What’s Your Number?
In our last Masters-focused blog post, we wrote about using Arccos Caddie Preview to play a “virtual round” at Augusta National Golf Club.
In this post, we’re going to dive a bit deeper. Even get down-right nostalgic.
You see, the Masters is defined not only by its winners, but the seemingly miraculous clutch shots hit under absurd pressure that lead to them slipping on the green jacket.
These historic shots can be recreated and compared to your own using a combination of Arccos Caddie and Rangefinder.
Available after five full 18-hole rounds, Arccos Caddie allows users to see optimal shot strategies for any hole on any course in the world. You can get club distances based on personalised smart distances and predict the accuracy and score potential for each club.
RELATED: Arccos Caddie Preview Offers a Shot at Augusta National
Then, compare the yardages and clubs used by the game’s all-time greats to your own Arccos Caddie “number” and club recommendation via the integrated Arccos Caddie Rangefinder feature.
The artificial intelligence GPS powered Arccos Caddie Rangefinder factors the real-time conditions, wind (including gusts), temperature, humidity, slope, and altitude to give you the most precise yardage in the game.
Here’s how you do it.
Once you’ve opened Arccos Caddie, use “Search courses” to find Augusta National GC. Once located, download the course to help speed performance. Select the tournament tees, “Masters 7415 yards,” and select “Start Round.”
To get you going, we’ll use Louis Oosthuizen’s incredible albatross on the 575-yard par-5 second hole at the 2012 Masters. The South African with the near-perfect swing hit a 4-iron from 253 yards that funneled 75-feet to the back-right pin placement and dropped in the hole.
From tee to green, “Pink Dogwood” features nearly a 90-foot drop, which allowed him to club-down and swing hard.
Said Oosthuizen, who’s standard 4-iron distance at the time was 210 yards, “Luckily, it was a really big 4-iron for me so I could really go at it.”
Arccos users can touch the fairway on No. 2 and use the GPS number (in white) to get the approach shot distance to 253 yards. Now, you can view your Arccos Caddie “Number” (in green) and what club Caddie recommends.
If you’re new to Arccos Caddie, you can still recreate the shots, but you won’t have any club recommendations, until you play 5 rounds, and activate the Caddie Advice feature.
Pro tip: For even more accuracy and good times, select the pin location icon and move the pin to the traditional Sunday Masters locations (available at several golf/sports websites).
Other Memorable Masters Shots
2011 Charl Schwartzel – 3rd hole, Par 4, 350 yards (Eagle, 108-yard Sand Wedge)
Schwartzel began the final round four shots behind Rory McIlroy but found himself tied with the young Northern Irishman after just three holes. He chipped in on No. 1 and then played a perfect, 108-yard approach with a sand wedge that spun back into the hole for an eagle, two.
2012 Bubba Watson – 10th hole, Par 4, 495 yards (Par, 163-yard Gap Wedge)
Watson produced a spectacular back nine in the final round of the 2012 Masters to force a playoff against Oosthuizen. The duo halved the first extra hole with pars and then proceed to the par-4 10th, one of Augusta National’s toughest.
They lost their drives right, but Watson’s tee shot landed deep in the woods. Oosthuizen laid up short of the green. Watson, however, conjured a miraculous, 90-degree hooking gap wedge shot from out of the trees that found the green and set up victory with a two-putt par.
2010 Phil Mickelson – 13th hole, Par 5, 510 yards (Eagle, 207-yard 6-iron)
Mickelson had drawn even on the front nine with overnight leader Lee Westwood. A birdie on the 12th had given Lefty his first lead, but a loose drive on the 13th found trouble in the pine straw to the right of the fairway behind two trees.
Mickelson proceeded to play an extraordinary 6-iron shot from 207 yards that split the trees and landed just over Rae’s Creek in front of the green. It rolled up to just four feet from the hole. While he missed the eagle chance (while Westwood also birdied the hole), Mickelson went on to win by three.
2017 Sergio Garcia – 15th hole, Par 5, 530 yards (eagle, 192 yards 8-iron)
He carded bogeys on 10 and 11 and proceeded to hook a drive into the trees at 13. The 2017 Masters was quickly unraveling for the Sergio Garcia. After an incredible par save on 13 and birdie at 14, Garcia arrived at the mercurial par-5 15th (where in 2019, he would card a 13, the highest score on a hole at the Masters).
A blistering drive left him with a downhill, 192-yard 8-iron approach. Garcia’s second shot almost hit the flagstick leaving a makeable putt that he drained for eagle and moved into a tie with Justin Rose. The fiery Spaniard eventually beat Rose in a playoff to capture his first major championship in 75 attempts.
1986 Jack Nicklaus – 16th hole, Par 3, 170 yards (Birdie, 170 yards, 5-iron)
No list of memorable Masters shots would be complete without Jack Nicklaus, or his improbable victory in 1986 at 46 years old. The Golden Bear had just eagled No. 15 and was making one of his vintage charges up the leaderboard. On the tee at sixteen, he pulled his 5-iron leading his son and caddie for the tournament, Jackie, to yell “be right.” Nicklaus famously replied, “it is.” After landing, his ball nearly spun back into the hole.
2019 Tiger Woods – 16th hole, Par 3, 179 yards (Birdie, 179 yards, 8-iron)
Tiger Woods … the 16th hole at Augusta … so much history. Last year, leading the tournament at 13-under, Woods strolled to the tee, took dead aim at the classic back-left Sunday pin placement, and delivered an epic 8-iron that landed on the green’s sideboard funneling left just past and below the hole to within three feet.
RELATED: Bryan LaRoche Shows Us How To Virtually Play Any Course In The World
Have fun. And of course, we all will look forward to more memorable moments being added to this list in November.
