Deep Dive
The changes at Augusta National's third hole, explained
It’s possible to overlook the complexity of the short par-4 third. In one regard, players can simply hit a long iron or hybrid club off the tee into position short of the fairway bunker complex on the left, setting up a full wedge or short iron into the elevated green. But the shortness of the hole adds a psychological element to the equation—the belief that a 3 is out there for the taking—that can override prudency.
The Masters officials are aware of how tempting this hole can be and play into competitors’ desires by moving the tees and hole locations around in different combinations that create significantly different—and tempting—holes on different days of the tournament.
The origins of the third hole
Alister MacKenzie and Bob Jones envisioned the short third as a drive-and-pitch par 4 where the challenging green would serve as the hole’s defense. The green site was ready-made on a protrusion of land the designers located on their walks around the old Berckman’s nursery, what MacKenzie described as “an interesting natural plateau.”
The land flowed right to left off a hillside cascading down from the second fairway toward a low area, and MacKenzie designed a three-cornered green with a deeper right-side section banked against the hillside, and a shallow finger on the left that falls away short and into a deep bunker. As is the case everywhere at Augusta National, the day’s flag placement dictated strategy.
The green changes in shape but not substance
It is believed that Perry Maxwell, MacKenzie’s former associate on several U.S. projects, modified the original green in the late 1930s by removing the front corner, turning it into more of the L-shape that it is today. This didn’t alter the concept of the hole but rather had the effect of accentuating the effectiveness of the distinct hole locations, defined by positions back-right (a deep, a narrow target), front-right (accessible, with the slope moving right off the embankment), front-left (shallow, with no room to miss) and the gradients in between.
As the land around the green cants away on the left, the right-front of the putting surface, nearly level with that side of the fairway, was accessible via the ground using the slope on the right for help. But anything that missed short for left-side hole locations would tumble into the valley 10 to 12 feet below the putting surface, leaving tenuous blind pitches back up to the hole.
A new look from the tee
In the early 1980s, Jack Nicklaus’ design company, headed at the time by Bob Cupp, was brought in to analyze the drive and determine ways to make it more demanding. After talk of building a water feature near the location of the single large bunker on the left side of the fairway was dismissed, the Nicklaus team created four smaller bunkers that extended closer to the tee, taking away some of the previous landing area.
The drive on the third, playing from tee complexes down in the glade near the second green, remains largely blind, playing up and over a fairway crest with the bunker complex the dominant visual feature.
How the third plays today
In most ways the third plays almost the same as it did in 1934, to almost the same yardage (360, versus 350 yards today), with one exception: Players of that era weren’t expected to be able to drive the green unless the fairways were baked out (which can happen when the clay soils turn hard).
Today, the third is set up as a drivable par 4 on one or more days of the Masters by moving the tees forward, often on Sundays and in combination with the diabolical left-side hole location. Most competitors attempt to hit their drives as close to the green as possible, with drives generally ending up in the hollow below the left side of the green where they trust their short games to get up and down for birdies. But putts and chips from above the usual Sunday hole location are among the fastest and scariest on the course.