For those who can’t wait to watch The Masters, here is a great one. I won’t name the year for those of you who have not seen it.
Just sit back and enjoy the final round commercial free. For those who remember this year, you will likely not remember all the shots, so it really was fresh for me to see it again.
There are some great lessons to be learned here.
It’s such a treat to see the course being played with gear that matches the yardage and the shape and design of the greens.
Looking forward to watching the rest of it but surely there has been a mistake?!!
The leader Ray Floyd missed the fairways badly off the second tee - I thought no one missed fairways with persimmons??!!! In addition Curtis strange had shot an 80 followed by a 65. Surely no one did those sort of wildly different scores in pre-frying pan days!!
I look forward to watching the rest of it and seeing fairways after fairways hit and no greens missed - especially not with any short irons
If floyd hit that same tee shot with a modern driver he probably would of on the right edge of the fairway 50 yards closer to the green. I loved Ken Venturi’s comment at about the 23 min mark “Length is not a factor on most of the holes at Augusta National, but accuracy certainly is”. How times have changed…
Watching Snead tee of at age 73, and you can still hear the compression he could put on the ball. Two years earlier he shot a 12 under par 60 and The Greenbrier. What a great golf swing.
You will learn if you go and play persimmon that the clubs are a lot less forgiving and the longer hitters had a very hard time hitting them straight. This is what really separated guys like Snead and G Norman. They had fantastic technique to be able to control the small headed persimmons and also deliver great clubhead speed and still be on the insert and the fairway. Sure, Floyd was struggling, and it was interesting to see how he managed his game around Augusta without his A game.
There is a lot to learn here watching this great event.
Best sound I heard so far an hour in is Snead as the honorary starter.You owe me a coke Lag. Compressed and nutted. I so wish they’d bring back the old graphics, feels fake watching sports nowadays with all the terrible graphics everywhere. Just throw a me a bone, anything… Just the graphics at least.
I think I got a new signature line too out of that, ‘The Masters Tournament brought to you by Travelers Insurance, Travelers Where Fairness is Good Business’. If that don’t tell a tale nothin does.
So how do you win a major? This is absolutely textbook. Strange hits every fairway and every green as he comes to the moment. The commentary from Venturi and Weiskopf is just spot on.
This is how the golf course was designed. To create these kind of risk and reward situations. Did he make the right decision?
He’s 225 out coming in with a fairway wood. He hasn’t missed a shot all day, and coming off a birdie on the tough 12th. Hit’s a perfect drive off #13, confidence is at an all time high. If the devil is going to tempt you … here it is. This is what The Masters used to be all about.
Strange’s ball striking was flawless. Just a clinic in proper shot making. We do not see this anymore in today’s tour players.
If he lays up on 13 and 15 which one could argue that he should have… Strange would be playing from the center of the fairway on 17 having hit every green and fairway. But due to the circumstances, he of course goes at the pin on 17 and knocks it over. If he had just kept to the game plan of hitting fairways and greens… I believe he would have hit all those greens and under pressure coming up 18… that should have been the decider for him. He missed his 4 iron just slightly… but the leave was short right, with a simple uphill chip to the pin. Exactly where misses should be. How many times did you see Strange miss long and left? ZERO. So under the most pressure a golfer could ever be under, Strange’s miss is slightly short and right. This is why he went on to become a hall of fame player and won back to back US Opens. He learned a great lesson here and didn’t make that mistake again.
So if I was his caddy, and I tell him all you have to do is lay up on 13 and 15 and play center on 17… he would have hit every fairway, every green coming up to his approach from the center cut on 18 Sunday afternoon at Augusta. (the slight roll off on 14 was the place to come in from with that pin placement, so that was not a miss hit tee shot, just for the naysayers )
You don’t see these guys spraying the ball all over the lot. Precision golf. This is how major championship golf is supposed to be played and won.
