The Masters

Rory McIlroy vs. Bryson DeChambeau

The Masters’ Sunday pin positions at Augusta National look brutal:

Usually, the fairly short par 3 #16 is back left, which allows players to aim away from the lake on the left and let the big right-to-left slope funnel their tee shots down near the hole.

But back in 1975, 50 years ago, the three blonds, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, and Tom Weiskopf battled it out, with Nicklaus deciding the championship on the #16 with the 40 foot uphill putt to the back right position.

There are a lot of jokes about this being the highest Nicklaus ever got off the ground.

But he was actually a fine high school basketball player who set the Ohio state record with 26 consecutive free throws made. Although not recruited, he expected to walk on the basketball team at Ohio State. But it turned out that Buckeyes John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas were a whole lot better at basketball than Jack was.

You’ll notice that Augusta National’s greens were a lot slower in 1975 when they were Bermuda grass than before they were replanted with bent grass in the early 1980s.

Eleven years later, here’s the famous 15 and 16 of the final round of 46 year old Jack Nicklaus in 1986, 39 years ago. Nobody uses a one-iron anymore (lightning victim Lee Trevino famously advised golfers trapped on the golf course in a thunder storm to hold up a one-iron to the heavens “because not even God can hit a one-iron”), but Nicklaus psychologically intimidated his foes by hitting one-iron in key moments.

Back then, TVs took a while to warm up. I turned the TV on in time to hear the loudest buzz I’d ever heard from a golf audience. Finally, the picture came into focus. It looked like a blond man walking to the 16th tee at Augusta. “Greg Norman?” I thought.

“No,” I realized, “It’s Nicklaus!”

As color commentator, Weiskopf, who’d come in second in four Masters without winning, was asked if he knew what was going through his fellow Buckeye’s mind on the 16th tee:

“If I knew the way he thought, I would’ve won this tournament. … Make the swing you are capable of making … Make a good golf swing. Your destiny is right here.”

Personally, I like the previous back left pin position where contenders could aim right and funnel the ball down toward the hole. The ANGC leadership had concluded that with that pin position, eventually some leader would make a hole in one on Sunday to win The Masters.

And, you know what? They could live with what would instantly become the most famous stroke in the history of golf.

But that probably won’t happen today.