On Second Thought

Masters officials knew precisely what they were doing when they executed the most recent changes to Augusta National

A lengthened seventh didn't deter Fred Couples (left) or Phil Mickelson from final-round birdies. Photo: J.D. Cuban

J.D. Cuban

By Jaime Diaz

April 14, 2006

It's a little early to know exactly what the latest makeover of Augusta National GC bodes for the future of golf, but we know for sure what the 70th Masters wasn't.

It wasn't silly. Although pre-tournament doomsayers ranged from Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods, the 155 yards added to six holes didn't force nearly as many fairway-wood approaches to par 4s as predicted, and scores didn't noticeably balloon. As intended by the club, most players needed one or two clubs more into the lengthened holes -- on average going from what used to be about a 7-iron approach to about a 5-iron (and sometimes more) on the lengthened par 4s, Nos. 1, 7, 11 and 17. And while the longer clubs took a toll, the cumulative average score for the field, 73.95, was actually lower than four of the previous seven years.

It wasn't exclusionary. Despite predictions that only bombers could contend, relative bunters like Rocco Mediate and Olin Browne spent a long time on the leader board, and Tim Clark, perennially one of the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour, finished second. The art of the possible was best demonstrated by 54-year-old Ben Crenshaw, who was tied for 10th after two rounds despite ranking last in the field in driving distance with an average of 263 yards.

Darren Clarke went for a partial dip on 15 during Sunday's third-round conclusion and made 8. Photo: J.D. Cuban

It wasn't debased. The course again produced two of the Masters' most constant and distinguishing characteristics: a star-studded leader board and a big-name winner. The world's top four players all finished among the top eight, and Phil Mickelson took a giant leap into history.

At the same time, there is no denying the latest version of Augusta National is radically different in its examination, especially off the tee. Along with greater length came several fairways narrowed by new trees and a pinched-in second cut, giving the players fewer options and angles than originally provided by architects Alister Mackenzie and Bobby Jones. It led to fewer hot rounds -- only 15 in the 60s for the entire tournament compared to 30 in 2005 and 27 in 2004. Just eight of those came before the final round, when tees were moved up and pins placed in relatively friendly spots to encourage back-nine pyrotechnics.

But the latest changes come only four years after the club added 285 yards, and perhaps inevitably the course seemed to lose a measure of the rollicking quality that led to players gambling and scrambling and making up strokes in bunches. Rather than birdie-hunting, this year the players seemed more intent on avoiding bogeys, giving them a comparatively somber countenance that had more than one competitor making comparisons with the style and mood of another major championship: The U.S. Open.

"It's a hard golf course now," said Crenshaw, whose two Masters victories (1984 and 1995) came on a shorter, more wide-open track that allowed a kind of swashbuckling style that would be too low-percentage to fit the more stolid demands of the current 7,445-yard beast. "Every part of the game gets examined, and it used not to be like that," explained Crenshaw, who also happens to be a first-rate course architect. "You had times in the past where you had a green light, and it was so exciting to just let it go. Now, every hole is difficult. It's hard for a guy to really get on a run. You're trying to avoid danger. You've got to really watch it."

Masters chairman Hootie Johnson doesn't deny that the golf course, in the club's effort to combat the growing driver-wedge attack in professional golf, might have lost some of its former "lines of charm" in the process. "I didn't know that a tough golf course was supposed to be a lot of fun," he said a bit defensively before the first round. But by attempting to restore the use of the same approach clubs intended by Mackenzie and Jones, the club has made a choice to counterbalance technological advances in balls and clubs that have allowed players to hit shots with substantially increased force and control. To quote Johnson's standard line, "We will keep the golf course current with the times."