Gary Woodland needs front-nine tutorial at Augusta National

Imagine if Gary Woodland had played a full practice round with Tom Watson at last year’s Masters Tournament.

Woodland, a Masters rookie in 2011, caught up with Watson on the back nine for a Wednesday practice round. Not coincidently, Woodland said, he played those holes much better in the tournament than he did the front nine while tying for 24th.

“He went through every hole with me,” said Woodland, who shot a back nine of 5-under-par 31 in his first-round 69, closing with four birdies.

“I don’t even think he was trying to do it. He was just talking and I was sitting there with open ears listening to everything he said,” Woodland said. “It was pretty cool when he’d say, ‘When I lost by a shot or when I did this, this is where I hit it, and you can’t get it up and down from here.’ ”

Woodland said he “took to heart” a piece of advice Watson gave him on the 18th hole “that really changed the way I played the hole.”

Watson told the long-hitting Woodland not to hit driver off the tee on the par-4 hole.

“He told me I needed to lay back off the tee and take the bunkers out of play,” Woodland said. “I ended up hitting 3-wood instead of driver. I was planning on hitting driver. He talked me out of it. I ended up playing the hole in 2-under, I think, so it worked out pretty well.”

Don’t be surprised to see Wood­land playing a practice round with Watson at this year’s Masters, especially on the front nine.

“I plan on looking him up,” said Woodland, who is from the same state as Watson. “I played with him at the British Open. He’s a Kansas guy and I’m a Kansas guy, so we have some connections. I’ll shoot him a text or look him up. Any time you can get advice from a great like Mr. Watson, it’s an honor.”

In anticipation of this year’s Masters, Woodland has been working with his new instructor on how to better attack the par-5 second hole, which is a dogleg left.

“It’s a tough tee shot for me because I’m trying to hook it around the corner and I’m cutting the driver (hitting it slightly right),”
he said. “I’ve worked with Butch Har­mon a lot on trying to hit that right-to-left shot, especially on that hole.”

Woodland didn’t do much better on No. 8, the other par-5 on the front nine. He played No. 2 in even par and No. 8 in 2-over par for the tournament. He played Nos. 13 and 15, the par-5s on the second nine, in 7-under.

“The par-5s on the front are really where I got away from that golf tournament,” he said.

Woodland left Augusta National last year frustrated because he drove the ball long enough (282 yards) but had only 15 birdies.

“There are places on that golf course you have to miss it in certain spots,” he said, referring to the greens. “You can be 15 feet, but if you’re on the wrong side of the hole, you’re in a lot of trouble. It’s one of knowing where to hit it. Playing with Phil (Mickelson) on Saturday was huge. He didn’t hit it great, but he hit in the right spots and shot 2-under that day.

“There is so much local knowledge there and I got a lot of information and it’s tough to trust that information,” Woodland said. “There are some subtle breaks in the greens that you have to trust.

“I’m excited to get back with a little more knowledge than I had last year and hopefully play a little better.”

In particular, Woodland plans to believe in the “pull-of-Rae’s-Creek” effect on the greens. That is,
putts break toward Rae’s Creek, which is at the lowest point of the course.

“It fools you,” Woodland said. “It messes with you. You’ll have a putt that you can’t believe goes that way or is that quick. But it does. You really have to trust Rae’s
Creek, and this year I plan on doing that.”