2010 Masters Thursday Clippings

So good that we can finally move on to the tournament and not talk about...wait, what was that Billy Payne?

Doug Ferguson on the Chairman's scripted scolding on the eve of the Masters.

They were the strongest words from a Masters chairman since Hootie Johnson's famous "point of a bayonet" reply to Martha Burk in the summer of 2002 when he defended the club's right to an all-male membership.

Payne was one of the Augusta National members who stood among the Georgia pines to the right of the first fairway on Monday, the first time Woods played before a gallery since being caught cheating on his wife five months ago.

No other golf official has been so outspoken about Woods' behavior.

No other major is like the Masters.

Jeff Rude writes for Golfweek.com:

Payne went out of his way to give a stern lecture on the responsibilities that come with stardom. He was the father who sat his child down at the kitchen table to admonish bad and explain proper behavior. He was the principal who called the mischievous student into the office and set him straight. He was the therapist urging improvement.

Payne’s powerful message, skillfully delivered by scalpel rather than sledgehammer, not only was brilliant, it was probably the most interesting thing I’ve observed all year.

Lawrence Donegan in The Guardian:

In normal circumstances cracking the mores of Augusta National requires the code-breaking skills of Bletchley. This time there was no need to read between the lines. The lines themselves were enough: not so much a stinging rebuke but a wholesale character assassination.

Rich Lerner writes that Payne "drew a collective amen from the faithful when he weighed in on Tiger’s 'egregious' conduct."

Bill Pennington notes:

As the figurehead of a club with an influential membership that includes chief executives of many of the country’s largest corporations and business leaders worldwide, it is unlikely Payne’s statement was meant to be personal one. Sitting at a lectern in the club’s news conference room, Payne spoke with two high-ranking members at his side and another 15 to 20 Augusta National members sitting in the back. Payne, 62, spoke evenly but forcefully.

Check out the reader comments on the Pennington post. Not many fans and some interesting observations that would seem to suggest this was a massive mistake by Payne. At least with NYTimes.com online readers.

Garry Smits called it "one of the most extraordinary public statements from any of the six men who have held the top position at the club."

John Paul Newport labeled Payne's remarks "surprising critical" and notes Payne's hero fetish:

The concept of heroes seemed to be on Payne’s mind, as he used the word in two other contexts. First, he said that Augusta National co-founded the Asian Amateur tournament in China last October (the winner gets an automatic Masters invitation) to “create heroes from that region of the world, and inspire others to take up the game.”

Second, he called the presence of four teenagers in this year’s Masters field an “unbelievably positive development” because it showed that “heroes were being created.”

TIGER WOODS

Larry Dorman on Tiger's pledge to behave better, notes some wild past incidents involving other players, but says this about Tiger:

Woods promised he would try to “not get as hot when I play.” This is not likely to be an easy promise to keep.

It is not that Woods will be expected to start signing autographs during play, or to chat with fans the way Palmer used to as he looked for an errant drive. No one thinks he will high-five or fist-bump spectators à la Phil Mickelson.

This will be about not erupting in a string of obscenities, as he has on numerous occasions during the past 10 years.

Tim Rosaforte notes this about Tiger's practice rounds:

There is not much fun if the golf ball isn't going where it's aimed, which seems to be the case in Woods' practice rounds. He played the back nine Sunday afternoon phenomenally well -- 32 was an unofficial score -- but since then the rust has been showing. In a brief follow up, I had a chance to ask if he felt this comeback will be tougher or comparable to coming back from ACL surgery -- which he did by winning seven times worldwide. "I would have to say this emotionally and the ACL physically by far," Woods said.

Steve Elling on Tiger and the fear factor possibly lost for good.

Banged up and busted, Woods' steely aura has suffered in the eyes of many professional peers. The $1 billion question given the public humiliation he continues to endure, especially on the heels of his surprising loss to underdog Y.E. Yang at the PGA Championship last summer, is whether Woods can ever reclaim the most indomitable air in golf history.

"I think all of his advantages are probably gone," NBC analyst Johnny Miller said.

Bob Harig wonders if Tiger could ever enjoy the Par-3. New and touchy feely Tiger, maybe.

Given all that has occurred, can Woods enjoy the perks associated with his golf accomplishments, as Nicklaus clearly does?

It makes you wonder.

Sam Weinman notes that Tiger made it to the GWAA dinner.

S.L. Price files a lengthy SI-Tiger expose for this week's issue. I haven't read it. When I see more than 5 pages that need to be opened on a web page, I wait for the print edition. Wait, I don't get that anymore either. Oh well.

And on the other end of the journalistic spectrum, Corky Siemaszko writes about the revelation of another mistress, this one an Isleworth neighbor.


OTHERS

Rex Hoggard on Angel Cabrera's understated title defense.

Gene Wojciechowski offers his own betting odds.

Sean Martin says look out for…Steve Flesch. He has numbers on his side.

John Hopkins on the teenagers in the field…four of them!

Paul Newberry covers the other end of the spectrum, the old guys and how few are left.

Watson, who missed a chance to become the oldest major champion in golf history when he lost a playoff to Stewart Cink at Turnberry, is the oldest player in this year's field, having turned 60 last September. A two-time Masters champion, he hasn't made the cut at Augusta since 2002.

