[Ran Morrissett]

I originally was going to entitle this post “Does the Masters now start at the 17th tee on Sunday?” but after reviewing the hole stats at www.Masters.org, I see that the old expression of the Masters starting on the back nine remains true.

Three of the six hardest holes on the course greet the golfer to start the back nine.

65% more double bogeys and higher are occurring on the back than on the front (116 to 70 on the front), in large part because of water being present on five holes on the back.

The 15th is playing over par for the first three rounds. More others (triple or higher) have been recorded on that hole than any other hole on the course. I wonder if they will play the 15th shorter today, in an effort to entice a few more to have a go at the green?  Maybe, maybe not – the wedge shot has them spooked and they might just want to keep it that way.

Average score for the back through three rounds by the world's best: 38.66, closing in on a bogey every three holes

Six of the nine hardest holes are on the back.

The 17th is the only non-par five on the back not among the nine hardest holes on the course  - after all the train wrecks there yesterday, I was surprised that the 17th was only the 11th hardest hole on the day.

5 of the paltry 8 eagles this week have occurred on the back.

The 13th is playing harder than both the 2nd and 8th holes –isn’t that rare that it plays harder than both?

The 14th is the 7th hardest hole through three rounds - it is actually playing harder than the 5th, which I thought was really scary until I saw that the 14th has been lengthened to 440 yards.

And finally, the 18th is second to the 11th as the hardest hole through three rounds. I don’t in any way think this makes it a ‘great’ finishing hole - hearing how the tee ball is through a chute of trees is akin to nails on a chalkboard, to me at least. Indeed, when combined with the chip-out-a-thon at the 17th, the two holes make an uninspired finish, unless you are into NASCAR and just want to see wrecks. Regardless, none of us will be turning off the television sets early as absolutely no lead is safe when one gets to the 17th tee.

My general impression from having played it and watched it for years is that the front was the harder nine and the back the more spectacular with greater swings in fortune. Now, with the swings in fortune only going one way and the back being even harder than the front, I think that fact more than anything else explains the change in the tone of the Invitational.

Cheers,



P.S. On a side note, despite moving the tee up 60 yards, the 4th played the 3rd most difficult hole yesterday. Wonder where they'll have the tee today? It might replace the 11th as the hardest hole on the course if they set it up at 240 yards, depending on the two hole locations of course.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Shivas,

it seems like a lot of guys have just locked up and fallen into a strange mental state where they know they're supposed to play it as penal and just take their medicine but somehow can't get completely out of strategic / heroic mode.

Just take tiger on 17. Friday was a pitch forward through the trees attempt followed, uh, by another pitch forward through the trees attempt.

Then yesterday was FIGJAM like for its low mental wattage. The way tiger behaved from there was incredibly in tiger like. He seemed to kind of lose it.

The only other time I recall seeing that was middle of his fourth round at hoylake.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Ps ridley said he had to change the flag on 17 from front left to back because front was unplayable.

The weather definitely caught them out and I think they must be uncomfortable the way everyone is laughing at them.

Wil be interesting to see what dots they choose to connect, and changes to make, when they do the post mortem.

[Patrick_Mucci_Jr]

Ran,

There are a few factors that contribute to the difficulty of the back nine.

The pressure always manifests itself on the back nine.  
Then, there's the water which influences 5 holes on the back nine.  The topography on the back nine, combined with uncomfortable lies at increased distances caused by the added length contributes to the difficulty.

The added length on # 10 and # 11 is a factor on both holes.
However, it was interesting to see the players teeing off with fairway woods on # 10, a par 4 in excess of 500 yards.
The Turbo Boost allowed them to drive to desired DZ's.

The added length makes itself a factor in a manner beyond its linear influence.

It brings with it two additional factors, diminished visability and more difficult lies on longer approaches.

Today, many of the tees were well forward.
But, when the tees are back, visibility and awkward lies come into play on some of the holes.

The lie and distance on # 11 from the DZ make the approach more difficult than in the "old" days.  The same can be said of
# 18, # 17, # 14 and perhaps # 13.

When you look at the additional yardage and the other factors brought into play by that additional yardage you begin to understand why the back nine is playing more difficult.

Wind direction and velocity can also influence the nines differently.

Today it appeared that the wind was in the face of the golfers approaching # 13 and # 15, which also means it's blowing the ball toward the water on # 11 and a factor on # 12.
When wind and water are combined, the scores tend to soar.

Without the wind, the stats might have been different.

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