Random Augusta Thoughts

Doug Ferguson's AP story on the Augusta National course changes kindly notes the increased "flexibility." That's charitable considering we're talking about adding 7-10 yards to the front of a tee leaving the core setup problem intact: the old tees are gone, meaning it's almost impossible to diversify the course from day-to-day as the USGA did at Torrey Pines. And there is likely not enough flexibility to accommodate weather extremes we've seen in recent years.

In considering the timing of this announcement a bit more, note they sent their release out on a Tuesday, missing (intentionally?) Monday deadlines at Golf World and SI (no Golfweek this week), and sending it out on a day that everyone's attention will be turned elsewhere.

Now, they are without a media representative after Glenn Greenspan left to work for Tiger Woods, so the odd timing could be caused by not having an experienced figure there manning the ship, reminding the chairman that you leak this news on a Monday in time for the print world or the AP notes column. Some might argue that the driving range project is their sole focus right now, therefore the course changes were not a priority. But I'm more inclined to believe that the club is loyal to Hootie Johnson and does not want to embarrass him, even though time has shown Hootie's judgement on nearly every topic to have been poor.

Or could the election day timing be telling us that the club is embarrassed to be announcing so little news after unprecedented player and media criticism of the course changes? Doubtful, but those hoping to see the course restored can hope.

Either way, it is perplexing that in light of the glaring deficiencies exposed in recent years, greater action hasn not been taken to provide more tee options and to address the widely despised narrowing via tree planting and rough.

ANGC Announces Course Changes On Election Day!

My, what interesting timing. Subtle, I tell ya.

No significant changes to report (sadly). In fact I'd say it's much less than what we thought we'd see after Mike Weir's comments last month. Nonetheless, a gentle chipping away at some of the more disastrous moves but ultimately, a long way from where they need to be.

Click on the image to read the full release:

Update on 2008-11-05 04:10 by Geoff

Here is Doug Ferguson's AP story on the changes noting the increased "flexibility." That's really being kind when you are talking about adding 7 yards to the front of a tee. The core setup problem remains: the old tees are gone, meaning it's almost impossible to diversify the course from day-to-day as the USGA did at Torrey Pines, and there is even less room to accommodate weather extremes.

In considering the timing of this announcement a bit more, note they sent their release out on a Tuesday, missing (intentionally?) Monday deadlines at Golf World and SI (no Golfweek this week), and sending it out on a day that everyone's attention will be turned elsewhere.

Now, they are without a media representative after Glenn Greenspan left to work for Tiger Woods, so the odd timing could simply be caused by not having someone there manning the ship. You could argue that the driving range project is their sole focus right now, but I'm more inclined to believe that the club is inexplicably loyal to Hootie Johnson and does not want to embarrass him, even though time has shown Hootie's judgement to have been poor.

Or could the timing be telling us that the club is embarrassed to be announcing so little news after unprecedented player and media criticism of the course changes?

"The club has made alterations that will help the course assume some of its former personality."

Thanks to reader Don for catching this in Lorne Rubenstein's column on Mike Weir's interest in course design:

Tournament chairman Billy Payne told Weir during the Tour Championship in Atlanta two weeks ago that the club has made alterations that will help the course assume some of its former personality.

"They've moved the tee up on 7 and changed the green contours there," Weir said of the tight par-4. "There are other changes also, at 11 where the tee's been moved up a bit, and maybe at 18, too."