The Genius Trick of Augusta National's 12th Hole | The Game Plan | Golf Digest 

Excellent content. Crisp commentary, some true archival footage, and an imaginative concept. More of these, please.

Absolutely LOVE this type of video! Gives such great insight as to what makes a hole so challenging and opens us high handicappers up to game-management thought processes we can implement on our own rounds. Real question - why don't pros hit draws into the 12th if that allows for better dispersion patterns?

As a diehard golfer, ive always known that the 12th hole was hard because of the dispersion patterns of the right-handed dominated field, but I thought it would be too hard to explain in such a short video like this. WELL DONE!

Nicklaus bogied 12 on Sunday in ‘86. Jack once said “Sometimes I get there, and my hands just shake.” Don’t forget the swirling wind. It’s at the “bottom” of the course. The wind can blow in a different direction at the tee box and green than at the top of the ball flight. Per SI, wind can make a difference of 4 club selections. Only 3 aces in the history of the Masters at 12: 1947, 1959, and 1988. Amazing hole.

I’m a left handed golfer and I noticed a bunch of lefties have won the masters in the last 20 years or so (more than most majors I would think). Mike Weir, Bubba, Phil. I wonder if being a lefty is actually an advantage here since they designed the course to be tough for most golfers who are of course right handed Edit- well ok I watched the whole video and he actually talks about lefty golfers so there you go. There must be something to it

Excellent explanation. Shows how much thought goes into designing, and then playing, golf holes. My plan? Lay up short of the stream. Duff my second shot into the stream. Next shot over the back of the green. Chip close, two putt. An easy 7 🙂

This was fantastic. So many great pieces of history, design, and game management well presented. Well done LKD and team

Ken Venturi said it best about the tee shot on #12 on Sunday: “You can’t win the Masters with this shot, but you sure can lose it” #12 is one of the greatest par 3 holes in golf, without question.

great video. kept me interested the entire time and I felt like I learned a lot despite already being familiar with Augusta. PLEASE do more of these!

The quintessential "sucker pin" if there ever was one. Evil genius course design. Nice break down.

genius trick: golf left-handed

I love the data showing what we know Tiger could do so well: stay out of stupid mistakes.

I'm convinced 2016 ruined Speith mentally. He's never been the same since.

Ok I'll just take my 6 iron and aim it at the pin

Jack Nicklaus, who played Augusta pretty well, said take aim at the trap in front and take your 3.

Brilliant. Examples like this demonstrate that elite golf is not all about "natural talent". It takes planning, strategy and self discipline.

This was a perfect description of how such a short hole can create so much consternation, and intrigue. It's no wonder why this is often the hole that wins, or LOSES the Masters seemingly every year.

I don't even watch or play golf and I couldn't stop watching this video.

Perfect guide for my next round in Augusta 👌🏻😂

Has to be the best course management / course design video I've ever seen.

It’s a nightmare for a righty. Pulls/draws right carry long and pushes/fades come up short. Lefty’s have an advantage

This video barely mentioned the swirling winds caused by the intersection of two separate wind paths over the course. They meet near the 12th and make the hole what it is.

You would think every masters player would know this and not go for the pin (unless they needed to be aggressive and play catchup).

Additionally, the slope on the right compounds the problem. The water may be 20ft short of the putting surface, but any shot not landing on the green rolls back. It’s essentially ‘water to the edge of green’ as you play it. Excellent video.

why dont they draw instead of fade then

Someone always sticks it close on Sunday.....Just gotta hit it .......

Great stuff, Luke! Thanks for letting me be involved! #DECADE

So why don't some pro's hit draws into the hole? Would't that lengthen their dispersion patterns just like Phil hitting hit fade?

I want to watch a video like this for all 18 holes 😭😭

I really like this kind of instruction. It defines the problem, and leaves it up to all of us to deal with it, rather than just telling us what to do. I really can't tell you how much I appreciated and needed this. As an old golfer, I rarely see something that I feel improves my approach to golf but this video did that. Liked and subscribed, and thank-you.

I remember, 1996, Greg Norman was leading virtually 3 1/2 days until he Self imploded in the last holes on the final round against Nick Faldo I must admit I did feel sorry for Greg that’s golf

One of the greats used to say "If I am near the 12 hole after my tee shot on sunday, I pushed it."

