Cruising Louis Oosthuizen hits a big bump on highway 15

The statistics do lie, it seems. How else can you explain the carnage that the 15th hole – a par five of 530 yards – has caused in recent times? In yesterday’s second round, a year on from Tiger Woods’s travails there and a day after Phil Mickelson’s own woes, Louis Oosthuizen was cruising along like a pimped-up five-litre racing car only to hit a bump in the road. Out of nowhere, a triple-bogey eight blotted his card; and, instead of cruising, he was spluttering.

Coming into this Masters, the cumulative scores – from the previous 77 tournaments – had, in stark black and white, informed us that the 15th hole played to an average of 4.78 and was ranked the 18th most difficult. In other words, it was statistically the easiest hole on the golf course. The evidence of our own eyes would tell us differently.

And the players have their own fear factor on a strategic par five that, more often than not, tempts them to go for the green in two in classic risk-and-reward mode; but, with water in play in front and to the rear of the green, it is an approach shot where even good shots can be heavily penalised.

Those who opt to lay up don't escape difficulty, with the lay-up landing area on a downslope. It was a decision by Chip Beck to lay-up – rather than go for the green with 236 yards to the pin – that caused the American to be the butt of much criticism. He was three behind Bernhard Langer at the time and the only player capable of catching the German but didn't go for the bold play and left Langer with an easy ride in. "All I can say is, if I were in his shoes, I would have gone for the green," Langer said afterwards.

Elicited scores
It may have been the hole which echoed to Gene Sarazen's albatross in the 1935 Masters, but it has also elicited scores of 11 – a sextuple – on the cards of Jumbo Ozaki, Ben Crenshaw and Ignacio Garrido over time.

In last year’s Masters, the 15th earned a new place in the annals of crime when Woods took an incorrect drop which led to a two-stroke penalty. Remember? His initial wedge approach - from 87 yards - hit the flagpole and spun back into the water. Woods took his penalty drop and replayed the shot and signed for a bogey, but television replays subsequently showed that the four-times Masters champion played from the wrong place and he was given a further two-stroke penalty for his troubles.

In Thursday’s first round, Mickelson – who had run up a bogey-free streak of 49 successive rounds on the 15th – met his waterloo when his approach spun back into the water and he ran up a double-bogey seven.

Oosthuizen was in a share of the lead, on four under for the tournament, when he ran into trouble yesterday with his eight on the 15th ruining his scorecard. “I’m still trying to figure out how they fall,” he remarked, playing back each shot in his mind. He’d just watched Matt Kuchar go into the water with an approach and decided to lay up and then chip, a shot which then spun into the water.

“I just got myself in a really awkward spot (on the lay-up),” recalled Oosthuizen, who is at level par after his 75. “I didn’t have much option (but) to go for that chop. If I went left, I would have ended up in that bunker and that’s an even more difficult shot . . . this golf course is all about leaving yourself in the right spots and that was an error. I know now not to go there again.”