Early reviews of 13 at Augusta

[Michael Morandi]

https://www.golfchannel.com/news/2023-masters-players-think-new-13th-tee-augusta-national-easier-will-take-excitement-out-hole

[Mark Pearce]

But most of those same players think that roll back will take excitement out of the game.  I think they are confusing excitement with easy.

[Buck Wolter]

I think Sunday will be exciting -- they can say they'll layup with anything more than a 6 iron until they're two back on the second nine and need to make a charge. Hopefully we'll get to hear Speith and Greller work it out.

[Michael Morandi]

As much as I like Spieth, I can’t follow him in real time because he takes too much time evaluating every conceivable aspect of a shot. For a game focused on quickening the pace, Jordan sets a bad example. I just attended a big college tournament where the average round was over 5 hours.

[Matthew Rose]

I feel like players say this every time a hole there gets a major lengthening.... and then after two or three years it goes away. I think they will get used to it.

[Buck Wolter]

As much as I like Spieth, I can’t follow him in real time because he takes too much time evaluating every conceivable aspect of a shot. For a game focused on quickening the pace, Jordan sets a bad example. I just attended a big college tournament where the average round was over 5 hours.

Hopefully golf will emulate the success of the pitch clock in baseball and follow suit -- hard to blame the players when there's no consequence to their actions.

[Tim Martin]

As much as I like Spieth, I can’t follow him in real time because he takes too much time evaluating every conceivable aspect of a shot. For a game focused on quickening the pace, Jordan sets a bad example. I just attended a big college tournament where the average round was over 5 hours.

Hopefully golf will emulate the success of the pitch clock in baseball and follow suit -- hard to blame the players when there's no consequence to their actions.

I’ve always been a fan of Speith’s skills as a player and his ability to rise to the occasion in a lot of big situations but he is too slow for me to root for.

[Kalen Braley]

Speaking of baseball and the new rules this didn't take long...

https://apnews.com/article/mlb-sports-baseball-arizona-diamondbacks-san-diego-padres-5b5d8ec4f6e906c59406e4cbeee05886

P.S.  Spieth showed his true colors when he took 1/2 hour in between shots on the back 9 of a major and utterly froze out his competitor.

[Charlie Goerges]

Speaking of baseball and the new rules this didn't take long...

https://apnews.com/article/mlb-sports-baseball-arizona-diamondbacks-san-diego-padres-5b5d8ec4f6e906c59406e4cbeee05886

P.S.  Spieth showed his true colors when he took 1/2 hour in between shots on the back 9 of a major and utterly froze out his competitor.

How did a batter get tossed out on a pitch clock violation? I clearly don't understand the new rules.

[Kalen Braley]

Speaking of baseball and the new rules this didn't take long...

https://apnews.com/article/mlb-sports-baseball-arizona-diamondbacks-san-diego-padres-5b5d8ec4f6e906c59406e4cbeee05886

P.S.  Spieth showed his true colors when he took 1/2 hour in between shots on the back 9 of a major and utterly froze out his competitor.

How did a batter get tossed out on a pitch clock violation? I clearly don't understand the new rules.

As a hitter he violated the rules for batters and was assessed a third strike that also ended the inning.

Then he was tossed after he had a few choice words for the ump... 

[Max Prokopy]

I hope that people withhold judgment on the changes for at least a couple years.


To wit: this week's forecast is cool and rainy with a northeast wind.  Not exactly typical conditions.  We should let things play out for a while. 

[Buck Wolter]

Speaking of baseball and the new rules this didn't take long...

https://apnews.com/article/mlb-sports-baseball-arizona-diamondbacks-san-diego-padres-5b5d8ec4f6e906c59406e4cbeee05886

P.S.  Spieth showed his true colors when he took 1/2 hour in between shots on the back 9 of a major and utterly froze out his competitor.

DJ showed what happens when you hurry through a potential rules issue on the Back 9 of a major

[Pete_Pittock]

Poor timing? 
If ANGC adopts the proposed local rule change regarding the golf ball, how will the new 13th work out with the shorter distance prediction? How much worth gained for $25M(?) spent.


Hole locations/weather conditions.  This years weather predictions could lead to lenient hole locations for the first half of the tournament to encourage risk/reward (and for aging prior champions), and tighter spots when they expect most will be playing it as a 3 shotter.

[Max Prokopy]

Poor timing? 
If ANGC adopts the proposed local rule change regarding the golf ball, how will the new 13th work out with the shorter distance prediction? How much worth gained for $25M(?) spent.


Hole locations/weather conditions.  This years weather predictions could lead to lenient hole locations for the first half of the tournament to encourage risk/reward (and for aging prior champions), and tighter spots when they expect most will be playing it as a 3 shotter.

They could always move the tees around throughout the tournament.  PGA stops are doing this pretty regularly nowadays, so maybe it could play short on Friday and Saturday.  Something like that. 

[Matthew Rose]

Poor timing? 
If ANGC adopts the proposed local rule change regarding the golf ball, how will the new 13th work out with the shorter distance prediction? How much worth gained for $25M(?) spent.


Hole locations/weather conditions.  This years weather predictions could lead to lenient hole locations for the first half of the tournament to encourage risk/reward (and for aging prior champions), and tighter spots when they expect most will be playing it as a 3 shotter.

They could always move the tees around throughout the tournament.  PGA stops are doing this pretty regularly nowadays, so maybe it could play short on Friday and Saturday.  Something like that.

I noticed when Augusta builds a new back tee on a hole, they pretty much erase the old one completely.

