The hole, named Pink Dogwood, was already the longest on the course, and will now play 585 yards — a 10-yard increase of its former length. Augusta National’s total yardage for the Masters now stretches to 7,555 yards. In the history of the Masters tournament, the second hole has played as the second-easiest, surpassed only by the 13th, a 545-yard par-5.
The new teeing area appears to be pushed as far back and left as possible. The hole plays as a downhill dogleg left and has long been regarded as a great birdie opportunity, even for shorter hitters. This is the first time the club has made changes to the second hole since 1999, when Tom Fazio added a new back tee moved the right fairway bunker even farther to the right.
At first glance, the tee shot looks like it could prove to be more challenging from the new starting point, but after playing the hole on a recent scouting trip, Rory McIlroy said the change is relatively minor.
“I thought it was going to be a different visual than it used to be, but it’s — I thought whenever someone said they moved it back and to the left, I thought the tee box was going to point you out towards that right bunker and you’re going to have to hit more of a draw around the corner,” McIlroy said ahead of last week’s Valero Texas Open. “I mean, if you didn’t know, you would think you were on the same tee box, it doesn’t look that much different. You can still see left of the bunker and I thought it was really going to force you to hit some sort of draw shot around the corner, but you can still hit a straight away shot and keep it left of the trap. It’s not as drastic of a change as I thought it was going to be.”
Last year, Augusta’s 13th hole was in the spotlight, when the club increased the hole’s length by 35 yards and debuted a new elevated teeing area.
Will the extra 10 yards on No. 2 make the hole play any tougher? We’ll find out soon. The 2024 Masters begins on Thursday, April 11th.
As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her original interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.
