‘My hands shake’: Why the most beautiful hole at The Masters terrifies everyone

“Sometimes I get there, and my hands just shake”.

If there is a quote that better captures the charming terror of the 12th hole at Augusta National Golf Course – home of the US Masters – it hasn’t been uttered yet.

The man who delivered the line is none other Jack Nicklaus, who is arguably the greatest golfer to ever play the game. The “Golden Bear” won 117 tournaments in his career, including a record 18 majors.

Heck, Nicklaus won a peerless six Masters titles – and even he is scared of the 12th stop on a course he tamed more often than anyone else in history.

So why does a postcard pretty par-three in the far corner of golf’s most famous course, sitting on the edge of Raes Creek and framed by pink azaleas and dogwood trees, elicit such fear, even for Nicklaus?

It’s not just that Nicklaus could have had a Green Jacket for every day of the week had he not double-bogeyed no.12 in 1981.

It’s the fact that Nicklaus is only one famous name on a very long list of star golfers, spanning 88 years, who also had their chances of victory blown up by a disastrous visit to the shortest hole of Augusta National.

It is such a long list that the best option is to just start with the legends and infer the rest: luminaries like Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, Gene Sarazen, Payne Stewart, Gary Player and even Tiger Woods.

More recently Jordan Spieth’s entire tournament imploded at no.12, and Rory McIroy and Cam Smith have sunk there too. And as the US Masters unfolds this week, the safest bet you can make is the hole will claim more victims – and probably the chances of a leading contender on Sunday, too.

“It’s the hardest hole in tournament golf,” Nicklaus said.

Amen Corner

The curious part about the murderous nature of the 12th is how innocent it appears.

From tee to the front of the green is a casual 130 metres, and while that was a longer iron shot in Nicklaus’ day, modern players can usually hit a green from that distance with a laser-guided wedge.

So far, so good.

But the hole is as treacherous as it is beautiful. It is golf’s Mata Hari.

The 12th hole is cut by Raes Creek, and to safely land on the green, players have to carry the water and a bunker sitting at the front edge.

Cameron Smith tees off towards the 12th green at Augusta National in 2022.Credit: AP

The next layer of difficulty is the size and shape of the green, designed in 1934 by Bobby Jones and Alistair MacKenzie (the latter a famed course designer who also built Royal Melbourne).

The green is not only angled away from the tee, it is particularly narrow – about 10 metres in width – and getting a ball to stop on it requires a perfectly chosen club, and a perfectly struck shot.

Hitting too long is bad news, as well, with thick shrubbery and downhill slopes out the back.

But even if you hit your tee shot crisply, the third layer of difficulty is the unpredictability of the wind at the southern pocket of the course, which was dubbed “Amen Corner” in the 1950s by sportswriter Herbert Warren Wind.

In a sport of mathematical precision and certainty, this is a corner where prayer is also embraced because the wind is often impossible to account for. Pros say the wind gusts and spirals in devilish ways, particularly above the tree line.

Green machine: Arnold Palmer (left) helps Jack Nicklaus into another green jacket after Nicklaus' nine-stroke victory at the Masters in 1965.Credit: AP

“They did studies on it and it’s called the ‘eddy effect’,” Bubba Watson said in 2020.

“If you get a gust, it actually doubles the speed but you just don’t know it. That’s why you see some balls come up short and you’re like ‘Did that guy really just misclub by two clubs?’.”

After putting a ball in the drink in the last round of 2019, Brooks Koepka said: “Once it gets above those trees, it’s a guessing game.”

Local knowledge helps, and there are umpteen tips and caddy’s tales about how to gauge the wind. Many of the old legends waited until the flags on the 11th green, to the left of the 12th tee, blew downwind before they hit. Others waited until the tops of the trees to the right of the 12th green swayed a certain way.

But prayer is as good a strategy as any. In 2013, Watson returned as the defending champion and hit a 10 at the 12th. And the hole is easier for left-handers.

Ky Laffoon plays a shot at the edge of Raes Creek in the 1930s.Credit: Augusta National/Getty Images

If you land in the water, the fourth layer of hell is the drop zone is back up the fairway, requiring an awkward lofted chip that still needs to clear water and stop on a dime. But you dare not spin the ball too much, because once a ball starts rolling down the 1.2 metre slope to the creek, you’re cooked – again.

“The very simple answer as to why it is so hard is that there is no good miss, there is no bail out,” said former Open champion, turned leading golf commentator, Ian Baker-Finch.

“You have to have the correct club. Most holes, most greens, most par threes offer an option. When the green is so narrow – from memory it is 14 paces from the front to the back, in the centre of the green – you just have to have the right club. You can’t get away with not having the right club.

“So there is a lot of pressure. Then you have to decide on the direction of the wind, and even on a calm day there is always something going on down there in the bottom corner

“You know it is going to be hard, you know you have to be precise. You know its a double bogey if you miss. So all of those things add up and add to the tension.

