US MASTERS: Philip Reid, who begins his reports from Augusta National on Tuesday, on the latest renovations that have added 285 yards to the famous championship course
On the Tuesday evening of US Masters week, the past champions meet for an informal get-together. The clubhouse of Augusta National Golf Club is an elegant affair with a surprisingly relaxed ambience and no end of old southern hospitality. Tradition requires each player to wear his coveted green jacket - the symbol of success awarded annually to the winner of this first major of the year - and, first of all, they make their way to the locker-room where they sign pieces of memorabilia. After this duty is fulfilled, the players move out to the veranda for a cold beer and a chat and some nibbles before going in to sit around a long table where they tuck into a menu selected by the previous year's champion. It is here that the serious talk starts.
Invariably, these get-togethers provoke some lively debates. Two years ago, much of the discussion centred on a decision by Augusta National golf club to toughen up the course by introducing rough. Not Carnoustie rough, or even Pebble Beach rough, but a cut of two inches, with marginally tighter fairways. There was much bitching and whining. "This course has always been, in my opinion, a piece of art. A Picasso or El Greco. They should leave it as it is," insisted Seve Ballesteros.
Jose Maria Olazabal, the winner from the previous year, held up his hand. "I'm to blame," he admitted. "Blame me . . . they've changed it because a player who finished 65th in the driving accuracy (out of 96 players) won the tournament."
If the addition of some relatively minor rough caused so much angst and debate in 2000, one doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to wonder what the talk will be like next Tuesday evening. In the 12 months since Tiger Woods walked his way into history by winning his second US Masters and so becoming the first player in the modern game to hold all four majors simultaneously, Augusta National has undergone a face-lift that has dramatically altered its appearance.
Some 285 yards has been added to the course's length. It may not sound a lot, but from the time Alister Mackenzie and Bobby Jones first laid out the course in 1932 it measured 6,700 yards and, between then and 2001, just 285 were added. Yet, inside the past year, another 285 yards have been squeezed out of the available land (including parting with a reputed $1 million to buy some expensive real estate off the neighbouring Augusta Country Club to lengthen the 13th hole). The result is that Augusta National's length has been stretched to 7,270 yards, making it the fifth longest course in major championship history.
It was on the eve of last year's championship that we got the first hint of what was planned. Hootie Johnson, the chairman of Augusta National, came into the media centre - a permanent green structure that resembles a giant university lecture hall - and went out of his way to point out that the decision to lengthen the course was not a response to the modern-day scores. "We hate to see people hitting sand-wedges to 425-yard par fours," he explained.
The man brought in to make the changes was Tom Fazio, one of the great course architects of this generation. Fazio's father, George, conducted some "improvements" rather than changes in his time, but Tom's task was more dramatic. The changes, though, have been seamless, which is what usually happens when you have the money and the know-how to go with bright ideas.
Nine holes have been altered - seven par fours and two par fives - with Fazio moving back the tee-boxes on all of them. The most significant increase in yardage has come on the 18th. Here, the new tee has been taken back 60 yards, taking it close to the 15th fairway. In the past, the drive off this tee was tight; it is now even tighter, but Fazio makes no excuses for the severity of the finish.
"The 18th has been a glaring omission for some time," he remarked. "At 405 yards it was just not long enough in the modern era. Players nowadays are much fitter and stronger. They all work out."
The first sign of change comes on the very first hole. The tee-box has been moved back 25 yards and the fairway bunker has been reshaped and is now very much in play. In previous years, most players could fly it. The seventh hole has been increased in length by 45 yards; the eighth hole has been lengthened by 25 yards but the tee-box has also been moved 10 yards to the right, while the fairway bunker has been doubled in size. The ninth hole has had its tee-box moved back 30 yards.
On the 10th, the tee-box has been moved back 10 yards and, critically, five yards to the left which makes it a monstrous, albeit downhill, 495-yard par four. The tee-box on the 11th has been moved back 35 yards and five yards to the right, while the 13th - thanks to the land purchased from the neighbouring club - has been lengthened by 25 yards. The 14th is 35 yards longer.
Fazio is unfazed by criticism from some quarters that he has played into the hands of the big-hitters. "People say it's only going to benefit Tiger and (Phil) Mickelson and the long hitters," said Fazio. "Well, go back through history. Who's had the most advantage there? Long hitters? Why did Jack Nicklaus win six jackets? He won because he's the best player in the world and because he's long. That's 20 years ago. So nothing's changed."
The changes were something which Augusta National considered carefully, Fazio argued. "Like all things at Augusta, this was meticulously planned. Certainly, this is more of a change than in other years, but the improvements in technology - both clubs and balls - have forced that upon us. All we have tried to do is bring the mid-iron back into the game."
Indeed, many players who have made excursions to the course have been impressed. Tom Watson, winner in 1977 and 1981, said: "They are trying to create the same shot value for approach shots which they had 30 years ago, and in principle, that philosophy must be applauded. When I first played at Augusta (in 1970), I was hitting five-irons into most of them, and I was one of the longest hitters."
Fazio also rejected assertions that the course could have been toughened up with rough, rather than length.
"If we had put rough in, there would have been more complaints. This golf course was intended to play fairly wide. If you have deep rough on the course, do you put it around these greens with their contouring?
"There is a practical problem as well, because this rye grass is hard to grow high without it falling over."
While the course is changed - and television viewers will get to see more of it this year after Augusta National's decision to open up the front nine holes to coverage - the requirements for victory will demand length, good approach shots and a deft touch on the greens. Much as it has always been, and you can bet your bottom dollar that the winner won't be complaining too loudly, if at all.
"It's not done to embarrass any player," Fazio said of the alterations. "Nothing's ever done to make something hard or impossible or unfair. You're talking about a major championship, (one that) some people think is the premiere championship in golf." Touché!
