Augusta's 12th: It's the left side, stupid.

[BCrosby]

Hogan is quoted in several places as having made that statement about no. 11. Not no. 12.

There is a great story about no. 12 and Hogan's incredible focus. One year at the Masters he hit it stiff and birdied it. He was so pleased with himself that as he started to tee off on 13, he noted to his playing partner, Claude Harmon, that he didn't recall birdying that hole before. Harmon said that was great, but stopped him to say that he was hitting out of turn. Hogan reminded him that he had birdied the hole. Harmon had to inform him that he had just aced the hole.

I don't doubt the story is true.

Bob

[GeoffreyC]

My recollection of the story is that Mr. Hogan looked towards the flag on #11 but would never actually hit the shot until he felt the breeze on his cheek.  That way he was, I presume, hitting the ball when the wind was still blowing and not during a sudden lull in the wind.

He also said that if his ball was ever actually on the putting surface in regulation on #11 then he pulled the shot. He always played right of the green for a chip and a putt.

[CHrisB]

Here's an interesting article studying the wind at the 12th:

Tunnel Vision
Using technology to solve the mystery winds of No. 12

Phenomenon of the Flags
Jack Nicklaus once called the 12th at Augusta National "the hardest hole in golf." Lloyd Mangrum settled on "the meanest." How merciless is the 12th? During the first round of the 1980 Masters it took Tom Weiskopf 13 strokes to navigate the 12th's 155 yards. (He rallied the next day with a 7.) In '72 Bobby Mitchell finished three strokes back of the champ, Nicklaus, after making a bogey and three doubles at 12.

What makes this exacting hole so maddening is the heretofore indecipherable winds. It's not uncommon for the flag on the adjacent 11th green to point east while the flag at the 12th blows in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, the tree branches sway in various directions.

(From a feature box in the same article)
One wind, two directions
The 12th green sits at the lowest spot on the course, in a valley formed by two hills, one behind the green, the other behind the tee. The prevailing south wind splits as it blows over the hill behind the green, causing a shear that occurs about 65 yards from the tee. Some gusts are funneled to the east, into the open space around the 11th green, stiffening the flag. Other gusts swirl to the west, into the amphitheater of pines around the 12th green. Thus, the flags at the 11th and the 12th -- separated by only 400 feet -- often fly in opposite directions.

Over the years the ghostly winds have given rise to a host of theories. Ben Hogan once said, "Never hit until you feel the wind on your cheek." Hubert Green passes on this hypothesis: "When the dogwood tree to the right of the 13th tee stops moving, then there's no wind blowing over the 12th green."

In an effort to unlock the 12th hole's secrets, SI approached the University of Western Ontario, one of the world's leading research centers on boundary layer effects, the discipline of engineering that examines how wind interacts with the earth's surface. Using topographical information supplied by Augusta National, Western Ontario constructed a mini Amen Corner 10 feet in diameter. The researchers reproduced the prevailing April wind (from the south) and the typical velocity (median 7.5 mph). According to Western Ontario, this is the first time a golf course has been wind-tunnel-tested. After 68 years of superstition, you have before you the science of the 12th hole.

Wind Tunnel 101
Augusta National is a one-of-a-kind golf course, but all it takes to reproduce it (albeit at a scale of 1 to 200) is high-density foam sculpted with drywall compound, more than 600 trees made of sponge and wire, an acrylic Rae's Creek (complete with tiny silicone waves) and, for good measure, foam golfers that are nearly as stiff as the real thing. In January the model was put to the test at the University of Western Ontario's Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory.

To marry the wind-tunnel technology to the specific demands of the 12th hole's tee shot, Maxfli supplied SI with trajectory information for an average Tour player's eight-iron. The shot's path was represented on the model by a fixed piece of copper tubing 5/16 of an inch in diameter. Meteorological data from 1949 through '99 (collected at Augusta Regional Airport, about 10 miles south of Augusta National) was then analyzed by computer to create a simulation of the typical April winds that blow through Amen Corner. Smoke was used to give these breezes visual paths. To illustrate the turbulence at higher elevations, a wire coated with oil was fixed upwind from the model. An electrical current was sent through the wire until the oil burned, producing yellowish smoke. To depict the wind's effects along the trajectory of the shot, 13 evenly spaced holes were drilled along the copper tubing. Inside, titanium tetrachloride was introduced, producing bright white smoke.

