If ANGC #17 was as it is today, could JN in 86 even hit the green now?

[Carl Rogers]

or even have a shot period??

My recollection of that round in 86 was that he pulled his tee shot left, and then hit the green out of only very very very light rough on the only angle there was to the only part of the green that gave him a chance to make a putt. 

Is my recollection accurate?

Wasn't the putt mostly downhill and called by many un-readable?

[JSlonis]

No, I don't believe he would have a shot. As for the putt in 86', it was downhill and Nicklaus knew it would break a bit right although it read pretty straight. I recall his son Jackie saying something about that putt on one of the replays that the Golf Channel shows.

[Adam_Messix]

Good Question....Given the longer clubs, the longer ball, and the added length of the hole my guess is the he would have likely hit the Eisenhower Pine with his drive and would have had a really difficult 2nd shot.  As it was, he had to play his approach much lower than normal and landed well short of the hole and ran up. 

Norman pull hooked his drive even worse than Nicklaus and played a run up shot from just off the 7th green.  He would have had similar issues as Nicklaus. 

[J_ Crisham]

Since we are speaking hypothetically: Assume Nicklaus hits Ike's tree and it drops down. He's got 230 into the green. Sounds like the perfect hi cut 1 -iron that only Jack could hit. In the 1975 Masters he hit it into 15 on his second shot. Nobody and I mean nobody could hit long irons as high and as soft as Jack.       

[Phil McDade]

No, I don't believe he would have a shot. As for the putt in 86', it was downhill and Nicklaus knew it would break a bit right although it read pretty straight. I recall his son Jackie saying something about that putt on one of the replays that the Golf Channel shows.

Jamie:

There's a line in the '86 Masters re-broadcast in which Jackie reads that putt straight, and Jack -- having played there every year for nearly 30 years -- says to his son, "Rae's Creek," knowing that the gravitational pull of the course's lowest point (Amen Corner and Rae's Creek) would slightly take the putt to the right. That's local knowledge...

[Jed Peters]

Since we are speaking hypothetically: Assume Nicklaus hits Ike's tree and it drops down. He's got 230 into the green. Sounds like the perfect hi cut 1 -iron that only Jack could hit. In the 1975 Masters he hit it into 15 on his second shot. Nobody and I mean nobody could hit long irons as high and as soft as Jack.       

Only that 230 yard 1 iron is a 5 iron now.

[Jim Nugent]

A year or so ago Jack's son, I believe, said trees now block Jack's 2nd shot into 17. 

Of course, if those trees had been there in 1986, maybe Jack would have taken more care with his drive.