"A short par-four that modern designers might throw back had changed the course of the tournament."

I'm sensing Patrick Smith was hard up to blame the Golf Gods for Geoff Ogilvy's loss to Ian Poulter in the JB Were Masters at Victoria, so the brilliant little first hole gets the blame.

Poulter employed a five-wood off the first tee and it finished within 5m of the pin. He sank the putt for an eagle. Ogilvy opted for his three-iron which failed by several metres to reach the green. His simple chip was appalling, executed like an awful amateur and skidded past the hole. He could not make his 2m birdie putt.

Poulter began the round at 1.05pm two shots shy of Ogilvy, who the day before had played well enough for commentators to mention the 59 number. The pair stood on the second tee even at 13 under. A short par-four that modern designers might throw back had changed the course of the tournament.

Actually, the swings both Saturday and Sunday only reinforced the brilliance of the design and the refusal to cave to the pitifully unregulated distance surge and change the par from 4 to 3.

Smith carefully dances around Ogilvy's Saturday eagle at the first, which fueled a third round 63, and rightfully so. Because Sunday's two-shot swing had just as powerful effect on the Poulter-Ogilvy showdown. And I can't thing of a single reason why this would be a negative. Other than Ogilvy coming from Australia while Poulter hails from Orlan...err...England.

I was stunned a few weeks ago when first seeing Victoria's first hole and finding out it plays as a 260-yard par-4 in the Masters. But if the par were reduced to three, it would simply be another long, hard par-3 that players would not be too upset about bogeying to start the round. But when the first hole is called a ridiculously short four and the player makes a four, it's as if they are giving a shot back (two shots in Ogilvy's case Sunday).

That simple designation of par, mixed with the right architectural features, was proven to have an effect on the thinking of some of the world's best golfers. Isn't that a great thing?