The increase in the challenge has come courtesy of an additional 35 yards added via a new tee box built back amongst the trees. However, simply making the hole stretch to 545 yards isn’t where all the difficulty will come from.

The additional distance means the par-5 becomes more of a strategic challenge, not only because a potential second shot going for the green at ‘Azalea’ is longer, but also from where it needs to be played.

A narrow chute of trees surrounds the new tee, so attempting to cut the corner requires more ball shaping from the start of flight till when it settles in the fairway. For the majority, a straight shot towards the pine straw and tree line on the right side of the dogleg left hole will leave an uneven lie.

Early reports suggested some long irons would be needed for those choosing to go for the green, although practice rounds this week have seen less club in the hands of many players as they make their final preparations and decisions on strategy.

Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee both spoke of 4-irons into the green, good ones at that, to carry Rae’s Creek when reflecting on their early scouting trips. Yet Scott, the 2013 champion, had less club when taking on the hole this week.

It won't be 2-iron like it was for Nick Faldo in 1996, but it will be closer in 2023. PHOTO: David Cannon/Getty Images.

“There is definitely going to be threes. I think probably – I feel like they've taken more of the big numbers away, but it's still very gettable,” Scott said earlier this week of the potential scores on the hole. “I hit 6-iron in today. There is no wind of course, but I don't see the roars going away there. I don't want to say the sevens are going away because I know what will happen.”

Scott plans to attack at the hole, whereas Dustin Johnson, a fellow owner of the most sought after piece of green clothing in world sport … maybe the world, has a different plan.

“I hit a really good drive today, but most likely in the tournament, it's going to be really hard for me to get one there just because, I mean, it's practice round. It's a little easier. I don't like to turn the ball over,” Johnson said.

“I hit a really nice one today, which is pretty much straight ball. For me, that's a big draw. Yeah, most likely I'll be laying up all four days unless depending on the wind and you get a good one down there.

“Yeah, it definitely made the hole more difficult. Obviously guys that can turn the driver over, it helps them out. It's not really my forte with the driver hitting a draw.

“Still can make a four. So there's a lot of ways to do that.”

Making four all four days this week would be a result that every player would gladly take before they get their ball in the air from the 1st tee on Thursday. That would see them below the historical scoring average, and the lowest year to date too.

In 2019, the hole averaged 4.474 shots across the field, while the cumulative average is 4.77 and the highest year was 1976 when 5.042 was the average.

Whether the change result in that number rising, or if players stick to their pre-tournament guns when trying to make the cut or win the tournament, remains to be seen.

Although adding the distance has moved the second shot at the 13th closer to the “momentous decision” club founder Bobby Jones described, and here is hoping we get to watch some player-caddie conversations making a decision.

In 1996, when Greg Norman was falling apart, Nick Faldo produced one of the greatest Masters moments.

Faced with 208 yards to the front of the 13th green, Faldo was umming and ahing with Fanny Sunesson as to whether to hit his trusty MacGregor 5-wood or a 2-iron when going for the green in two.

He eventually took the iron, in part because of the uneven nature of the rolling fairway, and hit the shot into the middle of the green.

Hopefully that conversation and decision happen a little quicker than Faldo took, but at least it looks like a return to players facing a genuine question that could shape the outcome of the tournament.