Every year, it’s so exciting when The Masters rolls round. It’s the first Major of the season, it coincides with the arrival of spring and Augusta National is familiar to everyone bar first-time viewers.
One of the joys of having the same host venue each year is viewers build up a strong knowledge bank of Augusta’s holes – great moments, horror shows, likes and dislikes.
There are no bad holes in this idyllic corner of Georgia, but some are more exciting and memorable than others. Here, I’ve listed my five favourite and five least favourite holes at Augusta. It’s worth reiterating again that I don’t think those in the ‘least favourite’ category are bad – they merely don’t excite me as much as the others. As is the case with any subjective list, you may disagree!
My favourite 5
The 11th
I’ve thought a lot about this and the 11th hole is the one I’ve enjoyed watching the most over the years (just). There’s nothing quite like the sight of your favourite player appearing over the crest of the hill, ready to take on arguably the most daunting approach shot in golf.
There’s just no margin for error with a long-iron in hand, playing towards a green with a magnetic pond to the right (watching players who miss right off the tee punching shots with right-to-left spin through a channel of trees is great, too).
Players also know bailing out right presents a really difficult downhill chip towards water (and potentially over sand depending on the pin position), so the pond is very much in play.
Double-bogeys are common, birdies are rare and par is a really good score – that’s my kind of golf hole!
The 15th
Of all the par 5s at Augusta, the 15th is my favourite. I love holes where you just have to stand up and hit a good golf shot; where miscues are severely punished. One great swing can change the entire course of a tournament (see Sergio Garcia in 2017), but one bad one can be disastrous (see Garcia in 2018!).
What’s more, players often decide to go for the green in two when they’re in two minds. Why? If you lay up, the third shot is played with a wedge from a steeply downhill lie. You don’t see too many birdies from lay ups and spinning back into the water is a real possibility. There’s also water long if you catch it a bit thin. It’s a fantastic golf hole.
The 12th
What is there to say about the 12th? It’s a wedge or 9-iron for most players – and a scoring club for everyone in the field – but every single player would bite your hand off for four pars. That tells you all you need to know about the difficulty of the hole. From the tee, the green looks impossibly shallow and the shaved bank running down to Rae’s Creek appears as steep as Everest. I’d also challenge you to find a more beautiful spot from which to hit a golf shot.
The 13th
The 13th is quite simply one of the most iconic par 5s in world golf, and unlike the 15th, things can go disastrously wrong off the tee if you’re not careful. If you do find the fairway, you’ll face a long-iron or fairway wood approach from an uneven lie to a green fronted by a tributary of Rae’s Creek.
What I love about the 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th is that you can make anything from a 2 to a 10. Every shot is dramatic and one bad swing can completely derail your title challenge. It’s pure theatre. No course has a better six-hole stretch than 10-15 at Augusta.
The 7th
This may be seen by some as a strange choice, but I’ve always found the 7th a compelling hole. I think it’s because so much rides on the tee shot, which is completely straight. If you find the short grass, it becomes a birdie hole as you can fire straight at the flag or use the green’s slopes to your advantage. If you miss the short grass, you’re fighting for a par.
My least favourite five
The 17th
It’s fair to say I’m not a fan of the 17th hole. I think it’s the obvious weak link on the back nine and no match for what comes before it. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I think the penultimate hole of a Major Championship – especially one that’s staged at the same course each year – should offer more.
I know there are subtle differences – like the bunkers around the green – but the 14th and 17th are very similar and I don’t think it’s ideal to have them both within the space of four holes.
The 14th
Well, I’ve already mentioned the 14th, so I might as well talk about it next. Again, it’s not a bad hole, it’s just similar to another one on the back nine and is probably a victim of its position on the scorecard. To be fair, any hole sandwiched between the 13th and 15th would struggle to live up to those famous par 5s.
I do like the interesting green complex and the fact it has no bunkers gives the hole a unique identity, but for me, it lacks the ‘wow’ factor possessed by most other holes on the back nine.
The 8th
For some reason, the 8th hole has never really gripped me, and I’m not really sure why. The drive has to be threaded between trees and a greedy bunker on the right of the fairway. If you do find the short grass, it’s either a lay up or a long-iron/fairway wood to a green that sits above the level of the fairway and round to the left.
I think my indifference is to do with the blind and uphill nature of the approach – something I’ve never been particularly fond of. I’m not a massive fan of the second shot to 18, either.
The 16th
This one might come as a bit of a surprise, as there’s no doubting its aesthetic appeal. I just think the tier that runs through the middle of the green makes it a worse hole. It’s too easy to get the ball close to the pin on Sunday and it’s very difficult to find the right section when the pin is either front right or back right.
I also think the tier means the water is less in play than it should be. On Sunday, players can fire 30ft right of the flag and let the contours do the work. If the green were flat, more balls would find a watery grave. Clearly, I’m not as excited about the prospect of a hole-in-one as some others.
The 4th
I’m rarely a fan of really long par 3s, but I do understand why the 4th is needed at Augusta. The 1st hole is far from easy, but the 2nd and 3rd do present birdie opportunities, so a tough one-shotter at the next makes sense to me.
I enjoy the pin position on the front of the green between the bunkers, but when the flag is tucked away over the trap on the back-right side, it doesn’t do it for me. It’s so hard to make a birdie without a lucky bounce or holing a 30-footer. It’s certainly got more character than some other long par 3s, but it’s not my favourite hole on the course.
