POWER PLAY

VIKTOR HOVLAND WEDGE WIZARDRY TOM KIM IRON IT OUT JOAQUIN NIEMANN ‘DRIVE FOR SHOW, PUTT FOR DOUGH’ IS A MYTH

Driving distance: 298 yds (121st)

SG: Around-the-green: 0.05 (93rd)

SG: Approach: 0.655 (10th)

Kim is an elite iron player, which helped him to a top-16 finish in his Masters debut last year, but the stats suggest he lacks the power off the tee to keep up with the big hitters, or the short game to compensate for having to hit longer clubs in. He has three PGA Tour wins and finished T8 at the US Open and T2 at The Open last year, so he has the game. But 18 of the last 21 winners were aged 27 or older, and 20 of the last 25 had played at least three Masters before their win. At a green

21, it feels too soon.

Driving distance: 308 yds (44th)

SG: Around-the-green: 0.06 (86th)

SG: Approach: 0.61 (11th)

The Norwegian has had a quiet start to 2024 after winning three times last summer, with a T22, T58 and T19 in his three starts so far. He recorded his best Masters finish last year, tying for 7th, helped largely by a marked improvement in what had historically been the only weakness in his game. “I suck at chipping,” he rightly remarked. In his early years on tour, he ranked near the bottom for Strokes Gained: Around-thegreen. Last season he rose to the middle of the pack, but this year he’s back to losing 0.445 strokes per round in short game, which won’t cut it at Augusta.

Augusta is one of the longest courses on tour and plays longer than its yardage as the fairways are mown towards the tee boxes to minimise roll. That, combined with the width of the fairways, lack of thick rough or water hazards to worry about on tee shots, and generous recovery options from the manicured pine straw make Augusta a bomber’s paradise. Fourteen of the last 15 winners ranked inside the top 50 for Driving Distance in the season leading up to their win.

Augusta’s greens are so hard to hit and hold that only 61 percent are found in regulation, which puts lots of pressure on the short game. The last 11 winners were all gaining at least 0.25 strokes around the green in the lead up to the Masters.

Even if your short game is firing, you can’t afford to rely on it too often. Approach play reigns supreme at Augusta, which is famed as a second-shot course. Over the past nine Masters, the winner has finished 1st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 5th, 4th, 6th and 6th in Strokes Gained: Approach. That’s good news for Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa, who have ranked inside the top 10 for Strokes Gained: Approach over the last two seasons on the PGA Tour.

OUTSIDER PICK

Driving distance: 309 yds (34th on PGA Tour in 2022) / 306yds (2nd on LIV)

SG: Around-the-green: 0.26 (35th in 2022) SG: Approach: 0.527 (19th in 2022)

‘Mr 59’ has continued his fine form since joining LIV, winning the first event in February to add to the Australian Open title he bagged in December. He’s on an upwards trend at Augusta, having finished T40, T35, and T16 in his three appearances. He’s been willing to travel the globe in a bid to gain entry into the Majors this year, securing top-five finishes in Dubai and Australia. We fancy the Chilean to make the most of what is currently his only guaranteed Major start.

Forget what you’ve been told. It’s not always the most consistent putters who rise to the top. The expert view is that Augusta’s greens are so devilish they actually serve as a leveller. “Severely sloped greens with speed are a great equaliser of putting skill,” says former caddie Brian Mull. The facts back up his theory. Fifteen of the last 16 winners sat outside the top 35 for Strokes Gained: Putting in the season leading up to their win, with an average ranking of 97th!

When asked what he made of Augusta’s 11th hole, the world’s greatest ever golfer laughed and offered a word of warning. “Be really careful there or you’ll walk away with a big number,” said Jack Nicklaus. It’s easy to see why.

Up until 2002, White Dogwood played as long as 455 yards, with a generous bailout area on the righthand side of the fairway. But having witnessed various big-hitters drive to within a short pitch of the green, the then-chairman Hootie Johnson resolved to toughen its defences before the 2002 tournament.

“Our objective is to keep this golf course current,” he announced, as Tom Fazio arrived to change nine of the holes. The yardage went up to 505 and 36 mature pines were transplanted down the right. Several of those trees have subsequently been removed to enhance ‘patron viewing’, but the hole remained largely untouched until 2022, when new mounds were added by the right side of the green. Predictably, the tee box was also moved back and to the left, extending an already difficult approach shot by 15 yards.

It should be noted that a good drive down the right side does now funnel into a flatter part of the fairway, but achieving that is only one part of a complex puzzle. As the winds that haunt Amen Corner do their best to intervene, the hole snakes right then left to a green flanked by water to its left and a deep bunker to the right. Little wonder, then, that White Dogwood is statistically Augusta’s toughest hole in history.

Last year it gave up 15 birdies across all four rounds, taking back 60 bogeys and 15 doubles or worse in return. We can expect a similar story to unfold this April because, as Nicklaus warned, the 11th is an accident waiting to happen.