Throw in the tricky par-5 13th with the island green beforehand, and the par-4 15th hole after with no space to go left, and it is a stretch of holes that can be a scorecard deal-breaker towards the end of your round.

The 14th has water defence around the front and right side of the green with three bunkers dotted up the left to the back of the putting surface, leaving very little room for error. The wind predominantly plays slightly into and from the left-to-right, bringing that water into play and even more so if you slightly miss-hit your tee shot.

My advice is to favour the left side of the green when picking a target line. This portion of the green plays much deeper, so you have a larger area to hit.

Another reminder is that when it’s breezy, swing easy! Don’t feel stupid picking a club or two more, which will launch the baller lower and with less spin, thus helping that ball travel straighter with less effect from the wind. Good luck and enjoy the battle for the green jacket.

[divider] [/divider]

Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf-specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

The post How to play Dubai Creek’s answer to Augusta National’s famed par-3 12th appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
AUGUSTA, Ga.—It was raining Tuesday morning, just enough to be annoying. Luckily there are worse spots to be stranded than Amen Corner. The towering pines between the 12th and 13th offered a canopy, and through its windows stood the panorama that maintains a timeless mystery. “You usually have to pay double for this,” said a volunteer. Whether he sauntered over or magically appeared, who’s to say.

But upon agreeing that yes, it’s a damn good view, the volunteer offers clarification. “No. I mean the paint job.”

For all the hype of an autumn-kissed Augusta National, it looks very much like the Augusta National of April, a jewel of exploding emerald at almost every turn. That includes the foliage. Suppose we should have realized as much: The most prevalent tree here is the loblolly pine, a species that stays green throughout the year.

This is not to say the place appears the same. Many of the Masters ecosystems at Augusta National—the Big Oak, the 16th hole, the Par 3 course, the village wedged between the first hole and range—seem disjointed without a congestion of Easter pastels dotting their landscape and egg salad and pimento cheese wafting through the air. It is a notion best encapsulated by the downward view from the 15th fairway. No grandstands to the left of Sarazen Bridge and no backdrop of fans on the 16th hill makes the 15th green feel exposed, as if it walked out of the house without a coat.

Amen Corner? Well, that’s different for a different reason.

Ben Walton

Patrons are not allowed by the 11th and 12th green nor the 13th tee box; they are spots engulfed by nature incarnate and immune from the gallery-less disparity. However, someone let this part of the property in on the secret that it’s fall.

There are fireworks to the left of 11. Splashes of yellow and orange at the back of 12. The 13th tee box has been dipped in sepia, with a mini forest of Starburst emitting on the right that has dropped a blanket upon the straw.

It may not be the scenery conjured when thinking of tailgates and Thanksgiving. But it’s close.

And what better place to show this is a Masters unlike any other than Amen Corner? It is the club’s city on a hill. (Even though, topographically speaking, it’s at the base of the property.) It is a spot of socialisation and wonder and where people come to feel things they’ve never felt. Yes, getting fired up over a foliage palette dangers on falling into the syrupy river this tournament can produce. But the world has been in short supply of joy as of late. It could use a little syrup.

The rain eventually stopped, allowing a stroll to the rest of the course. Yet, a forecasted storm held off into the afternoon, beckoning a second visit to Amen Corner. When you’re in Vatican City, you see the Sistine Chapel as much as possible.

Ben Walton

There at the 12th, with a backup on the green, singles Francesco Molinari and Abraham Ancer joined forces for the rest of their practice round. Ancer, a Masters rookie, came within a foot of acing Golden Bell.

“Ahhhhhhhh,” Ancer grumbled. “That would have been awesome.” Head down with a half-grin, Ancer hopped towards Hogan Bridge. He turned around seconds later, noticing the arrival of a friend.

“Hey!” Ancer yelled. “Welcome to heaven!”

A sentiment that rings true at Amen Corner, no matter the season.

The post An Amen Corner unlike any other shows its fall splendor at Augusta National appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Based off its name alone, Amen Corner has to automatically be considered the most heavenly place at Augusta National. In reality, the most heavenly place isn’t even on the golf course.

Magnolia Lane? No. The Champions Locker room? No again. Ok, it must be that spot underneath the massive oak tree in between the clubhouse and the first tee, right? Wrong. 0-for-3.

No, the most heavenly spot is one of the hardest to find, and it’s open only to amateurs. Yes, we’re talking about the “Crow’s Nest,” which has been home to amateurs competing in the Masters since the very first small gathering of friends in 1934.

Don’t believe us? Just take a look at some of the quotes from those that have stayed there, pulled straight from this incredible 2012 piece on the Crow’s Nest from our own Dave Kindred.

“You dream of being there, and when you’re there, you go, ‘Wow, is this really real?’,” says Manny Zerman, who stayed there in 1991.

