Golf giveth and golf taketh away

[Larrycleve]

Golf loves to tease you and then have reality crashing down. I was playing Augusta National at elite level with powerstroke. I got to the 18th hole five under, the best I ever played.

I took a deep breath and told myself play conservative and go for par. I hit a three wood to the center of the fairway so far so good. And then I started to break down. I was 209 yards to the hole with a 40 foot elevation. I seriously thought about using 5 wood flop and then thought it was too much club and I'd fly it over the green. So I used 6 wood straight and hit it into the bunker in front of the green. Still within range of par. The bunker was a downhill lie 50 feet to the hole with a 6 foot elevation. I knew I'd have to hit it harder than usual with a sand wedge. Which I did and hit the lip of the bunker and it bounced back. So I hit it harder while keeping conservative and it hit the lip again and bounced back. So this time I hit it twice as hard as usual and it went 8 feet past the hole. I made the 8 foot putt for double bogey.

Golf always has the last laugh.

[pmgolf]

That's pretty impressive for powerstroke elite! What version of Augusta did you use, and what conditions? Augusta National 2023 and challenging conditions?

Pete

[Larrycleve]

I played breezy conditions, hardness-moderate, speed-slow challenging, and pin position difficult. It was the 2009 version of Augusta. I'll have to download the new version and try it. I tried the faster green speeds but the frustration level was too much.

[pmgolf]

The difference between the 2009 version and the 2010 version of Augusta National is the pin positions on hole 11. (there are other minor differences, but that's the big change.) The 2010 version has the pins where they should be on #11. A well-executed shot onto the right side of the green will break left across the back and then come down to the front of the green. You probably do need to use faster green speeds to get a better feel for how fast Augusta greens are, though. The pro's always talk about how they had to get the ball below the pin, downhill side, in order to offset the fast speeds.

A Fc Fc tip for Augusta: any distance applies, but if you're, say, 36 feet away from the hole, and the BLi shows that every bit of that distance is downhill, mentally divide the distance in half and play for a 18 foot putt. If there is an elevation drop, take several feet off of that. If you were standing on the green IRL you would see how downhill it is. And any long downhill stretch at Augusta needs to be treated the same way.

Pete