"The Masters is always pandemonium, and there are all sorts of rumors about what's going on with the golf course."

Cameron Morfit files a short but typically enjoyable Geoff Ogilvy Q&A. Topics include contending in last year's U.S. Open, lessons from Tiger's effort and this about the Masters:

What tournament are you most looking forward to this year?

Well, I've never really been in contention at the Masters. On Saturday in '07, that really horrendous, cold, windy day, I was two back, and I spun two wedges into the water on 15. The Masters is always pandemonium, and there are all sorts of rumors about what's going on with the golf course. I look forward to the next Masters from the moment I leave the course on Sunday. It's such a cool place.

And in a PGATour.com writer roundtable previewing major storylines they expect in 2009, Stan Awtrey writes:

The buzz will return to Augusta National. The Gods of the Green Jackets wanted to stay relevant when they put the course on steroids three years ago. Instead they doused the excitement that made the Masters the greatest tournament in the world. Chairman Billy Payne is a bright guy who understands the correlation between excitement and ratings. Look for the roars to return to Rae's Creek and the hollers to return to the hollars this spring. There will be enough excitement this spring to make up for the last two borefests. And if this happens to be the week that Tiger Woods decides to return from the disabled list, the excitement -- and the ratings -- may be Super Bowlian

I'm wondering how much the rumors (which I keep hearing too), or the hopes expressed by folks like Awtrey,  are mostly a case of wishful thinking and not really based on anything folks have seen or heard. After all, the golf course has been off-kilter and out of balance for a decade now and none of the glaring deficiencies have been remedied.

I keep hearing from knowledgable folks that the club's top officials realize they went way too far and it's a matter of time before they swallow their pride or stop worrying about Hootie Johnson's fragile ego or whatever the excuse is, to get this thing turned around. But adding a few yards on the front of some tees and chopping a couple of trees down just doesn't strike me as being what the Good Doctor and Bobby Jones would have prescribed to repair Augusta National. Not that they would have created the problem in the first place.

Comments

[r]

I find a such a tough conflict in what Geoff Ogilvy has to say about looking forward to the Masters. Since he's such a student of architecture and a Mac fan putting it all together it's confusing. He's looking so forward to the Masters at ANGC, that Fronkensteen of golf courses now bearing no resemblance whatsoever to Mac's Commandments nor original design.

I guess at even his level it sometimes is all about the experience.

[The La Habra Post Card Company]

r,
It would be foolish to think that any professional golfer wouldn't have their eyes on that prize. the Master's is still the most coveted of the four. Architecture aside, The Master's is, well The Master's. Not even Tom Fazio can change that.

I think it would be better if you gave Oglivey some credit; he is a true student of the Sport. When it comes to his day job, well he is nothing short of being one the Sport's best.

[r]

No Tom, WRONG!

The Open Championship is the most coveted of all! At least at our house. And I do really like Ogilvy, especially since he's not Tiger. ;-) hahaha

Think about it though, as the kind of architectural student he is, he must want to puke at what's been done to ANGC (so do I) but he wants to win the Masters so badly and even to just play in it (the experience, if you will) that he overlooks all that to schmooze to the powers that be, in a way reinforcing all that bad behavior that they have done to Bob and Mac's place.

So on that point we're both right E.

[thusgone]

i like the masters only slightly better than the open championship. us open is third and there is no fourth.

[F. X.]

The Oglivy interview in Golf Architecture 11 is outstanding. I've been hit or miss getting to this blog during the past month; did Geoff report on the interview / the new issue?

[Geoff]

FX,
I just alerted people to the issue. It's not online except for purchase, but it's a great buy!

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2008/11/23/golf-architecture-magazine-issue-11-is-out.html

[Jim Nugent]

Eager to see what changes if any Augusta makes. A question. Geoff says Bobby Jones would not have created the current problem in the first place. But ANGC has changed, consistently and radically, almost from the start. Bobby went along with all those changes, as far as I know. I wonder how much he would have objected to these more recent ones?

[Geoff]

Jim,
Rough and trees were where Jones consistently drew the line. Oh sure, he could have completely lost his marbles and agreed to that, but everything he wrote and believed in says he would never have gone that route. It's also hard to picture him signing off on changes to some of the shorter par-4s, stripping the course of ebb and flow. But as you say, he did sign off on some pretty dreadful stuff, like Cliff's ruining of No. 8.

[Hawkeye]

He also approved the bunkers to the left of 18 (1966), which might be the most hideous architectural detail on the course.
Speaking of bunkers; Geoff, what do you make of the fairway bunkers now covering half the width of the fairways on 1,2 and 8?

[r]

ANGC as the home of the Masters has become that woman that Craig Ferguson shows on the Late, Late Show every week - the one who "Likes how her plastic surgery turned out" and looks at best like an inflatable F-M doll.

Hideous comes to mind ...

[Scottt]

I think you're all a tad too touchy. He said he always got excited about the Masters - not that he thought ANGC was the best layout in America.

There is, after all, a lot more to the tournament than the changes to the course. Well, there is for some of us.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Agree with Scott. He can hate the course and still get excited to play. The fact that it is the first major in seven months might be a factor too.

[Shivas]

[img]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/jhdfla/big368881jpg.gif[/img]

Geoff Shackelford (right) listens intently
as Tom Fazio describes the latest round of changes
to Augusta National for the 2009 Masters