NeilTappin
GM Staff
Afternoon all,
I've just returned to the office, cleared a few emails and then happened to stumble across the virtual sweep stake on my score at Augusta on Monday. For those of you who predicted less than a ton, bless you (you would have been correct had I managed to complete 17 and 18 without a card-wrecking disaster). To those of you who predicted over 100, you probably thought my lack of skill around the greens would cost me - you'd usually be right!
I don't want to bore you all (I can see that line being quoted later) but here are a few thoughts. We played off the members tees which are quite a long way up compared to the Champs versions. On 15 for instance a decent drive to around 250 would give everyone the chance to have a crack in two. this makes the course a lot less intimidating off the tee. Also, if you do hit the odd wayward one you would be unlucky not to find it in the pine straw. So for the average player, Augusta is actually quite playable... then there are the greens.
The greens are mad. However, once you are inside 10ft you've got a great chance of holing out because they are so true. The problem is getting your first putt to within 10ft. The 10th was my most amusingly terrible hole - I had a greenside bunker shot followed by a putt followed by a chip followed by two more putts. Not quite Phil Mickelson.
I also hit my tee shot on 13 into the pine straw where Mickelson played from on Sunday. The opportunity to have a crack at the green was too much to resist and so i hit a 5-wood (I had 230 front). The ball hit the tree in front of me so hard the noise seemed to shake the ground. The ball ricocheted back towards me and almost took my head off.
I'll stop there, suffice to say, it was the most amazing golfing experience!
PS Would love to show you some photos from the round but the powers that be at Augusta requested that we do not publish any of them.
I've just returned to the office, cleared a few emails and then happened to stumble across the virtual sweep stake on my score at Augusta on Monday. For those of you who predicted less than a ton, bless you (you would have been correct had I managed to complete 17 and 18 without a card-wrecking disaster). To those of you who predicted over 100, you probably thought my lack of skill around the greens would cost me - you'd usually be right!
I don't want to bore you all (I can see that line being quoted later) but here are a few thoughts. We played off the members tees which are quite a long way up compared to the Champs versions. On 15 for instance a decent drive to around 250 would give everyone the chance to have a crack in two. this makes the course a lot less intimidating off the tee. Also, if you do hit the odd wayward one you would be unlucky not to find it in the pine straw. So for the average player, Augusta is actually quite playable... then there are the greens.
The greens are mad. However, once you are inside 10ft you've got a great chance of holing out because they are so true. The problem is getting your first putt to within 10ft. The 10th was my most amusingly terrible hole - I had a greenside bunker shot followed by a putt followed by a chip followed by two more putts. Not quite Phil Mickelson.
I also hit my tee shot on 13 into the pine straw where Mickelson played from on Sunday. The opportunity to have a crack at the green was too much to resist and so i hit a 5-wood (I had 230 front). The ball hit the tree in front of me so hard the noise seemed to shake the ground. The ball ricocheted back towards me and almost took my head off.
I'll stop there, suffice to say, it was the most amazing golfing experience!
PS Would love to show you some photos from the round but the powers that be at Augusta requested that we do not publish any of them.
