For a Masters Thrill Unlike Any Other, Bring a Hard Hat to This Spot at Augusta

AUGUSTA — The Masters is packed with incredible places to watch the action. Most are legendary (like the view on the 12th hole), serene (the 5th hole), thrilling (the 16th green) jaw-droppingly gorgeous (the 13th green) or a combination of all of the above.

But for patrons who really want to live on the edge, and maybe even put their own personal well-being on the line for an up-close look at some action, here are two options:

1. The pines to the right of the 7th fairway.

2. The pines to the left of the 17th fairway.

These are popular landing spots for wayward tee shots. Both bring the exact same amount of patron risk-reward, and here’s why:

They are both in the same spot.

The 7th and 17th holes run parallel to each other, separated by that line of tall loblollies. You can walk a straight line about 30 yards from the spectator rope lining the 7th fairway and bump up against the rope on the 17th. Because the trees are so tall and full, it’s rare that tee shots sail from one hole into the opposite fairway.

Instead, wayward drives rattle down through the branches and occasionally onto the patrons, who are either parked in chairs or strolling along. It’s disorienting when the low buzz of people moving about is suddenly interrupted by a marshal’s shout, “Fore right!” (If the drive came from the 7th tee), or the equally unnerving “Fore left!” (if the shot originated on 17).

On a warm Friday, the action under these trees was fast and furious. A moment after hearty “Fore, right!” cut through the din, a ball crash-landed in the pines and fans quickly huddled around it. The ball came from the Dustin Johnson/Jason Day/Shane Lowry group, but whose shot would it be?

“Hey, there’s Paulina Gretzky,” said a fan, standing near the ball, as Mrs. Dustin Johnson slowly strolled past on her way up the hill. “That’s my best sighting of the day.”

Moments later, DJ himself arrived and fans gathered around him. He had a small opening under the limbs to thread his next shot and not much else.

“I mean, the far left isn’t terrible?” Johnson asked his caddie, his brother Austin.

“I mean, it’s a longer shot but…” Austin answered.

“Yep,” DJ said.

Not much else needed to be said. Johnson punched under the pines and eventually made bogey.

In the next group, Patrick Reed’s tee shot settled on the edge of the 7th fairway. No spectators needed to duck, but Reed had a tough shot. He glared at a sprinkler head with “120” stamped on it, and marched to his ball, counting his steps. Then he did it a second time, trying to compute how to fly his shot under the limbs but up a slope and onto a green. Reed’s punch-wedge shot clipped a pine, fell short of the green and he was lucky to save par after a deft up-and-down.

And then moments later in that same strand of pines...

“Fore, left!”

That turned out to be the ball of Gary Woodland, whose tee shot on 17 thankfully plunked down to earth without pegging a patron. As a note: Augusta’s famed Eisenhower Tree essentially guarded the left side of the 17th fairway and swatted down anything in its path, before it was K.O.’d in 2014 by an ice storm. If Augusta were to follow the sage advice of one humble golfer writer and replant a new tree in its place, this would all but end the threat of balls crashing in from the 17th tee.

Anyway, as Woodland waded into the fans and found his ball, a security officer helped steer the crowd in a wide arc around him. Woodland has been dealing with severe anxiety on the course, and the extra space was probably welcome. The guard also ushered a kid through the line of fans to the front, for a prime view of Woodland’s punchout shot.

“Are you having a good day?” the officer asked the kid, who quickly nodded.

Woodland hit a sweet low-boomerang under the branches and up the 17th fairway. I had seen enough balls rattle in trees around me and decided it was time to move on.

The officer quickly knuckle-bumped the kid. “Was that good or what?”

That was good enough for me.

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