“And couple that with the fact it is also just a beautiful short par three. When you look at it, it’s just sitting down there, on the other side of the water, the azaleas and the dogwoods in the background. It is one of the most, if not the most beautiful holes in the world of golf.

“But it’s also a beast. You get to the tee and you have to take a deep breath.”

The trouble zone

Only the best of the best get invites to the Masters, but hapless victims have still piled up over the years. The creek floor is all mud and white dimples.

“It’s a hole you play with a seven-iron, a sand wedge and eight weeks of scuba lessons,” wrote Rick Reilly in Sports Illustrated.

In 1980, Tom Weiskopf – no slouch as a former Open champion and four-time Masters runner-up – took a record 13 shots to finish the 12th. In 1952, Sarazen took an eight and promptly walked off the course in disgust.

‘I hit it straight in the piss. A club that should have got there, but just didn’t.’

Peter Lonard

The hole has played to an average of 3.29, and an ESPN stat published in 2020 said of all the golfers who’ve played five or more Masters tournaments, the worst scoring average is 3.9.

That ‘honour’ belongs to Australian Peter Lonard.

“That could be right, I never played any good there,” Lonard said.

“I was usually rattled by the time I got to that hole. I don’t know how many times I hit in the water … but I do know that drop and pitch, that ain’t fun either, that’s nasty.”

Lonard, a two-time Australian Open champion who won on the PGA Tour and played in the Presidents Cup, never made a cut in five Masters appearances, between 2003 and 2008.

Peter Lonard lining up a putt at the 2003 Masters.Credit: Getty Images Europe

“The whole course, when you actually play for the first time, you play with guys that have played there before and they hit it in a certain direction and you’re thinking, ‘why are they hitting it there?’ ” Lonard said.

“When you first get (to no.12), you’re thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll just hit it straight at it, it’s only a 7 iron or an 8 iron’ or whatever.

“I remember if it was windy, the flags on 11, 12 and 13, they’d be blowing in different directions, which I never understood. And the differences in temperature, and the time of the day, was difficult, too.

“I remember once we had a rain delay and we must have run out of light, so I had to come back and that was my first shot of the day.

“I hit it straight in the piss. A club that should have got there, but just didn’t.”

The killer trap

The most famous collapses in the corner have come in the fourth round, with victory up for grabs. Multiple leaders have had their dream of slipping into a Green Jacket come unstuck at the hole.

And there’s a dastardly-planned reason why.

As outlined in an excellent Golf Digest video, the 12th hole sets a trap with the Sunday pin placement in the right corner of the green.

Away from the mid-green bunker, it is hugely tempting for pros – particularly right-handers who make the ball fade from left to right – to attack the pin.

But as Admiral Ackbar warned, it’s a trap. The safe “carry” distance is not only lengthened to the point of difficulty, but the safe landing zone narrows even further, down to about eight metres.

And as Golf Digest explains, the “dispersion pattern” of most golfers – the inevitable spread of where balls will land from ten shots at a set target – can lead to up to a third of those shots aimed at the Sunday pin landing near – or in – the creek.

Be it a flared shot right, a lofted ball bashed down by the winds or applying too much spin, time and again stars in contention have ended up sunk in the water.

Aussies have been among them. Norman’s infamous meltdown in 1996 was underway when he got to no.12 but a ball in the water there sealed the demise. In 2022, Smith had closed within three of eventual winner Scottie Scheffler but then kerplunked his tee shot at no.12 and took a six, ending his chances.

Jordan Spieth during the final round of the 2016 US Masters. He came unstuck on the 12th with a quadruple bogey. Credit: AP

In 2019, four of the last six golfers on the course found the water on no.12, including then-leader Francesco Molinari, Koepka and Tony Finau.

But Tiger Woods, who religiously aims for the middle of the 12th green regardless of the day, landed in the middle, banked a par and won another green jacket.

(The next year? Woods took a ten at no.12, his highest score on one hole in his PGA Tour career).

In 2016, Spieth was looking to become of the rare group to post back-to-back wins, and was looking imperious with a five-shot lead going onto the back nine on Sunday.

But he stumbled on 10 and 11, and when he got to the 12th, Spieth was looking to attack. Lured by the siren song of the right pin, he flared – and put two balls in the water. He carded a quadruple-bogey seven, gave up his lead and ultimately lost to Englishman Danny Willett.

The only person to ever survive disaster at no.12 was Fred Couples in 1992, when his ball was headed for the water somehow stopped on the slope. Couples went onto win, with Baker-Finch finished in sixth.

This week, most players in the Masters will arrive at the 12th and try to emerge unscathed.

They’ll calm their shaking hands, try to pull the right club and read the wind, and then avoid the temptations and traps when choosing a target.

And then, down at Amen Corner, they’ll pray.