Fields Story and Photos

Bill Fields in this Golf World Masters preview, writing about the course changes:

It is almost as if Wimbledon traded grass for clay and reduced the service box by half. Legends are vexed and current competitiors are wary.

And he has this quote from Pete Dye, who clearly has not read The Spirit of St. Andrews in a while:

Architect Pete Dye, who has had to re-work a number of his designs to accommodate the distances top golfers are hitting the ball, also sides with the club. "If Jones and Mackenzie were alive today, seeing what's going on, they certainly would do something," Dye says. "I don't think they'd be offended [by the changes]. Mackenzie certainly had no idea somebody was going to hit the ball 370 yards."

On the subject of fast and firm, I thought this was interesting since I'm of the belief that a fast course with the added accoutrements will turn into a freak show:

 "The only defense to the course was really firm, fast greens, and there was a point in the '90s where they really crossed the line," Mickelson says. "I saw Jeff Sluman on the second hole have a four-footer uphill, and it spun out on him and then rolled 60 feet off the green. [Since] they've lengthened it, the greens have been very fair … they have not crossed over the line."

Of course, the last few Masters also have been wet ones. There hasn't been a dry week since all that length was added for the 2002 event, which makes some wonder what kind of scenario will play out this year if it doesn't rain for the first time on the new Augusta -- and why the club didn't wait until it got a week of sunshine before renovating the course yet again.

"If it ever gets dry and baked out and it doesn't rain like it did in '99 when Ollie won, and the greens get blue-looking like they did that year," says Woods, "even par or over par will win easily."

Should that happen, the Masters will have come to resemble the U.S. Open, and one wonders if that is the angle the tournament has been after all along.

Accompanying the Golf World piece are these photos (linked from GolfDigest.com) that tell boggle the mind. Note on the first hole how pinched it is between bunker and trees, and the ridiculous looking 7th and 11th holes:

Weir On Changes

Thanks to reader Tuco for the heads up on Mike Weir's website musings:

The changes are going to make things tough. On the first hole, the new tee is a ways back from where it used to be. Monday morning, into the wind, I hit a pretty big drive and had a rescue club in. I expect without a wind in my face, it will be driver, 3-iron where before it was driver, seven-iron. No one has really mentioned any changes to the second hole, but when I saw it Monday, it seems that the tee is back about 10 yards or so, making it tough to get home in two.

The changes on 11 are big. When I played here a few weeks ago, I hit a solid drive and still had 200 yards to the front. You have to just flat bust it down the left side here and it’s a tight drive now, with trees added to the right. It’s really a dogleg now. But even with a good drive, I think a lot of guys are going to lay up right and take their chances with a Larry Mize-like chip.

The 17th they’ve moved back 15 yards so that makes it significantly different for getting the ball up on the top tier instead of landing it into the hill in the fairway. 

Masters Pairings...

...are now posted.

DiMarco and Olazabal Comments

From Thomas Bonk in today's L.A. Times:

"I like the comments that he and Mr. Palmer said about Augusta," DiMarco said. "[Nicklaus] certainly has the right to have an opinion on what he has done to that course."

That "he" is Johnson and he's already the talk of the town.

Jose Maria Olazabal won the Masters in 1994 and 1999 when it was more than 500 yards shorter.

"We have seen the direction they have taken and time will tell if they are right or wrong," Olazabal said.

"It's not a matter of how I want it …. With all the lengthening and everything, some of the pin positions we played through the years, they are not going to be accessible, maybe except for, I don't know, 10 players.

"I don't think by making the golf course longer you are improving the whole situation when you say you are trying to protect the golf course from the long hitters. I think the long hitters, they have the hugest smile, from ear to ear, to be honest."

"It's Just Way Less Interesting Than It Used To Be"

Other than Fred Couples, everyone else quoted in this David Westin story for the Augusta Chronicle is not very complimentary of the course changes.

Stewart Cink clearly has given the subject a lot more thought than the average tour player and is characterizing the destruction of the Jones-MacKenzie design ideals quite nicely:

"It's still a very good test, but a lot harder test than it's ever been," Stewart Cink said. "It's just not the gem of architecture that is used to be."

"It's just like an American golf course; it used to be linksy," Cink said. "Bobby Jones really wanted that thing to be linksy. We play courses all year out here where you have to drive it between the rough and you have to hit your ball on the green in a certain way."

And Nick Faldo's satirical take ended up not too far off base:

"I'm sure they can start getting the roads moved around on the outside," three-time champion Nick Faldo said in jest. "I'm sure they've got the power to do that. Buy a few houses."

Little did he know, but Faldo might not have been far off the mark. The club's holding companies own more than 145 acres outside its borders.

