Augusta National severely punishes aggressive and greedy play, where a promising fly ball can often turn into a double bogey, or worse, by just a dime.
Be patient on this golf course or you’ll experience the same pain that Collin Morikawa experienced on Sunday’s back nine.
His end began on the par-4 ninth hole. So Morikawa pushed his tee shot into the pine straw on the right side of the fairway.
But he became greedy. He tried to hit a low hook into a three-tiered green about 100 feet above the fairway. For Morikawa, whose pin stopped on the front left, the place he couldn’t miss was the left bunker.
I found one of them and ended up making double bogey.
Then, two holes later, Morikawa tried to take the flagstick on the 11th hole. The most difficult hole in Augusta’s history, the 11th hole must be played to the right of the green. There is a pond on the left side of the pond, and when the pin is on the left side, like on Sunday, you have to avoid the pond.
Morikawa ignored Augusta’s unwritten rules and tried to make up for the growing deficit in one move. The action backfired when he found the drink.
“I gave in to greed,” Morikawa later said.
“I knew where I stood. You can’t do that. I’ve never done it in the past, but that’s kind of the point of the game. You have to find your baby steps. I put a lot of puzzle pieces together this week, and after watching Scotty. [Scheffler] This week, I know what he needs to do if he really wants to close this gap between what he’s doing and how impressive his play is. ”
Scheffler won the Masters in historic fashion, making no mistakes on the back nine and winning by four points.
Morikawa said of Scheffler, “He hits the ball well, long and way past me.”
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“The way he hit the irons was obviously great. Keep it simple. Make putts when you need to. Even if you don’t, there’s still plenty of opportunity. And never get yourself into trouble.” ”
Still, the gulf between Morikawa and Scheffler is like a side mirror, closer than it seems. Like Scheffler, Morikawa has won two major tournaments and is widely regarded as an elite iron player.
However, Morikawa has had a difficult season so far. Still, he found something positive in his swing earlier this week that he believes led to his best performance so far in 2024.
“There are just some holes here that hurt me,” Morikawa explained.
“I feel like I can still hit the shot here. Yeah, I wish I could hit it farther, but I think with the game right now, if I can improve on a few things, I don’t think I’ll be that far. I mean, it’s over, what, seven strokes back? I think that’s a little bit closer for me mentally.”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
