ASPECIAL
SUNDAY
lakeside green for the fi rst time, my mouth fell open like the broken door of a mailbox. I was physically stunned by the unexpected beauty in front of me. My stomach sank, and my voice vanished. A kaleidoscope of color radiated out: a glorious array of pinks and purples and yellows and greens and whites. It was my Welcome to the Masters
moment. We’ve all seen the setting on TV: the 11th green stacked in front of Hogan Bridge, Rae’s Creek, the 12th green and 13th tee, with those amaz- ing azaleas framing the hushed nook of Amen Corner. But in person, the colors popped
so vibrantly, almost psychedelically. I never could have dreamt that a landlocked golf course bordered by strip malls could produce a setting that stirs the soul as strongly as the dramatic coastlines of Cypress Point, Pebble Beach and Pacifi c Dunes, but it absolutely does. We began our Sunday wanting to
walk all 18 holes well before the lead- ers teed off, to get a true feel for the course. I had no idea when I would be back, and I loved the fantasy of playing the course in my head. But Amen Corner stopped us in
our tracks. We spent the next two hours in the grand, err, observation stands behind the 12th tee, drinking in the intoxicating sanctuary while watch- ing shots bail understandably right of the lake on No. 11, battle the swirling winds at the impossible No. 12, and bend around the banking No. 13. I’ll admit I arrived at Augusta ques-
tioning whether or not the swirling winds were a broadcasting euphemism for shots that airmailed the deceptive diagonal green, or splashed down in Rae’s Creek. But I quickly became a believer as we sat in the observation stands and saw the spooky winds toy with player after player. On cue, the fl ags at Nos. 11 and 12 whipped into a fl apping frenzy and pointed directly at each other, like two
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NCGA.ORG / WINTER 2016
High on the hillside to the left of No. 16 is a gorgeous garden setting. It’s also just to the right of the downhill par-3 No. 6.
siblings assigning blame in front of a questioning parent. Meanwhile, each pro stood puzzled on the 12th tee, needing to hit his most precise shot of the entire round. That Sunday pin tucked on the
right edge of the green practically fl oats over Rae’s Creek, with water surrounding it short, right and long. Even a so-called safe tee shot, which meant sticking the landing between bunkers short and long inside a patch of green maybe 15 paces deep and some 30 feet left of the hole, felt like a daring, heart-in-your-throat moment. But then again, I don’t see how
you can ever feel safe when you play Augusta.
D
The Course Looks Impossible to Play on’t get me wrong—Augusta National is the No. 1 course on my bucket list. But the more I walked around it and saw tee shots squeeze through bowling lane chutes to landing areas pinched in like corsets, 180 feet of monstrous elevation changes that chugged blindly uphill and plunged downhill, crater-like bunkers on every hole but one, bubbling greens as receptive as the roof of a VW bug and putts that always had an extra 5 feet of trickle, the more thankful I grew that I was watching instead of playing.
Augusta doesn’t have an offi cial
rating, but Golf Digest estimated that it would clock in around 78.1 from the tournament tees. It gave me a criminal course handicap of 2, and predicted my average score from the 7,435-yard setup would be an 83. Deal. I’ll take that score right now
and drink mint juleps in the club- house all afternoon. Breaking 100 might be a competitive over/under. Anything less than 36 putts would be a lights-out lag performance, aided undoubtedly by holing a few 20-foot comebackers. Tiger Woods famously prepared for the speed of Augusta by practicing on the fl oor of Stanford’s Maples Pavilion, but those putts didn’t snap off and break into the third row. Putting off the green would be a legitimate concern every time I addressed the ball. So would hitting a tree 50 yards off the tee. I’m not sure I could hit the 18th fairway with a 7-iron, let alone while attempting to belt a driver on the uphill, 465-yard (!) fi nishing hole. The 6,365-yard member tees might be a fairer fi ght, but even the holes the pros sometimes take advantage of were wild in person. The shot-shape for your drive on the par-5 No. 13 whips around like a 3-point line—and the landing area seemingly bottlenecks like a corner 3.
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