Chairman Payne Doesn't Rule Out Some Big Course Changes

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Unusually frank and in fine spirits despite a recovering back, Chairman Billy Payne even laughed after his own slip up dropping a "toonamint" on the assembled scibblers.

I was pretty interested in his remarks about the 13th hole possibilities and wrote about them for GolfDigest.com, including his assertion that changes could be made to combat distance that did not include lengthening. A frightening notion the more I think about it given the consulting architect's proclivity for point-missing changes to classic courses.

It also sounded by the press conference comments that the 4th and 5th holes may be different soon.

Q.  The 5th and 4th holes have always been landlocked by Old Berckmans Road.  Now that you have control of that area, what sort of plans do you have maybe in the immediate future for doing some renovations or expansion of those holes?

CHAIRMAN PAYNE:  Well, we don't talk about the immediate future as it relates to our plans, as you know, Scott.  Certainly that creates options which heretofore did not exist, and, bingo, those are a couple of the holes that we now have under consideration.

My question about the distance issue, just in case he had changed his mind.

Q.  You mentioned the distance the ball travels, and Mr. Nicklaus reiterated his views yesterday on that as a solution.  You discussed the shot values of the golf course.  Is that something you have ruled out, modifying equipment rules for the Masters, to address maintaining those shot values?

CHAIRMAN PAYNE:  Well, as we've stated many times going back many years, we retain all options.  At the same time, it's not something we would want to do.

And as it relates specifically to 13, which seems to be the subject du jour, we think there are multiple options where we could increase the difficulty of the hole and restore the shot values, only one of which deals with extending the length.

So we are in the middle of all of those studies, a lot of arithmetic, lot of design issues, and we would only resort to equipment as the last resort because we believe that the governing bodies in golf deal with that very effectively.

Oh yes, superb!

In other Payne news, Steve DiMeglio highlighted Payne's optimism over Tiger's appearance at the Champions Dinner and his potential for a recovery.

On the comedy front, the funnier answers, starting with this about junior golf.

Q.  Mr. Payne, I want to ask you a question about Junior Golf.  My 14‑year‑old and his friends are active on the circuit and it's made me realize that these youngsters can play at a really high level.  Your neighbor, the Augusta Country Club, does a great job of fostering this love of the game.  What are your thoughts on extending an invitation to the Masters one day to a junior champion?

 CHAIRMAN PAYNE:  I haven't thought about it before.  Our Asia‑Pacific Amateur Championship and our Latin America Amateur Championship are doing a pretty good job of feeding teenagers to us, so I guess we're already in that a bit (laughter).
   
As I said earlier, I don't think we are close to creating another qualification criteria because of the limitations of the daylight hours.

And this on his tenure going forward.

Q.  This is your 10th Masters, I guess, now as chairman.  Have you been able to accomplish everything that you had wanted to starting out, and has it changed in your mind, your role, from what you thought it was then to now?  And then the follow would be, do you have any thoughts on how long you want to keep doing it?

CHAIRMAN PAYNE:  Well, that committee hasn't met yet (laughter).

The job, I didn't have a lot of coaching in advance.  The responsibilities emerged from the potential of Augusta National, which is enormous, and it's positive, and we have discovered through some of these international efforts that people want to be associated with Augusta National, and we want to help them.  So it's a mutual love affair.

And as to specific goals, I didn't have any specific goals.  My goal is to serve whatever tenure that I serve and then fade into the background, because, as I've said multiple times, Augusta National has only two people who forever will be a part of their culture, and that's Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones.

And my favorite, on the possibility of the PGA preceding the Masters in Olympic years.

Q.  With this being quite a busy summer with the Olympics, and it will be the same in 2020, you've been the first major of the year since 1971, how would you feel if the PGA Championship decided in those Olympic years to try and stage its championship in February?
   
CHAIRMAN PAYNE:  Hmmm.  Haven't thought about that.
   
Do we have an opinion on that?

FRED RIDLEY:  It's happened before.

CHAIRMAN PAYNE:  It's happened before?  It won't affect our ticket sales, I can promise you (laughter).

Video: More Par-3 Contest Aces, Including Gary Player's Epic

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Nothing better than watching a ball rolling when it hits the ground...


David Lingmerth made one too:


And Zach Johnson:


And Jimmy Walker:

 And what a thrill for a first time Masters participant, Smylie Kaufman.

 

 

Video: New Jordan Spieth "We" Ad From AT&T

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Jordan Spieth sat down to pen a blog item explaining the new AT&T ad highlighting (and maybe lightly spoofing) his "we" approach to golf. Cameos include bagman Greller, instructor McCormick, mom, dad and Tony Romo.

The commercial also provides insight into why I always say “we” when talking about our team’s success in golf. “We” is a very real thing to me. It’s my family, my caddie, my coach, my management team. It’s my sponsors like AT&T. The “we” has helped enable me to prepare effectively to return to the Masters.

The video:

The "Masters Club Dinner" And Champions Photo

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Jordan Spieth did not appear to ge too ambitious with the dinner. Thoughts on the wine pairings, oeonphiles?

Here is the menu @jordanspieth selected for tonight's Champions Dinner. #themasters

A photo posted by @themasters on

And Tiger in the back left making the trip up and looking more like his dad everyday. Paul Rogers on the big dinner.

Woods gave the menu a thumbs up, mentioned seeing his man MO, and dropped a nice humblebrag on Twitter.

