Masters Countdown: What is it about left-handers at Augusta?
Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson and Mike Weir have six of the last 13 green jackets. What's up with that?
By
Kyle Porter
•
3 min read
This is a concept that endlessly fascinates me. If you look at the last 13 Masters wins, six of them have come from left-handers. Mike Weir has one, Bubba Watson has two and Phil Mickelson has the other three.
So is it the chicken or the egg? Are these golfers winning Augusta because they're left-handed or are they simply great players who win big tournaments who also happen to be left-handed?
“There are an awful lot of holes that look more inviting if you stand over the ball as a left-hander,” former No. 1 Luke Donald famously told the New York Times way back in 2011. “The golf course may have always demanded a certain right-to-left ball flight for the right-handed player, but considering where they’ve moved the tees, it’s exaggerated. It’s a harder shot for a right-hander.”
This is obviously not a new quote, but with Watson and Mickelson continued favorites at the Masters, it's one worth going back to often.
“It’s just much harder to control a right-to-left draw,” Donald said. “And when you have to hit it farther and control that shape longer like you do now on this golf course, well, the challenge is greater."
Martin Kaymer even famously changed his swing a half decade ago because he felt like he couldn't properly play Augusta even though he was ranked No. 1 in the world. Kaymer is a right-hander who used to have a go-to fade. Here's the Augusta Chronicle.
The swing change started in 2011 because Kaymer was frustrated that he didn’t have a draw (right-to-left shot) at Augusta National, which is the preferred shot off the tee on dogleg-left holes Nos. 2, 5, 9, 10, 13 and 14.
For left-handers, those holes are a cut or a fade, which is generally easier than the type of draw that's needed (long and hard) for right-handers.
"That is why I can play Augusta as well as I do now,” Kaymer told the Chronicle. “It makes a big difference to have a 7-iron or 8-iron playing into the 10th, or if you can go for the green at the 13th all the time. That’s all because you are able to draw the ball.
"You know exactly that you can trust every curve you want to hit, and it makes you more relaxed. You know if you miss the fairway on the left or the right, you don’t have any problems to get the ball on the green."
As Brandel Chamblee pointed out last year, the real benefit comes on No. 13.
But tell me this: When was the last time you saw a right-handed player hit a right-to-left tee shot at No. 13 that covered the distance and found the angle to the pin that Bubba’s did last year on Sunday?''
Two-time champ Watson doesn't disagree.
"Phil’s tried to hit cuts off of tees. Mike Weir has hit a few cuts,” Watson told PGATour.com. “For us, it sets up good for a cut, and that’s what you need around here, or a draw for a right-hander. For us, it sets up good for the shot shape we’re trying to hit.”
The interesting part about all of this is that it's a debate with no ultimate answer. You could go on and on debating each side before coming to your own conclusion. Personally, I think it favors the right type of left-hander and not just left-handers generally.
It favors the left-hander whose go-to shot is small cut because, when the chips are down on the weekend at Augusta, you aren't trying to hit shots that you're uncomfortable with. You have to go to what you know and hitting cuts is what Watson and Mickelson know very well.
But the fact remains: You still have to do it.
