Masters golfers seek new help with old device

Masters patrons have spotted caddies using a very old-school device to help their players decipher Augusta National Golf Club’s greens during practice rounds: small carpenter’s levels, with the bubble in a tube showing whether a surface is even, or listing to one side or another.

It works for a piece of lumber and apparently a slice of an Augusta putting surface.

“It’s very simple … we’re trying to see the slope of the green,” said Michael Kerr, who works for 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott. “The breaks can be deceptive so we’re looking for anything we can do to re-inforce our notes or the information in the (yardage) book.”

Other caddies who have been spotted using the devices have been Cayce Kerr (Vijay Singh) and Gareth Bryn Lord (Henrik Stenson).

There is a difference of opinion on the value of using the levels. Lance Bennett, Matt Kuchar’s caddie, said the information in the yardage book is sufficient, as is experience of playing the course.

“My guy is a feel player,” Bennett said of Kuchar, who has three consecutive top-8 finishes in Augusta. “He wants to feel the slope of the green.”

Using the levels is not a new practice. Michael Collins, a former PGA Tour caddie, said he saw other caddies using them as far back as the 1990s, when he was first on the Tour.

Collins said the levels were used most of the time on courses near mountains on the tour’s Western Swing.

“Putting on greens near mountains was very tricky,” said Collins, now a reporter for espn.com. “You have very deceptive breaks, especially on greens where it looked like you had a flat putt. Everyone thought the ball would break towards the mountains but it wasn’t that simple. You’d putt the ball high of the hole and it would stay straight. The levels were helpful for the guys who wanted to re-inforce the optical illusion.”

Many of the Augusta greens have those kinds of deception.

“Some are very similar to greens near mountains,” Collins said. “But everyone has such good notes that all I think the guys are doing is something that makes them trust their notes more.”