I attended the Masters for the first time Friday and Saturday, and spent almost all of both days walking the course. I had the following reactions, some of which were apparent from watching the tournament on TV, some of which were less so:
1. ANGC is wider than any course I play on a regular basis, especially the classic-style, tree-lined courses in Bethesda and Potomac, MD. Having never been to ANGC before, I couldn't tell if the width was significantly enhanced by the ice storm they had this year, which some people estimated as taking out 1/3 of the trees. Either way, it's wider from treeline to treeline than the courses I regularly play, plus the rough is quite light, plus in most places, you can have something approaching a decent lie full swing if you're in the trees, which is a lot different than holes lined by forests choked with underbrush.
2. I've played on courses with very fast greens, but ANGC's appeared to be several notches above anything I've ever played. As a result, the level of precision required on both approach shots and putts was something I wasn't expecting. (I expected a high level of precision--I just didn't anticipate how incredibly demanding it was out there.) There were lots of good examples, but the pin position on 7 on Saturday seemed absurdly hard--right on top of a knob, just over the left bunker, where the only viable play (on a significantly uphill 2nd shot) was to go long, leaving a super-fast downhill putt.
3. Maybe the rain on Monday had something to do with it, but the fairways didn't seem that firm or fast. It wasn't that tee shots were plugging or anthing like that, they just weren't bounding along at all like they would on a dry links course, and thus I didn't once see a tee shot that looked good run out into the rough unexpectedly.
4. While the greens were incredibly fast, they didn't strike me as that firm. Obviously shots coming in hot with long irons or woods (like the 2nd shots on 15) would run out, but I didn't see any huge bounces, especially with mid and short irons, like you see on dry links courses.
5. Because of their size and the speed of the greens, several of the bunkers played like true hazards.
6. Since it doesn't get that much attention during the broadcast, I hadn't realized how much the pin position on 3 dictates strategy. On Saturday, with a back-right pin, most players chose to drive it relatively long and left--which would've been a disaster for the Sunday pin.
7. All in all, the course struck me as an incredibly difficult but "fair" test for identifying the best player. I didn't see any "bad" bounces and great shots were rewarded.