Todd Hamilton isn't too wild about the demise of options:

"To me, on a good golf course, on every hole you should be able to pick what shot you want to play," Hamilton said. "You shouldn't be forced to hit a shot."

But back to Cink, who understands the shift from a free-market design approach to Hootie Johnson and Tom Fazio's shallower, dictatorial style:

Said Cink: "Augusta was always a place where you could have a lot of fun and you could demonstrate an artistic talent for strategy around the golf course. Now, it's not.

"No. 11 is a hole where you could hit your drive anywhere you wanted to; you could create your own angle, you could make the hole set up any way you wanted to," Cink said. "That was one of the great things about the old course.

"Now the fairway is probably 30 yards wide because they added trees on both sides. Everybody has to hit the same shot. To me, it's just way less interesting than it used to be."

And Jim Furyk explains how some changes have eliminated temptation:

"The way the golf course is set up now with the length, you can't play that aggressively," Jim Furyk said. "You can't have a 9-iron into the 14th green. Before, you had a 9-iron and I might have a go at a back-left pin. If I had a 6-iron in my hand now, I'd have to be a complete moron to go at it."

The Debate That Cannot Be Won

Scott Michaux writes in the Augusta Chronicle:

Whatever happens this week, the constant changing of the storied golf course will be the primary topic of conversation for the foreseeable future. If it's not the length that is offending players, it is certainly the interpretation of design intents that can spark an argument between players and anyone wearing the members' signature green jacket.

For every talking point quote culled from the Jones and Mackenzie archives that would seemingly support the club's changes, there are plenty of counterpoints that would suggest the original designers would cringe at what has been done to their course.

Case in point, the diabolical par-3 fourth hole. Stretched to 240 yards, Jones reportedly offered dueling perspectives.

The club's preferred context: "The shot is usually a strong iron or even a 4- or 3-wood."

The critic's preferred context: "I have never been convinced that a so-called one-shot hole of 240 or 250 yards is a forthright golfing problem."

Masters Chairman Hootie Johnson has said repeatedly that he is trying to "maintain the integrity of the shot values" envisioned by the designers. Numerous players argue that Jones and Mackenzie never envisioned forests of trees corralling competitors into singular options.

When a quiet and reasonable player such as Stewart Cink contends Augusta National "isn't the architectural gem" it once was, it has to give pause to even the course's most hardened defender.

Who knows yet whether it can be fixed - or whether it even needs to be? All that is known is that players today will certainly get to experience what it was like for players of preceding eras to hit longer irons into greens.

But those forebears never got to know what it was like to hit those irons into firm and wickedly fast greens ill-suited for those approaches.

It's an argument that can never be truly resolved in any context.

Clayton On Masters

Mike Clayton, previewing the Masters:

There have been critics of the changes, most notably Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and the objections have centred on the use of great length, narrow fairways and trees in an attempt to maintain the relevance of the course in the face of the debacle of modern technology.

Jones might have been particularly upset by the use of trees to reign in the long bombers of the modern game. 'I see no need for a tree on a golf course' was one of his famous utterances.

The equipment rules were designed to stop exactly what has happened but the minds of the scientific geniuses employed by the equipment companies have run rings around the moribund bureaucrats at the USGA and the R and A who are seemingly still in a case of denial.

Augusta is fortunate to have enough room to be continually moving tees back but our best courses like at Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath have no such luxury and they are in desperate need of preservation by way of a new ball for professionals.

He goes on to look at the struggles of Australian players in the majors and considers possible contenders.

Questions For Hootie Johnson

On Wednesday, Hootie Johnson will enter Augusta National's state-of-the-art press building for his annual no-comment session with the world's leading scribblers. He will probably be joined by the club's Chair of Winter Storm Damage Storage, Will Nicholson, and Question Screening Committee Chair, Billy Payne.

First, a question for Nicholson:

• Last year you said, "There are no top players that I talk to that aren't unanimous that the ball is changing the nature of the game. The ability to move the ball right, or left, as the old timers did, is now out of the game." Have you recommended a change in the ball to your friends at the USGA?

And now, here are a few questions I'd love to ask Hootie:

• Are you concerned that several holes, in their present configuration, will not allow for increases in length.
  
  
• Bobby Jones, while looking out at Augusta National with Alistair Cooke, once remarked that he "didn't see a need for a tree on a golf course." With that in mind, do you really believe he would approve of so much tree planting?

• Have club members and USGA officers Walter Driver and Fred Ridley asked you not to adopt a Masters ball spec?
  

• With ShotLink now being used to collect data, will this information be made available to patrons and media?

• And...Martha Burk:  great woman, or the greatest woman? (With apologies to Colbert.)
  

I'd love to hear what you would like asked.

