LBJ, (I know it is TBJ, but I owe you one! )If you understood JUST how close our opinions are, I think you would be shocked.Yes, the equipment has changed (Especially in the last 7 years) and all the more reason to stop this idiocracy before it really does the game further damage. My concerns are for the game first and not to satisfy my ego.One of the first things I think of when talking of ANGC/Equimpment/Course changes is the famed "Shot Heard Round The World" by Sarazen. Especially when it comes to thinking of just how ridiculous of a point that all of the equimpment has gotten. I know you probably feel the same, there has to be some sort of closure don't you think?This once remarkable design that was the brainchild of two of Golf's more intriguing figures--Dr. Alister MacKenzie and Robert Tyre Jones no longer exists. It is a different course now just as you suggest the game is a different game. Why? Technology seems to be the simplest answer, but I think it is a lot of too many hands in the pot.Look at the changes overseen by Clifford Roberts by RTJ. Roberts had enough disdain for Dr. Alister MacKenzie, a man he STIFFED for the cost of the design, that making changes to the club after WWII were enevitable. The country was finally out of its darkest financial times and the club was somewhat fiscally sound. (Thanks to Roberts)Those changes were the result of the "Architect Of The Hour" which of course was the man most probably responsible for turning golf course architecture into a viable sales trade--Robert Trent Jones. Whom, it has been suggested took advantage of some creative initialing to tie himself to the great champion.While I have stated that many think Augusta's most beautiful hole--the 16th is a result of RTJ, I feel that it came at a cost of other pertinent features of the course, most notably the damning of a natural drainage creek which welcomed disaster during very inclement condtions; the ultimate loss of several remarkable greens which had fallen victim to green speeds that rendered them unfair; (Ironically these were push-up greens) Dramatic natural bunkering that became orgainized and tidy, and enevn worse, featureless.Roberts would eventually employ George Cobb to do work at the club, and they would eventually find themselves rebuilding features that he was ordered to remove (The mounding right of the 8th green, for one.) this didn't last long either, and just like the features that disappeared, so did more of the design features and strategy. The worse being the further altering of the dramatic closing holes that had made the tournament even more historic and famousWith Tom Fazio recreating what he feels will guide ANGC into the 21st century, this means LOTS of change, and who does he have at his side to urge him on? The Most Recognizable Chairperson since Clifford Roberts--Hootie Johnson, who seems to be welcoming this change to protect the sanctity of the tournament. Something that Bobby Jones once said that, "If the Masters Tournament ever once threatened the sanctity of the club, the event was to be ended immeidately without regard."I see a pattern here that is very similar to the RTJ/Clifford Roberts years. It represents a complete disregard for the history and the principals, while maintaining that the game is changing and they better be moving along with it, instead of securing the foundation of which the game grew to the respect which the club itself was founded.Unfortunately I have to end this right now, and I would like to continue and I hope you do too. Who knows, we might learn something from each other and hopefully it can be carried forward to those who never had chance to learn exaclty how the game was perceived in an age gone by, not unlike the way we have so ruthlessly forsaken the history that was left for us.