Friday 7 April 2017 22:52, UK
Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington will be joining the Sky commentary team at the Masters over the weekend, and he's been giving us an insight into what it's like to play Augusta in blustery conditions.
Harrington is well qualified to judge having made 15 Masters appearances as a player, although he is not in the field this year and is currently sidelined as he recovers from neck surgery.
The popular Irishman is looking forward to keeping the Sky Sports viewers informed over the final two rounds, and he has plenty of experience of tackling Augusta National in similar tough conditions as we've seen so far.
But is it just the conditions that dictate how difficult the course will play? Not necessarily.
"It is obviously very difficult here when the wind gets up, but the course set-up will compensate," he said. "Augusta National know how to set up their golf course whatever the conditions and that's because we come here every year.
"It's not like other majors where you play certain courses every 10 years or so, and they won't know for certain how their course is going to play in a left-to-right wind for example. But here at Augusta, they know exactly how it's going to play whether it's flat calm and warm, or cool and breezy like we've seen this week.
"They got it just right in the first round, and the conditions were much worse than the scoring. It's the same for the second round, they've changed a couple of pins and moved a few tee boxes forward, and doing this makes it a lot more playable and fair. It's still tough though, and you've still got to hit good shots around here.
"The course will be set up to cater for the conditions, and it will be the same at the weekend. The weather is forecast to be much better, so the course will likely be harder and faster - particularly the greens.
"So even though the weather is better, the golf course might be tougher. But the only thing we can be pretty much sure about is that there will be good scoring over the last nine holes on Sunday.
"The worst year I found for conditions was probably the first round in 2007. It was cold and just as windy as Thursday, and that's when it's more difficult for the early starters because you don't know what a good score is.
"It was much easier for the players going out mid-morning and later. They might have been thinking 75 was a good score, and then you see the leaderboard and adjust your expectations accordingly.
"I could see a few birdies being made, so I knew it was possible to get under par and I knew it was playable. It can make a big difference where you set your target psychologically and it will have a big influence on your score. I shot 77, but I got to eighth with a 68 on day two.
"The first hole has thrown up an awful lot of trouble over the first two days. The reason being is that, the way the green is designed, you don't want to be hitting any more than an eight-iron for your second shot.
"It's not a difficult tee shot, but in this wind players are struggling to get it to the top of the hill and some have got to hit hybrids into that green, and it's not a green for that club.
"We've seen a few strange goings on their, and even Danny Willett made an eight. It's the toughest hole on the course in this wind, only one birdie all day on Thursday and it's playing closer to five than four."
Padraig Harrington joins the team for Saturday's live coverage on Sky Sports - your home of golf
