The holes to go after — and the ones to respect

You won’t win the Masters if you cannot exploit the opportunities presented by the par 5 holes at Augusta National, writes John McHenry.

It would be very easy to underestimate Augusta National, the home of the first major championship of the year. For the untrained eye, everything is manicured to perfection and nothing about the course seems treacherous. There isn’t much by way of rough, for example, and all of the par 5’s are reachable in two shots – and still the winning is usually less than 16 under par.

Professional golfers thrive on consistency. They love targets and Augusta National gives you everything – bunkers to aim at off for your tee shots, generous fairways and huge greens with target backdrops but it also offers conundrums – phenomenal changes in elevation, sharply contoured greens which usually run between 13 and 14 on the stimp meter and a swirling breeze which funnels up through the course, making exact judgment a near impossibility.