Golf NewsJack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer have spoken out about the changes made to Augusta National for next month's US Masters. Five new tees - at the first, fourth, seventh, 11th and 15th - mean the course has been stretched to 7,445 yards since last year.
"I think they've ruined it from a tournament standpoint," said Nicklaus. "Augusta is a big, big part of my life and I love it. That's why I hate to see them change it."
Palmer, also speaking to America's Golf Digest magazine, added: "I've been playing there since 1955 and just love everything that happens there, but now I'm not so sure. It's changed dramatically."
Nicklaus and Palmer, winners of the title six and four times respectively, are no longer competitors, but have decided to air their concerns about the adding of 155 more yards - and 520 yards since Tiger Woods won the first of his four green jackets in 1997.
The seventh, up from 365 yards five years ago to 450 yards now, and the 11th are the holes Palmer worries about.
"It isn't going to be the seventh hole that I knew all my life and won the Masters playing," said Palmer. "If you hit driver, say, 300 yards, you'll have to hit it really very, very straight to stay in the fairway.
"So they're not going to do that. The pros will start hitting irons off the tee to something out where the fairway is fairly wide open, then they'll hit five, six, seven-irons into the green.
"That is a major change in the golf course, and how that's going to be accepted I don't know."
On the 11th, now a par four of over 500 yards, Palmer worries about the effect the planting of trees down the right will have on spectator viewing.
Nicklaus believes some of the changes take away from what Bobby Jones was trying to achieve when he planned the tournament.
"Does it now do what Jones intended? I don't think so," commented Nicklaus, who cites the example of the first hole, where the tee has been pushed back.
"I promise you there'll be 20 guys in the field who hit a fairway wood into that or one of those rescue clubs. And Tiger will still play a pitching wedge into that green, and probably a half-dozen other guys. I don't think that's what Bobby Jones wanted."
Organisers of the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky, have announced it will be played over the weekend of September 19th-21st.
The Nicklaus-designed course is where Tiger Woods beat Bob May in a memorable US PGA play-off six years ago, the third leg of an unprecedented clean sweep of all four majors.
Meanwhile, Paul McGinley believes qualifying for this year's European Ryder Cup team to face the US could be the most challenging in the event's history.
"I think it's going to be a competitive team and a difficult team to make," said the Sunningdale-based McGinley. "There are 20 guys who have a realistic chance to make the team and narrowing that down to 12 will be tough. It's probably going to be the toughest Ryder Cup team to make from a European point of view."
Although virtually already assured of a place in Ian Woosnam's team at the K Club, McGinley can consolidate his position this weekend on the Chinese resort island of Hainan in the TCL Classic, where he will aim to go one better than last year when he lost to Paul Casey in a play-off. Stephen Browne is the only other Irishman in the field.
