One of the loneliest spots on the course at Augusta National is about to get even lonelier as a big change is coming to the 2023 Masters. The governing our bodies in golf haven’t but determined to roll the ball again or change gear laws, so Augusta National took issues into its personal fingers with its course and lengthened the iconic thirteenth hole.
This transfer had been rumored for years, in fact, and speak solely heated up after Augusta National purchased land from the adjacent Augusta Country Club that may enable it to push its tee field again up.
The 510-yard hole has come below a lot scrutiny during the last decade as a number of golfers have tried — efficiently, typically — to show it right into a drive-and-pitch play off the tee. Historically, the thirteenth has been one of many nice risk-reward holes within the sport, providing golfers who had been prepared to tackle the creek working in entrance of the inexperienced a glance at eagle however wreaking havoc for these whose strategy photographs got here up quick. That dramatic risk-reward choice, with the primary main of the 12 months on the road, hasn’t actually introduced itself a few years.
In April, Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley was requested about whether or not one of the crucial well-known holes in golf would ever change.
“There’s no timetable,” stated Ridley. “Nothing to announce at this time. That’s something that certainly we have considered and will continue to consider. Admittedly, and I’ve said this before, the 13th hole does not have the same challenges that it has historically. I can just remember as a young guy watching the Masters, you know, some of the triumphs and tragedies. And while we still have those, the fact that players are hitting middle to short irons into that hole is not really how it was designed.
“My reluctance to this point has been that it is such an iconic hole,” Ridley added. Probably along with 11 — or 12 rather, and maybe 15. I mean, probably the three holes where the most history has been made at Augusta National. 
So that probably, you know, has been sort of a counter to doing anything. At some point in time, it’s something that we likely will do. We just don’t have anything to say about it right now. ”
Things have modified since April, apparently, as satellite tv for pc pictures present that the tee field has been moved and bushes have been planted in surrounding areas. This will, typically, make it tough for most of subsequent 12 months’s Masters opponents to place themselves able off the tee the place reaching the inexperienced with a wedge or quick iron is easy and simple.
The unlucky half about all of that is that it might be averted by regulating gear. Perhaps that does not pose a problem to Augusta National given its resourcefulness and place within the recreation, however not each membership or course can spend thousands and thousands for an additional 40-60 yards of distance on each hole.
“We won’t know [if equipment changes are coming] for some time because there’s sort of a process that sort of everyone has agreed to as to how any equipment changes such as this are going to take place,” stated Ridley in April.
“So we actually cannot make any predictions as to what is going on to occur, however I believe if there are some marginal modifications to the gear guidelines, from what I’ve noticed over the previous few years with the gamers and their athleticism, their energy, their measurement, the effectivity of their golf swings, I do not assume that we’re going to see programs being shortened. 

“So perhaps the two sort of factors might converge, but I don’t think that what the governing bodies do is going to have a direct impact on what we might do at 13 or any other hole on the golf course.”
That’s an attention-grabbing admission from anyone within the know. He’s primarily saying that even when the ball is rolled again or driver neutralized, the consequences most likely won’t be so nice that transferring the tee again on No. 13 — which ANGC has now performed — would not be needed.
As for the transfer itself, it should be one of many big tales at the 2023 Masters. Just as No. 15 was lengthened ahead of the 2022 Masters (a transfer that led to no eagles being made for the primary time since 1966), this change to No. 13 will have an effect on the end result of the golf match. While 50 or so yards (it is powerful to inform within the picture above) is just not a large shift, maybe the larger drawback for gamers might be that they aren’t as capable of reduce the nook up the left aspect as a result of a number of the overhanging bushes block that ball flight.
Some gamers like Tony Finau, Bubba Watson, Cam Young and Rory McIlroy should still try a line means out to the left, however the hole is definitely going to engender a big selection of methods than it has prior to now. More and completely different technique is what you need while you’re watching and experiencing championship golf. While the trail to get so far (lack of kit regulation) has been irritating, that is finally a superb resolution and must be a web optimistic each for ANGC in addition to the Masters.