"I've always dreamed about seeing Augusta as just one big carpet"

I was most struck by how forthcoming the guys were in Dave Shedloski's quizzing of players about what they'd do to Augusta. Perhaps my memory has been clouded by nostalgia, but it seems to me that if 15 years ago or even 11 years ago (pre-you-know-who), no one would have wanted to be on the record questioning what they do. Nor would there really have even been a thought that such an article was needed.

Anyhow, I'm copying the three comments about getting rid of the rough because they make great sense, but the entire piece is interesting.

Ben Curtis: "Augusta National is an unbelievable place. But, you know, I was watching a tape of the '97 Masters, and if we could get the golf course like it was then, without the rough, have the ball rolling 30-40 yards, I think with the length it's at now, that would make it an even better test. Take away the rough, and then if you've got a big hitter who is hitting it off line, he finds himself in the trees and the pine straw. I think without the rough you actually have to be more precise. That would be the only thing I would do."

Justin Rose: "I would love to see it play as long as it is now, but with no rough. I would love to see what that would be like. I've always dreamed about seeing Augusta as just one big carpet, which you don't see now with the second cut and it gets trampled down. It doesn't look as pristine as it could, and I would just really love to see that just once."

Stewart Cink: "I would get rid of the intermediate rough and I would like it to be all fairway again. I would leave everything else the same, but have that one cut, all fairway. That totally separated it from every other course in the way it looked and the way it played."