Possible Changes at ANGC

[Patrick_Mucci]

Pat Mucci -

Have you read the current GCA Feature Interview with Sandy Tatum? He says this about AGNC:

Wasn't Sandy Tatum partially responsible for Spanish Bay Golf Course ?

I'm not so sure that architecture was Sandy's area of expertise

"On a national scale, Augusta National.  There is none of that Jones/Mackenzie designed course there, it’s gone.  It was Jones's concept.  Here was maybe the single most important person in the history of golf in many respects, at least up to the time that Tiger Woods realizes his potential, and the course he and Mackenzie designed is no longer there."

Your thoughts?


The golf course was modified when Jones was alive.
He suggested and/or was involved with many of the changes to the golf course.  So, the notion that the golf course should have remained as it was on opening day is a myth.

I believe that he felt that ANGC should remain a challenge for the best golfers of the day.

End of thoughts

[Patrick_Mucci]

I'd do 3 things:

1.  Lose the first cut
2.  Shorten #7
3.  Shorten #15 and cut down the grove of trees on the left.

Dan,

It's a good thing that you're not in charge.

The trees on the left are what help make the hole so special.

Removing them would be a big mistake.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Ron,

Augusta flirted with a tournament ball.

It was my hope that they introduce it for The Masters and that the USGA adopt it as the only official ball for competitions.

I'm still hoping.

[Brian_Ewen]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081008.RUBE08/TPStory/TPSports/?query=

"""They've moved the tee up on 7 and changed the green contours there," Weir said of the tight par-4. "There are other changes also, at 11 where the tee's been moved up a bit, and maybe at 18, too."

Those changes should return shotmaking possibilities to the course. The seventh hole, with its shallow, heavily contoured green, was never meant to play 450 yards, as it did this year. It was 360 yards in 1994, when Jose Maria Olazabal won, and 410 when Weir won. The hole got out of hand.

Now, Masters officials appear to have responded to criticism that they'd converted a masterpiece into almost a boring course that required players to crush the ball more than to create shots. Weir can get it out there, but he's proven himself to be more a creative player than a power player. He won the Masters with his wedge and putter.""

[Phil Benedict]

Seven is the most frequently mentioned hole here as being ruined by the changes but I so wish they would get rid of the first cut.  I just loved that wall-to-wall fairway bordered by the pine trees and straw.  That was much more the Augusta look than the flowering shrubs and all that other makeup they plaster on the course in April.

[Matt_Ward]

Phil:

I agree w you on the first cut solution.

But ...

The idea that the course was so utterly broken and needed to be completely overhauled so that it flies totally in a different direction than its creators (Bobby Jones & Alister Mackenzie) envisioned is beyond me.

When Nicklaus shot 271 in '65 there were some changes made -- the most notable being the bunker complex to the left of the 18th fairway. But the folks at Augusta didn't panic and start to turn the place upside down as has been done recently.

I don't doubt some yardage was needed on a few holes -- but the chief contribution Augusta provided over the bulk of its existence is high quality entertainment with all the swashbuckling maneuvers you would see on any number of holes there -- especially those on the back nine with the par-5's being a big part of the theater.

Hootie and the gang there simply overreacted to what they saw with just a few players. Everyone of these reforms was based on what a handful of players hit for their approaches -- not once did they ask the more important question -- did their score really benefit from hitting such a club?

A tweak here or there would have been more than fine -- Augusta needs to eliminate the first cut, get a good buzz saw for the inane plantings of trees that have robbed the course of its natural width and shorten a few holes (the 7th is one of them -- the 1st and 18th should also be included) so that more of the field is in play and not just simply a bystander to a narrow cast of players.