“Those trees were not there. He could not make the shot today."

Larry Dorman probably hasn't helped the healing process between ANGC and the New York Times with this assessment of the course changes and their impact on play.

There can be no doubt that the 1-inch fuzz on the face of Augusta has reduced the ability of long hitters to bomb drives into spots on the edges of holes that used to set up better angles into greens. The freedom that came from not worrying about the penalty the second cut exacted — reducing the spin on iron shots, thus reducing control — is gone.

I wonder if the club understands how important that sense of freedom was in making the players more aggressive and therefore, more likely to play freely? (And with that comes not only better play, but also big numbers when they get greedy.)

And the addition of trees to the left of the 17th hole has taken away the opening that led to the greatest charge in the past 25 years at Augusta. It has cut off the opening Nicklaus found during the final round in 1986, when he punched his ball onto the green and made the final birdie in his closing 65 to win his sixth and final green jacket.

Visiting the spot last Wednesday from which his father had made his great escape, Jack Nicklaus II pointed to some new pines and said: “Those trees were not there. He could not make the shot today. There’s no way.”

Come on, a Tom Kite win that year would have been just as memorable!