Augusta National is widely considered to be the most pristine golf course that you will find anywhere in the world, with barely a blemish to be seen anywhere every time The Masters comes about each year.
There is real excitement building for the opening round on Thursday. Once again, The Masters marks the official start of the golf season in the eyes of many, particularly in this day and age where it is the first opportunity of the year to see all of the world’s best players face off.
It does seem that Augusta National does absolutely everything in its power to ensure that the course is nothing but immaculate. And while the weather conditions can dictate how difficult the course is playing, those working behind the scenes leave no stone unturned when it comes getting the course into its best possible condition.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature did have other ideas on Monday. The practice day was brought to a premature end due to the storms in the area. Obviously, the course had to withstand heavy rainfall just a handful of days before the opening major of the year gets going.
What some players are saying about the condition of Augusta National after Tuesday’s practice day
And it seems that the course did play differently once the players got back out on Tuesday. Speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman shared what he had been told about how the course had handled the poor weather.
“Everything that I’d heard about the golf course coming in was that it’s as firm and in as good a shape as it’s ever been in. That was before yesterday where it literally rained the entire day, it didn’t stop. I bet they probably got three or so inches, I don’t know if you have a number, but that’s kind of what we guessing last night, just based off how much rain it felt like we got,” he said.
“As far as how it affected the golf course today, of course, it was softer. And talking with a couple of players, they said it’s as slow as they’ve ever seen the golf course play from a greens perspective. So when you take that into consideration, you’re like okay, how fast can they get this golf course firm, and how can you get golf courses firm? Well, typically, you need dry weather, you need wind and you definitely need really good SubAir, which guess what, Augusta National’s got a lot of good irrigation so you know that they’re going to be doing everything from their side to be able to suck all the moisture out, but the green speeds being this slow on a Tuesday, it kind of just makes you think how fast can they actually get it for a Thursday? Are we going to see a bunched leaderboard on Thursday with some lower scores? I think that’s possible.”
The conditions which caused plenty of drama at the 2024 Masters
There is scope for the best players in the world to score around Augusta when the conditions are calm. It does not have to be the most challenging golf course if you are able to play sensible shots and pick the right moments to be aggressive.
However, the 2024 Masters did see the players put through a real test, particularly in the second round. The high winds made conditions incredibly difficult, with Ludvig Aberg the only player in the entire field to break 70 on Friday.
Scottie Scheffler shot 72 that day. And he suggested that he was very pleased with his score.
“Yeah, it was extremely challenging. The winds were up very high, and it blows from everywhere out here. I think even par this afternoon was a really good score,” he said.
“And, yeah, I couldn’t really describe how windy it is and how difficult the gusts are just because, I mean, I think you just have to be out there and experience it. Like hitting shots into 11 and 12 today, it’s so difficult.
“And like when you have putts – had a putt from about four or five feet on No. 9, and on a typical day would have been just outside the hole with no wind. But I could hit it on that line, and the wind — so the putt is breaking right-to-left, wind is blowing left-to-right, and, I mean, it can change the break of the putt by a cup on either side. Especially at the speeds that these greens are at.
“Everything out there is extremely difficult when it’s this windy. So I was definitely — definitely pleased to get in there at even par.”
It would appear that there is a real chance that Augusta will be a lot easier this time around. Perhaps a 72 on Thursday will leave a player with a real mountain to climb over the rest of the week.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
