AUGUSTA, Ga. — You need luck on your side to win the Masters. You can hit good shots at a bad time and lose. You could hit bad shots and win. Winning majors isn't fair, and largely out of players' control. But there's one shot—or rather, one decision—that is firmly in their control.
The tee shot on the par-3 12th hole.
If there's one place where a player will end up choking during the final round, this will probably be the site. As it has been so many times in the past.
Here's why.
As it is on every Sunday, the pin is squirreled away onto the far right side of the green, into a gap of about nine yards from front-to-back.
The genius trick of this hole is though is that it often lures playes into trying to fade something towards the pin. The problem is, the tilt of the green means that when players get even a tiny bit aggressive it severely punishes any miss to the right, because right misses travel slightly shorter than left misses.
The play is to aim over the middle of the bunker. That moves your short right misses into play, while having a negligible effect on everything else.
Tiger was the poster child for this strategy. Here's where he hit all his shots during his five Masters wins.
No matter how much it looks like it, the 12th isn't a birdie hole. It's a potential disaster hole, pretending to be a birdie hole. Pretend the pin doesn't exist (unless you're a lefty), take your par or bogey, and run to
You can watch our full analysis video on this hole right here: