Golf: Changes Have Ruined Augusta, Say Old Masters

The gentlemen in green blazers who run the US Masters are nothing if not predictable in their unpredictability. After rising speculation over the past year that Augusta National would confront the challenges of modern technology by introducing a "tournament ball" aimed at reining in the prodigious distances achieved by the modern player, the most traditional club committee in golf did what no one expected and settled for the most traditional solution to the biggest issue facing the game: more yardage.

To the casual television viewer the most familiar course in the world will look pretty much the same this week. The flowers will be in bloom, the fairways will be a lush, deep green and the streams and ponds will be dyed a bluer shade of blue. But standing on the 1st tee come Thursday the players will be faced by a challenge that is significantly altered from last year, and radically different from the course humbled by Tiger Woods when he won his first Masters nine years ago.

At 7,445 yards the course is 155 yards longer than last year, and 520 yards - about the length of a medium par-five - longer than in 1997. Six holes have been lengthened, five significantly: the 1st, which now measures 455 yards, 55 yards longer than it was in 1997; the par-three 4th, which has been stretched from 205 yards to 240 yards; the 7th, which measured 360 yards in 1997 and is now 450 yards; the 11th, now a 505-yard par-four, compared with 490 yards last year; and the par-five 15th, up from 500 yards to 530 yards. The tee on the par-four 17th has also been moved back 15 yards and to the left, lengthening the hole to 440 yards.

"If you had never seen this golf course and didn't know what course you were playing, you would think, OK, this is fine," the US tour player Charles Howell says of the changes. "But if you see this from the perspective that Augusta is one of the most familiar courses in the world, you would look at the changes and say, 'Wow, this is going to make a big difference'."

Howell was born and raised in Augusta and is imbued with the reverence most of the locals have for the community's most famous institution. He is also closer to the start of his career than the end, and needs to make enemies at Augusta National about as much as he needs to develop a wicked slice. All of which might explain his mild-mannered opinions.

Others are not so restricted by age or background, including the list of former champions who have criticised the changes, first for fundamentally altering the nature of Augusta National as designed by Alister Mackenzie and Bobby Jones and, more prosaically, for turning the hallowed course into a bomber's paradise. "I'm sure if Bobby Jones was around he'd say, 'Hey, what are you guys doing?'," says Mike Weir, the 2003 champion.

Two critics have captured most of the pre-tournament headlines: Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, both of them members at Augusta National. Palmer complained that it was no longer the course he had known for 50 years, and Nicklaus was vicious. "They've ruined it from a tournament standpoint," he told Golf Digest magazine in an interview which stunned everyone, including, it seems, the club.

In years gone by, Augusta National's chairman Hootie Johnson might have been expected to respond to any criticism on any subject with a curt "No comment" but this year he has been forced to issue a defence of the changes to the course, granting an interview to the local newspaper in Augusta. "We are satisfied the changes . . . are appropriate for today's game," he said. "We met our objective of maintaining the integrity and shot values of the golf course as envisioned by the Bobby Jones and Alister Mackenzie."

As for the criticisms that the alterations will mean players hitting long-iron shots into greens designed to accept mid- to short-iron shots, he was characteristically dismissive. "These are the best players in the world and I'm certain they will figure out a way to play the holes that have been changed."

That is easy for Johnson to say. Woods, for one, is not so sure and has predicted an over-par winning score if it stays sunny and dry, thereby making it even harder to hold the greens. For his part, Johnson declines to predict a winning score. "Our main concern has been that the course be kept current with the times," he says. Yet nowhere in this lengthy self-justification does the club chairman address the issue of the times: the impact of technology on landmark course such as Augusta National.

In the past Johnson has openly discussed introducing a Masters "tournament ball" which would not fly as far as the balls currently in use. The tone of his remarks left many assuming that he was in favour of such a radical step, but the unveiling of these latest changes to the Augusta National course revealed such assumptions to be wrong. There will be no Masters ball.

What changed Johnson's mind? No doubt the subject will be raised at the chairman's traditional pre-tournament press conference, and no doubt he will avoid giving a straight answer, thereby encouraging even more speculation and guesswork from the world's press. And to get that particular ball rolling, here is one possible explanation.

The US Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient are currently conducting a viability study into "rolled back" balls with a view to reaching a decision on whether such a ball should be introduced throughout the game in order to protect the great courses such as Augusta National. Could it be that Hootie Johnson already knows what conclusion the sport's governing bodies will reach?

Meanwhile Steve Elkington of Australia pulled out yesterday with a groin injury.