According to Maxfli, a typical eight-iron shot is in the air for slightly more than five seconds. At Augusta that journey is fraught with peril. On the tee the wind is in the golfer's face, quartering slightly to the left (east), in the direction of the 11th fairway. About 25 yards into its flight the ball encounters a crosswind blowing to the east. Another 40 yards toward the green, as the shot is approaching its apex, the ball is slammed by a wind shear, with gusts blowing to the west toward the 13th fairway. This wind dissolves into low-speed swirling 20 yards from the green, as the ball is passing over Rae's Creek.

The 12th hole has played a pivotal role at numerous Masters, and no wonder -- the wind a golfer feels on the tee barely hints at the turbulence his ball will experience in the air. With its secrets revealed, will the 12th (statistically the second-hardest hole, after the 10th) be tamed? Doubtful, says Greg Kopp, the project leader at Western Ontario. "The challenge used to be trying to figure out the wind," he says. "Now the players have all the information, but they may wish they didn't. It's still a frightening shot into a very difficult wind."

Issue date: April 8, 2002

See http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/augusta/news/2002/04/04/tunnel_vision/ for the article.

[Mike Hendren]

Will somebody please post an aerial of the 12th.  I've seen one in the past and its amazing how narrow and angled the green is.

Help,

Mike

[Patrick_Mucci]

ChrisB,

With the 12th green sitting in what amounts to a hollow, with trees all around it, except at the front, where does the wind come from, that blows into the golfers face on the tee ?

How did the lab say the winds were blowing on the day Norman flew his iron over the green.

Have you ever noticed, over the many years that you've been watching the Masters, how rare, if ever, golfers fly the 12th green by 20 yards.  

Have you, or anyone else, ever seen any golfer, over all these years, hit the ball where Norman hit his ball ?

[Robert_Walker]

Norman didn't hit the ball 20 yards over the green, he pulled it way left, and the shape of the green and surrounding merely made it look like 20 yards.

The predominent wind in April comes out of the South, Southeast, and the topography of the 11th and 13th fairways causes the wind to swirl, and become unpredictable.

The trees cause a wind shear effect to occur.

However, I suspect that Norman pulled his shot real bad. He has been known to do that with his short and middle irons.

[CHrisB]

ChrisB,

With the 12th green sitting in what amounts to a hollow, with trees all around it, except at the front, where does the wind come from, that blows into the golfers face on the tee ?

How did the lab say the winds were blowing on the day Norman flew his iron over the green.

Have you ever noticed, over the many years that you've been watching the Masters, how rare, if ever, golfers fly the 12th green by 20 yards.  

Have you, or anyone else, ever seen any golfer, over all these years, hit the ball where Norman hit his ball ?

Pat,

Good questions.  I'm really not sure of the answers; I just thought it was interesting that someone actually did a study on this, and that it might be interesting to post.

I'm not sure exactly how the wind comes against you on the tee; my guess is that 150 yards is enough to allow the winds to drop down low enough to be felt on the tee (note the statement in the article about wind shear in the area of Rae's Creek).  The wind was into the players in the 3rd round this year, but I don't think it was particularly troublesome except for how you described, putting doubt into players like Paul Lawrie, who clearly took a lot of club and decelerated, leaving it way short-right in the creek.

I think that the point of the article was that there are many factors at play that cause the wind to swirl around in that corner of the course, adding to the difficulty of the shot.  The stories of players through the years seems to bear that out.  Seems like more players get caught with a gust blowing their ball short in the water (like Tiger a few years ago) than get caught with a gust blowing it long.

I don't know how the wind was behaving for Norman in '99; he hit an 8-iron there so it probably wasn't strong either into him or behind him.  But perhaps it was chaotic enough for the two shots to have such different results.

But that also means that we have to take Norman at his word that the two shots were hit the same--for all we know he ripped the first and smoothed the second, but for appearances told everyone he hit them the same!  Actually, with him that wouldn't surprise me one bit...

The only other player I can remember hitting it up there where Norman did was Jeff Maggert (can't remember the year but I remember him having to poke it down into the bunker to play his third; Maggert went to my high school so I usually follow him closely enough to remember such things--lots to remember this year!).

[Patrick_Mucci]

Chris B,

GRAPHITE !

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.  

Remember also that the 12th green is at about the lowest elevation on the property and sits in that hollow coming off of Augusta Country Club's property, and that tall trees are around the green, with some to the right of the tee.

GRAPHITE !

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.