Second Masters Question: What's The State Of The Masters "Brand"

I heard from a few folks today and all were bemoaning another less-than-fulfilling Masters. The callers ranged from a golf course superintendent to a guy manning a phone bank in Canada who had to tell me how dull it was after I revealed I was a golf writer.

However, the most surprising was a Southerner who has attended many Masters and respects Billy Payne.

This avid golfer excitedly attended Thursday for the first time in a few years. He and his buds arrived at noon and said they got bored and gone by 4 o'clock.

His main gripe was that a certain tension and sense of looming possibilities was gone. The sound of excitement has disappeared and the atmosphere altered beyond recognition. I asked why people were leaving in droves in the late afternoon (at least to us TV viewers), even with so many great names still on the course.

Boredom, was his reply. And then he said the words that you know make me wince for a number of reasons: "The Masters brand has been tainted."

Now you know how I feel about branding, and we can argue about the course changes.

So leave your architectural views behind for a moment, consider the last few Masters and what your friends are saying and tell us, has the "brand" has been tainted?