Augusta National's par-5s tempt many a golfer to go for it

Sixty years ago, a brash amateur pushed his tee shot to the right side of the 13th fairway at Augusta National Golf Club.

It was the final round of the 1954 Masters Tournament, and Billy Joe Patton faced a momentous decision on the tempting par-5 hole.

Should he play it safe and lay up, or go for it?

“I didn’t get where I am by playing safe,” Patton said to the gallery.

He did go for it, and he paid the price. His 4-wood shot found the tributary of Rae’s Creek that guards the green. He wound up with double bogey.

Two holes later, at the par-5 15th, Patton hit it into the water again. This time he made bogey, and he finished one shot out of the Sam Snead-Ben Hogan playoff to be held the next day.

Patton certainly wasn’t the first, nor the last, golfer to be tempted by Augusta National’s par-5s on the second nine. But it is a question each golfer who wants to don the green jacket must answer on a Sunday afternoon in April:

Play it safe, or go for it?

A momentous decision

The 13th and 15th holes at Augusta National are the ultimate risk-reward holes.

With two solid shots, eagle is possible on either hole. But with water guarding both greens, a mishit second shot can lead to bogey or worse.

That’s how course architects Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones intended them to be played when the course was built in the 1930s.

No. 13 is only 510 yards, and the modern Masters competitor can usually reach the green with a middle iron for his second shot.

“Whatever position may be reached with the tee shot, the second shot as well entails a momentous decision whether or not to try for the green,” Jones wrote in Sports Illustrated in 1959.

No. 15 is a tad longer at 530 yards, and the approach shot now calls for a longer iron, hybrid or fairway metal.

“A pond in front of the green provides the penalty for the long player who fails to make a perfect second shot,” MacKenzie wrote in the 1934 tournament program.

Although statistics show that Nos. 13 and 15 are the two easiest holes in tournament history, that’s not often the case on a pressure-packed Sunday afternoon.

Only five players have made bogey or worse on one of those holes in the final round and gone on to win the Masters.

“It’s a hole you have to take advantage of,” CBS announcer Peter Kostis said as the final groups made their way through No. 13 last year.

Both Brandt Snedeker and Angel Cabrera, in the final twosome in 2013, found the tributary of Rae’s Creek at No. 13.

Snedeker’s hybrid shot from 223 yards landed short of the hazard and splashed into the water.

“That one really got me mad,” said Snedeker, who grimaced and held his club as though he were going to break it. “Because I knew I still had a chance. I had a lot of birdie opportunities left, and (I was) just disappointed with the way I hit that shot. I know you can’t hit it over there, I know what I did wrong, and I couldn’t keep myself from doing it, and that’s what – that was really frustrating.”

He made par after going to the drop area, pitching just beyond the hole and sinking a putt.

“I was in between clubs, and I took the longer club and tried to cut a ball off that fairway, which is really difficult to do, but it was the only way I had a chance of getting it close,” Snedeker said. “My 4‑iron wouldn’t have made it, and the hybrid, if I hit it normal, is too much. So I tried to cut it and came out of it and hit it where you can’t hit it.”

Ken Venturi, a two-time Masters runner-up before his long career in the CBS broadcast booth, had a simple rule about going for the green in two: If you have the lead Sunday, don’t chance it. When you go for it, “you factor six into the equation,” Venturi often said.

Cabrera, who won the Masters in 2009, didn’t heed that advice last year as he played his second shot from the pine straw. Like Snedeker, he also found the water at 13.

“I had a very good angle, and I had a very good lie,” Cabrera said. “And I was thinking about making a birdie. I told my son (his caddie) that, you know, we could do an eagle, also.”

Cabrera’s iron shot off the pine straw almost hit the green but came up just short. It bounced back into the tributary, and he also took relief at the drop area. His pitch came up about 20 feet short, and he made bogey to fall out of the lead.

The 13th had claimed two more victims.

Eagle-eyed Nicklaus

Few have navigated the par-5s at Augusta National better than Jack Nicklaus.

