Aces high on No. 16

During the first Augusta National Invitation Tournament in March 1934, Canadian amateur C. Ross Somerville took a mighty swing with a mashie niblick and whacked his ball 145 yards onto what is now the 16th green at Augusta National Golf Club. The ball rolled into the cup, giving Somerville an eternal home in the record book as the first player to make a hole-in-one in the Masters.

It was also a harbinger of shots to come.

The 16th at Augusta National is an iconic par-3. Jack Nicklaus made a 40-footer to outduel Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf there in 1975 and birdied the hole again 11 years later en route to his sixth green jacket. In 2005, Tiger Woods hit a pitch shot from a precarious spot behind the green Sunday, and everyone watched his ball hover, hover, hover on the lip before it finally tumbled in.

In recent years though, the 16th has earned a reputation as the hole-in-one haven at Augusta National. This is the 82nd edition of the Masters. There have been 28 aces in tournament history, and 19 occurred at No. 16. Through the years, the run of aces has ebbed and flowed and the club of choice has run the gamut. Clive Clark needed a 2-iron from 190 yards out in 1968.

Then it was 24 years before Corey Pavin ended the drought at No. 16, using an 8-iron from 140 yards. The ace train started rolling for certain in 2004 when Padraig Harrington and Kirk Triplett found the cup in consecutive groups on a Sunday afternoon.

Since 2010, however, there’s been an ace parade unlike any other on No. 16, the shots often dropping late on Sunday as sunlight filters through the trees into the amphitheater surrounding the green. It’s felt, at times, like the hole is a magnet and the ball is steel, drawn to the traditional hole location in the back left portion of the green.

There have been eight aces in the span and four in the past two years, including a 7-iron from 180 yards by Matt Kuchar last year.

Why have we seen umpteen aces? What has created the atmosphere for an abundance of magical moments around the 16th green?

COURSE TOUR: Full Section | No. 16 - Redbud

“They know exactly where to put (the hole) for some excitement,” said Adam Scott, who used a 7-iron from from 202 yards to ace the 16th in 2012. “You can work off that slope and in quite a big area and it’s a funnel pin. If they put it right there, it all kind of feeds towards it. And, guys are good, they hit the right line and right number.”

Davis Love III was the U.S. Ryder Cup captain in 2016 and paired with Webb Simpson in the final round. Simpson had the honor when the group reached the 16th hole. On the tee, he and caddie Paul Tesori had a lengthy debate about club selection. Tesori wanted his man to hit 7-iron, Simpson insisted on 8, which he used and his ball came to rest 35 feet short of the back left flag.

Love made an ace with a 7-iron from 181 yards out. The golfers celebrated on the tee, of course, and then Love playfully chided Simpson about his club selection, saying: I had my 7-iron pointed at you the whole time.

Tesori, who caddied in his 17th Masters this week, has watched the shape and surface of the 16th green evolve through the years.

“The greens have gotten firmer and faster, and when they did some of the redesigns, they flattened some of that hole out,” he said. “I was working for (Sean) O’Hair in '09 and we hit a beautiful draw 8-iron and it went in the water because the slope was so steep. They banked it a hair less and raised the left side so now guys are more apt to kind of hit that low chaser in there, which is what you need to do.”

Fanny Sunesson caddied for Nick Faldo during his 1990 and 1996 Masters victories and is now a coach and instructor in her native Sweden. She’s at Augusta National this week as a television analyst and said the changes in the configuration of the steep slope in the 16th green, while subtle, have helped create a funnel toward the hole.

But this year, there might be a Sunday twist on No. 16. Tesori said the hole location on the 16th in Thursday’s opening round was the one typically seen in the final round in recent years.

He was “shocked” to see it there and while he expects a left-side placement Sunday, it won’t be what he referred to as the “hole-in-one pin.”

Still, there’s something in the air around No. 16 these days. And chances are if there’s an ace at Augusta National on Sunday, it will occur there. Jamie Donaldson’s ace on No. 6 in 2013 is the only one on a hole other than the 16th since 2004.

Somerville surely started something on the course’s final par-3 in 1934.