Tom,
You're talking to a veritable Masters-aholic, here, so I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about.
I don't think that the entire field was "blown away" by Tiger. Tiger plodded along and did what he had to do; the key was that nobody else was able to pressure him, and after Goosen fell 3-4 shots behind early, nobody ever had a sniff of him. It's to Tiger's immense credit that he stayed within himself and knew that he only needed to play percentage golf to win.
My point is that you cannot make sweeping statements about "the boring test that is now the Masters". I was bored to tears because the Vijays and Ernies kept shooting themselves in the foot, not because the golf course made for less exciting golf. Here's a good example of what I mean: take no. 16 - one of the holes that hasn't been changed.
In 1986, Nicklaus hit his near-ace and the crowds exploded; two golfers in an earlier group (Crenshaw and one other? my memory fails me) both hit approaches to within inches of the hole (I remember Nantz making a crack about the two golfers playing "Can You Top This?"); Seve hit an approach which miraculously stopped on top of the lip of the bunker, from whence he improvised a two-putt par from a very awkward stance; Norman hit a grand shot which came down off the bank to within a couple of feet from the hole, from where he made birdie. All very exciting stuff.
With the pin in the same place in 2002, Tiger bailed right and two-putted; most of his competitors fell short; nobody really threatened making an interesting shot. Of the top 8, only Singh and Goosen made birdies, both thanks to 20-foot putts. Do you want to blame the golf course for everyone's lack of execution, or Tiger doing the smart thing and bailing right? I'd rather just say that some years we're blessed by exciting golf, and some years it so happens that great shots aren't made, crucial putts are missed, and the best golfers in the world don't quite manage to reach the heights of, well, of the 1986 Masters.
Note that I'm not saying I like the changes - far from it. I just don't think you can blame them for what happened yesterday.
Cheers,
Darren