Brandt Snedeker had a similar feeling. “You’re walking on air, like it’s not really reality. Everything, the Masters, the place–it’s inspiring. I’ve made no secret how much I love it. If I could win a Masters, I wouldn’t care if I ever won another thing. I’d make that deal right now.”

“No player, no amateur, no junior wouldn’t want this,” says Billy Andrade, who accidentally wandered into the Champions Locker Room when he first stayed at the Crow’s Nest in 1987, only to be met by an angry Gene Sarazen. “Your goal in life is to get to that peak where you can stay in the Crow’s Nest. It’s like Bobby Jones has this attic in a big house, and you’re a little boy going up there. When you come down, you’re grown up.”

Former U.S. Amateur winner Bill Campbell once told the Masters Journal that “It was kind of like heaven for a golfer.”

To find it, amateurs first need to locate the secret door inside of the clubhouse marked “TELEPHONE.” Once there, a second door leads to a staircase, which takes you into the nest. The 30-foot by 40-foot room sits atop the Augusta National clubhouse, and more resembles a college dorm than a luxury hotel. There are four bedrooms, divided off by wooden partitions, and a common area, complete with a small TV, a small couch, a game table and one bathroom. Amateurs do have to pay to stay, though the price is unknown. In 1968, it was just $1 a night, according to 1972 U.S. Amateur winner Marvin “Vinny” Giles III.

There’s little doubt the price has changed over the years, but the old-school nature of the Crow’s Nest will always remain the same. As Ben Crenshaw perfectly put it in a video profile of the Crow’s Nest last year, “pretty nice, this is a pretty nice spot.”

The post Did You Know: The most heavenly place at Augusta National is not on the golf course appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But one super golf fan shared photos of his private nook that doubles as a tribute to Augusta National Golf Club. And it’s spectacular.

Thanks to Fox Sports’ Shane Bacon for asking Twitter followers to share “the dorkiest golf thing” about themselves on Tuesday. There were some great responses, but this one from Gregg Thompson took the (urinal) cake:

My Masters bathroom? pic.twitter.com/syMRVUfkmD

— Gregg Thompson/The Pond (@golf69ski88) February 19, 2020

Look at that shower curtain! And that putting green! Now those are home improvements that will help property value. Gregg also shared these:

Couple more for you: pic.twitter.com/GovniQcEYM

— Gregg Thompson/The Pond (@golf69ski88) February 19, 2020

What a spot. And you can barely see the toilet behind that green wall. Talk about a true Amen Corner, am I right?

The post This Masters-themed bathroom is a beautiful sight to behold appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Stephen Hennessey
There will be many enduring memories of this week’s inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur, especially in Saturday’s final round, starting with Hall of Famers such as Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez hitting the opening tee shots. The shot of the day thus far, however, came courtesy of eventual champion Jennifer Kupcho at Augusta National’s famous par-5 13th hole.

Kupcho, the No. 1-ranked women’s amateur in the world and a senior at Wake Forest, executed one of the best shots you’ll see into the 13th hole—the tight dogleg left that completes famed Amen Corner at Augusta National. She hit a perfect tee shot, leaving her a 200-plus-yard fairway wood approach into the green protected by Rae’s Creek in front. Down by two to playing competitor Maria Fassi at the time, Kupcho pulled off an amazing shot—even more impressive particularly under the circumstances. You have to watch it to truly appreciate it:

With an eagle on No. 13 @jenniferkupcho is tied for the lead during the final round at #ANWAgolf pic.twitter.com/u7e3OK050r

— Augusta National Women's Amateur (@anwagolf) April 6, 2019

To hit a hybrid with enough trajectory to stop it close to the hole at the 13th—that’s a shot few people have in their bag. And it was one of the better shots we’ve seen at the 13th hole in recent memory.

As it often does in the Masters, the risk-reward 13th hole presents a chance to have a serious impact on who wins the tournament, and that was the case on Saturday—as Kupcho went onto secure the title with birdies at 15, 16 and 18. In what became a two-competitor race at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, Kupcho gained two shots with the first eagle of Saturday’s final round to tie Fassi atop the leaderboard after Fassi parred.

Jennifer Kupcho and Fassi—and all the women competing this week—have truly impressed throughout the final round. Kupcho hit another impressive hybrid approach into the par-5 15th hole to set up a birdie that brought her into a tie with Fassi again for the lead with Fassi birdieing the 14th hole. And then a birdie at the 16th hole by Kupcho, and a bogey by Fassi gave her a two-stroke advantage—after trailing by two at the 13th hole. With a birdie at 18, Kupcho played the final six holes at 5-under par—the type of play we see from Masters champions—for a final-round 67 at Augusta National.

There has been some great golf under the pressure of this inaugural tournament, but the shot on No. 13 by Kupcho will be one that we’ll admire for years to come. And like the Masters, Kupcho secured some crystal with that ultra impressive eagle.