Alister MacKenzie Dream 18

Now online for subscribers at SI.com is the text for the Alister MacKenzie Dream 18, compiled by yours truly, drawn by Gil Hanse and selected with the help of Tom Doak, Mike DeVries, Mike Clayton, Mike Hurdzan and Nick Faldo.

Phil and Skill?

Is anyone else intrigued by the notion that Phil Mickelson is using two drivers, one to shape the ball right to left (the "gamer"), and another for the opposite shot shape?

Golf World's E. Michael Johnson has the details in this story.

In the "skill" debate, I wonder if this will come up as an example where equipment is supplementing skill? 

More power to Mickelson for doing what he has to do to win within the rules, but I guess this brings me back to Max Behr's quote about the role of equipment:

I do not think we will go far wrong if we define a true sportsman as one who endeavors to adjust his implements down to a point where they will just sustain his skill, in order that upon skill, and skill alone, must depend the decision of the contest.

A strong case could be made that good players used to use drivers with slightly open or closed faces to create a certain ball flight or to offset a swing flaw.

And I suppose you could say there is skill in determining that you get different reactions from different clubs. But it seems that the real skill in this case was in the club fitting?

It was this Telegraph story quoting Colin Montgomerie that left me wondering:

Montgomerie then considered how useful the two clubs would be at, say, the 17th and 18th at Wentworth and, again, at the last two holes at the Belfry. "The best thing about the idea," he continued, "is the way you can do away with the need to come up with two different swings."

Thoughts?

The Ever Expanding ANGC

Ron Sirak looks at Augusta National's purchases (and attempts) to purchase real estate surrounding the club, estimating that they've spent $22.9 million in the process.

David Toms Sighting...

Reader Scott can't explain why he was perusing the Waffle House web site, but his time wasted is our gain since stumbled on this list of individuals who have been caught seen dining at the Waffle House, which appear to be on every other block in Augusta (yet I'm sure Georgians would make fun of our excessive number of Starbucks here in the Home of the Homeless).

Anyhow, David Toms has been seen at the Waffle House, though somehow I have a hard time imagining him going for some of Bert's Chili after a round at Augusta.

Flashback: 2001 Course Changes Preview

Thanks to reader Sean for this enlightening flashback to 2001, in advance of the first wave of significant course changes.

Augusta National Golf Club will undergo a major facelift to make the Masters a tougher test next year, club chairman William "Hootie" Johnson said on Wednesday.

Johnson said four or five of the par-fours on the course would be lengthened and strengthened to respond to improvements in golf ball and club-making technology that have helped players hit longer than ever.

"We do plan to make extensive changes," Johnson said on the eve of the 65th Masters.

"It's just that we think that several of our par-fours are a little weak, and we are going to try to strengthen them."

Bunkers may also be altered or moved and some teeing areas could be shifted to require a more difficult shot off the tee, he said.

Johnson, who would not specify which holes would be changed under the direction of architect Tom Fazio, said the club needed to keep up with technological advancements.

"This equipment is making a huge difference, and we are going to make an attempt, as we always have, to try to keep the golf course current with the times," he said.

A new ball being used extensively on the tour this season has made long hitters out of players regarded as short hitters, noted Johnson, who was worried the trend could render classic courses such as Augusta National obsolete for the professionals.

"I hope that the equipment can be addressed," he said.

No, this is not a late April Fool's post. Why do I have the bad feeling he'll be saying that again in 2008? Sorry...continue:

"We can't go on like we are going. Another decade or two, I don't know where we might be and I don't know the answer to how that is going to be approached."

Johnson said toughening-up Augusta was not in response to scoring, even though Tiger Woods set new standards for low score (18 under par) and margin of victory (12 strokes) with his Masters triumph in 1997.

"It is not in response to scores," the club chairman said. "It's just that we, and I think any of us, probably hate to see people hitting sand wedges to 425-yard par-fours."

Ah, and the comments from players:

Six times Masters champion Jack Nicklaus and 1976 winner Raymond Floyd said changes were necessary.

"You need to make changes if people are hitting nine-irons and wedges into the par-fours," said Floyd.

"They've always made changes and have tried to stay ahead of the curve. But this time I think the curve got ahead of them."

Nicklaus said tournament officials have to do something because the new balls being used are changing the face of the game.

But Nicklaus said he wished restrictions would be placed on the balls instead so that classic courses like Augusta National would not have to alter their design.

"It's absurd," said Nicklaus. "It's so simple to just restrict the golf ball. If they don't change it soon, they'll have us teeing off from downtown somewhere and hitting up to here.

"There is nothing wrong with Augusta National. It shouldn't be diminished by a golf ball."

Short hitters have benefited from the technological advances by drawing closer to the big hitters in terms of distance, but stretching Augusta National further could put them at a distinct disadvantage.

