Pga Tour Confidential

Van Sickle: If you could magically rearrange the holes at Augusta National, which one would you swap out with the current 18th?

Hack: How about number 11? It has water left of the green and is 500 yards of terror.

Shipnuck: That would be brutal.

Anonymous Pro: I like the current 18th, but if you want a tougher finish, it has to be number 11. You bail out right, it's no guaranteed up and down, unless you're Larry Mize. The 11th would be a little like Congressional's 18th, a downhill finishing hole where the ball is in the air longer, which means a lot more can go wrong.

Shipnuck: I'd take the 15th. There isn't a prettier hole in the world than 13, but if you hit a good drive, you're hitting six-iron into a par-5 green with a backstop. The 15th is do or die, you can make a 3 or a 7.

Van Sickle: Three or 7? You can make 2 or 9. Just ask Gene Sarazen, Vijay Singh or Geoff Ogilvy. The 15th is what the 18th hole at Torrey Pines wishes it was. Even a four-shot lead wouldn't be truly safe.

Shipnuck: That's so true. If you lay up at 15, the third shot is from a downhill lie and really hard. Chipping from behind the green is downright scary too. The potential for disaster is high.

Garrity: The 11th is out. I'm not going to break up Amen Corner to create a new 18th.

Anonymous Pro: Good point.

Garrity: I'll pick number 2, a par-5. The tee is way up high; the green is way down low. It's a much better spectator hole than 18, plus it's a semiamphitheater setting that holds thousands of people, the perfect spot for last-hole drama. Best of all, the green is out in the open, so it's bathed in sunlight when the rest of the course is in deep shadow. That's important for television.