But if you really look at the facts… Strange had seven three putts during the week. You won’t see anyone winning at Augusta with seven three putts these days… because no one is hitting the ball that good.
If you get him alone he’d probably agree with you but that’s the beauty of the golf course. If he does lay up and doesn’t win he’s Chip Beck & gutless and you know damn well exactly the thought process, 'It’s 225, I may never be in this position again and I gotta go…" Doesn’t make it the right call but that’s Augusta. Honestly I don’t if I could have laid up there either and I’ve laid up on three pars in tour events more than once because it was the right shot. But there, then? I probably go too and make the same mistake. He knows it. Back in like '90 he did joint GD interview with Guppy that was great where Gup rails him, says that he’d be World No 1 if he’d just get aggressive, hit it at the hole more and go for more shots. Strange completely dissected him and explained to him that he’d lose his card if he did that and it wasn’t just because he wasn’t as long or hit it as high. Gup didn’t get it. Been eons since I read it, if I had to venture a guess I would think TM has a copy. But that was what made Augusta the best tournament in the world, here’s the shot, I know it’s the wrong shot, I know why it’s wrong and I go ahead and hit it anyway. Not a coincide Jack won it six times. The next time he hits the wrong shot will be the first.
Now if you look at Floyd…
Sure, he comes out of the gate hitting it poorly… but his misses are right not left. Being the champion he is…
he manages it the best he can… and when he figures out his mechanical issues… look how he plays through amen corner. Just fantastic. To play those holes as strongly as he did with his C game is why he became a hall of fame golfer.
Strange isn’t just hitting fairways… he is hitting the correct side of the fairway, right to the end. The Masters was the great thinkers event. Good technique being a given. No other event crowned the top players year after year after year. Once you took away persimmon, balata, and introduced frying pans and rocket balls, rough and long putters, it’s just become an every man’s event. There are 18 holes… the cup is the same size, and conditions are immaculate… but the rest of it has floated away down the creek along with the food coloring.
Watching this really reminded me how much I miss The Masters.
I agree so much Lag. Growing up watching that back nine in the very early morning hours in syd Australia bring back great memories. From the momnet Norman finished 4th in his first apperance, '84 i think, right thru i have loved this event. But watching that replay, when 13, and 15 wernt par 4’s was great to see.
No way its the same test now. Wedges into 11, give me a break. Do you think Booby Jones envisaged a pitch to 11 for ya 2nd shot. Its just not cricket as they say in these parts
It was fun to see my old friend Sam Randolph in Butler Cabin after the round bringing home the low am award. He got in by finishing runner up in the US Amateur. Hord Hardin makes it known that Sam will be back next year for finishing in the top 20 against the world’s best. If that is not enough he double qualifies by coming back and winning the US Amateur a few months later and the next year he is low am at both the US Open and The Masters. Throw in Collegiate Player of the Year and The California State Am, no small feat. Pretty amazing stuff to be playing on Sunday paired with Jack Nicklaus in your first Masters. It’s one thing to get paired with a former champion the first round, but to earn your way into that pairing on Sunday is a whole other deal. It’s easy to forget how good a player he was after all these years, but I sure don’t. I once finished a respectable 3rd place in a top collegiate event two shots behind Duffy Waldorf… and 14 shots behind Sam
For those of you new to this site, I interviewed Sam a year or two ago exclusively here on ABS. He talks about his experience at Augusta and a lot of other golf topics… it’s great stuff.
If you watch the whole clip… you don’t see many errant drives… other than Floyd early in the round… and it wasn’t a year that he did his best either. I think Langer clipped a tree left on #10 off the tee… but you don’t see the ball ping ponging around in the Georgia Pines much like the guys are doing today.
Strange was an absolute machine off the tee. You get the feeling that it is just a given that he is going to be in the fairway, or better yet, down the correct side of the fairway. No one hits it great all the time… but when he was on… it was very rare he would miss a fairway… same with Faldo.
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