If you can break 100, you’ll be doing well’: What makes Augusta National so hard for the average hacker?

Greens that are like glass and slope for days, a fairway grain that’s waiting to snag every iron you hit, we’ve all heard the tales about how difficult a course Augusta National is to play.

But for the average club golfer, there is still an air of mystery about how we would get on if we were ever one of the lucky few to take a stab at Dr Alister MacKenzie’s iconic layout.

We can see what the pros shoot but, otherwise, the closest many of us are going to get to taking on Amen Corner is by playing it on a video game.

And yet, what if we could? What if that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity arose? What could we score?

On The NCG Golf Podcast, we grabbed a Masters champion to ponder that very question. Ian Woosnam knows exactly what it takes to get round the Georgia masterpiece.

He won the green jacket in 1991 and played the Augusta National Golf Club layout for decades before opening his locker for the last time in 2021.

So I, an 11 handicapper, asked him how I would go if I managed to win the media lottery and grab a precious berth. It won’t surprise you to learn the whole round depends on “putting the ball in the right position on the greens”.

“Look back on my record, on the greens that week, I most probably had more putts than anyone who has ever won but my irons are really good,” he explained. “I got the ball into the right position all the time to make putting easier.

“Let’s say you go over the green on the 1st. You’ve got to hit the perfect shot that will get it onto the right tier. If you don’t get it on the right tier, you’re going to be off the green the other side. I remember playing with [golf course architect] DJ Russell. He hit it over the back of the 1st, chipped it back, and starts off with a double bogey from nowhere.

“If you can break 100, you’ll be doing well.”

Asked it if was about not making mistakes, compared with PGA Tour tournaments where players look to wound a golf course by attacking it ferociously, Woosnam added: “Well, if the greens are flatter, they can just attack it.

“There are some more difficult golf courses, but the ball goes so straight. The amount of money they are playing for – they can just attack. That’s what the game of golf is. That’s what people want to see on the PGA Tour.

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How to play Augusta National: ‘People don’t understand how difficult it is’

“It’s not like it used to be where you would fade one into a pin or you draw one into a pin. We don’t seem to see that game anymore. It’s just flat out whatever you do. I don’t enjoy watching it as much as I used to.

“[But at Augusta] You’ve got to hit the right shot. There’s only four or five pin positions on each green.

“You think, ‘well this is simple enough’, but it’s basically like putting on a tabletop. If you can’t get it on, the next thing you’re 40 feet away. Now you’re trying to putt from 40 feet and you’ve got to get it smack on.

“You know if you break 40 putts on the first time you play, you’ve done really well.”

Woosnam said he is actually a longer hitter now than when he won the Masters 33 years ago, but explained how relative lack of distance makes Augusta an even tougher prospect.

“The way the fairways are, if you can’t pitch it 275 yards, you can’t get over the hills,” he said. “If you get it on top of the hill, then it’ll run another 30 to 40 yards.

“But I’m pitching into the hill – into the grain – so I’m coming off an upslope and going in with a long iron every time. So it’s too difficult.

“For the youngsters on 11, they’re hitting 7 and 8-irons into the green because they can get it down there. But for anybody who’s short, it’s very difficult.”

“Don’t risk it,” he continued when analysing the Augusta gameplan. “Don’t go for those greens in two if you don’t have to. If you want to make a score, lay-up. You’ve got be patient.

“But 15 if you do lay it up, next thing you’ve got a 80-yard pitch off a downslope over water.

“And if you do go over the green, then you’re pitching back towards the water. But if you pitch it green, and you don’t get it right, you’ll run into the water.

“Then you’re trying to chip it and run it into this grain and if you don’t hit it hard enough, it doesn’t get on the green.

“People don’t understand how difficult it is.”

Now listen to The NCG Golf Podcast

Ian Woosnam breaks down his famous 1991 victory, talks rollback, and gives his prediction for who is going to win the green jacket on Sunday. You can listen to the full episode here.

Now have your say

How to play Augusta National: Have you had a chance to play the course? What would you shoot? Is Ian Woosnam right, or do you fancy you could play the round of your life? Let me know by leaving a comment on X.

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