SAY YOUR PRAYERS

They look pleasant enough, carved out of the red Georgia clay, the blooms from azaleas and dogwoods adding a dash of color and tall pine trees standing there as quiet witnesses to, well, what exactly?

Trouble. Big, ugly trouble. The kind of trouble on the golf course that causes so many wrinkles, you actually consider ironing your forehead.

We’re here at Amen Corner, the 11th, 12th and 13th holes at Augusta National, and the place at the Masters where there’s probably something even more important to do than knowing the yardage740324456 There might be golf holes just as famous or equally hellish, such as the 18th at Pebble Beach or the Road Hole 17th at St. Andrews, but you’re never going to find three holes in a row the me1634956658 The holes at Amen Corner are entirely capable of melting steel shafts, dissolving mental toughness into tiny pools of ooze and turning golf balls into dimpled little floats.

And that’s not even mentioning how Amen Corner is capable of producing the kind of Masters occurrences that could only be cooked up by some guy in a white smock in his basement laboratory.

For instance, consider the case of Tom Weiskopf, who in the first round of the 1980 Masters hit five consecutive balls into Rae’s Creek, rolling gently in front of the par-three 12th. He made a 13.

The next day, Weiskopf made a seven at No. 12, thus producing a two-day average of 10.

Weiskopf said later that it was not a good feeling and explained the emotions.

“You’re embarrassed. You’re in a fog. You’re standing in front of the world and it’s like you’re playing the hole naked.”

Outside of possibly Dennis Rodman, that’s not something an athlete likes to do.

But that’s what this place has a habit of doing to you.

THEY’RE SHOUTING AT AMEN CORNER

There wasn’t an Amen Corner until Herbert Warren Wind thought of it in 1958. The golf editor of Sports Illustrated, Wind wanted to come up with a catchy tag for the far corner of Augusta National that would be something like those coined by writers such as Grantland Rice and others--the Four Horsemen, the Manassa Mauler, the House That Ruth Built, the Georgia Peach.

The only word Wind could think of to go with corner, besides coffin corner or hot corner, was the title of a song on an old 45-rpm jazz recording he remembered.

Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow played clarinet and conducted a band that recorded “Shouting in the Amen Corner.” Woods appropriated the title.

In 1984, Wind wrote an article for Golf Digest about the name.

“The more I thought about it, the more suitable I thought the Amen Corner was for that bend of the course,” Wind wrote. “I have no idea how the name caught on. To be candid, I am delighted that it did.”

FIRST VERSE: NO. 11 455 YARDS, PAR FOUR

It starts with a blind tee shot over a hill and then downhill with a second shot that is best played to the right of the green.

Why? Because a small pond is on the left and you don’t want to go anywhere near that place unless you think you look good in scuba gear.

That has been the strategy since 1950, when the hole was lengthened, making the second shot the most important.

In 1956, Jack Burke hit a long iron a foot from the pin on the back left of the green. Burke wound up winning, but that didn’t prevent his friend, Jimmy Demaret, from second-guessing the second shot a little later.

“You either hit a 50-yard pull or else you’re a damn fool,” Demaret said.

Ben Hogan once said if he was on the green in two, he knew he had mis-hit his second shot.

“It’s a strategy that many players follow to this day, and it sums up the hole,” Ben Crenshaw said. “When I won in 1995, I made two birdies there.

“Some players attack the flag when it’s in the middle or toward the front of the green, but that’s a risky play.”

You could say that. In a playoff with Nick Faldo in 1990, Raymond Floyd pulled his second shot left and before you could say “green jacket,” the ball was in the water.

Tiger Woods said the only thing hard about No. 11 is judging the wind.

“Well, 11 is difficult, but really not that difficult,” he said.

It remains to be seen if any retribution is in order for such a statement.

As for degree of difficulty, you need only to consult Bruce Devlin’s meeting with No. 11 on the second day of the Masters in 1968.

