Augusta National Golf Club is one of the most studied and analyzed golf courses in the world. And every year, it remains one of the most challenging and difficult places for TOUR Pros to play. Why is that? In this episode of The Game Plan, Golf Digest Senior Editor Luke Kerr-Dineen dives into the often unrealized strategy tour pros use week-to-week to discover why a majority of them struggle when they step through the gates of Augusta National—and how lefties come out ahead.
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50 Comments
The fade bias that has come into favor for pros has been in the last 10 or so years. That doesn’t account for Phil’s and Mikes wins.
So the course could in theory favour a right handed draw player? Assuming they have previously built their game around draws?
this makes rory not having a jacket even more puzzeling.
I'm going to make a youtube video analyzing why their are so many right handed winners on the PGA tour. 🙂
The analysis in this video is completely asinine. The author’s arguments for a lefty advantage at 12 should fail at 16 because the hole is canted the opposite direction, but he spins the story to fit his thesis. Same with the tee shot at 15 and 17. There may be a few holes at ANGC that fit the typical lefty’s eye better than the typical righty’s eye, but that’s no reason to confuse correlation and causation.
Who are righty’s that like to hit a draw besides PReed?
This entire video is under the assumption that all left handers fade it
All I’m hearing is become left handed for the micro chance of playing Augusta
Bryson loves his draw plays into his hands
I'm backing Brian Harman on the nose, 😂
I’m a left handed 8-10 handicap and every hole on every course scares me😂
Bryson has an amazing ability to hit draws and fades. As well as hit long high balls to clear trees and obstacles. His shot distance is fairly consistent so a lot of blind spots he can hit by just knowing the distance. Will be interesting to see how he attacks it. But, I bet you would find lefty righty advantages for doglegs on most courses for varieties of holes. Augustus may just be laid out that way a bit more than others that favors lefties. Lefties are such a small percentage of golfers. So it’s a bit odd with many of the older Augusta tournaments there weren’t really very many lefty winners.
Or were they discouraged back in those days, and lefties actually played righty golf.
Someone should look at all those in those long ago Augusta tournaments and see how many of the players were actually lefty but played righty.
This feels like a Bryson year. If he can make some putts, he should be able to run away with it with his current shot shape.
Makes me wonder if they should swap one of their clubs for a driver that is say 15 years old where it would allow for a better draw for the right hand player
@Golf Digest
No. Back when Augusta National was designed. The majority of right handed golfers were hitting draws. Your analogy is FLAWED in that, today a lot of right handed players play a FADE to eliminate the left side of the golf course. When Augusta National was designed, no one knew or even dreamt that right handed players would migrate towards hitting fades. And there were a very small minority of left handed golfers, if any existed at that PGA Tour skill level.
Can we appreciate the irony that Bubba Watson hit a huge sweeping hook out of the trees to win The Masters? But hey its probably just because the tee shot on 10 doesn't favor a lefty (oh wait)… what about the other 9 holes not discussed in this video?
Nicklaus always hit a fade, and he won the Masters 6 times.
I just want a LIV lad to win it 😂
God these videos are good
Basically the exact opposite logic when they talk about 12 and 17. 17 works more for a right handers dispersion and they can fade it into the hill and kill the momentum. A lefty fade will get too much speed going down that hill.
Why not just carry two drivers, one fitted for a draw and one fitted for a fade when playing Augusta Nationals? Give up a less used club or take out the fade driver.
2:33 great pictures you found there 🤣🤣
As a lefty I am offended.
Lefty's have consistently hovered around 10% of the population throughout history, and it seems to provide a competitive advantage in some sports, namely baseball, tennis, & combat sports
7 of the 45 presidents have also been left handed
As a lefty I find this refreshing that something finally was built with us in mind, even if it wasn't for us originally
Very cool vid. Some of these right handed, opinionated country clubbers in the comments disagree
Their will be a solar eclipse at the masters on monday. First time its happened since 1940. The winner that year was Jimmy demaret. He was born on May 24.
That spelling is probably wrong. Its also a leap year. In the 21st century after an American wins the masters in a leap year the following winner is an international player. The last leap year was 2020.
I bet harman 3 weeks ago 60-1.. he is a sketchy putter though.. misses a lot of 5 footers
A joke. !!! Stop the click bait
Only astonishing that they win 6 of 22 masters after 2022 because there are relatively few left-handed players. It's a sign that the game is becoming more bourgeoise. Also that you don't have Tiger, Jack and a whole host of top flight right handers with dozens of Masters wins between them.
Or you can say that right handers won at an astonishing rate with the course set up for left handers. See above.
This video is just left hander golf propaganda to try and convert right handed golfers over to the bad side of golf.
Or just learn how to draw the ball! Always wanted to play there cause I draw most shots….
Akshay Bhatia has entered the chat👀👀😮💨
16 is absolutely not easier as a lefty. It’s the reverse of 12 and the righty now has the short and right bailout
Not a single use of data or rigorous evidence in general to back up these claims. Neat idea but clearly a lack of rigor
This should actually fir Bryson like a clove…since he started playing with his current driver in 2023, he is very consistent with his draw. If he can get that going and together with his distance, he might be able to play himself into contention this year!
Sheffler, Rahm (except on a couple of tee shots), DJ, Tiger, Sergio all won in recent years hitting fades off the tee
sounds like a media narrative piece………inventing stories
5* lefties now
By this logic Bryson who as a right hander and hits a stock draw should fair well at Augusta…..a fiver each way on Bryson and Harman it is then!
Cool piece. I really think current technology has made it difficult to be a shotmaker.
So Akshay might win the masters one day
Excellent video. Phil finishing 2nd last year and Rory missing the cut was hilarious, karma at it's finest. Maybe a leftie like Brian Harman can finish top 5 or win it this year, Harman was 1 shot off a playoff at The Players so his form has been promising this year.
The key that most in the comments seem to be missing is modern drivers are fit for one specific shape. If that is a fade for righties their attempts at draws will be mid 1k spin knuckle balls and if they are fit for draws their attempts at fades will be spiny flares. Modern larger drivers are also more difficult to draw for both lefties and righties as the further the center of mass is off the shaft the harder that club is to draw. Add to that you can't change ball position much with driver due to lack of loft and you get players being forced, by the equipment, to be very one-dimensional off the tee.
2:28 five now because bhatia
Oh god the apostrophes at 2:13, how embarrassing for a publication.
NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND THIS GUY TALKING
5 left handed players
I find the argument that somewhat random changes in equipment made a course that was initially better suited for righties that are drawers to become better suited for lefties that are faders quite interesting and compelling (just imagine if driver head size had been limited at 250cc instead of 460cc? maybe modern equipment would have still favored drawers). With the upcoming changes in ball characteristics, I wonder if manufacturers opt for higher spinning balls as a way to reduce distance will have more players playing draws with driver in the future (and the lefties advantage at Augusta may be gone).
Lefties are just better. This is common knowledge
Akshay Bhatia just qualified and he is lefty!
Add +1 to the list of lefties for Bhatia