Jordan Spieth might have found a new way to finish the front nine at the Masters.
He is just worried about trying it when anyone is looking.
It was during a practice round one year that Spieth reached the tee on the 460-yard ninth hole and noticed an opening in the trees left of the tee. It was large enough to consider going down the first fairway.
Photo: AP
He figures now he has tried this unconventional route a half-dozen times.
“In practice rounds and times I’ve just been messing around, there’s a hole where you can do down one, and it gets all the way to the flat,” Spieth said. “And then the angle into the green, it’s just tier-tier-tier.”
He said this while chopping his hand from left to right.
From the ninth fairway, the tiers on the diagonal green stack front to back. Spieth figures if he can put his tee shot far enough down the first fairway, it would be a straight shot over two bunkers.
So what is the problem?
“Obviously, if one person does it, there will be a new tree there,” Spieth said with a laugh. “Every time I’ve tried it, when I’ve been with members, they’ve said: ‘Don’t let the chairman see you.’”
The ninth hole at Augusta National is named “Carolina Cherry” and it can be a pivotal part of the Masters on Sundays.
The conventional way to play the hole is to drive to the bottom of the hill, a slight dogleg to the left even as the terrain moves to the right. From there, it is typically a short iron up the hill to a three-tiered green that slopes sharply to the front. Two deep bunkers are to the left of the green.
The contours are so severe that is not unusual to see players putt from 20 feet with their backs to the hole.
Jack Nicklaus has left his bear tracks all over the Augusta National, particularly on the back nine, on his way to win six green jackets.
Perhaps special recognition should be paid to the ninth hole. It is the last one Nicklaus ever played in competition at the Masters. He never announced that 2005 would be his final Masters. Players started on both tees because of the rain, so Nicklaus wound up ending his incomparable career at Augusta on the ninth hole.
Strong memories of the ninth hole also include a big shot for Nicklaus.
In the final round in 1986, Nicklaus was lining up a birdie putt when he had to back off twice because of the roars coming from down the hill around the eighth green, where Tom Kite and then Seve Ballesteros each made eagle.
“I was about 12 feet. I wasn’t on the green, I was on the fringe,” Nicklaus said. “And they both holed those eagle shots and I said: ‘Let’s make some noise up here, too, guys.’ And I holed it. Off and running.”
Nicklaus shot 30 on the back nine for a 65 and at age 46 became the oldest Masters champion.
“I think the ninth hole is a relatively awkward golf hole,” Nicklaus said. “It doglegs against where the terrain goes. It’s a tee shot you want to squeeze down the left side and you take a couple of gulps as it goes down the left side because if you clip a tree, you’re dead as a doornail. If you hit a good tee shot, it’s not a very hard second shot, but then you always have to worry about slipping it off the green.”
Greg Norman knows all about that. He was still in control of the Masters in 1996 when his wedge to No. 9 was not deep enough, came down off the front and about 60 yards back down into the fairway. The birdie sent Nicklaus to a stunning rally. The bogey sent Norman to a staggering collapse.
“It’s a dangerous little hole,” Nicklaus said. “It’s a scary little hole.”
Meanwhile, in Humble, Texas, Kang Sung shot a nine-under-par 63 to take a six-shot lead in a record-breaking second round at the Houston Open on Friday.
After shooting a 65 on Thursday at the tune-up for Augusta, Kang was at 16-under 128 through two rounds, setting the 36-hole tournament record of 129 by a stroke, set previously by Blaine McCallister in 1993 and Curtis Strange in 1980.
The 29-year-old South Korean, who entered the week ranked No. 202 in the world, bested the tournament course record at the Golf Club of Houston by three strokes, topping Johnson Wagner’s 132 in 2008. Strange and Wagner went on to win those respective tournaments, while McCallister settled for a third-place finish.
Kang’s round on Friday matched the 18-hole tournament course record and helped him take the largest 36-hole lead in tournament history, topping the previous record by two strokes.
Hudson Swafford and Russell Henley were at 10-under after both shooting five-under 67.
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