short shot (typically, you are going to leave your 2nd shot short when you hit it long because of heavy tilt toward water, so long is virtually an auto bogey, worse if you get too aggressive.).
But I think Spieth's problem was the fact that he was blocking his short-irons all day long - and I mean blocking short irons like you rarely see at the pro level. That shot at 12 was 30 yards right of target (he was aiming 15 yards left of the pin) and weak (typical of a really bad block). Then he came back with another shot off his drop where he chilly dipped it which is emblematic of the hands being late and stuck). He played 12 almost identically to how he played the par 3 4th, he was just lucky that the blocked short shot at the 4th didn't hurt him - his luck ran out at the 12th.
I'd much rather play #12 at Augusta than those island greens in Jacksonville or La Quinta.
Speith was 5 yds short and 10 yds right of his target.....then his drop shot sent more turf flying than the LSU - PSU mud bowl.....and his next drop shot was one of those overreactions to the two prior short shots.
The Sunday pin was where it always is on Sunday. Any shot to the right of the pin is a mishit even if it ends up being a decent shot.
it just seems that this little par 3 rears its ugly head at the worst moment...wow...i am still stunned...in the days of 320 yd drives a little par 3 is the killer...
Just my $.02.....but I think one of the reasons is we get to see this hole year after year after year. The other Majors rotate from course to course so we may not be at all familiar with the course let alone a specific hole.
Augusta's pretty unique....a small field to begin with, a weekend cut to only 50-60 players, playing twosomes on the weekend. I think more of us watch The Masters than any of the other Majors as over half of us are waiting for winter to end so we can get out and play too.
Augusta's pretty unique....a small field to begin with, a weekend cut to only 50-60 players, playing twosomes on the weekend. I think more of us watch The Masters than any of the other Majors as over half of us are waiting for winter to end so we can get out and play too.
Spieth will be better for this. He is young enough that this was bound to happen in his career and it is a good time for it. It will strengthen his game.
It's either going to make or break Speith.
He'll either be unaffected and continue on a tear, or he'll be Steve Blass.
He'll either be unaffected and continue on a tear, or he'll be Steve Blass.
He could choke away a major per year and win one every four years till he's 42 and tie Sarazen, Snead and Arnold.
It isn't that little of a par 3 with a massive false front on the green with a pond that everything short of the false front funnels into and a cavernous bunker that basically covers the entire backside of the green. The second shot after any long shot is brutal - you cannot be aggressive at all or your staring triple bogey in the face. The reality is that the only real landing area on the green is the leftside of the green. The pin is placed on the rightside on Sunday of the Masters and there simply is no place to land the ball right of center on that green - on the right side, right of center where the pin is, there is literally only a couple feet to land the ball beyond the "false front" where the ball does not roll back into the pond.
If you look at where virtually everybody plays, they aim left-center with a slight fade - a good shot lands 20 feet left and rolls slightly toward the pin as the green is funneling forward and to right at that point. It is the only area of the green that has a decent size landing area. Any shot to right of center is definitely a mishit and a shot that lands short and right of the green as Spieth's did is a massive block (which is damn unusual for a pro - a "bad block" for a pro with a 9-iron is where the ball lands 10 yards right of target, where Spieth's ball landed is a complete-&-total amateuresque block).
In any event, just because 12 is not a long Par 3 does not mean it is not one of the most difficult Par 3's in competitive golf - I'm willing to bet, it's all time tournament stroke average is well over 3 and one of the harder holes at Augusta. It's difficulty being the tiny, tiny landing area and if you miss that landing area (the one just left of center in the middle of the green where the landing area is the largest) - whether you miss it to the right, long or both, you are making bogey at best and it is very easy to make double or triple by not flying it past the false front and dumping it in the pond or being too aggressive on your second shot from anywhere long and dumping it into pond......or being tentative with your down-hill putt which is toward the false front and 3-putting.......etc....
Jordan Spieth has played in three Masters tournaments, he has finished 2nd, 1st, and 2nd.
FYI: The Par 3s at Augusta National, ave score since 1934 (excludes 2016):
#4: 3.28
#6: 3.13
#12: 3.28
#16: 3.15
#4: 3.28
#6: 3.13
#12: 3.28
#16: 3.15
I know winning a Major is more important than the money to these guys.....but his bad day at the office was the difference between $1,800,000 and the shared 2nd / 3rd place pot that came in at $844,000.
When I was 22 I was debating if I could afford a 1972 Pontiac LeMan's convertible that listed for $3,800. (I lied to myself, bought it and kept it for about 6 years / 80,000+ miles.)
When I was 22 I was debating if I could afford a 1972 Pontiac LeMan's convertible that listed for $3,800. (I lied to myself, bought it and kept it for about 6 years / 80,000+ miles.)
Jordan handled the press extremely well after that nightmare. I thought the veterans always said forget that pin on 12, aim for the middle of the trap.
He wasn't going pin-hunting - it was a complete block on JS's part, the ball landed 30 yards short and right of where he was targeting. His feet were aimed well left of the pin indicating that he was aiming to land the ball 15-to-20 feet left of the pin, just past pin high (ball will naturally roll back and to the right from there). JS's ball landed well short of pin-high and right of the green. Nothing to do with pin-hunting and just a complete mishit block.
Speith and his caddy were heard targeting the tv camera, a line 20 feet to the left of the pin so you're right, that's essentially right over the front trap. His shot was 10+ feet right of the pin so he missed his target line by 10+ yards.....plus was 5-7 yards short. Just an awful shot.
When I play, my last thought (if I have one) before I swing is telling myself again not to hit it to THE ONE PLACE I can not afford to hit the ball to.....though for the record being aware of the worst spot doesn't mean I still don't hit it there. Used to be when I was a good golfer I targeted shots to the best spot.....now it's easier targeting trying to avoid the worst spots.
No doubt. You really don't see pros get "stuck" like that very often with short irons - and 12 wasn't the only time. Maybe he was standing to close to it, maybe his hands were just repeatedly late, maybe dropping to deep to the inside.....or something, because he was repeatedly getting in a position where he could not "release" without pushing the ball dead right with no power (the classic "stuck" / "block" position).
"Been there.....done that!"
Way way way too often in my golfing life!
In a way I am glad the UK player hit it, because the Masters would be nothing without the foreign born players and the fans of these players staying up half the night to see it happen. Many of us would rather have seen any American win it but this is why players from other countries weep openly when they win it. Same for our guys if they win the British Open.
Not that anything I say matters but I believe the British is the greatest tournament in the world and any such player who wins it is the best.
Not that anything I say matters but I believe the British is the greatest tournament in the world and any such player who wins it is the best.
I love the British Open - get up early, get the coffee going and watching golf at 0600. The best part is when the BBC crew joins American TV and you get to listen to the great Peter Aliss, what a treat. No one has better stories. The Masters - awesome. The PGA Championship - tremendous - Glory's Last Shot.
But nothing compares to the greatest championship of them all. Just the name gives me chills. The hardest courses. The toughest rough. The slickest greens. The narrowest fairways . . .
THE UNITED STATES OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP.
Agree with that, the US Open is the hardest tournament and the hardest test of golf in the world.
British Open courses are absurd. The weather conditions are always ridiculous. The US Open rough is the back of an El Camino compared to the waist-high nonsense in the British. I will not convince you or anyone else but I stand by this opinion. The mood swings of the weather over there are impossible.
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