When Shane Warne created history at the most iconic hole at Augusta National
Tiger Woods might have hit the most iconic shot at the 16th hole at Augusta National, but Shane Warne created a historic first at the par-three hole on the most prestigious course on the planet.
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Steven Baker always knew when he was about to get one over his great mate Shane Warne.
Whether it was arguing about footy, ribbing him about his diminishing pile of poker chips or the location of a drop shot on the golf course, Warne would always revert to the same refrain.
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“Yeah, well, have you ever hit a hole-in-one at Augusta?” a cornered Warnie would fire off.
“Because I have!”
Baker wasn’t there when Warne created history by becoming the first person to ever hit a hole-in-one to a back-right pin location on the famous 16th hole at Augusta.
But the St Kilda legend heard Warnie tell the story so many times, he might as well have been standing in the tee box with him.
“We played poker most weeks and that hole-in-one was a topic of conversation for probably a year,” Baker tells Code Sports. “I’d say I heard that story 50 times.
“Maybe more.
“I know about the wind and how it’s not just any hole, it’s one of the hardest holes in golf.
“He always put a bit of mayo on most of the stories he’d tell, but from all reports that one is legit – it was a ripping shot.”
Warnie didn’t need to put any mayo on that yarn.
Augusta officials sent him a certificate with all the details of his first ever hole-in-one, which just happened to take place on arguably the most famous hole on the most famous course in the world.
It’s the same hole Tiger Woods hit his “In your LIFE” miracle Masters chip-in in 2005.
But no one had ever hit a hole-in-one there on a back-right pin location before Warnie strutted up, plonked his ball down and pulled out a six iron.
It was at the end of a 10-day golfing trip around America, and Warne had played the course twice before.
He told the tale with as much passion and precision as he talked about his ‘Gatting Ball’ in his Ashes debut.
It was at the end of a 10-day golfing trip around America, and Warne had played the course twice before.
He told the tale with as much passion and precision as he talked about his ‘Gatting Ball’ in his Ashes debut.
“I’d played the 16th three times, making a birdie to a front pin – a lot of the pros make birdies there – but the second time, I pulled it into the water – no good,” Warne told me in an interview for Sporting News in 2021, just nine months before his sudden death.
“The third time was the one. It was 157, or 159 yards up a slight hill into a little breeze – not much, just a little breeze.
“I hit quite high, so I was worried if I hit a seven iron, I wouldn’t get it up enough. So I needed a little bit more club, and tried to hit a lower shot, rather than hit a high shot and let it sit.
“Because the pin is a Friday pin – a back-right pin – no one has ever hit a hole in one in the history of the club.
“I hit a six iron, and as you hit it, you say, ‘Oh, I’ve hit that well’.
“The guys you’re playing with are saying, ‘That looks good, be as good as you look!’
“Suddenly, one bounce, and boom! Straight in.
“I’d never had a hole-in-one. Never gone close. It was my first hole-in-one, and I love my golf – I love it.
“So to have a hole-in-one at Augusta, on one of the most iconic holes in world golf, to a back-right pin, that no one has ever done, to be the only person to ever do it … I’ll take that.”
You could hardly blame him for reminding his mates about it whenever he got the chance.
And, he never missed an opportunity.
“Whenever we talked about golf, that was always the comeback, ‘Oh, have you ever got a hole-in-one at Augusta?’” Baker laughs. “He had that over all of us.
“Back when I was just taking up golf, he’d say, ‘Mate, you need lessons so you can actually keep up with me’ and I started getting a little better, but once he hit that hole-in-one, he was like, ‘I don’t think you can mix it with me anymore’.”
The pair first met many years ago when Warne invited Baker to play poker after reading about the footy star’s passion for it in a story in the Herald Sun.
They bonded over the green felt of a poker table and became better mates on putting greens around Melbourne over the next 20 years.
“It seemed like I’d known him for a lifetime,” Baker says. “I remember picking up Jackson (Warne’s son) when he was just three or four years old, and throwing him around the swimming pool.
“Now he’s about twice my size.”
Baker says Warne was as competitive about golf, poker, tennis and monopoly as he was about cricket.
“He was pretty similar to Aaron Hamill – Hamill’s a bit of a cheater too,” he laughs. “You’ve gotta keep your eye on him. He’ll miraculously find his ball in a bush.
“But if (Warne) hit a shit shot or lost at golf, he’d be cranky.
“In poker, if he was the first to go out at his home game, he’d get very filthy.
“If someone gave him a bad beat on the last card, we wouldn’t laugh, we’d just sort’ve look at each other and think, ‘Here we go, Warnie’s gonna have a bit of a blow up’.
“He’d walk away to his bedroom or throw out a thousand F-bombs.
“You’d always try and take him out and give him a bad beat because he was very entertaining when he lost.”
No matter how badly the cards were dealt though, The Sping King could always fall back on his one-bounce hole-in-one at Augusta.
“After it happened, they sent me a letter, with a plaque and a frame of the ball and everything, because they said no one had ever done that,” Warne told me back in 2021.
“I don’t know if they were just making me feel good – I doubt it. I don’t think they’d do that.
“I know at the tournament, no one had ever made a hole-in-one to a back-right pin.
“It’s a special place. It’s the Mecca of golf. If you ask any golfer if they could play one course anywhere in the world, I think most of them would say Augusta.
“It captures the imagination, not just of golf lovers or sport lovers, everyone watches The Masters.
“Something always happens on the back nine on Sunday. It’s just unique.”
Originally published as When Shane Warne created history at the most iconic hole at Augusta National
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