Matt -
You said:
"When I hear all this clamoring about how classic courses are being pulverized by increased distance I say show me the numbers to prove it."
O.K., since you asked -
As you know, there is a practice tee at ANGC. There is a screen at one end 255 yards from the teeing area.
In the early '80's we would marvel when Norman, Watson, Love and Couples used to hit the screen on the fly 20 or so feet up.
They were top tier players then. Not many others could hit it anywhere near as far.
Pan to April, 2001. Same practice tee. My friends and I watched player after player hit drives 30 or more feet up the screen. Everyone from Driscoll to Sluman to Weir to Lyle to whomever, they were all able to hit the screen on the fly.
Then the big boys showed up. Love, Daly, Woods, Els, etc. hit drives that were still rising as they crossed over the top of the screen. (The top is about 60+ feet off the ground.)
Hootie said recently that they are going to relocate the practice tee next year because so many balls are now landing on Washington Road. That didn't used to be a problem.
I am a simple person. I do not understand much about mathematics. (My wife keeps our books.) I do not know the yardages those people hit it. I do not know if measurements of that yardage are accurate.
I do know, however, that they are all hitting it much, much farther than they used to. All of them.
But for ANGC's viscious (and arguably unfair) greens and green surrounds (especially since the installation of bent grass in 1978), there is no serious doubt that these guys would be "pulverizing" Augusta.
Bob