Augusta and golf tackle a longtime problem

Sergio Garcia and wife Angela named their infant daughter Azalea, after the 13th hole at Augusta National, where he made a career-changing par en route to his dramatic Masters victory in a sudden-death playoff in 2017. Now, that same hole, one of golf’s greatest risk-reward decisions, is at the centre of golf’s referendum on the distance debate.

The 13th was designed by architect Alister MacKenzie and club co-founder Bobby Jones to be a tempting and dangerous hole. It invites the long driver to bend one around the corner on the left at the 510-yard dogleg hole. A tributary to Rae’s Creek winds in front of the green, and behind the putting surface are four bunkers. It can produce eagles and big numbers with equal infamy. This is where Byron Nelson in 1947 played the hole in six under par for four rounds as did Phil Mickelson when he won in 2010, and the likes of Curtis Strange in 1985 and Rory McIlroy in 2011 crashed and burned.

Bubba Watson and other long bombers, such as McIlroy, have turned this hole into pitch-n-putt, and it has Augusta National thinking overtime on how to restore the inherent character of the hole.