- Tiger Woods once had a strategy at the Masters where he hit fans with his ball on purpose.
- The strategy was intended to set up an easy birdie.
Tiger Woods has had a lot of success at the Masters, but some of that has come at the expense of the fans.
The par-5 second hole at Augusta National has been a good scoring hole for Woods. In 23 Masters tournaments, he is 31-under on No. 2 and 69-under on the other 17 holes combined.
It turns out that he once had a cheeky strategy where he got some help by intentionally aiming his approach shot at the fans.
Golf Channel analyst Notah Begay discussed advice that older players give younger players at the Masters. He told the story of how he received an odd tip from Woods on how to play the second hole.
Here is the story:
"Tiger Woods told me how to play the second [hole]," Begay said. "He learned from Ray Floyd in the back-right hole location, you land the ball hole-high and let it bounce into the gallery, and it hits the gallery in their feet, and it stops there, and you chip back, and you putt it in [for birdie]."
Unfortunately for Begay, not as many fans were in his gallery, and things didn't go as planned when he tried it.
"When I did it, the gallery moved out of the way and didn't take one for the team," Begay said. "My ball ended up going about 20 yards over that green, and I ended up having a really hard chip coming back to the hole."
Begay did note that Woods gave this advice when the second hole was not quite as long as it is now, so it is not clear if Woods still uses this strategy. However, there are several photos through the years of Woods chipping onto the second green from a spot just in front of the gallery, such as this one from 2009.
It even appears that security had to move the patrons back to make room for Woods.
Woods always has to deal with a large crowd following him around the golf course. On hole No. 2 at the Masters, Woods has used that to his advantage.