‘Be patient’: Baker-Finch’s tip for beastly Augusta
Darren Walton |
Golf great Ian Baker-Finch is urging Australia’s Masters hopefuls to stay cool as a hot start looms critical at a potentially treacherous Augusta National.
With a rare forecast of four clear days for the first major of the year, officials are tipped to test the world’s best players with devilish pin placements and perilously fast fairways.
Augusta National was one of the first clubs to install sophisticated sub-air systems under all 18 greens to control moisture levels and air temperature to effectively manage scoring.
Former runners-up Jason Day and Cameron Smith have both welcomed the expected gruelling conditions, declaring “the tougher the better”.
“Yeah, I’d like that. That’d be good,” Smith said.
“I think it suits the guys that are comfortable with it and Aussies generally like courses firm and fast.
“There’s no reason why they can’t do it. I mean, the course is already kind of firm. It’s probably not as fast as they could get it, but they can do that here with the flip of a switch.
“So, yeah, it’ll be a good Augusta to watch.”
Predicting a winning score of between 11 and 13 under par, Day believes patience will be the key to contending come Sunday.
“I’m hoping that the tougher the better because it just means that you need to have everything on from tee to green,” the former world No.1 said ahead of Thursday’s first round.
“It’s always imperative that if you don’t hit the greens here that you leave yourself in the correct locations and, if you leave yourself a good up-and-down, then you’re always moving forward.
“It’s very easy to try and force the issue here when you know that you shouldn’t.
“So just be patient.”
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are the only two players in the past 25 years to win the Masters from outside the top 10 after round one.
Just like tennis players know they can’t win grand slams in the first week, Baker-Finch pointed out that golfers can only lose hope of wearing Augusta’s famous green jacket with a poor opening round.
“They need to get off to a good start for sure,” the former British Open champion, who’s now the chairman of the PGA of Australia, told AAP.
“And it’s hard because when you come into a major and you think you have a chance of winning – and all four of the Aussies have a good chance this week, they’re in good form – so they’ll know all the statistics.
“They watch TV just like we all do and they know that you need to. You’ll have to shoot 70 or 71 to have a chance.
“So that puts added pressure on and a few of them over time haven’t been able to do it.
“That doesn’t mean that they can’t go and do a couple of 65s in the middle like Rory did last year.
“You just never know around here – it’s a different, different animal. It’s a hard golf course.”
AAP