Ben Crenshaw is the oldest of the rest at 58. Seven other players have qualified for the senior circuit: Craig Stadler (56), Mark O'Meara (53), Ian Woosnam (52), Sandy Lyle (52), Bernhard Langer (52), Larry Mize (51) and Fred Couples (50).

"I'm playing pretty nicely the last year or so," Lyle said. "I think I've got eight, nine more years in me."

Randall Mell on more unannounced changes to the course that the players are noticing, particularly on the first and sixth greens, and this:

“I noticed a lot of subtle changes,” Phil Mickelson said.

Mickelson said there’s a change to the back-right portion of the second green that will affect plays into the traditional Sunday pin there. He said getting close to that pin if you laid up short of the greenside bunker was difficult.

“But now [the green] has more of a funnel effect, and you can play behind the hole and it will come back to the pin.

“That will affect the way I play No. 2 because now it’s much more difficult behind the hole, so I may not go for the green in two. Or if I do, I’ll play it from the front bunker because now it’s much more difficult behind the hole.”

Steve DiMeglio on the back nine charge and the likelihood we won't see one.

Asked if a charge likes Nicklaus' can be mounted again, reigning British Open champion Stewart Cink offers this little gem — when Woods won his first of four green jackets in 1997, the course played to 6,925 yards. That's 510 yards ago.

"It's just way harder," Cink says. "The 11th used to have an acre of fairway but now it's a bowling alley. And it's 505 yards. And they made the green harder.

"The 12th is the same old hole it's always been — and it's always been hard. The 13th's longer. The 14th's way longer. The 15th is way, way longer — and more narrow. The 17th is way longer — it's almost indescribably more narrow than it used to be. And 18 is 50 yards longer than it used to be.

"Can we see another 30? I just don't know. It's a really difficult test, and it comes at you with every shot. If you are wavering, the course just identifies that, and it spits you out."

FLORA AND FAUNA

The absolute must read of the day is Dave Kindred profiling William Hatcher's refusal to sell his house that sits on property surrounded by land now owned by the club and pegged for future development of some kind.

He says public records show that Augusta National has bought 113 acres around his place (with the houses) at a cost of $45,230,225. That's about $400,000 per transaction.

So, OK, like every other big-time sports event, Augusta needed more parking spaces.
But 100 acres of them? For $45 million?

And then you let people park for free?

Something's up.

"My spies tell me the club may build nine new holes here," Hatcher said. Which makes sense, actually, because the land is a series of rolling hills that could easily be translated into a golf course. Or Augusta National might move the par-3 course to that land and build more member/corporate cabins on the current par-3 layout. Or when the need comes for a course at 10,000 yards, the club could close the road between the current course and the parking lot and simply let it grow.

$45 million. Now there's something you won't read in the Augusta Chronicle.

Dave Shedloski on Louis Oosthuizen winning the par-3 after Ben Martin dunked two into Ike's Pond.

Jim McCabe shares some rave reviews for Angel Cabrera's Champions dinner.  

Steve Keating reports on the tepid spending outside club gates.

Sitting no more than a Woods three-iron away from Augusta National, a smiling Frank, as he has for nearly 40 years, stood outside his shop holding a "$20" (13 pounds) parking sign above his head.

"I have had people from around the world come back and park here every year," said Frank, who was unwilling to provide his surname, as he looked back at an empty lot where he has previously squeezed in 25 cars to supplement his income.

The battle for the Masters parking dollar is just a sliver of the fickle underground economy that operates on the fringes of the world's most exclusive golf club.

That doesn't bode well for John Daly.

Melanie Hauser on the scene under the Big Oak:

No one does old better than here. New practice range. New chalet village. A redone entrance to the Press Building. All of it looks as though it's been here for years. Maybe not back to Bobby Jones days, but close. Clean lines. Lots of white. Southern traditional.

She's writing about the architecture!

Connor Threlkeld reviews the 3D Par-3 Contest telecast.

They do provide a greater depth of field, and it does showcase the contours of the course. But it's not the 3D you see at the movie theaters, with eye-popping, dramatic imagery. But that's a factor of movie companies enjoying months of post-production enhancements versus the challenges of broadcasting in real time.

For the time being, that will likely remain the reality of live 3D broadcast. It's easy to apply endless effects and enhancements in post-production, but for a live telecast, they have to work with what the two-camera system will produce, which is still an impressive image.

Dan Mirocha also watched the telecast.

The 3-D image really showed off the elevation changes and the rows of patrons that lined each hole.

It was even more entertaining to see the looks on the faces of some of the more veteran members of the media who were watching the broadcast.

“Well, now I know I don’t have to go out onto the course,” one of them said.

And E. Michael Johnson watched, too.

My reaction was that there's a lot of good, but some minor irritations. For starters, the glasses needed to watch are somewhat bulky and there are moments when there's not a huge difference in look from conventional TV to 3-D. However those minor complaints go away when you feel like you're looking over a patrons shoulder to watch Jack Nicklaus putt, or that you're standing on the curved edge of the pond.

PICKS, PICKS, PICKS

Cameron Morfit offers a few, starting with Padraig Harrington.

Golfweek's staff.


IMAGES

Augusta Chronicle's Par-3 Contest images.

Rob Matre attended Wednesday and shares some player images and miscellaneous shots, all in his inimitable style.