Devlin shot 69 the first day, 69 the third day and 69 on Sunday. Unfortunately, Devlin had a 73 on Friday that included a quadruple-bogey eight on the 11th hole after he knocked his second shot into the pond.

A par would have won the Masters. A bogey would have produced a tie. Instead, Devlin finished fourth, three strokes behind winner Bob Goalby.

In 1958, Bo Wininger was leading Sunday when he hooked his second shot into the pond and took a nine. He shot 79 and finished tied for 17th.

Of course, there are rewards for playing the hole the safe way by staying to right of the green. Check with Larry Mize.

It was in the 1987 Masters, when Mize closed with a 71 and forced a three-way playoff with Seve Ballesteros and Greg Norman.

Ballesteros bogeyed the first playoff hole, No. 10, and was gone. Mize and Norman hit good drives on No. 11, but Mize was disappointed when he blocked his five-iron second shot far right, about 100 feet from the hole. Norman was on the right edge of the green and seemed to be in good position for par, if not birdie.

Mize, who grew up in Augusta and had worked the scoreboard as a youngster, measured the distance from the ball to the pin. It was 20 paces. Mize decided to try a lob pitch and it was a good choice.

“I had 100 feet to the pin,” he said. “I hit a sand wedge that landed just short of the green, broke six feet left and dived into the cup,” he said.

Mize leaped into the air, Norman missed his putt and No. 11 had decided the Masters.

One year later, Mize made an eight on the hole.

SECOND VERSE: NO. 12 155 YARDS, PAR THREE

The shortest hole on the course and one of the toughest, the list of players who have endorsed the 12th as the meanest little hole in golf is a long one.

Jack Nicklaus: ‘The hardest tournament hole in golf.”

Fuzzy Zoeller: “The spookiest little par three we play.”

Gary Player: “I call it the ‘Hole of Vultures.’ For excitement, drama and heartbreak, there’s never been another like it.”

The tee shot may be anything from a five-iron to a nine-iron, depending on the wind. And that may be the easy part.

The green is only slightly wider than the shaft of that club in your hands. It’s 30 feet deep at its narrowest point, but from 155 yards, the green looks the size of a folded napkin.

Miss the green long and you’re looking at a sharply rising bank or you’re in the bushes or you’ve found one of the two bunkers.

Miss the green short and you’re in Rae’s Creek. And tucked between the green and the water is another bunker.

It’s diabolical.

“You don’t start breathing until the ball lands,” Crenshaw said.

In 1990, Player putted off the green. Twice. He was philosophical: “It got back at me.”

You beat the hole or the hole beats you, it’s pretty simple what the rules are here.

Fred Couples is somebody who beat No. 12, big time. On his way to the 1992 Masters title, Couples hit his ball short and it was rolling back off the bank toward the water when it suddenly stopped.

To this day, no one knows what prevented that ball from rolling straight into its bath.

“What held it up was magical,” Crenshaw said. “There seems to be a lot of that at Augusta National.”

Anyway, Couples calmly chipped the ball to within a couple of inches of the hole. An hour later, he was slipping into a green jacket. The 1992 Masters is Couples’ only major victory.

On the last day of the 1937 Masters, Byron Nelson made a two on the 12th, a three on 13th, made up six shots against Ralph Guldahl and won the first of his two Masters titles.

The roll call of misfortune on No. 12 is scary.

Nicklaus hit two balls into the water for a seven in the second round in 1991.

Tom Kite was battling Crenshaw for the lead in 1984 and hit the water.

On the last day in 1991, Tom Watson was neck and neck with Ian Woosnam, hit his tee shot into the water and made double bogey.

In 1973, J.C. Snead made a five on 12 in the last round and lost to Tommy Aaron by a shot.

In 1982, Ballesteros missed a playoff by one shot after bogeying the 12th.

