Some great stuff from Andy and Geoff this week. Geoff's disdain for the new catch basin in the trees on 11 was pretty impressive -
'A giant drain cap sits in the fairway and figures to draw a few balls. This easily could have been placed another 10-12 yards farther down and in the rough. It’s fairly blatant architectural malpractice, particularly given the fairway cut and focus on this hole in, I don’t know, the entire world of golf. But players may use it to take a drop and gain an advantage. Oh how the Lords won’t like that, either.'
I've been on/by that hole every day this week.
On the third time around, after being initially quite pleased with the changes, I made a special note to take a good look at the "giant drain cap" that Geoff and Andy address.
It's a complete non event(it's not a collection area) and I'd be willing to bet there've been no drops from it this Masters.
It's a drain cap about one a a half to two feet across, just like you'd see in many places.
Pretty far down the list of complaints in the golf world, especially when the rest of the changes to the hole are largely net positives.
My main peeve with the newly planted trees at ANGC, other than the obvious ones we've discussed over the years(loss of strategy, less opportunity for creative shots)....
are the visibiity issues they create for spectators, especially when one is seated in bleachers where newer, younger overly limbed trees block sightines of play and allow one to see only the ball land,rather than the player executing the shot-15 right-under the scoreboard, 10 right of green, 17 green where trees/limbs down left side obscure any swings on approach and trees/limbs are out of tee shot range, 6 greenside right and left up near tee-both places not bleachers but heavy spectator areas.)
And 18 tee shot is way out of control with way too many bushes and thick trees surrounding a bowling alley that was never widened when the tee was moved 50 yards back.Both from a spectator bottleneck/visibility standpoint and a playability standpoint.
Losing most of the trees on the right of 11(which were planted 12-20 or so years ago) was a very good thing, and the three that remain keep a player honest and create/demand some interesting shotmaking for those who stray right off the tee.
Right of 9 fwy is now a return to the old days with fairway going right to pine straw,with creative shotmaking options from the pine straw but mostly limbed up trees.
Next project is to lose a few limbs/new trees on 7.