The post Watch Jennifer Kupcho’s majestic approach at the 13th hole—definitely the best shot of the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Max Adler
This coloured-pencil drawing measures 20 by 30 inches, which was the largest size paperboard the artist could steady on his lap, seated in his prison cell, which measured six by eight feet. He guesses he created it in 2015 because he remembers being recently transferred within Attica (N.Y.) Correctional Facility. He’d occupied his previous cell for 13 years, but shortly after two convicts dug a tunnel out of the Clinton facility—events that provided the basis for the Ben Stiller TV mini-series “Escape at Dannemora”—“We started getting rotated more frequently to prevent us from growing too familiar with our surroundings,” Valentino Dixon says.

Of course, Dixon (above) was innocent of the murder for which he’d been serving time since 1991. Also distinguishing him from much of the prison population: He’d never decorated his cell. His art, his books, his imagination were his home—never the physical reality of his surroundings. “All those years, my mind was on the outside,” he says. “That’s how I survived.”

In September 2018, the unlikely story of how golf saved a man who’d never played the sport dominated a news cycle. The basic arc: A golf-loving warden brings a photo of Augusta National’s 12th hole for the talented inmate to draw as a favour, which begets a letter to Golf Digest and an investigation, and with the help of many supporters ends with an exoneration in a Buffalo courtroom.

This drawing, titled Amen Corner, is not an exact representation but a vision pieced together from disparate images. (I used to mail Inmate 91-B-1615 magazines heavy on course photography.) Dixon will see this place in person for the first time in April as a credentialed illustrator for Golf Digest at the Masters. Stay tuned for what he creates next.

The post A wronged man’s next stop: the Masters appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Resplendent in her popping pinks, verdant greens and luminescent whites, she’s the prettiest girl in town, the captain of the cheerleading team with a smile that lights up the room.

Truth is, Golden Bell didn’t always look this way. In the 1950s, Augusta National’s 12th hole was tousled and unkempt, patchy grass and dirt fronting Rae’s Creek, a hideous yellow hazard line marking her bank and a garish chain-link fence behind, not an azalea in sight. Hell, the best par 3 in golf wasn’t even the 12th at the start. When the Augusta National Invitational Tournament began in 1934, the back nine was the front nine and vice versa, meaning the 155-yard gem was the third hole.

It was in that inaugural tournament that Bobby Jones became distracted by a cameraman, asked him to stop moving and promptly deposited his tee shot on the hole to its watery grave. By the time the club reopened in the fall of that year, the nines had been swapped, Clifford Roberts saying the change was made because play could begin earlier after a frost on what is the current front nine thanks to its higher elevation.

If the Masters has become a place to be seen, then the 12th, the middle hole in Herb Wind’s Amen Corner, has long been the place to see. “Let’s find a spot,” one spectator says in a southern accent as thick as marmalade, a green nylon folding chair over his shoulder and his elderly dad en tow. “This is god’s country.”

It is, indeed, a glorious Friday, midmorning, temperature in the upper 60s, a smattering of puffy white clouds against the blue sky, the green mostly covered in shade, the little yellow flag in the distance dancing in a gentle but swirling breeze. From the two grandstands that face the adjacent 11th green and angle toward the nearby 12th tee, it’s like looking at a painting. From the ground, it’s like living in one, feeling every slope beneath the feet and all those dastardly breezes the players must contend with in the air.

J.D. Cuban

The 12th tee flows up from the 11th green to its left, and the ever growing 13 tee is off in the distance to the right. Rae’s Creek looms dastardly in sight. Near the lowest point on the course, it all gives rise to one of the more perfect spots to spend an afternoon watching golf, or watching nothing at all.

Painted dark green lines on the grass outline an area to unload one of those dark green folding chairs, a few hundred or more already in place a couple dozen yards in front of the grandstands. Each has a business or note card with a name displayed in a clear plastic sleeve on the back. All but two feature the tournament’s logo. Little white signs with Masters green lettering designate it a “Sitting Area” with the words “No Smoking” beneath. Tranquility incarnate.

With the first group still more than an hour away, the chairs sit mostly empty. “It’s the only place you can put a chair down, leave for four hours and have it still be there when you come back,” one fan says. “That wouldn’t happen in New Jersey.” The grandstands are still only half-full, too. But a constant murmur from those milling about tells of something to come. God knows there have been so many somethings here.

Gene Sarazen hit two in the water here in 1952, made an 8 and withdrew. Arnold Palmer made triple in 1959 to hand the jacket to Art Wall Jr. Tom Weiskopf dumped five into the drink in 1980 en route to making a 13, the highest score recorded on the hole. Greg Norman had a triple on his way to blowing a six-shot lead to Nick Faldo in 1996.

