AUGUSTA, Ga. — The week before Tiger Woods played in the Masters for the first time as an amateur in 1995, he practiced for Augusta National’s lightning-fast greens by putting on Stanford’s basketball court.
Ernie Els famously practiced on a billiards table to which Stewart Cink said, “My ceilings aren’t high enough for me to putt on my pool table otherwise I would too.”
Others have settled for the smooth concrete of their garage. Then there’s the possibly apocryphal story of players trying to simulate the speed of the Augusta greens by putting in a bath tub. Something tells us Bryson DeChambeau tried this or something even wackier.
When TPC Sawgrass superintendent Jeff Plotts was asked if the pros that practice there ask him to ratchet up the green speed on the practice green ahead of the Masters, he said, “Get it all the time.”
Here are some of the stories of the rude awakening pros experienced their first time at Augusta National and what they do to prep for arguably the toughest set of greens the pros face all year.