Have They Designed Away Masters Excitement?

Go to GolfDash and check out the Headline Story for today, April 14. It's by John Huggan at Golf Observer and addresses the fact that course changes to Augusta in the last 10 years seem to have taken the excitement out of the Masters competition. I couldn't agree more after watching this last week and reflecting on 2007 as well.

It seems that we have come to love the Masters because of the dramatic play it inspires - or used to. Some lost big leads while others made dramatic moves ahead. Different players played the course well - differently. If you felt you needed to make up ground you could take risks, which sometimes paid off and sometimes ended in disaster. But today, it's all about survival. The course seems to dictate that everyone play the course in almost exactly the same way. Most holes don't have options anymore, which is what great courses are all about. If you follow the British Open and classic links design then you know what I'm talking about.

Bobby Jones worked with the famous Scottish golf designer Alister MacKenzie to build Augusta. Mr. MacKenzie knew all about the subtleties of a well designed hole. Winning a tournament was as much about strategy as ball striking. Given your skill set, a great hole is about challenging you to figure out the solution of how you should play it. There was one hole at St. Andrews Old Course that Bobby Jones himself said was most often played the best by a woman golfer of the times. Think about that for a moment, he was saying that she played the hole better than he did. I'm sure he could hit the ball farther, but she was able to unravel it's secret code better.

I have looked forward to this Masters all winter, but now that it's complete I have an empty feeling. That's no to slight Trevor Immelmam. He's a great golfer who played better than everyone else, including Mr. Woods. He's a wonderful ball striker and showed he has the nerves that all the great ones have. I think (and hope) to see a lot more of him in the future. We need someone to push Tiger. Without a Retief, or Ernie or Vijay to challenge, pro tournaments are losing some of their luster.

A high level of anticipation for the next Masters is certainly gone. I want to see dramatic shots, an Arnie charge or a Nicklaus come from behind. Just seeing who can endure the rack the longest is not much entertainment. For my money the course has been designed into it's own dead end. I'm not a course designer, but the Augusta people need to find someone with a different vision to save the tradition. They might want to consult a past winner who's also an architect and probably understands the old course design traditions better than anyone. That would be a Mr. Ben Crenshaw.