‘It’s more difficult’: McIlroy and Westwood on Augusta’s big changes

The 2022 Masters sees significant changes to two holes. The par-four 11th is now 15 yards longer (is 520, was 505); and the par-five 15th is now 20 yards longer (is 550, was 530). Here Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood give their pre-tournament verdict on the changes.

It’s a longer hole, but the tee shot is slightly less daunting. You don’t have that collection of trees on the right-hand side. I’d say from the widest point of the left part of the fairway to the widest point of the right is 50 yards, 60 yards. It’s a very, very wide fairway. But if you go down that right half, you’re going to be stuck behind those three trees.

It’s a more generous tee shot. It was always an awkward tee shot. You had to hug that right side, and then if you just got it slightly right, you were in those trees. And you had to be very fortunate to have a shot to the green unless you blew it way right into that sort of alleyway where people walk.

The second shot is basically the same. You’re maybe going to have 15 or 20 more yards into the green, but the penalty for missing the second shot is greater than it was before. You’ve got that runoff on the right. If you get to, say, pin high with the middle of the green, that drop-off on the right side is significantly deeper than it used to be. So, the miss really now is short right, sort of front edge, level with front edge of the green and just a little right, but that brings those mounds into play.

Then what people probably don’t realise is that pond on the left has been extended another 10 yards back towards the tee. So that pond used to start at the front of the green. That pond now starts 10 yards before the green. So the penalty for missing that second shot is much greater. It’s a more difficult