In their own words

Last updated: 7th April 2009

Hole by treacherous hole, the players discuss Augusta National.

Every year the challenge at Augusta is subtly altered by the tournament committee - a longer shot here, a different angle there, more trees on one hole, fewer trees on another.

It is the major course we all know best because the Masters is the only major with a permanent home, but it is also the course that demands more local knowledge than any other - every debutant gasps: "It is so different to how it looks on television!"

This year Billy Payne, Chairman of Augusta National and the Masters Tournament, reports that, "only minor changes were implemented to the course."

The first hole has been reduced by 10 yards and the 7th and 15th holes have had the tees stretched forwards. Three greens have been rebuilt, primarily for agronomic reasons, but with some changes to the contours.

Essentially the course remains the same as it was in 2008 and Golf365 has been looking through the players' comments to see how the holes were being negotiated.

1st - Par 4 -Tea Olive - 445 yards

"The second cut of rough has changed the hole. If you pull it up the left side it used to run straight to the pine needles and you had no shot. Now it has a chance to get caught up." - Tiger Woods

2nd - Par 5 - Pink Dogwood - 575 yards

"I feel like the golf course sets up well for me because my tendency off the tee is to draw the ball, so a lot of right-to-left shots. There's two of them straightaway on the second." - Brian Bateman

3rd - Par 4 - Flowering Peach - 350 yards

"The third hole ... the guy who can hit his irons in the right spots on the green has an advantage this week, because that makes putting a little bit easier on that green, on any of the greens." - Steve Stricker

4th - Par 3 - Flowering Crab Apple - 240 yards

"I hit a perfect shot and ended up with bogey. That's the nature of that hole, this golf course. Six inches from perfect off the tee, good sand shot, rolled up, came all the way back, good putt, and I still had a five-foot downhill slider for bogey." - Jerry Kelly

5th - Par 4 - Magnolia - 455 yards

"It's not good enough to hit your iron shots straight into the greens. They have got to be struck right so that they land in the right sections and also stop in the right section. That counts for lots of greens but, yeah, four is a good example." - Padraig Harrington

6th - Par 3 - Juniper - 180 yards

"Brandt (Snedeker) was on the green but he was dead with a putter in his hand and he knew it. Big cross swale so the best he's going to make is four, maybe five. He took a chip shot and lo and behold he chipped it in the hole for two. He has wonderful imagination. And you have to have that here." - Tom Watson

7th - Par 4 - Pampas - 450 yards

"Dramatic change. The seventh hole was one of the great classic risk-reward short holes. I used to try to drive the golf ball way up in front of the green and pitch it up and that's gone now." - Greg Norman

8th - Par 5 - Yellow Jasmine - 570 yards

"The key is to lay up a good number (for the third shot) and then leave an uphill putt." - Brandt Snedeker

9th - Par 4 - Carolina Cherry - 460 yards

"You used to be able to hit the ball so far right to give yourself an angle up to those left pins; now with the added trees you can't really do that anymore." - Tiger Woods

10th - Par 4 - Camellia - 495 yards

"Such a tough hole, even if you hit a great tee shot, hitting in off that slope, it's tough. All of them are tough in their own way because if you hit a bad shot they're all difficult." - Nick Dougherty

11th - Par 4 - White Dogwood - 505 yards

"(In the past) you could go in there with a short iron. (Now) you're coming in with a 3-iron or maybe even a 5-wood with the wind whipping into you, you're not going to go for the flag. It's impossible." - Ernie Els

12th - Par 3 - Golden Bell - 155 yards

"When you play it in practice and it's calm and the green is soft, you think this is no big deal. But you get to the tournament and the greens are a bit firmer and there's a bit of wind and the target shrinks. That's probably the toughest shot and the one that can make you look the most stupid, for sure." - Justin Rose

13th - Par 5 - Azalea - 510 yards

"I took plenty of club for my second, but off the down slope, grain into me, I tried to help it a bit up in the air and caught it fat. I had only 175 yards to the front of the green. They do know how to make every shot difficult out there." - Padraig Harrington

14th - Par 4 - Chinese Fir - 440 yards

"That green's hard to hit, hard to putt on it too." - Heath Slocum

15th - Par 5 - Firethorn - 530 yards

"I had wedge for my third. It's probably about the hardest 90-yard shot you'll find anywhere in golf. At the end of the day, that's a birdie hole and you have to be aggressive and step up there and hit a good shot. There's no room for error." - Brandt Snedeker

16th - Par 3 - Redbud - 170 yards

"It's tricky to figure out the distance, and then if you just bail by five feet, you have what I had, which is the putt from the upper shelf that's impossible to get within ten feet." - Stewart Cink

17th - Par 4 - Nandina - 440 yards

"It's just a narrow driving hole to be honest with you and it's one that you just need to stand up and hit a good tee shot, simple as that." - Justin Rose

18th - Par 4 - Holly - 465 yards

"It's a real tough tee shot now because they have the tee all the way in the back. You know, real close to the ropes down there. If you can hit a straight tee shot there, you're going to have medium to short iron." - Trevor Immelman