Tiger Woods agrees with Adam Scott that golf's new flagstick rule could be an advantage at the Masters on Augusta National's slick greens
Preparing to start his tour golf year at Torrey Pines this week, Woods said he had been practising putting with the flag stick in to get a feel for the new look.
The four-time Masters winner believes leaving the pin in at Augusta could allow him to hit short, fast downhill putts more aggressively and with less break.
"It might be more advantageous when we get on faster greens, a little bit more slope (like) Augusta, to have that sense of security on a three or four footer down the hill; you can just take a cut at it," Woods said.
The 14-time major winner saw other instances when he would also take advantage of the rule change allowing the pin to be left in when putting which came into effect on January 1.
"Some of the putts where the hole is (hardly) visible, as it comes up over a rise, would be nice to have a reference point. So I'll probably leave it in for those kind of putts," Woods said.
His comments came after Scott, who became the first Australian to win at Augusta when he triumphed in 2013, admitted he could see himself leaving the flag in if he had another putt to win the Masters.
"As you know, I'm not a person who cares how things look," Scott said. "I was a 30-year-old man putting with a broomstick (putter in 2013)."
Scott's countryman Marc Leishman, however, does not believe the rule change makes putting at Augusta - or any US PGA Tour course - any easier.
"I don't think I will (leave the flag in at the Masters), but everyone is going to have their own opinion," Leishman told AAP at Torrey Pines.
"For me, the flag is only going to help really bad putts; ones that are going to roll 10 feet past the flag and as tour players we don't do that very often."