In 2014, Jordan Spieth added his name to the dubious list. Playing his first Masters, he deposited one into the creek and went on to finish second to Bubba Watson. Two years later Spieth had another meltdown around Amen Corner, highlighted by a tee shot and a wedge from the drop zone both meeting a watery demise on 12 as he recorded a 7 in a moment that still haunts him.

Not all have met such death. Claude Harmon in 1947, Bill Hyndman in 1959 and Curtis Strange in 1988 all aced it. Fred Couples’ ball hanging on the bank in 1992 goes down as one of the great mysteries in all of physics. In 2003, Scott Verplank birdied it every day.

Michael Smith, a 59-year-old attorney from Atlanta, has seen nearly all of it. This year was his 35th or 40th Masters, so many he can’t remember which it is. A nice problem to have.

His first was in 1979, when Fuzzy Zoeller became only the third Masters rookie to win at Augusta National. But what Smith remembers from that year didn’t involve Zoeller or No. 12. He was left of the second hole, on an un-landscaped footpath through the woods, when he heard a ball rattling in the treetops and saw it land at his feet. It was off the club of Seve Bellesteros, of course.

“He had this six-foot gap 20 feet above him and he hit this perfect shot and birdied the hole,” says Smith, a 10-handicap who plays like a 5, according to the half dozen friends and family he’s entertaining this day.

Smith was also here in 1997. He followed Tiger Woods for the first nine holes of his first round. Disappointed by the opening 40, Smith abandoned him. “As soon as I left, he set records,” Smith says with a laugh.

Nearby is Billy Horschel’s dad, Bill, plopped down on one of those portable seats on the end of a metal rod you see so often at golf tournaments. His white hair flowing out from beneath a black PXG hat and a long, scraggly white beard covering much of his face, he munches on some carrots while waiting for his son, who is in the first group of the day, to come through. Prior to Billy’s first Masters, his dad joined him for a round and almost aced 16. Billy isn’t so fortunate on 12, going just right of the flag but long.

Si Woo Kim comes through a few groups later and, after a struggling bogey on 11, sticks one to 12 feet on 12. He missed the putt but the tee shot earned him hugs from two of the caddies in the group and gentle laughter from the gallery, including 61-year-old Randy Speir and his wife, Kathy, of New Jersey, who soak in the moment from the adjacent grandstand.

It’s Randy’s brother, who lives in nearby Florence, S.C., who was responsible for their badges. For years, he’d entered the tournament’s ticket lottery. Then one day a letter arrived saying he’d been placed into a different draw, one that he hit and included two lifetime badges.

“His name is Brant,” says Randy. “But I call him Lucky.”

Maybe, but it’s Kathy, a school teacher who’s on spring break for the week, whose roots in golf run deep. Her grandfather was a longtime member at Baltusrol and her 91-year-old mom still is. Golf’s a family thing. Kathy worked the U.S. Open there when Lee Janzen won in 1993 and when Jack Nicklaus did in 1980. This is Randy’s second Masters, but her first.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “It’s very different than any other tournament I’ve been to.”

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, though. Pretty as she is, No. 12 has a sinister side. With its difficult hole location and increasing breezes, it ranks as the third-toughest hole on the course, yielding just four birdies on this day, compared to 24 bogeys and seven doubles or worse.

One of them came from Woods. By the time he reached No. 12 late in the day he was long out of contention at three over for the round and a dozen strokes back. Still, the crowd swelled to the point of an L.A. traffic jam. He hoisted a short iron into the air. Splash for a second straight day.

J.D. Cuban
Tiger felt no love at the 12th during the first two rounds this year, hitting in the water off the tee both Thursday and Friday.

“Stuck in the ground again, trying to hit a flat cut,” he explained. “I leaned on it too much and got a little ahead of it.”

A not-so-golden moment.

“That hole, for whatever reason, just has people’s number,” Spieth said a couple of years ago.

But forever it’s the place to see, and the place to see so much, Amen.

The post Masters 2018: Forever Golden appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
When Augusta National bought land from neighbouring Augusta Country Club last summer, many believed the transaction signaled big changes to Amen Corner. Although a leaked letter in August confirmed these premonitions, it appears other changes are afoot at ANGC.

According to a report from the Augusta Chronicle, the 455-yard fifth hole could undergo renovation for the Masters. Preliminary site plans filed Jan. 30 with the Augusta Planning and Development Department, according to the Chronicle report, show a design that moves the tee box back 20 to 30 yards. Work would not begin until May 1, with the alterations done before the 2019 Masters.

The fifth hole has been far from a pushover in recent years, with the field logging just 21 birdies versus 82 bogeys or worse last year (4.212 average, fifth-toughest hole on the course). If Augusta National goes through with the project—an Augusta National spokesman told the Chronicle the club is still exploring its options—it would be the first significant modification to the course since 2006 when six holes were lengthened.

The post Report: Augusta National weighing change to fifth hole appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.