[Mark Bourgeois]

Comparing first round stats as of 6:20PM EDT to historical data, the loss of Ike's Tree appears to have had little impact thus far.

Here we go:
2014 R1 4.20 scoring average, 7/55/22/1/0 birdies/pars/bogeys/doubles/others
2013 R1 4.27 scoring average, 9/54/27/2/1 birdies/pars/bogeys/doubles/others
All-time 4.15 scoring average

Caveats: is today's hole location similar to last year's? What about weather conditions?

These will be interesting stats to follow as the toonamint unfolds.

[Tom_Doak]

There will be fewer doubles and "others" without the tree; but there aren't many from the 100 best players in the world, to start with.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Mark,

Today's hole location was pretty dicey.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Last year the hole saw 3 doubles and 2 others. 1.6% of the scores logged on the hole for the toonamint.

Flag today was 20 paces on and 5 paces from the right. So here's a question: how did the play of this hole location change due to the loss of the tree? Flag's over to the right, so do the pros want to get over to the left with the drives? If so, then maybe fewer doubles and others is a sign of more strategy, the hypothesis being that with Ike's Tree a back-right hole location is less about strategy and more about hitting a perfect shot?

On the other hand, there's still Son of Ike down that left side. (David's Tree?) Did David's Tree have any impact?

[Peter Pallotta]

In an interview before the tournament, Jim Furyk noted that as the years passed and the tree grew and the tees got moved back, he had to 'play off' the tree with a fade or aim at the right side of the fairway and draw it in; but that many of the longer hitters could just hit right over it. And it struck me that nowadays almost everyone is a 'longer hitter' -- which means that the tree came down at the precise moment that it had outlived its usefulness.

Man, those guys at Augusta think of everything

[Tim_Cronin]

Mark,

Today's hole location was pretty dicey.

As a group, the Round 1 pins were as tough as I've seen. The one on No. 3 was diabolical.

[PCCraig]

That's good news. Because I'm already sick of all of the memorial video tributes to that tree. Junk like that makes local golfers think that they need to save "signature" trees on their overplanted classic golf courses.

[BCrosby]

Let's hope the tree is never replaced.

The Furyk interview is revealling. His view is that the tree only affected players not long enough to hit over it. In other words, on an already very long par 4, the tree only punished shorter players. That's not how a good hazard should operate on such holes.

Bob 

[Patrick_Mucci]

Bob,

Ike was right, Cliff was wrong.

But, Cliff had more power than Ike

[Bryan Icenhower]

ESPN showed this on their Thursday telecast

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