JACK NICKLAUS: How to Play Augusta National

   In honor of Jack Nicklaus’ famous 1986 win at age 46 at Augusta National, his 6th, we share the following comments from the Golden Bear during a Golf Channel interview in the early 2020s:

    “If you go around this golf course there’s as many left to right shots on this golf course as there is right to left. Right to left, there’s really only a few shots, off the tee, that give you an advantage: like (holes) 9, 10, 13, 2 maybe a little bit.

    “But this is a golf course that there’s about six shots that I find are the tough shots. And the kids come and ask me, ‘how do you play Augusta’? And I say there’s six shots you’ve got to watch out for. The tee shot at 2; you know they’ve got an airline booth down there to give you a ticket home, if you hit it left, because you don’t get out of there very easy. There’s nothing more to the front 9. The front 9 is fairly straightforward.

    “Then you go to 11. You play the second shot at 11. That’s a dangerous shot. Then the tee shot at 12, that’s a dangerous shot. The tee shot and second shot at 13 are both dangerous. And the second shot at 15 is dangerous. I don’t think 16 is all that dangerous. You can play out away from (the water) pretty easily.

    “But if you watch out for those six shots, and you play those conservatively and play solidly, the rest of the golf course is not very hard. You’ll shoot a good score. 

    “I continually see guys hit the ball down into the creek on number 2 and I continually see them hit it in the water at 11, or in the water at 12 and drive it into the trees left on 13. And I sit there and say, you don’t have to do that to play this course well. And you don’t have to challenge those shots. Play them conservatively. There’s still plenty of other shots that you can be aggressive on.”