Bill and Astavrides,
I'd be happy to and it's much more than just ice-plant removal around #4! Let me first start by saying the nasty pitch-canker, which claimed thousands of trees in the DelMonte Forest, was mother nature at work and while making certain holes easier, is not in the scope of this discussion, save one hole.
Hole #2- In what will go down in my mind as a travesty, the multilation around 2001? of the green-fronting waste bunker. In it's original, natural state, which had the bunker sloping gently along the dune line, this gem was as good as ANY bunker on the entire Peninsula! It was fierce, rugged and beautiful. All it needed was occasional raking, as winds and struggling players could churn it up, especially when often weeks went by before the greens crew(a team I respected greatly) would tend to it. The super at the time was not the best and management decided that the bunker was too difficult and eliminated it with a most mundane, pathetic oval replacement...criminal! Many feel that hole is nothing special. Into a 3, club South wind which often occurs during windy, storm-front conditions, that hole is a terror, and it was especially so in the older days with that bear of an epic, natural bunker.
Hole #3- Again, softened the front bunker on this par 3, which in the past required a deft recovery or it could roll right off the back of the green. They also took out significant ice-plant. Some removal was needed, especially in the immediate green surrounds, but they went overboard and denuded large swaths of it. There is a very effective recovery shot for extricating yourself from that ice plant, but you need a local (usually a caddie!) to learn it.
Hole #4- One of the best short par fours in the world...diabolical! They needed to take some out and this was a good call. It does make the hole easier. The hole is exacting enough. One of my favorite holes in the world.
Hole#5- Again, the same year they destroyed the one on #2, they carved up the VERY natural right side bunker on this par 3. The former bunker had a nice random look to it and rose to the back with an ice-plant covered nob. shots were playable, but certainly challenging. You really had to think about your miss if one attemptrd to work one into a back right pin. They mauled the character out of it and left a perfectly round saucer with a denuded crown as their masterpiece. Sad.
Hole#11- They really went to town on this one! Formerly,it had a small pond that sat about 30yds short of the green on this reachable par five. Trent Jones Sr. was shoved aside and the new creation was a maintenance "cluster" of multiple bunkers on the right side of the green approach and REMOVAL of the pond!
There had been a flooding issue one year that rendered the hole unplayable during the AT&T. The problem was a smaller than desired outflow pipe from the pond that got clogged and backed up. It was a torrential year, even by the frequently Noah-like rains that the AT&T is known to contend with then. NO REASON to totally change the character of the hole!
Some would argue that more players are tempted to go for it now as there is no water, but having seen thousands of players of all levels 'round Spy, I assure you the hole was tougher and more daunting with that pond, EVEN for pros ,because the down-sloping nature of the fairway from back where they went for it in two often led to thinned shots that found the water or shot way long as they made sure to get it over.
Hole#16- Two Monterey pines used to guard the left-side approach to this green, even with two bunkers there! When other specimen trees have checked out on other holes, they were generally replaced. To be fair Black Dog is one mean hombre, so this may be understandable. They re-did the green as well and it was a better green in it's old form, though tougher to hold, but that made it more difficult.
Hole# 17- Thay added several thru bunkers on this short four which didn't make it any better. A recovery shot out of the slippery Oregon Rye to this super-testing green was never easy and the flyer long was death! Out of the traps the good player has an easier shot and the duck blasts to the base and tries to get up and down...no way they are doing that with a play opportunity from the rough.
There are other minor tweaks through the years, but the fog of rounds past has left me with these main recollections.
Cheers,
Kris
