Ten on No. 12 not perfect for Watson, Na

There are perfect 10s. Then there were Kevin Na and Bubba Watson on Sunday in the final round of the Masters Tournament.

Both shot 10 on Augusta National’s par-3 12th hole, seven strokes over par. Na finished with 81, which would have been a more respectable 74 had he parred No. 12. Watson, the defending champion, finished with 77.

They accepted their fates with relative good spirits after their rounds, especially when each was informed of the other’s identical score.

“Did he really?” said Na, who finished when Watson was on the 14th hole. “Well, that makes me feel better.”

“So, we tied,” Watson said when told of Na’s score at No. 12. “If you’re not going to win, you’ve got to get in the record books somehow, so I’m the guy that got a double-digit score on a par-3.”

Well, not quite. Watson and Na would have had to do a bit more damage to approach the record for the hole, a 13 for Tom Weiskopf in the first round of the 1980 tournament.

“It took me until three years ago to make my first hole-in-one,” Watson said. “If you play golf long enough you’re going to make a hole-in-one … and you’re going to go the other way as well.”

The way they arrived at the scores was different.

Na, who has been battling a back injury recently, pumped three 8-iron shots into Rae’s Creek in an attempt to flag-hunt the right hole position. The first two attempts faded badly and never had a chance. The third splashed about a yard short of the bank. His fourth attempt – and seventh shot – went over the green, and he chipped on and 2-putted.

Na said he didn’t want to go to the drop area and hit, because he believed it would have been a more difficult shot because of the angle to the hole.

“I went for the flag, which obviously you’re not supposed to do, but I’m back in the field, trying to make a birdie, maybe a 1,” he said. “The drop zone is actually a very difficult shot with the right pin. I was trying to pull off a shot that is maybe a little low percentage, but I’ve got nothing to lose.”

Watson hit 9-iron into the water on his tee shot, but elected to go to the drop area. His first wedge shot from there also found the creek. His fifth shot went into the back bunker. He then skulled his shot over the green and into the water again.

Watson dropped in the bunker, but his next shot trickled off the left edge of the green. He chipped 20 feet past the hole, then made the putt for 10.

When Na’s playing partner Brian Gay was asked about the sequence of events, he replied, “Tin Cup,” a reference to the Kevin Cost­ner golf movie in which his character kept pumping one ball after another into a water hazard.

“He was determined to keep reloading,” Gay said. “I wouldn’t have done it. I would have probably dropped and hit a wedge.”

Na had a double-digit score on a hole another time during his PGA Tour career, in the 2011 Texas Open. He drove into thick, tangled brush on the par-4 ninth hole of TPC San Antonio and repeatedly hacked at the ball to get it out. He eventually made 16, leading to a nickname bestowed on him by PGA Tour caddies: “Candles.”

Asked whether he had any flashbacks to that day Sunday, Na quickly said, “No.”
Na refused to blame his back problems
for his 72-hole score of 13-over 301, but he said there was “no chance” he would have played had it been any other tournament.

Both Na and Watson rebounded from their disasters. Na birdied three of his last six holes, including No. 18, and did not make another bogey. Watson played his final six holes at 1-under, with two birdies.

Their scores at No. 12 were the highest on any hole this week.