Softer greens? Playing longer from the tee? Described by the players, these will be the biggest differences about playing Augusta National in November.
For the first time in its history, the Masters will not only be the final Major of the year, but will also be held in November for the first time.
The usual April slot - which makes the Masters the first Major Championship of the year - was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the organisers postponed the event for its one-off November slot.
One notable and obvious change is a lack of spectators that allows for a lot more space, but what about the different course conditions facing players?
Typically, it can change quite significantly throughout the week during a tournament in April. This year, the course has more bermuda grass and has been described as slightly softer from tee to green, making the course longer and potentially allowing for more aggressive play. In other respects, many are expecting there to be little difference.
From defending champion Tiger Woods to fellow Masters Champions Adam Scott and Jordan Spieth, find out what players expect the biggest changes to be this week.
Tiger woods
We've never played it in the fall. Yes, there is a lot of bermuda around the greens and the golf course in general. The rye is a little spotty in places and the ball is settling down a little bit. General around the greens, we have the ability to play bump and runs or play more spinning golf shots. That's going to be a little different this year. The ball is going to be popping up on us a little bit and rolling out.
I have been up here in the fall a few times and have played it, and it's been like this. But we've never played a Masters like this. So it's going to be very different for all of us, and some of the shots around the greens are going to be a lot more challenging than they have been in the past.
They are trying to figure it out. Especially with the forecast we have coming in, it's going to be a little bit more fuzzy around the greens, and some of the shots, some of the guys have switched wedges this week and gone to more bounce to try and figure this out. It's going to be challenging for all of us.
Brooks Koepka
It's just a little softer than what you would normally see in April. It all depends, I mean, they can change this golf course overnight. They can make it firm and fast if they want to. They can speed the greens up and make them nice and firm. A lot of times we see it on Wednesday afternoon to Thursday, the golf course can change quite a bit.
So as of right now, it's just a little softer, but that could change.
Jason Day
It's going to play long because of the rain and the storms that are coming in. I think it might potentially rain for the rest of the week. There's a chance of it.
There's a good outside chance if we just kind of have weather like this that the scores are it's going to yield a lot of birdies. The greens are a lot softer, the fairways are softer, so anytime you have soft conditions, the guys will probably most likely tear it up.
It'll be interesting to see how much moisture they can suck out of the greens with their SubAir system, and if that's the case then the greens could potentially get a little bit quicker, and probably most likely that's going to be the defense of the whole golf course. I don't know if they're going to be able to change too much setup wise. Sometimes you go through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then you come out feeling and it's a totally different feeling of the golf course, but just through the weather that we're going to get, I think it'll probably play very similar to what we have right now.
Jordan Spieth
The grass has been a little thicker and longer than we see in April. So even for 9, if the ball comes short of that green, sometimes it rolls back 20, 25 yards short of the green. Right now it's only going to go 5 or 10, making the next shot a bit easier. It will be interesting to see how that changes because that would change how aggressively you could play certain approach shots if you know it's not going to run off as much as it normally does.
It looks like some of the greens have a little bit of that kind of browning where it's starting to firm up already, maybe just preparing for potentially some water coming in Wednesday and Thursday. But I haven't seen that kind of colour on these greens other than 2014 and '16, I want to say, the two years where it played really firm, and that certainly makes a big difference on how precise you have to be in not only the ball flight that you use as far as the curve on it, but how high you hit it too.
So just it's important to see how shots are reacting in the greens, but the course itself is just playing a little bit longer, but not anything totally uncommon if anyone's played here in the fall before. It's normally a lot longer this time of year than it is in April.
I think I'm used to seeing a significant change Wednesday to Thursday and then a significant change Friday to Saturday, just as you walk on and around the green. It's weather dependent every year too. But given if we had conditions like this all week, we'd step on the green Saturday, and it would be pretty dicey looking and very difficult to dial in that speed. It just gets so quick.
