1960

[Matt_Cohn]

I noticed that 18 was 420 yards before it was 405, apparently.

I noticed how easily the golf course sat on the landscape. All the edges seemed soft and comfortable, like around the water on 15.

What did you notice?

[tlavin]

I noticed that the greens seemed to be running around 8 feet.  I saw everything but a full shoulder turn on the greens, with the players hammering putts to get them to the hole.  The course looked more natural, more at peace within its landscaped surroundings and a lot less like the polished product that we now see.

[noonan]

I thoroughly enjoyed the film clip.

Arnie did hit it 300 on 18 on Saturday they said. Downwind.

[Mike_Young]

I hope you noticed the height of the grass around the greens as well as the depth of the bunkers......

[Adam Clayman]

I noticed some serious humps in the center of 17 fairway. Have they been removed?

[Matt_Cohn]

http://tinyurl.com/32xfr5

Time Magazine article from May 1960.

[Doug Siebert]

I hope everyone talking about how unnatural the second cut is to the ANGC spirit noticed all the rough, not second cut but ROUGH off to the sides of fairways and quite in close around the greens.  It wasn't US Open length stuff, but it would have totally changed the game around the greens.  I really want to hear what all the second cut hating purists have to say about this.....if you listen to them, the grass had always been uniformly short over the entire course until just recently.  Somewhere between 1960 and when I first recall seeing it in 1975 they decided to eliminate all rough from the course.  Anyone know when that was and why the decision was made?  Clearly Bobby Jones didn't have a problem with it though, since he was still around then to present Arnie with his jacket.

The other thing that really stood out for me was Arnie laying his cigarette on the green about 10 feet from the hole on #15, and picking it back up again and putting it in his mouth as he walked off the green.  Sure don't see that sort of thing anymore on tour!

There was also a lot of litter on Augusta.  Not just in the gallery area, but when Arnie came up to 17 I noticed some had blown up right next to the front left of the green.  The fans are apparently much better behaved now than they were in 1960, or there were not many trash barrels around the course back then.

I got a kick out of Arnie hitting the stick with his 20 foot uphill putt on 16.  I didn't know you could leave the pin in back then, and I was pretty surprised to see it keep the ball out, when they had one of the "needle bottom" pins that are really narrow down roll to avoid keeping rolling balls out of the hole.  But I guess he did have a lot of steam on the ball coming up that hill.

[John Kirk]

I'm surprised no one here has mentioned the fact that Palmer and Casper were putting on 15 as the group ahead of them finished on 18.  Three holes behind!  Unacceptable.

[Doug Siebert]

No John, there were intervening groups, the coverage was edited.  They didn't start the leaders last back then, which is why they had Nicklaus and Snead playing in after Arnie, and well after Finsterwald and Venturi.

I'm sure the "start the leaders last" thing was a TV innovation.  Did they start that later in the 60s with the Masters, or with other tournaments?  Anyone know?

[Patrick_Mucci_Jr]

I hope everyone talking about how unnatural the second cut is to the ANGC spirit noticed all the rough, not second cut but ROUGH off to the sides of fairways and quite in close around the greens.  

It wasn't US Open length stuff, but it would have totally changed the game around the greens.  I really want to hear what all the second cut hating purists have to say about this.....if you listen to them, the grass had always been uniformly short over the entire course until just recently.

Somewhere between 1960 and when I first recall seeing it in 1975 they decided to eliminate all rough from the course.

Anyone know when that was and why the decision was made?  


Doug,

Good points.

Even photos circa 1934 show rough.

The golf course seems to be in a constant state of flux.

Perhaps Jones's wish that the course be a Championship Venue has a lot to do with shifting conditions and altered architecture..

[Brian_Ewen]

Wish BBC had shown this  

[John Kirk]

Doug,

Are you sure?  I thought I heard the announcers say there weren't any groups inbetween.  But I've been wrong at least once before.  In the last 10 posts that is.

[John Kirk]

The 1960 version of bunkers was very attractive, but much less difficult than today's deep, sharp-edged pits.

[Jim Franklin]

I noticed the patrons covered nearly the entire 18th fairway as Venturi putted. I can't believe there were other groups between the Venturi group and the Palmer group.

[John Kirk]

Oops.  Here's an excerpt from an article about the broadcast:

"Strangely, so that CBS could get as many top players as possible on the air in its abbreviated telecast, Venturi and playing partner Dow Finsterwald were the 10th twosome out on the final day. Palmer and Billy Casper came through six pairs later and were followed by five more twosomes and a final threesome. Two holes behind Palmer was the pairing of Sam Snead and a chunky kid named Jack Nicklaus."