[Sean_A]

Poor timing? 
If ANGC adopts the proposed local rule change regarding the golf ball, how will the new 13th work out with the shorter distance prediction? How much worth gained for $25M(?) spent.


Hole locations/weather conditions.  This years weather predictions could lead to lenient hole locations for the first half of the tournament to encourage risk/reward (and for aging prior champions), and tighter spots when they expect most will be playing it as a 3 shotter.

They could always move the tees around throughout the tournament.  PGA stops are doing this pretty regularly nowadays, so maybe it could play short on Friday and Saturday.  Something like that.

I don't think Augusta keeps the same old tees. They get wiped to keep the traditional two sets in play.

Ciao

[Peter Sayegh]

Poor timing? 
If ANGC adopts the proposed local rule change regarding the golf ball, how will the new 13th work out with the shorter distance prediction? How much worth gained for $25M(?) spent.

Good point.

Maybe the club thinks the proceeds from those "Taste of the Masters" packages will recoup the cost.

[Ben Hollerbach]

$1,000,000 per hour in merchandise sales will go a long way to fund pretty much anything they want.

[Carl Johnson]

I'm not clear on the reason for the lengthening. My assumption (and only that) is that they wanted to make the scoring harder relative to par.  If so, they could have called it a par 4 and saved some money.  But don't guys (including all genders) in charge of golf courses always want to make changes -- put their own stamp on it?  I have no problem with that.  I resigned my ANGC membership before they let me have it.

[Charlie Goerges]

I'm not clear on the reason for the lengthening. My assumption (and only that) is that they wanted to make the scoring harder relative to par.  If so, they could have called it a par 4 and saved some money.  But don't guys (including all genders) in charge of golf courses always want to make changes -- put their own stamp on it?  I have no problem with that.  I resigned my ANGC membership before they let me have it.

They didn't want to make the scoring higher relative to par. They wanted to reintroduce the difficult decision of whether to lay up or go for it.

[Tim_Weiman]

I'm not clear on the reason for the lengthening. My assumption (and only that) is that they wanted to make the scoring harder relative to par.  If so, they could have called it a par 4 and saved some money.  But don't guys (including all genders) in charge of golf courses always want to make changes -- put their own stamp on it?  I have no problem with that.  I resigned my ANGC membership before they let me have it.

They didn't want to make the scoring higher relative to par. They wanted to reintroduce the difficult decision of whether to lay up or go for it.

I can’t say why Augusta did what they did, but if the objective was to reintroduce the difficult decision whether to go for it, then I support it.

[Kalen Braley]

I'm not clear on the reason for the lengthening. My assumption (and only that) is that they wanted to make the scoring harder relative to par.  If so, they could have called it a par 4 and saved some money.  But don't guys (including all genders) in charge of golf courses always want to make changes -- put their own stamp on it?  I have no problem with that.  I resigned my ANGC membership before they let me have it.

They didn't want to make the scoring higher relative to par. They wanted to reintroduce the difficult decision of whether to lay up or go for it.

I think this was part 2 of it.

I suspect part 1 was they wanted the player to again have to make a decision on the tee of how much risk they were going to take on to even get in position to go for it on the 2nd shot.

[Charlie Goerges]

I'm not clear on the reason for the lengthening. My assumption (and only that) is that they wanted to make the scoring harder relative to par.  If so, they could have called it a par 4 and saved some money.  But don't guys (including all genders) in charge of golf courses always want to make changes -- put their own stamp on it?  I have no problem with that.  I resigned my ANGC membership before they let me have it.

They didn't want to make the scoring higher relative to par. They wanted to reintroduce the difficult decision of whether to lay up or go for it.

I think this was part 2 of it.

I suspect part 1 was they wanted the player to again have to make a decision on the tee of how much risk they were going to take on to even get in position to go for it on the 2nd shot.

What's the risk/reward on the tee shot that you're thinking of here?

[Kalen Braley]

I'm not clear on the reason for the lengthening. My assumption (and only that) is that they wanted to make the scoring harder relative to par.  If so, they could have called it a par 4 and saved some money.  But don't guys (including all genders) in charge of golf courses always want to make changes -- put their own stamp on it?  I have no problem with that.  I resigned my ANGC membership before they let me have it.

They didn't want to make the scoring higher relative to par. They wanted to reintroduce the difficult decision of whether to lay up or go for it.

I think this was part 2 of it.

I suspect part 1 was they wanted the player to again have to make a decision on the tee of how much risk they were going to take on to even get in position to go for it on the 2nd shot.

What's the risk/reward on the tee shot that you're thinking of here?

From what I understand of the hole..

Deciding to hit a hook driver and bringing the left trees and creek more into play as it was in yesteryear...to get into position to be able to go for the green.  Or hit the 3 wood as they've done for the last several years but be left with a very difficult/risky shot off a severe lie from further back to go for it in 2. (Other than maybe BDC, I'm not sure who can hit a 3w and expect to be in decent position anymore)

[Bruce Katona]

I, for one, would really love to see a Tour Player get assessed a slow play penalty and go toe to toe with the Rules official like MLB/NBA/EPL/Champions League players discussing there "differences of opinion" on a close call- not every week but on occasion.


Just imagine the Rules Guy getting a Sir Alex Ferguson "hairdryer" from a player after a slow play penalty ruling!


I'm thinking that may make the cover of the NYT, below the fold.  Almost as good as "bikini waxed greens" from McCord regarding AGNC.