I've a question - and perhaps it is a stupid one coming from one who has never walked the hallowed grounds:
It is my understanding that the putting surface contours were designed in such a way that with every move of the pin, the tee shot (or 2nd shot on a par-5) had to be placed in a specific spot on the fairway or the next shot was mind-bendingly difficult.
What is to stop the Augusta National puppet-masters from cutting back all the rough, drying the fairways AND ESPECIALLY THE GREENS to the point where players would have to depend more on the ground game to get the ball close?
Perhaps that sounds ridiculous and naive, but it was my understanding that MacKenzie (remember him?) designed ANGC to have "links-eque" playing qualities.
If that does not work, then dammit, make the contours of the putting surfaces even more insane, diabolical and trauma-inducing.
If I were King, there would be no rough in golf, period. There would be no need with "gathering bunkers" and putting surfaces that shoulder away shots from incorrect angles - which, of course, would change with every move of the pin.
Hmmmmm, sounds a bit like NGLA . . . . . . .
Tom Paul's "Big Tent" theory aside, the closer ANGC gets to "or else golf" (i.e. hit it here and hit it straight, *or else*), the more rank and file Green Committees will blindly follow.
Our club magazine - usually a vapid rag at best - actually had a thoughtful article this month about the influence Augusta has on conditioning expectations.
At this point, it is not the "conditioning aspect" that worries me, it is more the idea that we need to grow deep cabbage two feet off the fairway and stretch the golf course to 7500 yards.
Nobody except a machisimo-infested, testosterone crazed masochist wants to play a U.S. Open set-up more than once or twice. The example Augusta set (before) of having no rough to speak of probably did more good to encourage width - even if Superintendents were charged with the impossible.
Now, ANGC is getting incrementally closer to the set-up we see at the Open or PGA . . . . .
So, in answer to Redanman's question: The "good" it once wrought is slowly drifting away. Now, idiot Green Chairmen are going to want perfect conditions, obscene length and nasty rough besides.
"The very soul of golf shrieks."
-C.B. Macdonald
Scotland's Gift