As Emily Latella would say, "Never mind."

"What's all this talk about the depletion of the world's natural race horses?"

[Guy Phelan]

I hope you noticed the height of the grass around the greens as well as the depth of the bunkers......

How about the depth of the right, greenside bunker on 18?

[David Lott]

I noticed:

--Lots of trash on the ground.
--Many spectators in military uniform.
--No one saying 'ewe dah mahn'
--Slower greens.
--Easier pin placements on 17 and 18.
--Harder pin on 17.
--Jim McKay trying to figure out what his role was.
--Sam Snead looking fabulous.
--Much smaller golf bags.
--Less logos.
--Black caddies.
--Unruly spectators.
--Guys in bright red (!) jackets.
--A tradition like no other (the beginning of boring, stilted conversations in Butler Cabin).
--The runner up in Butler Cabin.
--The hurt in Ken Venturi's eyes.
--Irons set up further back in stance than today.
--The polite grace of Arnold Palmer.
--Nicklaus wasn't fat.
--Lowest scores after 54 not last off Sunday.
--Dow Finsterwald a putt or two from being famous.
--Cigarettes
--No toweling the grips on every shot.
--Pretty darn good coverage given the limited technology.

[David Lott]

Correction:

Harder pin on 16.

[Guy Phelan]

The 1960 Masters did nothing but confirm my long-held belief that Jack Nicklaus and Dr. Bob Rotella ruined the game of golf for all of us.

The guys in the 1960 Masters just grabbed a club and hit it.

Today, it's a Goddamn ballet of nonsense before every shot...

I am not sure that Jack ruined the game of golf, but he sure did make it a slower go...How much time is needed by CBS to show Tiger lining up a putt? or for that matter his antics after a missed putt? Why can't we see players hitting shots? any players?

[Chris Cupit]

The 1960 Masters did nothing but confirm my long-held belief that Jack Nicklaus and Dr. Bob Rotella ruined the game of golf for all of us.

The guys in the 1960 Masters just grabbed a club and hit it.

Today, it's a Goddamn ballet of nonsense before every shot...

Shivas,

As a UVA grad, golf team member and former "patient" of Docs (I was too much of a mental midget even for him!)  I can assure you he would love it if golfers played more quickly and "reacted" to their target instead of agonizing over it for too long.

The only thing Doc advocates that can be "slow" is a consistent pre-shot routine.  Everything else is to play a more "reactionary game" if possible.  Doc has often said the best thing that could happen was to have a "shot clock" in golf that forced players to think less and juist aim and hit

[JSlonis]

I taped this yesterday and got to watch it this evening.  I thought they did a great job with what must have been a tough restoration with the old footage.

The biggest architectural feature that stood out to me were the huge mounds in the middle of the 17th fairway.  Also interesting was the softness of all the features, particularly the bunker edges.  Now they appear to be "laser" edged to precision.

The biggest non architectural feature was how they allowed the spectators to run in on the 18th fairway even though there were groups behind playing.  Also the ever present cigarette for Palmer on a couple of holes.

[Kevin_Reilly]

I noticed:

--Lots of trash on the ground.
--Many spectators in military uniform.
--No one saying 'ewe dah mahn'
--Slower greens.
--Easier pin placements on 17 and 18.
--Harder pin on 17.
--Jim McKay trying to figure out what his role was.
--Sam Snead looking fabulous.
--Much smaller golf bags.
--Less logos.
--Black caddies.
--Unruly spectators.
--Guys in bright red (!) jackets.
--A tradition like no other (the beginning of boring, stilted conversations in Butler Cabin).
--The runner up in Butler Cabin.
--The hurt in Ken Venturi's eyes.
--Irons set up further back in stance than today.
--The polite grace of Arnold Palmer.
--Nicklaus wasn't fat.
--Lowest scores after 54 not last off Sunday.
--Dow Finsterwald a putt or two from being famous.
--Cigarettes
--No toweling the grips on every shot.
--Pretty darn good coverage given the limited technology.

There was also a "crowd" around the 18th green according to Jim McKay.  He wasn't struck by lightning when he said it.  

[Kevin_Reilly]

http://tinyurl.com/32xfr5

Time Magazine article from May 1960.

Candid assessments of some of the other players!