It allows me to commit better than normal. Yeah, so you get on holes like No. 6, a par 3 where you might see hole in one to the front left pin and you know you can attack that day, but on the right pins, where am I playing to? What shot am I hitting to make sure I'm walking off that hole with a 3? It's just you play the hole backwards and figure out where you can take advantage and where you can't.
And I think experience plays a good role around this track, but that's not to say in a softer condition at Augusta, it could be anybody that when you can throw some darts, it could be anybody that wins. It doesn't require as much I don't think as much experience. So we'll see what happens with the weather here coming up.
Adam Scott
So I can see just a little bit, the grass is, in some ways, a little more forgiving potentially. It's a very fine grass, just pure overseed in April, and at times on particular shots when it's quite thin and fine like that, it demands a lot of precision.
But you know, I've also heard guys say that it is quite different on the course with a little bit of the Bermuda still staying around, because it is quite warm, that you have to play some shots around the greens in a different fashion.
Rory McIlroy
Yeah, look, when the greens are softer, I think it makes it makes most second shots easier. You can be a little more aggressive. The ball is going to hold on some of the different areas on the greens. Unless you're going in with wedges where the ball is going to spin a lot, then you're going to have to start to take spin off and sort of hit little shots and three quarter shots.
But for the most part, second shots into par 5s and shots into the longer par 4s, they are slightly easier when the greens are a little softer. And then when they are softer, they are a touch slower, as well.
I don't think the greens quite got up to the full speed they could even last year.
Webb Simpson
I feel like in April you can get certain lies that you can put some spin on it and other lies you can't. I feel like this week it's just a little more neutral, tougher to put spin on the ball around the greens with that Bermuda coming through, but I think the chipping areas are really consistent.
Putting from off the green is a little harder, I think, this year, so I've kind of tried everything. I've tried the 3 iron hybrid, I've tried bumping it with a lob wedge, tried putting it. It kind of depends on the hole, kind of where you are. You know, I wouldn't say a ton different than in April.
It is soft. Tee to green it's soft. The greens were a little more firm today than yesterday, but I know Mother Nature is kind of going to possibly give us some rain this week. But I mean, I know I'm a member of Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte and we use the same grass, and we overseed end of September, so I'm well aware of the amount of water it takes to get this grass to grow. I think overall they've done a great job of giving us a golf course that's similar to what we're used to but obviously a few months earlier than when we normally are here.
Justin Thomas
Yeah, it's all subtleties. The ball doesn't sit nearly as well around the greens with I think both the Bermuda and the overseed coming in, you're going to have some sketchy lies around the greens, balls that are sitting down to where you're not going to be able to get the spin that you're used to getting, especially chipping up to the elevated greens or when you need to spin one, hold it against the slope or whatever it is.
But I think you're going to see that over the course of the week. Definitely some chips that kind of come out high and knuckly and with a lot of top spin on it. But everybody has to deal with it. Everyone is playing the exact same golf course, so you can't complain or make a fuss about it because everyone is teeing it up in the same spot on Thursday.
So what about the impact of the lack patrons? According to Lee Westwood and Tommy Fleetwood, the biggest change is visual.
Lee Westwood
It’s more open. The grandstands tend to break some of the holes. So you do see more left of 15, the other side of the bridge, and they're open areas. 4 looks very different. There's normally a grandstand down to the left of 4. So, yeah, it's made quite a significant difference. I'm sure you could play some of the holes slightly different to the way you would normally play them.
There's normally thousands of people behind the 12th green and down the right inside of 11 and 13. 15 and 16 is a massive difference as well. So, yeah, it takes some getting used to, obviously. This is a large acreage of land right now.
Tommy Fleetwood
I think it's more visual at times. When you see 8 when you go to the back pins on 8, you always know you can go a little bit long of the green because there's a grandstand there. You can hit it, and you won't be fast away. But now you don't have that grandstand to hit off 15 right. It would be like 2 right or 13, the layup just seems all of a sudden you're looking at a scoreboard and a TV tower that you really didn't used to see. It was just people.
I think just you're looking at shots that you probably knew you could hit anyway. They just actually look way more accessible now.
You're just looking straight at them instead of working it out.
