Despite his antiquated golf clubs, Siddharth Shriram was in seventh heaven playing the Augusta National immediately after the championship
Only 16 journalists out of 400 trying their luck in the media lottery get to play the Augusta National on the Monday after the championship. I was lucky enough to win the lottery last year in my fourth attempt, while some have not won it in 20 years. The pin placements remain the same as on the final day of the Masters tournament.
The chosen few are treated like the professional players at the Augusta National Golf Club — as if we were royalty. We had caddies in white overalls, just like in the championship, and got to experience the most amazing and comprehensive practice facility anywhere.
My caddie, Tom, noted that I could swing the club and was keen to gauge the distances I would get from the antediluvian clubs I had bought from a pawn shop (having been unable to get anything else on a Sunday), so as to guide me better around the course.
Finally off on the first tee, devoid of the teeming spectator masses but otherwise feeling like a contender, the mighty drive intended for the centre of the fairway sliced into a shifting bed of pine needles amidst some giant pines. The professionals easily thread their shots through such gauntlets of pine trees but my second shot struck a pine with a sound like a rifle shot, ricocheted on to the fairway, allowing a delicate chip to the green which I three putted (this was to become fairly routine!) for a double bogie, as Tom made encouraging noises.
The par 5 second hole resulted in an unlikely birdie as an attempted delicate chip was sculled and, as Tom said, the hole got in the way! My spirits were buoyant despite the twin handicaps of the clubs and my capability, and the game proceeded with pars, bogies and of course occasional three putts for double bogies.
The view from inside the ropes, i.e. the actual course the players play, is vastly different from the view from outside the ropes. The majestic pines lining what I’d thought was a wide fairway, appear to intrude rudely into one’s flight path as one plays, the picturesque bunkers seem deeper, wider and more terrifying and the greens are lightning fast as opposed to the normal speed when the pros putt. The steep uphill short par 4 third hole seems deceptively easy but has a twist in its tail as one tries to drive long to enable a simple wedge to precarious pin positions. The ball can drift into the serene pines to cause a dropped shot.
The apparently simple par 3 fourth can leave one with an uncomfortable uphill shot, over a deep bunker if one is short, and the slopes on this green can cause one’s putt to drift 10, 15 feet offline. The fifth is a tough par 4 as too far left one finds a deep, long bunker or deep rough from where it is cheaper to lay up to afford a chip to the pin with greater surety of a par.
The picturesque sixth is the easiest par 3 on the course as the fairway drops away from the tee to a valley and then rises again to a well-guarded green. The downward sloping seventh is not a long par 4 but then it rises again towards two fierce bunker guardians of the green which seem to magnetically attract one’s ball. It is not easy from here to stop the ball for a gimme as the slopes on the green are tricky. The eighth, drivable in two by long hitters when the wind is not against, and reachable of course in three otherwise, yields the most birdies and a recovery can start here as even waning confidence can wax again for tackling the horrendous ninth.
So many have taken a tumble at the ninth. Greg Norman in 1996 led Faldo by six strokes in the final round until he choked massively when his second to the steeply upward sloped green rolled back more than 30 yards off the green. Faldo won by 4! There is no “half way house” after the ninth to replenish carbs for tackling the feared “Amen Corner”, the world’s most famous triumvirate of holes that can undo even the most worthy contender.
The tenth is a downward sloping dog leg and one must traverse two well-placed fairway bunkers to put oneself in a reasonable position to attack the pin on an elevated green, with trouble on all sides. The eleventh, the first of the three holes comprising Amen Corner, has to be driven through a narrow gully of loblolly pines to an open fairway. However, the trick is in the second shot as a draw can easily find greenside water and a miss to the right leaves a testing chip to the pin which can still find water.
The par 3 twelfth is the center piece of Amen Corner as it invites one to seek the pin on a narrow lateral running green. In a headwind one may find Rae’s Creek if short or a tail wind can book one into difficult-to-hit-out of banked bunkers if one is long. The par 5 thirteenth, last of the Amen Corner three, is as beguiling as the mythical sirens who led sailors to their doom. Trying to drive long to enable a second to the green quite often lands among the pines on the right side of the fairway from under which only the brave of heart attempt to carry the water (such as Mickelson last year). Fast forward to the fabled par 3 sixteenth, all of it over water, with its green apparently grained contrary to any law of nature. On practice days, the pros skim their balls over the water onto the green to the uproarious approval of adoring fans. I tried the putt that first goes in one direction, then does a 180 degree turn and proceeds apace in the other — another wonder of the world!
And so finally to the eighteenth which one has to drive through a narrow magnolia alley to an open plain. It is not a difficult hole but the left green side bunker is nasty for getting an up and down. This is the hole where after the final putt, the champion leaps in the air, pumps his fist or raises his arms in acknowledging his victory.
Beautiful course, superb azure blue skies, therapeutic scent of pines, the field where champions are revered as gods. Surely heaven cannot be much better.
Siddharth Shriram is chairman, Honda Siel Cars India and Usha International. He writes extensively on golf and will be covering the Masters at Augusta, beginning on April 4, for Business Standard
