AUGUSTA, Ga. – Carlos Ortiz from Mexico, LIV Golf golfer, entered this The Masters Tournament by way of a T4 finish at last year’s US Open. He is a very skilled golfer, of sound mind and body, playing in his second Masters. He shot 80 on Thursday. You could say he played poorly, but that would be a more accurate statement: Augusta National is one extremely difficult course.
If you’ve ever played it, you know that any two-putt shot from 20 feet is an accomplishment. Augusta National during the Masters — the back shade, fairways packed with spectators, cameras pointed at you and millions of people watching on TV, short fairways the length of the crew and the prospect of immortality — is almost impossible.
Us regular players can’t even imagine how hard it is.
My friend Mike Donald and I discuss this from time to time. Not even a decade ago, but years ago, when Mike was in his 60s, we played away and Mike played the whole way. He played well, held everything and shot 80.
At the 1990 Masters, Mike played in his first (of two) Masters. The course played hard on Thursday and the average shot was 74. Mike had to be one of the top 100 players in the world then. Bill Harmon, the son of a Masters champion, was Mike’s caddy, and he knew what he was doing. Things were clicking. Mike shot 64.
In those days, the field was re-paired for Friday’s round based on Thursday’s results, and Mike was in the bottom pair on Friday. It wasn’t like he forgot how to play, one day after another. Mike shot 82 without playing that bad. He started with three bogeys in three shots. It happened before that day, it happened since then, and it will happen again.
Somewhere out there in this wonderful moment of podcasting, there are people talking about what the average golfer could shoot at Augusta. There was a podcast this year where the co-host, a 7-handicap golfer, wondered what he could do at the Masters if he could play every hole under certain fantasy conditions: Second shots on eight par-4 holes from 100 yards, third shots on four par-5 holes from 100 yards; tee shots on four par-3 holes from 100 yards. The fantasy of 100 meters.
This 7-handicapper said he could win the Masters under those conditions.
Mike and I were in complete agreement: he is deluded.
“Rory McIlroy couldn’t get that shot to the green on 13,” Mike said, recalling McIlroy’s short three-putt on the par-5 13th on Sunday. He did 7.
“From 120 yards on 18, he puts that ball in a bunker,” Mike said, referring to McIlroy’s play on the 72nd hole at last year’s Masters. He needed 4 to win, but he was playing for immortality. “He couldn’t do that and he’s the best in the world. How is he going to play those shots with a 7 handicap?”
It won’t happen.
Let’s recap: Back headlines, streets lined with spectators, millions watching on TV, cameras pointed at you, crew-length short shots, playing for immortality? And your playing partner is seeing bullets through you?
No 7-handicapper would stand a chance.
Mike and I created our own fantasy scoring situation, with the same 100-yard rules. Our theoretical player would be a club champion at Acme Golf & Country Club, able to shoot 77 at home any day of the week and nearly par on better days. This fictional golfer is now the Masters leader through 54 holes, playing under 100-yard rules. Will the golfer make it to the Butler Cabin?
Mike’s verdict: Not a chance.
“Anytime you putt from 30 or more feet, you’ll never make one and you’ll be lucky to two shots,” Mike said. That was his starting point and it was devastating. You’d do well to go for 45, with nine two-putt greens and nine three-putt greens. If you hit nine greens and missed nine greens and only needed a chip or bunker shot on those nine holes, that would add up to a 71. That looks fantastic, too.
You’re a good club player and now you’re trying to win the Masters? Rory McIlroy was the best player in the world with a three-shot lead to nine and he needed a playoff to win.
“You’re 100 yards out, and that ball is sitting and it’s a perfect lie — if you’re a Tour player,” Mike said. “But for the good country club player, anything other than solid contact with the first ball, getting the split will mean something thick, short, or thin and long. Now you’re looking at a chip or two and, as often as not, three shots. The next hole, you’re looking at the same lie again – it’s like a fairway ball, except when the fairway ball measures the ball, with the ball. for your last three shots, it is placed on your head.
“On the 15th, the fat is in the lake and the thin is in the other,” Mike continued. The third shot there from 100 yards is a downhill shot from a downhill lie, a terrible combination. “If you’re teeing off the 15th green, do you know how easy it is to drive it over the green and into that lake?”
Very, very easy.
Maybe you will two-shot.
The 6th hole may be the toughest 100-yard par-3 in the world, playing in the traditional Sunday hole position back right, on a shelf the size of a White House banquet table. Even if you can get it to stay on the shelf, any missed putt for 2 can end up on the front of the very steep green. You’d do well to make three shots from there. Another double on the card, with 12 more holes of torture to go.
Any Sunday score below 80 for our club champion from central casting in these conditions would be an achievement.
“It’s late in the day, the greens are blue and you’re nervous as hell,” Mike said. Yes, 80 would be a good score.
Rory McIlroy showed just how tough Augusta National is last year on Sunday. Carlos Ortiz showed this on Thursday. Here comes Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It only gets harder.