"I think it will only benefit the longer hitters," said Loren Roberts.

Gee, where would he get an idea like that!?

Hal Sutton agreed. "Bobby Jones intended players to hit five-irons into some greens," he said.

Sutton also said that moving back tees, rearranging bunkers and the like would take away one of the charms of the Masters, which has been staged at Augusta National since its inception in 1934.

"If you keep changing the golf course, I'm not sure how you can compare results over time. The course is truly set up for the big hitters."

Rocco Mediate also believed the long hitters would benefit. "It takes a lot of people out of the running because it's just too long. On number one, if you can carry the bunker, 285 yards, you've got a seven-iron in. But guys who can't, have to hit a three-iron. You try going into number one with a three or four-iron and you have no chance."

Where's The (Design) Balance?

John Boyette looks at the impact of the course changes, and considers different players views on whether long hitters will be favored.

Stewart Cink offered this succinct characterization of the changes that fellow Georgia Tech alum Bob Jones might have appreciated:

"Now they've taken the creativity out of it and made it more of an execution-style course, where there's no question where you have to hit it off the tee and what club you have to hit."

Kroichik On Distance, Masters Ball Possibility

Ron Kroichik looks at the possiblity of a ball rollback, a "Masters ball" and offers all sorts of interesting tidbits about a distance rollback:

Sandy Tatum barely hesitates before answering in the affirmative. Tatum, the former United States Golf Association president and patriarch of Harding Park's renovation, joins Jack Nicklaus in suggesting the USGA "roll back" the distance the ball can travel. Woods and his big-hitting colleagues on the PGA Tour routinely smack drives more than 300 yards, taking golf into once-unimaginable frontiers.

It's either a thrilling joyride (many fans), a fundamental affront to the game (traditionalists such as Tatum) or an unwelcome threat to booming business (elite players and golf-ball manufacturers).

Tatum begins his sermon with this premise: The ball goes too far. The faster a player swings, the greater the benefit from technology. Drivers with club heads triple the size they were 15 years ago collide with balls specifically designed to soar into the stratosphere.

"It puts the game seriously out of balance," Tatum recently said. "You get more emphasis on power and less on shot-making. The stats will tell you, accuracy is no longer anywhere near as important as distance."

And...

These kind of numbers help explain why Chairman Hootie Johnson felt compelled to try to keep Augusta National "current with the times." He lengthened the course for the second time in five years, but only after hinting club officials might force players to use a "uniform ball" in the Masters, one unlikely to travel such prodigious distances.

That option still exists for Johnson and his colleagues in Augusta, but even then it would apply only to the Masters. The USGA and Royal & Ancient Golf Club, the game's governing bodies and rules makers, do not favor the idea of a uniform ball.

"That's not in the cards, for the same reason a baseball player doesn't have the same bat as any other player," said Dick Rugge, the USGA's senior technical director. "It's personal equipment suited to each player."

Rugge nonetheless elevated this long-simmering debate into another realm in April 2005, on the day after Woods won the Masters. Rugge sent an e-mail to manufacturers, inviting them to participate in a research project by making balls that travel 15 and 25 yards shorter than current models.

This would not be a uniform ball, because players still could arrange their own specifications (launch angle, spin rate, etc.). But the ball would not fly as far, exactly the kind of rollback Nicklaus and Tatum are advocating.

Rugge, in a phone interview last week, said the USGA expects to receive prototype, reduced-distance balls from manufacturers "very soon." Rugge and his staff -- 18 people in all, including six engineers -- will then embark on extensive research to determine how those balls would affect the game.

"To some people, it's as simple as a shorter ball," Rugge said. "I can tell you from our research, it's a much more complex issue than that."

 And...

Top players, not surprisingly, are cool to the idea of limits on technology. Woods, asked earlier this year about the ongoing chatter about a uniform ball, practically scoffed, saying, "I don't think it's realistic at all. Do you realize what that would do to the golf-ball industry?"

Gee, think he has a lucrative endorsement contract?

Mickelson similarly downplayed the possibility of a uniform ball. As for rolling back the ball, he said, "I don't think we'll ever get to that point," though the USGA's impending research project suggests it's possible. Woods, interestingly, seems open to rolling back the ball.

For now, technology rolls forward on several fronts. The USGA recently proposed a "liberal limit" on so-called moment of inertia, to address the modern drivers that create good shots even with imperfect contact. Rugge said a final decision will be made in the coming months.

In the coming days, all eyes will turn to Augusta and the stretched-out course awaiting Woods, Mickelson and their brethren. They will arrive armed with the finest equipment available, ready to tackle the beast. There will be much talk about those 4-plus miles of Georgia landscape -- and not as much talk about the little white balls at the center of the action.