The Golden Bear won a record six Masters, and he also has the most crystal. Augusta National used to award a pair of crystal goblets – they now give crystal highball glasses – when players made eagle, and Nicklaus earned 24 sets during his 45-year career.

Four of those eagles came at Nos. 13 and 15 in the final rounds, and one of his most famous shots came at the 15th in the 1986 Masters. Chasing the leaders but on a hot streak, Nicklaus lashed a 4-iron to 12 feet and drained the putt for a momentum-changing eagle.

When Seve Ballesteros hit a poor shot a few minutes later and found the water at No. 15, it opened the door for the 46-year-old Nicklaus to win his sixth green jacket.

Nicklaus remembers a shot at the 15th that got away from him in the 1971 Masters. Facing a shot in excess of 250 yards, he went with his 3-wood and failed to clear the pond that fronts the green. He made bogey and wound up losing by two shots to Charles Coody.

“I needed to make 4, didn’t need to make 3,” Nicklaus said. “I should have laid the ball up, and I was 250 yards or something, and I’m trying to put the ball on the green. I should have put the ball down in front of the green and tried to make my 4 there. Why put yourself out of the tournament on one shot?”

Nicklaus said the strategy on the par-5s is really simple.

“You need to get the ball to a place you feel comfortable hitting the ball on the green at 13,” he said. “If you don’t get it in that comfortable place, you shouldn’t try to hit it on the green. Same thing at 15. You don’t want to be standing back there 260 yards at 15 trying to hit into that green. That means you haven’t hit the tee shot where you wanted to hit it.”

Chip Beck was criticized in 1993 when he elected to lay up from 236 yards out on No. 15 in the final round. He was paired with eventual champion Bernhard Langer, and Beck trailed by three shots with four to play. Beck’s third shot went long, and he made par. Langer, who also laid up, made birdie.

“I was a little surprised he laid up,” Langer said at the time. “My caddie said, ‘He’s got to go for it if he wants to have any chance to win.’ I said, ‘I agree.’ ”

Nicklaus, recalling his decision in 1971, praised Beck for his restraint.

“Today, if I was thinking about the strategy, I probably wouldn’t have done that,” Nick­laus said. “Chip Beck’s decision was a very good decision for him. He didn’t put himself out of the tournament. I put myself out of the tournament with that shot. One shot shouldn’t put you out of the tournament. That’s not playing smart.”

Hybrids make difference

Making the decision to go for the green in two isn’t easy.

According to Nicklaus, it all begins with the tee shot.

“If you hit a good tee shot, there’s no reason to lay up,” he said.

The definition of a “good” tee shot can vary, but for most players it is hitting it past the corner of the dogleg at No. 13 and hitting it both straight and long at No. 15.

The player must decide whether the potential reward outweighs the risk. Of the final four pairings in 2013 – players who started the final round within four shots of the lead – only one player didn’t go for those greens in two. That was Matt Kuchar at the 15th, who laid up after a poor drive.

According to data collected by the Masters over the past five years, 71 percent of the field elected to go for the 13th and 15th in two on the weekends. In the first two rounds, with more players in the field, the numbers drop to 58 percent for No. 13 and 61 percent for No. 15.

Greg Norman, one of the longer hitters of his era, said technology now makes it easier for players to hit the greens in two.

“The difference is the hybrids,” Norman said. “When Raymond Floyd took out his 5-wood and kind of won with it (in 1976), everyone kind of chuckled at him. Now guys have got their hybrids, and they hit them as far as their 5-woods. I think the hybrid, getting the ball up a little bit, is probably where technology is an advantage there.”

Nicklaus agreed.

“Anything you can use to get the ball off a tight lie and get it up in the air on 13 and 15 will help,” he said.

Although length isn’t usually a factor at No. 13 – even 14-year-old Tianlang Guan was pin high in two shots – the severity of the fairway slope can be a problem. The ideal tee shot is a draw that cuts the corner of the tributary and chases around the corner of the dogleg. The closer to the hazard, the flatter the lie.

