Weather fights Masters players and patrons to a draw on Tuesday

Only a slight chance of rain is forecast for Wednesday's eve of the Masters Tournament, which is good news for the 87 players in the field. They’ve seen enough of it already.

Through two days, their preparations for the 83rd Masters twice have been disrupted by wet stuff and lightning.

Monday’s practice round ended at 3:48 p.m. On Tuesday, players practiced from daybreak until 10:15 a.m., when they had to leave the course again. They returned at 12:45 p.m. and rain stayed away the rest of the day.

Practice is vital to Masters rookies and amateurs in the field unfamiliar with Augusta National, which is one of the world’s most unique golf courses because of undulating greens. That’s even true for a player like Phil Mickelson, who has played in 26 Masters and won three.

Photos: Tuesday Masters Practice Round

“Every time I come out here and practice, I pick up a little something here or there that I did not know on how to play a certain shot from a certain position to a certain pin,” Mickelson said.

Masters rookie Andrew Landry, who qualified 50 weeks ago when he won the Texas Open, is glad he showed up Sunday when the course was still fairly dry.

“Absolutely,” said Landry, who made the early visit after he missed the cut on Friday in his defense of the Texas Open, which was played two weeks after the Masters last year and moved in front of it this year. “Coming in Sunday and playing nine holes was huge for me. I know what to look forward to. I’ve seen the golf course where it was a little bit wet on Sunday and Monday it was a little bit different golf course.”

The rain has made for one very long course, which can play to 7,475 yards.

A damp track for Thursday’s first round will play into the hands of the longer hitters, who already have an advantage because of the course’s length. Other players count on roll after their drives, but wet conditions will limit that.

“I need to find about 20 more yards if anybody knows how to do that in two days,” said Aiken’s Kevin Kisner, who won the Dell Match Play Championship on March 31. “It’s going to be wet. Hopefully the sun comes out and the breeze picks up tomorrow and dries this place out a little bit so we can start getting some roll by the weekend.”

“It’s a bear for me,” said 1987 Masters champion Larry Mize, who is 60 years old. “The course is playing long. It’s a lot of course out there. It is wet. But this course drains really well. It will be drier come Thursday.”

Justin Thomas, who falls into the class of the tour’s longer drivers, said he can carry his drives as far as 315 yards in the air.

“With the weather being like this, hopefully being a long hitter will be helpful,” Thomas said. “As long as I hit the fairways.”

With rain comes at least one positive trade-off. The greens are softer and more receptive to approach shots.

“Obviously when it’s really firm and fast and there’s some wind, it makes it very difficult because the greens get very tricky,” said Dustin Johnson. “When they are a little softer, you have longer clubs in, but you can hold the greens a little bit easier. It’s a fine line of if it’s real soft, it’s still going to play fairly difficult because it’s so long.”

Jordan Spieth, the 2015 champion, said more strategy is required on approach shots when the greens are firm as opposed to soft.

“Last year was a bit softer and if you look at the leaderboards,” said Spieth, referring to the fact Patrick Reed won with a 15-under total and three others finished double digits under par.

“It’s better in the sense the greens are softer and you have more leeway hitting into the greens,” Tommy Fleetwood said. “But it also plays longer. I think we’d all rather it be softer though than harder.”

A damp Augusta National can play so long that the new tee on the par-4 fifth hole might have to be moved up. It is listed at 495 yards, 40 more than last year before the teeing area was reconfigured and moved back. The tee shot is to an uphill landing area. Without roll, some players won’t be able to see the green.

“It will be interesting to see what they do with the course setup on that hole,” Tiger Woods said. “It been raining here. It’s soft. The fairways aren’t going to give it up. If that’s the case, I don’t know if we’re going to play it 495 every day. I’m sure it will be moved up, very similar to what we see on No. 7, sometimes on No. 1. Sometimes the tee boxes are moved up on No. 1. Other times, if it’s warm, they put it back.

“There’s tremendous flexibility in how they create these tee boxes because they are so long,” Woods said. ” It will be interesting to see how they set it up, but I’m sure that they will do an incredible job like they always do and present us with an incredibly tough test, but one that is extremely fair.”

The easy-going Johnson isn’t worried how the course plays when he tees off at 1:38 p.m. on Thursday.

“I’ve played the course, you know, all different ways,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. If you play good, you’re going to shoot a good score, whether it’s firm and fast or if it’s soft. You’ve still got to hit really good golf shots.”