Bernhard Langer Augusta National Course Guide: Hole 18

A guide to the eighteenth hole at Augusta National, including tips from two-time Masters champion and 37-time Masters competitor Bernhard Langer

Bernhard Langer Augusta National Course Guide: Hole 18

If you miss the fairway on the 18th, you’ll be struggling for bogey; if you find the fairway it’s a genuine birdie chance. Drives need to be worked off a bunker that sits on the apex of the slight dogleg right to open up the green. After a good tee shot, 150-180 yards remain to a tiered putting surface that’s some 30 yards from back to front. The pin is most accessible when it’s in a slight depression in the middle of the putting surface, and a shelf beyond the flag can be used to draw the ball back towards the hole.

Langer: “This tee is one of golf’s tightest and longest shoots. The key is to hit a slight fade for the dogleg, then it could be a mid-iron or much longer club to the elevated, two-tier green, depending on the pin and the wind. There is a birdie chance if you find the right plateau.”

Memorable moment: There was no escaping the tension in the final round of the 2004 Masters as Phil Mickelson stood on hole 18's green. If he made his 20-foot putt for birdie, he would win the tournament outright and take his first Green Jacket.

The ball seemed to take an eternity to drop, but when it did the crowd erupted and initiated Mickelson's memorable star jump celebration.

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Worst moment: Tripping up in your best opportunity to win the Masters probably hurts slightly less when you've won the odd green jacket or two. Yet Arnold Palmer would have felt his final hole collapse in 1961 just as fiercely.

Palmer only needed to make par to win the tournament, but finished with a double-bogey to hand Gary Player his first Masters victory. The King found a bunker with his approach and from there the thread attached to the green jacket with his name on it began to unravel.

In July 2023, Neil became just the 9th editor in Golf Monthly's 112-year history. Originally working with the best coaches in the UK to produce instruction content, he went on to become a feature writer interviewing many of the biggest names in the game including Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros, Rory McIlroy and Arnold Palmer.

A 5-handicap golfer, Neil is a club member who takes a keen interest in the health of the game at grassroots level. You’ll often now find him writing about club-related issues such as WHS, membership retention and how best to bridge the gap between the range and the course.