Augusta National’s second hole, AKA Pink Dogwood, presents the first realistic birdie opportunity for players at the Masters. The 585-yard par-5 is reachable in two, assuming players can navigate the dogleg left tee shot and avoid the deep bunkers that guard the front of the green. Reaching in two and holding the putting surface are two very different things, however, as 1976 Masters champion Raymond Floyd learned the hard way over the years.
On Friday, Floyd joined Golf Channel’s ‘Live From the Masters,’ where he recalled the so-called “advice” Arnold Palmer once gave him about navigating Augusta National’s tantalizing, but terrifying, second.
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“We’re [Palmer and Floyd] going down the second hole—this is a year or two before ’76—and I said to Arnold, ‘how do you play this hole during a tournament? You hit it in the middle of the green and, boom, it’s gone back up the hill up there.’ He looked at me and said, ‘during the tournament, you just take whatever club you need and let it hit in the middle of that green and all the gallery behind the green, they give it one of these [demonstrates being hit by a golf ball] and it drops down and you can just roll it down there with your putter. It’s easy!’”
Using the gallery as a backstop is a wild chess-not-checkers move, but unfortunately when Floyd went to try it during the Masters the next April, it didn’t work out like Arnie drew it up.
“First round that year, I drive it perfect. I’m hitting I think a 2-iron in. Perfect. Right down the slot. Hits right in the middle of the screen but my gallery didn’t do that [demonstrates getting hit by golf ball], they went ‘pffft’ [demonstrates stepping aside to get out of the way of the golf ball]. I was 20 yards up on that slope coming back. I was lucky to make five. And at that time, Arnold wasn’t my best friend.”
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Incredible stuff. Floyd would soon learn how to navigate the second, winning the 1976 Masters by eight strokes, but something tell us he never took advice from Arnie at face value again.
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