Tiger Woods does this at Augusta, major winner says — and it’s an Augusta key

Shane Lowry and Tiger Woods during the final round of the 2020 Masters.

Shane Lowry, months removed from the Masters. can name you his Augusta National non-par-3 tee shots. He doesn’t hesitate.  

“Then the second, I hit a high draw. 

“Third, I always lay up. 

“Five, I hit a low cut. 

“Seven, I hit a low cut. 

“Eight, I hit a low cut. 

“Nine, I hit a really high one. I try to hit it as high as I can there.

“Ten, I hit a high draw. 

“Eleven, I hit it high down there. 

“Thirteen, I try and draw one obviously. 

“And then 15, I go for a really low cut. 

“Fourteen, I try and turn it a little bit as well. So I kind of have …” 

Here, on the latest episode of GOLF’s “Warming Up,” host Dylan Dethier asks the 2019 Open Championship winner if the approaches ever change. Lowry says no — the shots are based on what he sees. Good enough. But why the “really high one” on 9, Dethier asked. Good question, it turned out. The answer started a back-and-forth on the Augusta plan of Tiger Woods, the winner of Masters tournaments at the course. 

At the 2020 Masters, Lowry played with Woods for rounds 1, 2 and 4. There, he said he noticed the play on 9. 

“He hit a big high one because there’s a tree down the left that overhangs,” Lowry said on “Warming Up,” “and if you pull it a little bit with a mid-height, it catches the tree. But if you hit it high, it will carry over the tree. So little things like that actually make a big difference.”

He did. Lowry described it as an Augusta key, and the complete answer is below — and you can watch the entire episode by clicking here or by scrolling to the bottom of this article. 

“When you watch him play Augusta,” Lowry said, “he just doesn’t — I mean, obviously, he doesn’t win it every year, but when he plays it good — I remember the first time I played with him, he shot four under. And I was like, he didn’t even play that good. But he just like — you know, up the 5th hole, he would never hit it in that bunker on the left. He’d always make sure he hits it — like, his second shot on 15, he hits it kind of long, right of the green, where there’s the best leave. He just leaves himself in the best positions. And I think Augusta is nearly about that — it’s about playing away from the trouble a little bit and kind of playing a game of chess around there.”

Said Dethier: “It’s funny — I think people have this vision of him as the most aggressive golfer ever. And there’s parts of him that are actually quite conservative in his approaches to …” 

Said Lowry: “Like the 3rd hole, I always lay up on the 3rd. But I hit a 3-iron, get it up, like there’s bunkers there. But he hits a 5-iron off the tee. So he doesn’t even take the bunkers into play. But he can do that because he’s as good with a 9-iron as most people are with a sand wedge.” 

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at [email protected].