When Tiger Woods won the 2001 Masters, the board members of Augusta National elected to make some changes to try and level the playing field.
The idea of lengthening the course, dubbed “Tiger-proofing,” certainly made it harder for Woods, who has only won two Masters since the changes, and none since 2005.
But, as Woods has struggled with injuries, a new dominant golfer has arrived at Augusta. Jordan Spieth is playing in his fourth Masters and never has finished worse than second place. The 2015 Masters champion vaulted up the leaderboard Saturday, shooting a four-under-par 68 to put him into a tie for fourth place.
When asked about his success at Augusta, Spieth had a very specific answer, as he told Golf Digest’s Alex Myers.
“I’m not sure. I mean, I guess the golf course was Tiger-proofed at one point. You can’t really Jordan-proof it,” Spieth said, per Myers. “I don’t overpower it. I don’t hit — my fairways hit is 55 percent. That’s not very good. These are very wide fairways. So to answer your question, I would say, first of all, hitting greens in regulation, I thought we’ve done a great job of — especially yesterday in the conditions, I hit maybe 15 of them. It’s just been positioning: playing the golf course the way that it’s supposed to be played to where par could be your worst score, giving myself short par putts. So it’s really just kind of thinking around it and using a bit of experience.”
Spieth will be paired with Rickie Fowler during the final round Sunday.
Thumbnail photo via Michael Madrid/USA TODAY Sports Images
