The Masters’ competition committee tried to make things fair for Thursday’s first round.
The pins were accessible. The greens were soft.
But, short of putting everything under a Truman Show-like dome, the members of the committee couldn’t do anything about the wind.
And, for one day, winds gusting more than 20 mph showed who truly controls the airspace around Augusta by blowing sand out of bunkers, causing balls to oscillate on the greens, turning shots backward and being, in general, a pain at one of the world’s most beautiful places.
“Yeah you just had to hang in there somehow,” former Georgia standout Kevin Kisner said. “It’s just brutal to try to hang in, too, because you just never feel comfortable over any shot. You have such small areas that you’re trying to hit and it’s just impossible to hit.”
Some of those who went off in the morning reported that low scores could be had, and they were right when Charley Hoffman, who started around 1:08 p.m., took the lead with a 7-under 65. Others who went off after the first groups didn’t fare as well, in part because of how they said the winds affected putting and the greens.
“I had a ball that was three feet from the hole,” Adam Scott said. “I’d marked it, put it back, and it rolled to 12 feet. So it’s very difficult conditions and borderline today.”
The average score for the 93 players in the field was 3-over 75.
The players knew the forecast. They were discussing it earlier in the week. They also knew the wind would blow from the west. Jordan Spieth said he even brought a compass during a practice round so that he would know from where the wind would blow.
But knowing it and playing it were two different things.
The effects began to be noticeable on 11, which finished as the second-hardest hole on the course with a scoring average of 4.452. Watching golfer after golfer attempt to decipher the wind that typically blew straight into them and try to hit the green in two was like watching a blindfolded person trying to throw a dart at a bull’s eye. Shots ended up short, long and to the right, or wide and to the left in the little bit of space between the green and the pond.
The pin was 20 yards from the front and four from the right, far from the pond. Still, the field posted only two birdies, 50 pars, 38 bogeys and three double bogeys.
“The 11th hole is incredible,” Fred Couples, 1992 Masters champ, said. “We all made pars, and we did it all kinds of different ways.”
The wind continued to affect many golfers from Nos. 12-18. The first nine holes had a scoring average of 37.2, while the final nine had a scoring average of 37.8. Historically, the scoring average on the first nine holes is 36.9, and the last nine is 37.1.
“The last eight, nine holes were — right now the wind’s picking up and it’s not really consistent,” Thomas Pieters said. “If you catch the wrong gust at the wrong time, then you look stupid.”
Players were preparing for more of the same in Friday’s second round, with forecasts of gusts as much as 22 mph.
“So it’s just hanging in there as best you can, and there is such a thing as a good bogey out here at the moment,” said Sandy Lyle, who won the Masters in 1988. “I think that you can’t get too greedy, you could get your back side spanked.”
About the Author