The ball is usually above the feet of a right-handed player, which promotes a right-to-left shot and brings the greenside bunkers into play. A player who tries to fight that tendency might spray it right and find the water.

The 15th hole is much different from when Gene Sarazen holed his double eagle, the “shot heard ’round the world,” in 1935.

The tee shot is more difficult now that the mounds, or “chocolate drops,” as the local caddies call them, aren’t as prevalent on the right side of the landing area. They were reduced in 1999, and more trees were planted in that area.

To reach the green in two requires a shot over a large pond, and a shot to the right usually winds up in the lone greenside bunker. A shot that is too “hot” can run long and into trouble behind the green.

Although the majority of players in the final pairings in 2013 went for No. 15 in two, a handful did not.

Playing together, Bo Van Pelt and Sergio Garcia each elected to lay up at No. 15 after errant tee shots in the final round.

Garcia’s third shot nearly found the cup for eagle. Van Pelt’s shot was even better. He lofted his pitch shot just right of the hole, and the ball spun into the cup for an eagle.

Although those two were successful, laying up doesn’t set up an automatic birdie. Most players acknowledge that the downhill pitch at the 15th is one of the hardest shots at Augusta National.

“One of the things that has changed here is the condition of the turf,” two-time winner Tom Watson said. “The turf here is now very bristly, and the ball sits up on the turf versus before it used to lay down in the turf.

“And we used to have – especially on those down slopes and side slopes – you would have that ball sitting just enough down where you really had to hit it, you really had to catch it perfectly. Now those little downhill wedge shots to 15, it’s a tough shot. A lot of people hit it fat there.”

‘I just hit a bad shot’

The pressure of being in contention on the final nine at Augusta can be overwhelming. Just ask Curtis Strange.

“You go into the back side, and you know the history of every hole,” said Strange, who now works as an analyst for ESPN. “I don’t care who you are. And you know what winners and losers have done on every hole subconsciously, and you know you have to play well on the par-5s. You know you have to avoid the big mistake. And you can’t afford to really make any mistakes if you’re going to win because somebody is going to shoot 32 or 33.”

After opening the 1985 Masters with 80, Strange shelved his plane reservations after a second-round 65. A third-round 68 put him in the mix, and by the time he reached No. 13 in the final round, he was three shots clear of the field. Strange pulled a 4-wood for his second shot. He mishit, and it wound up in the tributary. Bogey six. With Langer charging behind him, Strange had a 4-iron to the 15th green. He rinsed that one, too, and made bogey.

“It never entered my mind (not to go for the greens) because the shots were so short,” he said after the round. “I had 208 yards to the green on 13, and it wasn’t a difficult shot with a 4-wood. I just hit a bad shot.”
Billy Joe Patton, the amateur who challenged Snead and Hogan in 1954, thought he had hit a good shot. Patton’s 4-wood almost cleared the hazard, but instead of hitting a spectacular shot and leaving a short eagle putt, he found himself in the scruffy tributary.

“Now the creek looks like it has been trimmed with manicure scissors,” said his younger brother, James Patton. “In 1954, it was a totally different hazard in those days. All kinds of rocks, and the grass is 8 or 10 inches high.

“He takes his shoes off to go play, then decides that’s not a good idea. He takes his drop, but didn’t put his shoes back on. He was worried about holding up play. So he played it barefoot.”

Patton’s fourth shot barely cleared the bank, and he took three to get down. Even with the double bogey, he was still in contention after a tap-in birdie at No. 14.

At the 15th, which yielded five eagles in that final round, Patton hooked his tee shot into the left rough. Again, conditions weren’t pristine. His fairway wood found the pond, and he made bogey.

“It wasn’t a smart shot, if you get down to it,” James Patton said. “He had no idea where he stood. He was going at the flag stick.”

Thirty years later, Ben Crenshaw came to the final nine with a slender lead. After a 60-foot birdie at the 10th and a short birdie that fell at the 12th, Crenshaw arrived at the 13th with a bit of a cushion, but disaster was just a swing away.

