Lee Trevino Has No Future As A Golf Digest Panelist

The constantly-changing No. 1 course in the land according to the Golf Digest panel just isn't very good if you ask Lee Trevino. Which Lorne Rubenstein did (thanks reader Jordan for the link).

“The course is just crazy,” Trevino said. “They’ve moved the first tee all the way back to the tree where we used to hang around and drink. It’s ludicrous, but I’ll still watch it. It’s a major. It’s a great place for the galleries, and it’s beautiful. But no, it’s not a great course.”

The more nuanced criticism from Trevino is the one that matters for us Masters fans:

Trevino called the Masters a “game of survival” now. He said, “If you didn’t shoot 31 or 32 on the back nine you didn’t win. Now if you have a 3-shot lead going into the back nine you can probably win shooting 72.”

Tournament officials have tried in the last couple of years to put some of the possibility for excitement back into the last nine holes. When the roars disappeared, much of the Masters flavour did as well. Phil Mickelson did shoot 32 on the back nine to win by three. Trevino was making a general point about the course, but at least low numbers are possible now on the back nine after a number of years when officials were drunk with making the course as difficult as possible.