When you watch the 2025 Masters this year, you’ll see something happen often. You’ll watch excitedly as a ball trickles, slides and scoots along Augusta National’s epic greens.
It’s something that, in many ways, has become unique to the Masters. And when you look at these green books from StrackaLine – books so accurate that players were banned from using them – you can see why.
In these books, green and blue areas show where the green is flat. During most tour events, those areas cover most of the green. But at Augusta, the greens are covered in pink and red – parts where the slope is so severe that when combined with the lightning-fast speeds (about 15 on the Stimpmeter), the ball has almost no chance of stopping.
This is how Augusta National confuses the best golfers in the game, pushing them outside their comfort zones. Almost every hole forces players to make a binary choice: Option A or Option B.
At normal courses, players create buffers for their misses. When the greens are flat, you can miss shots with the knowledge your ball still has a good chance of sticking on a relatively flat portion of the green.
But not at Augusta National.
At Augusta, the ball only really stops on a few different spots. The term “effective green size” refers to the actual playable area of a green – and at Augusta it’s far smaller than it appears. To navigate it, players have to pick the right option for the right situation.
You can watch the full breakdown here:
Option A: Aim away from slopes
Option A is when players take dead aim at the tiny flat spot on the green to avoid being punished by a slope that will kick their ball further away.
Augusta’s par-3 sixth hole is a perfect example.
On paper, the green looks big – about 700 square metres (7,500 square feet). If the hole plays about 170 metres (190 yards) with the pin back-right (as you often see on the final day), a smart shot at a normal course would be to the middle of the green.
But when you look at the hole’s green book, the effective green size is actually tiny. When that pin is placed back-right, any shot short or left is pushed more short and to the left.
Scottie Scheffler himself fell victim to this during the final round of his first Masters win in 2022. He hit a decent shot about 30 feet left of the pin, but just missed the flat spot. So it rolled all the way down, some 70 feet away to a range where tour pros three-putt about 30 percent of the time.
That’s why the game plan on this hole is to go with Option A. To get way more aggressive than you ever would ordinarily. To aim straight at the pin, to a tiny 30-foot-by-30-foot plateau. Players don’t aim at the middle – the ball won’t stay there – so they aim their shot to the right of that ridge. It’s risky, but it’s either that or a putt of 70 feet or longer. That’s why Tiger aimed straight at the pin during his final round in 2019. He stuck it to eight feet.
And these long-range, uphill putts at Augusta National are almost impossible. They’re so uphill that they become almost deceptively slow. A long uphill putt at most golf courses isn’t something to fear. At Augusta, it’s a near-certain three-putt.
Option B: Aim towards slopes
Option B is when the slopes are friendly. When you aim away from pins, then use slopes to bring your ball back towards it.
The 18th is maybe my favourite example because it showcases both options.
The green slopes steeply from back to front. In the third round, the pin is often on the flat spot at the back right. That’s the effective green. Because any miss short would roll all the way back to the front, players often take Option A and aim directly at this pin.
But on the final day, the pin on 18 is usually on the front left, on a flat spot less than 40 feet wide and 20 feet long.
This severe slope behind the hole means players can employ Option B. If they miss short or spin it too much, this slope will push their ball off the front of the green. But if they use the big slope behind the hole, it will bring the ball all the way back, onto the flat, effective green.
It’s why three of the most famous Masters-winning birdies with this hole location all did the same thing. Sandy Lyle (1988), Phil Mickelson (2004) and Adam Scott (2013, leading to a playoff win) all made Sunday birdies on the 18th green by landing their ball past pin high and rolling it back down into the flatter portion.
The par-3 16th is another great example.
When the pin is back-right, players go with Option A.
But when the final-day pin is on the flat spot on the left, everyone goes with Option B. They aim at the big slope to the right of the pin and let the ball funnel down. It’s why you see so many holes-in-one on Sunday to this pin.
This is what makes Augusta so ingeniously challenging. It presents a mental challenge, a strategic challenge and a physical challenge. Players have to know where the slopes are, commit to hitting it to a place that often feels uncomfortable, and then actually hit the shot.
And the next time you wonder why only one rookie has won the Masters since 1935 (hat tip to Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979) and why the same players play well and win over and over again, this is why. Because the course keeps secrets. Because there are forces that lurk underneath the Augusta National greens that deceive your eyes and take players years to figure out. And most never do.
For the rest of us, there’s a lesson out of all this: look beyond the middle of the green on every shot, to the actual playable area. Feel the contours and ask yourself, Is this a slope that’s going to hurt me, or is this a slope I can use? And then work backwards from there.
