Sunday's tees and hole positions at Augusta

[Lynn_Shackelford]

You could hear the glee in Jim Nantz' voice.  He said "they had moved the tees up and created some easier hole positions so that we can once again hear the roars through the trees at Augusta on Sunday."
Those old guys have perhaps learned the error of their ways, or heard the harping here for the past two years.  I think it worked.
Anyone out there to notice which tees were moved forward and which hole positions may have been a bit easier than normal?

[Michael_Stachowicz]

I heard the reference twice from one of the announcers saying that now with the rough and the tightening of the holes, ANGC was now a "complete test of golf", and "no longer a bomber's course".  Sounds like a line fed to CBS from Hootie himself....

[Matt Kardash]

11 seemed to be quite an easy pin placement. Also 15

[Carlyle Rood]

I can only speak for the 15th and 16th pin positions; but, they seemed to be EXACTLY where they have been in the recent past.

I think the main reason the pins were more receptive was simply because firmer fairways were allowing the ball to roll to more accessible approach locations.

[A_Clay_Man]

To me it just plain looked...looked...looked like every other week on tour.

I fondly recall being so impressed by the one color from the one cut. I think Jeff Maggert's performance was surprising but if all you had to did was hit fairway and greens ala a u.s. open the real FUN was taken away. Was Mattice's really the first eagle on 13 all week?

Ricky Barnes was also a great feat to watch and really does bode well for the future charging yutes.

[CHrisB]

I think Jeff Maggert's performance was surprising but if all you had to did was hit fairway and greens ala a u.s. open the real FUN was taken away. Was Mattice's really the first eagle on 13 all week?

Seeing Maggert's name so high up on the leaderboard might be evidence that ANGC was playing more like a US Open, but this was a different Jeff Maggert this week.  As usual, hit hit a lot of fairways (85% of them), but he hit only 56.5% of the greens.  What was different was that he LED THE FIELD in putting--100 putts for 4 rounds.  I would never have guessed he was capable of this, and there is no doubt that he has never putted better than he did this week.

So I'd say it was a different Jeff Maggert, not so much a different Augusta National, that explained his performance this week.

BTW, Ryan Moore eagled #13 in the 1st round.

[Bruceski]

Birdie pins: 1, 2, 7, 11, 13, 15, 16. But many of those pins are the standard Sunday pins.  

Obviously, the 16th is a harder hole when the pin is anywhere on the "upper shelf".

I think the pin on 4 was completely new, and the players seemed totally bewildered with how to play their tee shots and putt the hole. The pin on 18 was new, too, and players were having trouble reading the putt.

I think they moved up the tees on 3. That was enough to embolden El Tigre into his fatal mistake.

Both the 5th and 14th pins (on all 4 days) are always difficult, it seems.

[Carl_Williams]

Lynn Shackelford,

Wasn't the golf course closed monday due to very heavy rains
Didn't the fairways stay wet all week long ?

I'm not so sure that I would attribute the position of the tee markers to anything but the wet playing conditions unless you have reliable information to the contrary.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Lynn is correct about what Jim Nantz said. However, most of the pins appeared to be in their normal sunday positions. 3 tee was moved up as was discussed at length. 4 seemed differnet too. It seems 13 is usually higher and to the left as per the tv camera angle. That looked like the sat placement to me. The course was only firmer relative to the day prior and the day bf that which was muck.

[Geoff_Shackelford]

I too caught Nantz's comment but other than the tee on 3, I could not see much difference in the setup from the rest of the week. Perhaps #8 and #17 tees were moved up, neither of which we saw on TV? But even if they play at the front of those tees, they aren't big advantages. Fazio eliminated the old tees when he built the new ones, leaving little flexibility.

As others have pointed out, the holes that seemed to be in more accessible locations were close to traditional Sunday pins (10, 12, 13, 15, 16). 17 was not quite in the spot that Crenshaw and Nicklaus made their birdies, and 18 was brutal.

I'm just so relieved to know that Augusta is "now" a complete test! Does this mean the old champions will have astericks next to their names as having won on the incomplete test? How did the Masters become such a coveted title and the most prestigious event in golf being played on a course rewarding incomplete players like Nicklaus and Palmer and Hogan? I'm sure the past champs feel like they got away with something after seeing this new and improved course!  

[James Edwards]

Being a Brit and remembering Faldo winning on 11 twice, why have they moved this pin to middle front? and not three quarters back on the left? also Mizes chip in, was to this pin, wasnt it?

Also Sandy Lyles bunker shot at 18 was to a front pin.  Why? is it purely a re think or does someone know to the contrary?

[Jlyon]

I was there this Sunday and the course was still very wet.  Even middle iron shots stopped where they landed.  There was no roll on the fairways (unless down hill).  On 13 the drives would hop 2-3 feet then stop.  I sat at the 11th green/12th tee most of the tourney and I can tell you that 11 was not a birdie hole.  A put anywhere from the right of the pin (away from the water) was no bargin and very few even got the ball to stop close after the first put.  What you saw on TV was some excellent approach shots by the 5 or so leaders which gave them much easier putts but there were very few birdies.

[Mike Hendren]

Perhaps the pin rotation was skewed by the weather.  One would think they would use the elevated locations on Friday just in case there was additional rain.

Regards,

Mike

[stevencollins]

I'm of as many mixed emotions on this question as everyone else.  For example, I was pleased to see the tee was moved up on 18, but the pin was moved back to the top shelf.  You may remember that the pin was on the back shelf in 1986.

On another front, I haven't heard anyone else comment on this, but on the Golf Channel, Peter Oosterhuis commented that the Masters folks were very embolded by how the rough played on Sunday since they didn't cut it over the week and it was very high (for Augusta) on Sunday.  He alluded that they were going to go measure it and then think about doing that for Masters in the future.

steve

[Patrick_Mucci]

Stevecollins,

I think many have forgotten that it rained so hard on monday that the course was closed, that it continued to rain, and the course was so wet that the 1st round was CANCELED.

Wet rough and dry rough play differently, so nominal changes in height may be less of a factor.

The rough didn't look that severe to me, but then again, I didn't have to play out of it.

[SL_Solow]

I was there on Friday.  The course was quite wet (many of the spectator pathways were quagmires).  The rough was much higher than in any year since it was introduced.  I attributed this to 2 factors.  First, it was fairly amazing that the course was playable given the amount of water.  I got next to a drain in a fairway and the sound of the water running was incredible; it sounded as if there was a very strong pumping system at work.  I suspect cutting the rough was a lesser priority than many other maintenace tasks.  Second, the extremely soft greens may have led the decision makers to let the rough grow in order to make it more difficult to make good approach shots from off line drives.  If the greens were firm and fast, very light rough would accomplish the same purpose, the ostensible purpose for growing the rough in the first instance.  Only speculation on my part but it appears to make sense.