Veteran Masters looper John Wood identifies the critical shots and toughest hole locations at the Masters
Caddies serve as cheerleaders, coaches, confidants, and companions. They’re also legendary sources of stories, and few tell them better than John Wood. “Woody” caddied in 21 Masters for five different players, including nine with Hunter Mahan and six with Matt Kuchar. Although he shared six top 10s, he never tasted victory.
“The closest I ever came to winning was my very first one for Calc [Mark Calcavecchia] in 2001,” says Wood. “We were in the second-to-last group and within one of the lead on the 13th tee on Sunday. Unfortunately, we made 6 there and that kind of knocked us out of it.”
Even without helping his player don a green jacket, he still picks the Masters as his favorite stop on Tour. “They do everything perfectly,” Wood said recently. “They treat us better than any other event in the world, and caddying that course is such a great challenge.”
Wood played collegiately at University of California, Berkeley, caddied for 20-plus years on the PGA Tour—including in six Ryder Cups—and helped Kuchar earn a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. In 2021, he switched to carrying a microphone, broadcasting for NBC, and he’ll be the Team Manager for the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup Team, a new position involving assistance in everything from player selection to motivational strategies.
Being in the Masters hunt so often gave Wood the know-how for every situation a player could encounter. He recently sat down with LINKS to discuss Augusta National from the caddie’s perspective.
LM: What is the most underrated hole?
JW: Number 1 is so underrated. You get so caught up in the history, the tradition, what you’re about to do, which is to play in the Masters. You can be all kinds of nervous and adrenalized and distracted. It’s tough to be fully committed and concentrate on the task at hand. It’s tough to execute two difficult shots when you’re caught up in the pageantry that is the first tee at Augusta National. It’s just a great setting and opener.
LM: What is the most penal bunker on the course?
JW: The two bunkers long of 7 and the bunker back right on 16.
LM: Hardest 30-footer to two-putt?
JW: 11th hole, back-left hole location, with the ball on the back edge of the right side of the green. You pretty much have to putt it off the green and skirt the bunker over the green from where it breaks hard left and picks up speed.
On the 14th, there’s a hole location just over the top right of the wide swale: It’s about 18 yards into the green (five over the crest) and 15 yards from the right edge of the green. Anything long or right and pin-high is OK. But if you leave yourself 30 feet left and pin high, I don’t know if you can get your first putt within 10 feet.
LM: Single toughest pin on the course?
JW: Far left side of 3. It’s very shallow if you go at it, and putting from the center of the green is extremely fast and difficult to read. Another tough one is on the right side on 16—about 17 yards into the green, four yards from the right edge.
LM: Do you really need big-time length and a right-to-left game to succeed, or, in the end, is it all about putting?
JW: Give me distance control and height with my irons—and courage. Right to left is an exaggerated commodity at Augusta. I believe Jack won six green jackets, correct?
LM: How hard do caddies work on walking the course for daily pins?
JW: It’s the most traditional of all the majors we play, and rarely do you get a surprise hole location. Most caddies who have been lucky enough to caddie there have an historic book of notes that gets double-checked every year during practice rounds. The successful caddies at Augusta spend a lot of time during practice rounds leading their players to very specific putts that they’re likely to have and that are easy to misjudge. When you see how they roll in those situations, they’re not overly difficult, but if you don’t have that institutional memory, they may look impossible. For example, look at front-right on 18 if you’re on the top tier; back-right on 6 from front-left of the green; front-right on 9 from the middle tier; back-right on 13 from the front of the green; back-left of 16 from the upper tier on the right.
If you’ve got a good eye, you will see a lot of caddies walking outside the ropes in shorts and a t-shirt before their rounds Thursday through Sunday. You can know where the hole location is on the pin sheet, but for some reason, seeing them in person seems to be more important there than anywhere else.
LM: Which is more important (or more often needed), throttling a player back or pumping him up?
JW: If you need to pump your player up at the Masters, you might as well change your flight to Friday night. I would say keeping him calm and even keeled, making sure he isn’t making the situation bigger than it is. Make sure he knows he’s there for a damn good reason—he’s earned it.
LM: Amid all the stories and lore, what’s the truth about how you and your player would gauge the wind at 12?
JW: Plan for what the wind should be doing, what it’s been doing the whole day, and don’t hit until you feel it doing exactly that. If you get there and it’s your turn and it’s doing what you expect, get through the decision-making quickly, confidently, and get him into the shot. If it’s doing something funny, maybe slow-play the discussion a little bit. Don’t tell him you’re slowing him down because you don’t like the wind, but talk a little slower, give him a water to drink, wipe down the grip, and show him the yardage book. Then show him a recent hole you know the both of you got the wind exactly right, and say, “Look, we know it was slightly right to left and hurting on 10, which is SSW. SSW here is straight into us. Trust it.” You wouldn’t necessarily do all of this, but if you sense hesitation, doubt, or uncertainty in him, you’ve got to find the one magic trick that gets him to buy into the shot completely. Do not let him go if you sense any indecision.
LM: Favorite personal Masters memory?
JW: Man, that’s a hard question! There are so many memories there about shots, holes, players, caddies, members who remember you year after year, the staff…but if I had to pick just one, it would be when Kooch made the hole-in-one on 16 on Sunday in 2017. We were playing with Rory and had birdied 12, 13, and 14, so we were on a little run already. He hit the shot and you could tell in the air it was on a perfect line to catch that slope and move toward the hole.
You’ve seen so many of those balls just miss over the years, and you just don’t know, so you’re reacting to the patrons that surround that green all day and all week. There’s a little jolt when they see it land because they’re knowledgeable and know when a ball lands on that green in a certain area, it’s going to be close. Then as the ball starts to turn, you’ve no idea if it’s the right distance, so the patrons start standing up and the volume slowly grows as the ball is moving left—you know you’ve got a chance. You can see the hole from the tee box so you simultaneously see it disappear and arms shoot up and the volume explodes and echoes across those dogwoods and pines. It was almost an out-of-body experience to witness Matt do that there.
Then you get the 170-yard walk beside the pond to an amazing ovation and go get the ball out of the hole. Unforgettable. Now that’s a pretty special moment in any player’s career, but Matt saw this kid behind the green with a Sam Snead throwback straw hat with an “Arnie’s Army” button on it. As soon as he got it out of the hole, I saw him reach for the Sharpie in his back pocket and I knew what he was going to do. He signs it, walks straight to that kid, and hands him the ball. It was just a really special moment.
