The 19^th Hole

April 8, 2007

Proving a Point

The Masters this week – except for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon – had a very different feel from the tournament that I have watched my whole life.  Over the first three days, the scoring average hovered between 75 and 77 shots to get around Augusta National.  Windy conditions, a dry course, and colder than usual temperatures combined to prevent reasonable scoring.  Basically, Augusta National was playing like a US Open setup.

The roars that we were accustomed to hearing and the mind-boggling shots we are used to seeing just were not to be had.  The cheers were muffled around Augusta National and the loudest clapping was often reserved for par saves instead of stellar birdies.  Bogies drew a few claps instead of the usual awkward silence.  The patrons – or gallery in real speak – knew something funky was going on at the Masters and they had to respond with some modest encouragement for the players that had to endure this new look Augusta.

The winner, Zach Johnson, played some fantastic golf on Sunday in order to pull out a surprising and clutch victory.  In fact, there was a lot of great golf to go around on Sunday.  The roars returned on the back nine as there were birdies and eagles like the Augusta that we know and love.  There were more eagles in the final round on Sunday than there were in the first three rounds of the tournament combined.  It was almost as though the field was playing a separate tournament during the first three days to set up for a shootout on Sunday.  Well, at least it was a shootout by comparison.

So, what happened all of a sudden to the new Augusta that was nailing players left and right?  Phil Mickelson touched on it some after his final round.  He noted that the grounds crew had watered the greens fairly heavily to keep them from being absurdly dry on Sunday afternoon.  By watering down the greens, Augusta became playable and enjoyable again – just in time for the large television audience that traditionally gathers around the TV for the back nine of the Masters.  It seems a little too convenient that the most watched period of the tournament was the only time during the week that the course played like its lore suggests.

Am I pitching a conspiracy theory here?  Partially, I am.  Really, though, it is a part of a larger theory about this week. 

Augusta National and the tournament committee have wanted this tournament to be about the golf course for nearly the last decade – since they tried to Tiger-proof the course.  Because of rainy weather in most of the past decade that has allowed the course to remain moist and accessible for birdies, the changes that had been incrementally made to the course just did not appear to be working.  The tournament committee continued to make more changes to the course in response to the solid scoring despite the alterations.

Eventually, when they opened the week, they were left with a golf course that simply did not resemble the Augusta on which Tiger won his first Masters.  It was about 600 yards longer.  Several greens and fairways had been changed thanks to Tom Fazio.  Trees were planted where there used to be fairway.  They added a “second cut” as an attempt to create some kind of penal rough.  Basically, the course was reshaped first as a reaction to Tiger’s embarrassment of it.  Then it became a reaction to what technology was doing to make Augusta National obsolete as a golf venue – in the eyes of the then tournament chair Hootie Johnson.

Finally, the new Augusta had a chance to show what it could really do when all of the conditions were right.  Augusta National – as it is now configured – has proven that it is not in danger of becoming obsolete as a golf test.  The tournament committee proved that when they have good, dry weather that they can take the course to the brink of unfair conditions and just as easily bring it back for the Nielsen ratings on Sunday.  The new Augusta has a lot of teeth and it can really be punishing to get around it.

Now that the point has been proven, though, should the golfing world expect for the Masters to be like this every year?  Tom Fazio, who consulted as a designer on many of the alterations (or butchery) to the golf course, seems to think so.  In the News Observer, he was quoted on Friday as saying, "Everyone certainly was hoping to see it this way," It's like a new golf course, because of the speed.  It's a major. It's a major major.”  Fazio, in his arrogance, seems to believe that the new character of the Masters should be to ruin the mystique of MacKenzie and Jones’s nearly perfect design and replace it with his vision of a championship golf course.

It is my hope that new tournament chairman Billy Payne will reject this vision.  Augusta National is a course where birdies can and should be made.  The Masters is about exciting golf on an amazing course that features the best players in the world battling one another in the most famous golf event on the planet.  It is not about bogies and scoring conditions truly embodying the adage that the game is a good walk spoiled.  We already have the US Open.

The future of this tournament should be somewhere in between what happened in 1997 and what happened just a decade later.  We all learned this week that Augusta still has enough bite to fit the bill of hosting a tournament called the Masters.  Now, it’s time to find a way to make this event return to what we know and love.  The best part about all of this is that the tournament committee showed that they can make that happen in a flash.  So, please make haste and return to me the Augusta National that I remember.

Ryan Ballengee is host of The 19th Hole Golf Show, found at The Golf Newsnet.com.  Having graduated from the University of Maryland in 2004 and 2006, Ballengee brings the perspective of the younger golf fan to the microphone and his columns.  Over the nearly five years he has been broadcasting and writing, Ballengee has developed a reputation for a unique interviewing style that asks both the difficult and fun questions. You can also get The 19th Hole on the go through podcasting by clicking here The Golf Newsnet Contact Ryan via e-mail at the19thholeshow@hotmail.com.