Legend has it that Crenshaw, a connoisseur of history, saw Billy Joe Patton on the 13th hole, serving as a rules official. Whatever thoughts Crenshaw entertained of going for 13 in two, he quickly shelved them.

“I was ready to haul out the wood (and go for the par-5 in two), but then I saw (Tom) Kite hit it in the water and that set up a whole new thing for me,” Crenshaw said. “I started thinking about laying up.”

With Larry Nelson and Kite finding disaster at the 12th, Crenshaw laid up at No. 13 and made par.

Two holes later, Crenshaw wisely laid up again and made birdie with a 15-foot putt. After years of close calls in the majors, Crenshaw had won his first Masters.

The exceptions

When Tiger Woods won the first of his four green jackets in 1997, he dominated the par-5s with a display of power not seen in Augusta since Nicklaus ruled the tournament in the 1960s.

Woods and fellow bomber Phil Mick­elson could reach the 15th with short irons, and the long par-4 holes were not as challenging as they had been for previous generations.

Augusta National has changed since then. A total of 510 yards has been added to the course, and numerous trees have been planted.

Nicklaus, who has long advocated limiting how far the ball goes, applauded Augusta National for making the course play as MacKenzie and Jones had originally intended.

“Augusta, in my mind, is the only golf course that I know that has actually been successful – and had enough money – to be able to take the golf course and make it probably play similar with the golf ball to what it used to be,” Nicklaus said.

The course still favors a long hitter who can attack the par-5s with a more lofted club, but big hitters don’t always win. Mark O’Meara birdied the final two holes to win in 1998, and Mike Weir took home the green jacket in 2003. Zach Johnson famously laid up on every par-5 hole in the 2007 Masters and converted enough birdies (11 of 16), thanks to a stellar wedge game, to claim victory. Those are the exceptions, though, not the rule.

Mickelson hit one of the most memorable shots in Masters history in the 2010 final round. With his tee shot in the pine straw right of the 13th fairway, Mickelson hit a 6-iron from 207 yards through the pines to 4 feet. He missed the short eagle putt, but had solidified his third Masters victory and place in Augusta lore with the gutsy move.

Even a gambler such as Mick­elson said he doesn’t feel as though he has to go after the par-5 holes in the final round.

“It depends where you are in the tournament,” he said. “No, I don’t think so. I mean 13 more than 15. I don’t think you have to go for 15. Fifteen can be penalizing, and sometimes 5 can be fine on that hole.”

Earning a spot in the Champions Locker Room takes guts and courage. The winners earn a special place in the game’s history, and that factors into the decision.

In 1957, Doug Ford reached a similar crossroad at the 15th hole on Sunday. The day before, he had hit a 3-wood, but his shot hit the bank and rolled back into the pond.

“When I got into the clubhouse, I was three strokes behind leader Sam Snead, and a couple of old-time pros said if I got a chance at 15 tomorrow to lay up,” Ford said. “Well, on Sunday I led by one and drove in the exact same place on 15. My caddie, Fireball (George Franklin), said to lay up and wouldn’t let me take the 3-wood out of the bag. He said to take the 4-iron and lay up. We were fighting over the club and arguing so much that the gallery started laughing at us.”

With Snead breathing down his neck, Ford made up his mind.

“ ‘They don’t remember you here unless you go for it and win,’ ” he said he told his caddie. “I finally got the 3-wood out of the bag and hit it on the green and two-putted for birdie. So I took the tournament there.”

Perhaps former PGA champion-turned-analyst Paul Azinger describes the temptations of Augusta National best.

“The fact that every hole can be birdied and every hole can be double-bogeyed, and it is a game of degrees and inches,” he said. “So a degree or two of that club face can make the difference between a birdie and a double bogey at Augusta National, and when your eyeballs are flashing because your heart is hitting you so hard in the chest from the inside out and you’ve got to deal with degrees and inches, it’s a hard game. But the great thing is somebody is going to pull it off, and when they do, they’re revered for it. That’s what makes it so great.”