To many golf fans, Augusta National Golf Club represents perfection.
And yet just about every year, the Alister MacKenzie masterpiece, which will host the Masters for the 89th time next week, gets a nip here, a tuck there. So we asked the pros what changes, if any, they would like to see made to the famed layout – No. 3 on the Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list – and most of them didn’t hold back.
Adam Hadwin
I would flip the 12th green around and angle the green the other way with the pond. So, short and right, you’re fine, and long and left you’re fine for a righty. It would be a big change but I’d like it.
Adam Scott
Is this anonymous? This is where I get in trouble. I think they’re doing it but it seems like there is less and less of the second cut. I like that. I would keep going with that trend.
Brian Harman
I would make it shorter. It means too much to hit it far on some of the holes.
Collin Morikawa
The 11th hole. I hate it. If they just mowed the fairway (cut toward the tee as opposed to the green) so I wouldn’t have 250 in, I’d love it.
Corey Conners
It’s pretty much unbeatable but I liked the tee more forward on 13, I will say that.
Gary Player
If you win the Masters, you should be able to play one round, just one round, with three guests of your choosing. I would take my grandchildren to show them first-hand what their grandfather achieved so they can finally appreciate it up close.
Gary Woodland
That I get to play in the Masters no matter what.
Webb Simpson
Nothing.
Harris English
They keep making it longer and longer. Take No. five. I think that’s the hardest hole. I’d move it back to where the tee used to be.
Jason Day
The sixth green. It is what it is. If you built that green today, people would laugh at you. But because it’s Augusta and it’s been there a long time, you just know.
Justin Thomas
All of them are “me related.” I just need to play better.
Keegan Bradley
When it rains, they never play the ball up (lift, clean and place) and it’s into the grain so every hole is a mud ball, it’s pretty brutal. The par-3 fourth hole is too long if you ask me.
Kevin Kisner
Get rid of the first cut.
Ludvig Aberg
I wouldn’t change anything.
Matt Fitzpatrick
I would change the fourth hole. It’s brutal. I’d change it because it’s so hard.
Matt Kuchar
I’d slow the greens down. I think it would be a better tournament that way.
Nick Faldo
Zero. It’s perfect.
Rickie Fowler
I wouldn’t really change anything out of respect for what Augusta is. I have never had complaints when I’ve been there. It’s just a special place that you get to go to, and I guess in a way, you appreciate it for what it is.
Russell Henley
There should be more tee options. I really liked the new tee at 13 unless we get a north wind and sure enough we did. It became an automatic three-shot, layup hole. There’s a couple of spots where if they had another tee between the Masters tees and member tees it would give them better flexibility to react to weather.
Tony Finau
I’m not changing anything. The place is incredible.
Stewart Cink
Add a set of tees in between the member and back tees. I have friends who have played as guests. They say they end up playing from 6,100 yards.
Xander Schauffele
Making the par 5s reachable is better for the tournament. The 15th with an iron is so fun. It’s less exciting when guys are laying up.
Zach Johnson
I would not make any changes but I never got to play the course when it didn’t have the first cut and I never got to play it when it had the mowing line in the middle of the fairway. So, I would like to experience that but I don’t think it should change. I think it looks better the way it does.
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