Sunday, April 9, 2000
Changes to Augusta are nothing
new
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - Byron Nelson's ceremonial
tee shot to begin the 64th Masters landed in a strange place at
Augusta National - the rough. Imagine what he and Sam Snead would
have seen had they played the rest of the course.
Nelson's first Masters victory came in 1937,
the year officials decide to move the 10th green from the bottom
of the fairway up a steep slope protected by bunkers.
When Snead won his first green jacket in
1949, he never had to worry about that frightening pond to the
left of the 11th hole because it wasn't there. Nor was there water
at the par-3 16th. Or cavernous bunkers down the left side of
the 18th fairway.
Jose Maria Olazabal, the 1999 champion,
called Augusta National a "true piece of art," one that
shouldn't be changed for the sake of change.
What it has always been is a work in progress.
"You can probably find controversy
in anything they do out here," said Arnold Palmer, a four-time
champion who made his 46th Masters appearance this year. "That's
not something new. It's been going on since I first came here
in 1955."
Augusta has changed every hole since it
opened in 1934, from additional bunkers at No. 7 in 1938 to the
pine trees that divided the 15th and 17th fairways last year.
Perhaps the most significant change was in 1981, when the greens
were converted from Bermuda to bentgrass.
Palmer says the most striking change he
remembers was in 1979, when the eighth green was restored to its
original design.
"There were no mounds on the left side,"
he said. Now, anything left of the green requires a blind shot
over hills.
But there never has been so much harping
about the "new Augusta" as this year, primarily because
the rough - only 1 3-8 inches, about the size of a golf ball -
has pinched the fairways and put a greater premium on accuracy.
That has made Augusta National more difficult
than ever, a counter punch to graphite shafts, titanium drivers
and balls that are traveling farther than ever.
But in some respects, the Masters never
changes.
"If you hit it long and straight and
throw it up in the air high, and putt well, you'll do well here,"
Jack Nicklaus said. "That's always been the formula at this
golf course, and I don't think that has changed."
Early in the week, David Duval was having
lunch in the clubhouse before going out for his first practice
round. He listened to reports of rough that was pinching the fairways,
making some shots even longer into the greens.
"That's not a problem for me,"
Duval said. "I usually hit it straight."
Only two weeks earlier, Duval heard his
peers praise the setup on the TPC at Sawgrass so that The Players
Championship wouldn't be simply a putting contest.
"Who are they kidding?" he said.
"It's always been about putting, especially here."
No need to preach that to Tiger Woods.
In his opening round of 75, he had two bogeys,
a double bogey and a triple bogey. None of them had anything to
do with the changes to Augusta.
The double bogey was because of a 7-iron
from the fairway that caught a bunker and plugged. He three-putted.
At the 12th, a gust of wind - one element
that has stayed the same - knocked his ball into Rae's Creek.
He made triple bogey after another three-putt.
"I'm hitting the ball well, but I'm
not making the putts," Woods said Friday after two more three-putts
dropped him nine strokes out of the lead. "And that's what
you have to do here."
Chances are, Augusta National will make
more changes in the next few years, some of them so subtle that
only those who have walked the fairways for two decades or more
will notice them. Officials have tweaked the course so much that
players tend to look for changes that aren't even there.
Palmer said he would have done some things
differently - every architect would. Nicklaus' biggest complaint
is the straight line of the fairways, how they no longer follow
the gentle contours outlined by the Georgia pines.
"I think the concept of the course
has changed," Nicklaus said. "It's looking more like
a U.S. Open course than a Masters course."
But they still award a green jacket at the
end of the tournament, which is what Duval had on his mind when
he drove down Magnolia Lane.
"You know, they haven't asked me about
the changes," he said. "I just come here to play."
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