I loved Morikawa’s strategy drawing of a line bisecting the 12th green into left & right… with an all-caps “NO” for the right side.

I used my gps program to determine that, in 2019, Molinari, Koepka, Finau, and Poulter all hit their balls within 4 yards of the same distance that Tiger did. Also don't forget that McKenzie came to golf design as a master camouflage designer for the Brits in WW1.

That was suuuper interesting to hear those insights and the theory behind it. Could we please get more of this type of content in the future?

Who on earth employed this narrator. Sounds like hes putting on a terrible upper class british accent

southpaws rise up, this is the chance to establish our superiority.

Spieth never looked the same after the 2016 blow up.

Would’ve liked if you included the scoring avg on this hole depending on pin position

Very informative. I've always wondered about this hole after watching Tiger's last win where the two other guys all went into the water while Tiger took the long putt to catch up. It wasn't obvious why the pin seekers on Sunday was so prone to hit into the stream.

More analysis of good course management. Who are the best course managers today, and how would they play it?

"The ego can be helpful, but usually, especially in Golf, a Hinderance." - Bill Schlosser 😎

Oh to have that chance to play the 12th at Augusta on Sunday. I guess I’d have to make myself 1 of the greatest golfers ever.

As a lefty I’ll make sure I attack that pin next time I play there 😂😂

On Augusta's inception, and for many years after, they'd grow the grass up on that RF slope a substantial amount compared to the close shave it gets today. Wedge technology made it a simple pitch and a putt for par for everyone, the risk-reward wasn't as severe. Hence, the 'redesign' with bikini wax all over.

4:40 the second I saw the tilt of the green I knew you’d talk about lefties playing it way better

Go for it, but if you are going to miss it, miss it right.

Did you notice at :33 seconds it show thick rough short right...now it is a shaved bank. Only Couples ball stayed up there....

Love to get to Augusta hope Rory finally wins

Love the saying " The Masters doesnt start until the back 9 Sunday" I actually enjoy watching the mis-calculations on 12 yearly.

As a former PGA teaching professional and someone who's watched the Masters for 50 years this analysis is spot on. Those who have lost the Masters on this hole either broke the golden rule (going after that right pin), hit a poor shot, or both. I'd say that even if you are a couple shots behind on Sunday going into this hole, this is not the hole to try and make up that ground.

I can't imagine making a video about this and not discussing the wind though... thats the most important factor

I didn’t start to understand golf hole design strategies until learning to shape shots after reading Nicklaus’ “Golf My Way” in the mid-1980s. When a green is angled right / or left \ relative the fairway it will normally give the player with the ability to shape shots an advantage over one who can only hit straight. A good analogy is the green direction as a runway you are trying to land a plane on. Shaping the shot into the longest dimension of the green increases the odds of keeping the ball on the green after it lands. The ideal situation for the player would be the hole places at the end of the “runway” with the green sloping uphill towards it. The 12th green shape favors a fade for a right handed player except when the pin is placed on the right below landing area., Something to realize about shaping shots (if you’ve never done it) is the rationale isn’t about the shape of the shot in the air but influencing the direction the ball bounces and rolls after landing. For a right hand player a fade will bounce and then roll to the right after landing and a draw will bounce and roll to the left. What makes the Sunday pin placement on the right so difficult is the left-to-right and back-to-front slope towards the hole . The hole works better for lefties because their fades will bounce and roll into the upslope after landing. So why don’t the right handed players approach the hole with the same shot shape; putting left-to-right draw spin on the ball? Trevino said it best: “You can talk to a fade but a draw doesn’t listen.” There almost no limit to how much the face of a club can be opened to hit a fade/cut shot to the point where you can get so much spin on the ball it will move 90° to the right after landing. But due to the fact the club face must be de-lofted and must strike the inside of the ball to create left-to-right draw spin the ball has a lower trajectory and will more difficult to control predictably.

Pip pip cheerio...and fakest accent ever

Do more of these. This was great!

Yeah, you have a winning format here with this video.

The narrator definitely has a double barrel surname.

