AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | Late morning Tuesday as the spring chill was burning off, Fred Couples, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele set off down the hill from Augusta National’s first tee for a leisurely practice session in advance of an overdue April Masters.
Despite his now silver hair, the 61-year old Couples seems forever young here even though he’s a generation or more removed from his playing companions, both of whom are likely to contend on the weekend.
Beyond being in the company of Couples, who remains the coolest guy in any room he enters, there are tactical advantages for Cantlay and Schauffele in going around Augusta National with the man who made 23 consecutive cuts here.
Like no other tournament site, Augusta National honors – and oftentimes rewards – experience. For players who don’t yet have the benefit of years going around the course, there are those – like Couples – who become mentors of sorts, offering advice on playing a course that can be as unforgiving as it is beautiful.
It’s too much to call it a Masters tradition but younger players seek out older players here, whether it’s to learn how to handle the tight lies around greens or how best to use the slopes that make the Masters played as much on the ground as through the air.
If golf is the game of a lifetime, Augusta National is the eternal classroom.
This has been happening for decades, from Byron Nelson helping Ken Venturi to Adam Scott picking Greg Norman’s brain for advice. For years players would seek out practice rounds with Jack Nicklaus to glean whatever advice he might offer, the same way some players gravitated toward Ben Crenshaw, who won here twice.
Years ago, Couples was on the asking end. Now he’s providing the answers, or at least his wisdom. Whom did he go to 30 years ago?
“Always Raymond Floyd, always,” Couples said, standing in the sunshine. “I went to Tom Watson a little bit. But it was always Raymond.”
What was Floyd’s Augusta message?
“Always go for the par-5s in two,” Couples said. “…but the course was shorter then.”
For those who remember, Floyd was mentored by Arnold Palmer.
If golf is the game of a lifetime, Augusta National is the eternal classroom.
Charl Schwartzel, for example, sat with Nicklaus once and had the six-time champion talk him around Augusta National, soaking in the knowledge and the nuance. He considered it a key factor in his 2011 victory.
Cantlay draws from the font of Couples. The knowledge is both simple and straightforward. Sometimes it’s about what not to do as much as what to do. Yardage books are filled with red Xs indicating no-go zones.
“Just the more I play this place, the more I get comfortable with the shots, and I think I’ve tried to draw a lot on Fred Couples’ knowledge and some of the other guys’ knowledge, and just little things, picking even just the shot they might play on a certain hole or how they see it,” Cantlay said.
“Just feeling comfortable with the place and really picturing – getting a good picture in your head when you have to hit those certain shots. Confidence builds on itself around here. You hit those shots really well a few times in pressure situations and that builds that picture and reinforces it even better. You just take that every year going forward.”
Couples has another bit of advice for Cantlay – he wants him to spend some time with Floyd to learn from a Masters master.
While Bryson DeChambeau is busy creating new flight patterns for his tee shots – he’s planning to take it over the immense pine trees that line that right side of the first fairway more than 300 yards from the tee – others do more subtle work.
Never miss left of the second green when the flag is cut on the left side.
Putt it, don’t chip it, if you miss the 16th green to the right, Mike Weir learned.
And never, ever fire at the Sunday pin on No. 12.
It’s an accumulation of knowledge stockpiled over the years, some of it handed down like family stories.
“I picked a lot of people’s brains,” Lee Westwood said. “Nick Price was very helpful for me when I came here the first time. I think I had a practice round with Seve (Ballesteros) and Ollie (Jose Maria Olazabal); most of the Europeans tended to because they were successful around here. Nick Faldo’s brain you would pick, Bernhard Langer’s.
“Even last year, I’m always trying to learn. I had a few holes with Sandy Lyle. We were talking about the different ways of playing. (Monday) with Woosie (Ian Woosnam) I played nine holes and he gave little nuggets of advice on where to hit shots and how to hit shots and how to place certain shots.
“You never know everything about the game of golf. You’re always learning. And even more so around Augusta.”
Sometimes it’s as simple as watching what others do. That’s what Justin Thomas has done in the years when he’s played practice rounds with Couples and Tiger Woods.
“I just follow them around like puppy dogs. Wherever they go, that’s where I go after it. If they hit chips from somewhere, I go hit chips from there,” Thomas said.
Scott remembers playing a practice round with Norman and stopping for a sandwich around Amen Corner where they talked about the golf course.
Marc Leishman latched on to Geoff Ogilvy to learn his way around Augusta National. He’s also played some pre-tournament Sunday rounds with members where he’s learned a thing or two.
“I feel like you learn a lot from them because they play it all year,” Leishman said.
“It really changed the way my bad rounds started becoming even par, one over, and my good rounds, I was starting to shoot in the 60s more just because I was playing smarter and missing it where I needed to.” – Webb Simpson
Sometimes, it’s as simple as listening to what others are saying. Webb Simpson began to change his results at the Masters after over-hearing a comment by Phil Mickelson.
“He said every hole here gives you a bail-out. Every hole there’s a safe side of the hole, where that’s not typically thought of at Augusta. Everyone thinks of Augusta as, you miss the green, you’re going to have a really tough chip,” Simpson said.
“If you know where to miss it. For example, No. 9, anywhere left to a left pin is pretty much dead. But if you miss it right of the green, and you got 20 yards over there right of the green – hopefully, you don’t hit any people – but it’s an easy up-and-down.
“So, when I took that mentality a few years ago, it really changed the way my bad rounds started becoming even par, one over, and my good rounds, I was starting to shoot in the 60s more just because I was playing smarter and missing it where I needed to.”
To the list of the things that set Augusta National and the Masters apart – the green jacket, Amen Corner and the most famous concessions in sports – add one more: A perpetual learning curve.