The short-hitters’ guide to conquering Augusta National

Take a take a look at the final decade’s winners of the Masters, and the listing reads like a assassin’s row of a few of the recreation’s longest gamers: Scottie Scheffler. Dustin Johnson. Tiger Woods. Jon Rahm. Bubba. All bombers.

Yet, sometimes, a mid-length participant manages to crack the champion’s lineup at Augusta. Zach Johnson, with a mean size of 280 off the tee when he gained the occasion in 2007, was the final quick hitter, by professional requirements, to declare a inexperienced jacket.

But there have been loads of them within the event’s historical past: Larry Mize in 1987. Mark O’Meara in 1998. Mike Weir in 2003. Nick Faldo, thrice. Ben Crenshaw and Bernhard Langer twice. All gamers of common and even below-average size off the tee.

And regardless of the yardage-dampening results of Father Time, each Langer and Mize have teed it up on the Masters every year since their wins. This 12 months, Langer meant to mark his forty first and remaining aggressive lap round Augusta, however a torn Achilles has possible put these plans on maintain. But his consistency has been exceptional. Now hitting about 270 off the tee, the 66-year-old has maintained that the need of hitting hybrids into the greens—and the relentless lengthening of the course—has rendered the Masters unwinnable for him at this level. But it was simply 10 years in the past, in 2014, that Langer managed to contend at age 56. A final-round 69 earned him a surprising T8 end.

So what is the key to conquering Augusta National whenever you don’t have 300-plus-yard drives to propel you down these completely manicured fairways? It’s not a completely irrelevant query as gamers anticipate the USGA’s proposed ball rollback scheduled for 2028. We requested a handful of previous short-hitting champions for his or her finest recommendation on what labored for them. Their solutions might assist enhance your recreation too.

7 keys to conquering Augusta National as a brief hitter

Prioritize the Fairway

One factor’s for positive: If you’ll be able to’t hit it lengthy, you want to be correct.

“For a shorter hitter, an underrated part of Augusta National is hitting the fairway,” says Mike Weir. “Long guys can get away with maybe playing out of that little first cut of rough, but a shorter hitter can’t. You’ve got to be coming out of the fairway, especially because we’re going to be in there with the longer irons. If you’re coming out of that first cut with a 4- or 5-iron, there’s no way you can stop the ball on the green. But on a fairway you have a chance.”

Feast on the Par 5s

While the par 4s at Augusta are brutes, the par 5s are comparatively pleasant, and each participant we spoke to careworn the significance of capitalizing on potential birdie alternatives, even when the inexperienced isn’t reachable in two.

“You’ve got to take advantage of the par 5s, regardless of the conditions,” says Zach Johnson. “You’ve got to position yourself on your approach shots based on where the pins are and where you’ve got to be to get to that pin. We do that every week, but specifically at Augusta, you have to do it.”

For Nick Faldo, capitalizing on the par 5s generally meant merely having the psychological self-discipline to lay up when a enjoying accomplice goes for the inexperienced in two.

“Mental strength is really doing what you want to do and not getting influenced by the other person,” he says. “If the other person on a par 5 knocks it over the water, the real mental strength is to go, ‘I don’t like that. I can’t do that. So I will lay up.’ ”

Up Your Trajectory for Softer Landings

Larry Mize employed a easy setup tweak to assist him maximize his trajectory into Augusta’s greens. “My instructor, Luke Barnes, worked with me there early in the week [in ’87],” Mize recollects, “and said to me, ‘Look over there at Jack [Nicklaus]. That man’s won here six times. And he hits that ball high and soft in the greens. We need to try and copy that a little better.’ And, obviously, that week I was able to do that. Hit my irons really good and moved the ball up in my stance just a little bit to make sure I got a little bit of a higher trajectory on the ball. I got the ball up in the air, and I was able to bring it down softer.”

Wedges Are Key

“No matter who you are, you’ve got to have a really good short game to win at Augusta,” Mize says.

Mike Weir concurs and says he tries to visualize the photographs he’ll face forward of time. “I try to, in my head, think of all the wedge shots I’m going to have on the golf course. And there’s about five of them. There’s the par 5s. There’s No. 3. And really that’s about it. So, if you play four rounds, that’s 20 wedge opportunities for a short hitter.”

Putting Is Everything

You can’t win at Augusta and not using a deft contact on the greens — and placing on the Masters is in contrast to some other event.

“When the greens are firm, and they haven’t had a lot of rain, your touch just has to be so precise,” says Mark O’Meara. “Because if you’re an inch or two off on your speed, that could be a difference between three to five feet where your putt ends up.”

Weir says he employed a totally completely different technique than common when placing at Augusta: dripping the ball into the opening.

“You do putt differently there,” he says. “You kind of putt with the Ben Crenshaw method of seeing the ball just die in the hole. You start getting aggressive with eight-foot putts and 10-foot putts, and it catches a lip. No other course that the ball lips out more than Augusta National. When it lips out, it doesn’t just lip out and be near the hole. It lips out and you have four or five feet back. So it’s really important to have this dying touch.”

Be Wary of Treacherous Pins

Avoiding catastrophe is paramount at Augusta, and far of it comes down to staying on the appropriate aspect of dangerous gap places, a lot of that are in play proper off the bat.

“The first hole, it’s fairly generous for the players off the tee,” O’Meara says. “But that first green that sits out, and they put that pin over on the left side with a left front or left back, and if you miss, short-side yourself to the left, it’s almost impossible to get the ball up and down, unless you’re Jordan Spieth. And then No. 3, whether the pin’s in the very front right or the pin’s over on that left side, if you short yourself, it’s just hard.”

Zach Johnson fears one more front-nine inexperienced. “The front left pin on No. 4 from the back tee, I think is the hardest shot on the golf course without any water.”

It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over

For many quick hitters, simply making the minimize at Augusta is worthy of celebration. But for Weir, 21 years faraway from his lone main win, it’s an indication to preserve pushing.

“If you make the cut there, you’re in the mix. You’re not that far away. And you have a good round on Saturday and you’re right in the tournament,” he says. “So it’s a long shot, no doubt about it. But I feel like I could be right there. If things line up, yes, I can be right there come Sunday.”

Additional reporting by Josh Sens.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She can out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily chargeable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular initiatives, similar to GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview sequence, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video kind on GOLF.com.