By Rick Dorsey
Chronicle Staff Writer
Inviting might be one way to describe golf's most famous corner. Yeah, an invitation to disaster.
Amen Corner doesn't possess the lurid steaminess of say, 42nd and Broadway, but it can be just as dangerous. Only it's most picturesque.
Augusta's most trouble-some troika - the par-4 11th, the par-3 12th and the par-5 13th - have wiped out many a dream for those thinking of donning a green jacket. Conversely, those who've conquered the corner have endured legends status.
With water alive near all three greens, with wind tunnels helping to fluctuate a golfer's club choice, with greens in need of speed limits, it's no wonder why Amen's Corner receives an "Amen" from the golfer who successfully navigates them without eliminating himself from competition.
The enduring moniker came from a 1958 Sports Illustrated story written by Herbert Warren Wind, who thought about those holes for a week and determined they needed to be named.
Wind harkened back to a jazz record he remembered from his college days and a song called "Shouting in the Amen Corner."
Wind's name helps categorize this corner's folklore.
For every flop, like Tom Weiskopf's unthinkable 13 at 12 in 1980, there is a flourish, like Larry Mize's chip in from 140 feet on 11 to win the '87 playoff. For every miscue, like Arnold Palmer's triple-bogey at 12 in 1959, there is the mystic, like Fred Couples' tee shot somehow hanging on 12's fringe in '92.
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