Player led the 1962 Masters but bogeyed the 12th on the last day and finished in a three-way tie with Arnold Palmer and Dow Finsterwald. In an 18-hole playoff the next day, Player had a three-stroke lead at the 12th and bogeyed it again. Palmer won.

Palmer was leading in 1959 but knocked his tee shot into the creek, took a drop, missed the green, chipped on and two-putted for a six. He finished third, two shots behind winner Art Wall.

Bobby Jones provided a hole-by-hole description of Augusta National for Sports Illustrated and said the championship pin placement for No. 12 is on the right, so look for that Sunday.

For anyone unlucky enough to hit the ball into the creek, Jones wrote it doesn’t get any easier.

“The short pitch to the shallow green is terrifying indeed,” Jones wrote.

Comforting, isn’t it?

Palmer said if the wind is blowing, the hole is a lot more than intimidating.

“It can give you the shakes just standing on the tee knowing what could happen in the next few minutes,” he said. “The winds are so capricious that I once saw Bob Rosburg hit a four-iron all the way into the Augusta Country Club [next door]. Without changing clubs, he hit the next shot into the water.”

As for making the best of something, we present Al Besselink. He once waded into the creek to a small sandbar where his ball had somehow landed. Besselink put his next shot on the green.

THIRD VERSE: NO. 13 485 YARDS, PAR FIVE

The green of this dogleg left is reachable in two if you can draw the ball.

It’s tempting, all right. Do you try for it or play it safe?

Floyd said the 13th is the most exciting par five in the world. In 1975, the tee box was relocated to its current position, tucked back in the trees, and a swale was created along the upper edge of the green for drainage.

Actually, drainage is a key word, Floyd said, because more than a few chances at victory have gone down the drain at 13.

A creek flows down the left side of the fairway and crosses in front of the green before meandering on the right side.

Tommy Nakajima once made 13 on this hole.

Floyd has had a lot more than that, but not all at the same time.

“I must have hit 100 balls in that water,” Floyd said. “It seems to get everyone, and it’s ruined many a leader.”

Billy Joe Patton was an amateur who led the Masters after two rounds in 1954 and took the lead again on the last day after a hole in one at No. 6.

Patton was still ahead when he got to 13, where he made a seven. He finished one shot out of an 18-hole playoff with Sam Snead and Hogan, which Snead won. If Patton had made par on 13, he would have won.

Curtis Strange held a three-shot lead with six holes to go in the 1985 Masters but bogeyed the 13th, the 15th and the 18th to finish tied for second, two shots behind winner Bernhard Langer.

Ernie Els had just birdied the 12th on his first Sunday at the Masters in 1994, then got to 13 and lost his ball. He wound up finishing tied for eighth.

On the other hand, Zoeller won the Masters in 1979 when he reached the green in two all four days. Zoeller wound up with three birdies, an eagle and a green jacket thanks to the 13th.

Yes, there are good things that sometimes happen here, even when you don’t see them coming.

In 1974, Player’s second shot wound up in the creek, but there was a drain pipe near the ball. He got a free drop, chipped up and made birdie. Player won by two shots over Weiskopf and Dave Stockton.

Faldo probably wrapped up his third Masters last year with his birdie on No. 13, made possible by an uncharacteristically aggressive move when he went for the green in two and made it.

Faldo had just taken the lead from Norman at the 12th and wanted to keep the momentum. So he chose a two-iron for his second shot, went for the green, made a birdie and finished as a winner.

“The tension . . . It was a key shot for me, so to play a shot like that . . . I lined it up in that back left corner and fired it,” Faldo said.

“That was one of the best two-irons I ever hit.”

At this place, there’s plenty of room for best and worst, all right.

They say the Masters doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday, but that’s trite. Isn’t it?

Whatever you believe, it’s probably best to keep an eye on the scoreboard once the leaders make the turn, finish the 10th and then play the next three holes.

We know them by their numbers--11, 12 and 13--but also by their reputation.

We also know there is trouble there, not to mention great rewards. This is one corner where you can say Amen to that.