The Competition. But the Masters did more than provide the occasion for an individual Palmer triumph: it showed how Palmer's contemporaries have come to dominate professional golf. Of the top four finishers, none was over 30 years old, while the greying Hogan faded badly on the fourth day, wound up tied for sixth place, and the balding Snead tied for eleventh. Among the golfers from whom Palmer will get the toughest competition in the years ahead:

¶ KEN VENTURI, 28 (6 ft., 170 Ibs.), has the smoothest swing of the younger players, is a wonderfully talented shotmaker whose game is still marred by inexplicable runs of bad play (he lost the Masters mostly because of a dismal six-over-par 42 on the back nine of the opening round). Son of a ship chandlery salesman in San Francisco, Venturi began playing golf at the age of nine, was a senior at San Jose State College when he came under the benevolent care of Millionaire Lincoln-Mercury Dealer Ed Lowery. A golf nut, Lowery not only bankrolled Venturi by making him vice president of one of his dealerships, but introduced him to Byron Nelson, the Texas pro with the great iron game who flourished at the end of World War II. After Nelson had tightened his swing, Venturi surprised the golfing world as an amateur of 24 by nearly winning the 1956 Masters (he blew up on the last day with an eight-over-par 80). Many pros think that Venturi's rigid, blueprint approach to golf is the main reason he has never won a major tournament. Admits Nelson: "Ken accepted what I told him as law, maybe to the point of overdoing it." But Venturi has begun to steady an erratic putter, is the chief threat to Palmer's domination of the game. Says Venturi calmly: "I fear no player. I say that without modesty, because modesty has nothing to do with it."

¶ DOW FINSTERWALD, 30, needs only a hairline mustache to look like a riverboat gambler, but he too often plays golf like an old maid: a top hole-by-hole tactician, his cautious strategy is simply to finish well up in the money (since 1958 Finsterwald has won only 10 of his 105 tournaments, but finished fifth or better 48 times, including 16 seconds). Son of a lawyer in Athens, Ohio, Finsterwald went to Ohio University, developed an all-round game to compensate for his slight, hollow-chested build (5 ft. 10 in., 160 Ibs.). Finsterwald's steady brand of play avoids the single bad round that can ruin aggressive players like Venturi and Palmer (who is Finsterwald's best friend on the circuit). "If Finsterwald ever gets that little extra spark needed to win," says Byron Nelson, "it will be difficult for anyone ever to beat him."

¶ BILLY CASPER, 28, the son of a San Diego plasterer, has developed the sharpest short game of the circuit, but is less than zealous about practicing with woods and long irons: "putting and chipping are more fun." Casper has weight problems (5 ft. 11 in., 205 Ibs.), stays relaxed on the course by playing swiftly while rivals grow tense as they brood over shots. Casper's accurate, conservative brand of golf last year won him the U.S. Open.

¶ BOB ROSBURG, 33, is one of the most improbable of the younger stars. With small, weak hands, he has to pass up the pro's usual finger-entwined grip and just grab the club as though it were a baseball bat. Sweat fogs his glasses until he looks like a myopic insurance adjuster out for a Sunday round. He has muscle spasms in his back, an uncertain stomach. He once developed a skin allergy to leather: his hands broke out when he grasped the leather grips of his clubs. BUt Rosburg (5 ft. 11 in., 185 Ibs.), a second baseman at Stanford in his college days, nonetheless has power off the tee and a pool shark's touch on the green. Last year he won the P.G.A., finished a stroke behind Winner Casper in the Open. Rosburg is now grimly trying to conquer a problem even more serious than his physical ailments: an explosive temper that usually drives him into one miserable round per tournament.

¶ MIKE SOUCHAK, 32, has sweated down to his rock-hard playing weight (5 ft. 11 in., 198 Ibs.) as a crack end at Duke University, is one of golf's longest hitters. But "Souch" seems too nonchalant for the pro wars, wields a cold putter, and blunts the edge of his game by frequently packing up, leaving the circuit and going home to see his family.

[George Pazin]

Son of a ship chandlery salesman in San Francisco, Venturi began playing golf at the age of nine, was a senior at San Jose State College when he came under the benevolent care of Millionaire Lincoln-Mercury Dealer Ed Lowery. A golf nut, Lowery not only bankrolled Venturi by making him vice president of one of his dealerships, but introduced him to Byron Nelson, the Texas pro with the great iron game who flourished at the end of World War II. After Nelson had tightened his swing, Venturi surprised the golfing world as an amateur of 24 by nearly winning the 1956 Masters (he blew up on the last day with an eight-over-par 80).

And people moan about the supposed amateurs today getting free equipment!

 

[Kevin_Reilly]

For a bit of color on how the course played in 1960, this diary by Charles Harrison of a practice round he played with Hogan and Palmer is great reading.

http://www.golfbuzz.com/communities/cc_master_intro

Here is a clue how it turned out:



Here is the course layout: