IT’S MASTERS WEEK! MIKE WILSON LOOKS AT THE LEGEND AND SOME OF THE MEMORABLE MOMENTS AROUND HOLES 11, 12 AND 13 AT AUGUSTA NATIONAL
The fabled three-hole stretch of holes just after the turn at Augusta National has decided the fate of many a Masters, as well as having a 1960s UK pop group named in its honour. The late, great Spaniard Seve Ballesteros, who won two Green Jackets, even named his company after Amen Corner.
The name ‘Amen Corner’ was coined by Herbert Warren Wind in a 1958 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine, meaning that 60 Masters were staged without a moniker given to the most famous three-hole sequence in world golf. Wind wrote of the most mythical place in global golf: “At the farthest reach of the Augusta National course – down in the Amen Corner where Rae’s Creek intersects the 13th fairway near the tee, then parallels the front edge of the green on the short 12th and finally swirls alongside the 11th green.”
HOLE 11 (WHITE DOGWOOD)
505 Yards, Par 4
The ‘Holy Trinity’ of Amen Corner commences at the par-four 11th with a pond standing guard to the left-front of the green – making for an insidious approach into a difficult putting surface, Ben Hogan famously saying that if he was on the green in two at 11, “you’ll know I missed my second shot.”
Greg Norman, the quintessential predatory ‘Great White Shark’, took a seemingly unassailable six-shot lead into the final round of the 1996 Masters, but the relentless Nick Faldo had reeled him in by the time they reached Amen Corner on Sunday afternoon. Feeling the heat, Norman, having missed a short putt on the 11th, his tee shot spun back into the water at the 12th for a damaging double – further evidence of how this trilogy of holes can make, but mostly break, dreams of a Green Jacket.
Six years earlier, having come from four back with six to play, both defending champion Faldo and home favourite Ray Floyd parred the final hole at the 1990 Masters to finish tied on 10-under-par. They then headed into a sudden-death playoff, starting at the 10th, which they halved. The pair dissected the 11th fairway with their tee shots before Floyd, attempting at 48 to become the oldest recipient of the Green Jacket, erred for the final time by pulling his approach into the greenside lake resulting in a bogey. Faldo found the heart of the green and laid up his approach putt to six inches before tapping in to clinch victory on the same green that he had defeated Scott Hoch in another playoff the previous year.
Floyd admitted afterwards: “The pressure basically got to me. Isn’t that choking? Yes. Yes it is.”
HOLE 12 (GOLDEN BELL)
155 Yards, Par 3
The 12th is one of golf’s most famous – and infamous – holes. Its green is narrow, with a bunker long and short, and under-hit or under-clubbed shots are in danger of falling back into Rae’s Creek. With capricious, unpredictable winds complicating matters considerably, the traditional Sunday pin position, tucked to the right of the green, can be a daunting approach.
At the 2016 Masters, Jordan Spieth appeared to be cruising to what would probably be the first of many Green Jackets. Hitting over Rae’s Creek into the 12th, Spieth’s tee shot landed on the bank, kicking back into the water – a massive unforced and unforeseen mistake. Spieth took his drop 68 yards back from the green and inexplicably dumped another shot into the water. Another penalty drop, this time struck long, into a back bunker, from which he got up and down for his quadruple bogey.
HOLE 13 (AZALEA)
510 Yards, Par 5
The closing hole of Amen Corner is the short 13th and should, were it anywhere else on the Augusta National course, be considered a decent birdie opportunity – but with Rae’s Creek meandering menacingly in front of the green, which slopes back to front, and the tension Amen Corner can generate without doing anything, danger lurks.
“It all went a bit pear-shaped” was Rory McIlroy’s understated response to one of the worst final rounds at Augusta National, a ‘Masters Disaster’, of epic proportions in 2011. Going into the final round with a seemingly unassailable four-shot lead and, given the mastery with which he had played the first three rounds in 65, 69 and 70, the 21-year-old Irishman should have coasted to a maiden Green Jacket.
It started badly and got worse and by the time he got to Amen Corner, his race was already run. A bogey on 11 was followed by a catastrophic four-putt double on the 12th. Adding insult to injury, Rory’s tee shot on the 13th found the creek. Head down, crestfallen, he signed for an eight-over 80 and finished T15.