Say everything when the last person to ace the 12th during the Masters was Curtis Strange in 1988.......fiendish hole indeed, but so beautiful! Golden Bell...............

Well, I’m lucky if I break 100 so my strategy is quite simple. Hit the ball toward the green and hope that I get lucky.

I've watched 10,000 RU-vid videos. This narrator is easily the most pretentious.

Why not play a draw (for rightys)? It would seem like the dispersion pattern would be more favorable, as shown by the lefty fade dispersion pattern.

This was the one blemish on the card for Jack Nicklaus when he roared back in 1986 with a 30 on the back nine. He was 7 under for the final 10 holes (he birdied the ninth), with a bogey on this little hole. I think this is, consistently, the toughest short par 3 in golf. The 7th at Pebble Beach is very tough if the wind is howling, and the 17th at TPC Sawgrass is an island, but with a pretty big green. This is an amazing hole.

So the trick is to be left handed, lol

Everyone believes the smart play is center of the green but they are wrong. Laying up and putting over the Hogan Bridge is much safer.

Having played this hole many times on the sim, it's hard enough to hit the sliver in the middle of the green without leaving it in the bunker short or long. Going at the right pin is just death.

Just to close a small gap in the video. Right handed players can flip the dispersion pattern to be more like the left handed fade players by hitting a draw. But, a draw could also invite distance control issues. I am sure Tiger and Colin know this and that is why they take the straight ball to the left side of the green. Its just not worth the risk when there are other pins to chase.

Tell us faders something we do not know. Left and long vs right and short. That is nothing new. It all depends on how much long or how much short you are likely to go.

So what’s difficult about it ? Play the % shot to the middle every time regardless of pin position but as in life it’s greed that is the ruination of all gamblers.

seems silly to me, a professional golfer should be able to pull a draw out when needed. Attack it with a draw and stay right of that bunker. little long is an easy up and down.

But... if you had to, or if even you felt dialed in, you would be very tempted to go for it. Its a perfect golf hole in a perfect part of a golf course in my opinion.

Well done on the video!

okay but hear me out... what if a right handed player just hits a draw? lol I love this hole and the breakdown was really nice.

Hold my beer.

Never broke it down this way about dispersion patterns. This may help me on the crap courses I play.

I would hit a draw straight over the creek right to the right side of the green stick it 1 yard below the flag and have it roll in for a Hole in One on Sunday and become a legend forever.

If lefties have a better chance at this hole with their fade, why wouldn't a righty attempt to draw it instead? Or are most players more comfortable with their fade to the point where they can't trust their draw even when it is the safer option?

Couldn't finish watching this video as the overlay music was an awful decision.

Wouldn't a right hander drawing the ball have the same dispersion pattern of a lefty fading it?

Great video! Minor editing error in the graphic at 4:20-check the apostrophes.

Perfect short par 3. Laid out by God, refined by Mackenzie

even as a casual golfer, I'm thinking..."well yeah..."

it starts on the back 9 on sunday RIGHT JORDAN

So what you're saying is... right handers should try to draw the ball at the pin!

Looks like its one of those Par 3s where, if you make a par, you feel like you've made birdie!

Funny enough my full 8 iron shot is great for the Sunday pin position. I'm sure Augusta would eat me up but I'd bet everything that I've got I could land it on the green and have a serious chance at Birdie on Sunday. Wouldn't help much if I was 2-4 over on every other hole lol

We'll see how players approach the hole this week!

If you can hit the left side of the green on command you can hit the right side on command too.

That makes Augusta (at least on this hole) a course for lefties !! Great video.

Never thought of a dispersion pattern that way

I would aim for the back left bunker and play my natural fade..

Between the bunkers. 2019 should tell you that much

Wow excellent! Remind me to not try and hit a fade shot there next time. Oh boy...

Great content, but narrator is the single poshest man I’ve ever heard

Voiceover is insanely overdone, what are these pronunciations?

It would've been interesting to see the shot dispersion if they hit a draw.

Mind boggling. Please more and more and more of this content.

Raymond faded it right between the bunkers today lol

A square clulb face wins this hole every time...

Dunno at the strategy of hitting the green. My challenge is to hit the ball.

Great info. I'll have to remember it when I play Augusta.