Uh, About These 2016 Masters Groupings

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I finally got around to studying the 2016 Masters Groupings for deep, hidden meeting and, well, what can you say?

There is a certain dart board quality to the randomness which I can't quite grasp. Perhaps Fred Ridley's committee was trying to space out the game's many stars? But what seems missing are the fun, oddball groupings

This has left the Featured Group coverage groups announced Tuesday feeling a bit off as well.

What's your favorite? I guess if I had to follow one group it'd be Mickelson, Leishman and Stenson.

Jack Nicklaus: "Change the frigging golf ball"

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It's no secret what Jack Nicklaus thinks about the golf ball and how far it travels.

But he's upped his game and tone with a "friggin" reference! From his Masters Tuesday, summed up by Ward Clayton.

Q.  There's been some talk that Augusta National officials might lengthen the 13th hole.  They apparently acquired some land at Augusta Country Club.  What would be the pluses and minuses of that and do you think it should be done?

    JACK NICKLAUS:  Well, you've probably got three or four different ways to handle that situation.  One would be very simply just make it a par 4.  They could do that, which they are not going to do.

    Number two is what they're proposing to do, and of course that depends on whether Augusta Country Club will share their property with Augusta National or not.  That's another question.  Depends on what the tariff is, not sure about that.

    The third thing they could do, and they've got plenty of room to do it, is recreate the green back about 30 yards.  They could do that very easily.  Probably make the same hole.

    Four, they could take and reroute the stream bed, push it out and put a few more trees in.

    So they've got a lot of options of what they could do.  I'm sure that from a traditionalist standpoint, the best way is probably to lengthen the hole, and then you don't change anything else.  They have done that once, bought some land from Augusta Country Club and did that.

    I think with the length the guys hit today, it's the only reason ‑‑ I tell you, the simplest solution is change the frigging golf ball (laughter).  The golf ball goes so far, Augusta National is about the only place, the only golf course in the world that financially can afford to make the changes that they have to make to keep up with the golf ball.  I don't think anybody else could ever do it.

    It's just so impractical to continue to allow the golf ball ‑‑ well, the golf ball hasn't gone that much lately, but what's happened is the golf ball has not changed a lot since probably 2005 or 2006, I suppose.  As I said, they've basically hit the limits to that, but the guys haven't hit the limits.

    I used to be called Big Jack.  I'm really huge now, about 5‑8.  But now the guys are all 6‑3, 6‑4, 6‑5, big long arms, and can hit it nine miles and they just take it right over the top of the trees.  Sam used to take it over the top of the trees when he was young.  He hit it a long way.  The trouble is the trees were only this high there (laughter) (indicating low).

Masters Info Graphics: Evolution Of Clubhouse, Innovation

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The folks at Masters.com have unveiled some modern graphics depicting various elements of evolution here.

The most interesting is the Clubhouse piece, which notes the addition of the Founders Room in 2014 but does not include the wine cellar underneath, which earns oohs and ahhs from those who've gotten a tour. It reportedly includes a table made out of wood from Ike's Tree.

There is also this item on Masters tech firsts, and this history by Ward Clayton on their 20th anniversary of digital coverage.

Also, I hope to report on some testing of VR and 4k TV later this week, both of which look very promising.

Poll Claims 77% Will Avoid Trump Properties Out Of Protest

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Forbes' Erin Carlyle reports that 77% of 500 surveyed by Penn Schoen Berland would boycott Trump branded properties as a boycott over Donald Trump's campaign and possible Republican nomination.

The poll claims to have contacted folks earning over $200,000, and I'm struggling to believe that many people making that much money answered the phone. Nonethless, some numbers to keep an eye on.

Of these Trump-averse people, 77% said they would avoid Trump properties specifically to protest his campaign. They all agreed with this statement: “Over the course of his presidential campaign, I have found Donald Trump to be an unwelcome and generally negative addition to the political and social arenas – and by not patronizing his business I would be demonstrating my opposition.”

The survey respondents were fairly evenly divided in terms of political affiliation: 156 identified as Democrats, 172 Republicans, and 172 independents. A total of 257 were men; 243 were women. More than a third of the respondents said they have influence over their company’s travel and entertainment spending, suggesting that their opinions could have a broader effect.

Five Families Exempt Olympic Gold Medal Winners Who Will Probably Already Be Exempt Anyway

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The leaders of five of golf's six families convened for a press conference in Augusta to reaffirm their support for the Olympics and to announced that the Olympic Gold Medal winners will earn spots into the Masters, U.S. Open, The Open, PGA, ANA Inspiration, KPMG Women's PGA, U.S. Women's Open and Women's British Open. Rex Hoggard with the details at GolfChannel.com.

The winner will almost surely be exempt, but just in case there is a shock winner of the gold from far down the world ranking list, they are covered. It wasn't press conference worthy, except for the enjoyably awkward no-show by the PGA Tour, which unintentionally reaffirmed The Players as a non-major by tabling a decision until they could get Policy Board together to vote.

The PGA Tour's statement:

PGA TOUR statement on Olympic eligibility category for golf’s major championships

We applaud the major championships in the men's and women's games in making this decision. From the very beginning, every organization in the game of golf, including the PGA TOUR, has been dedicated to making the Olympic golf competition a significant and important event in our sport. Creating an eligibility category into golf's major championships for the winner of the Olympic golf competitions demonstrates that commitment and is a very meaningful step in the continuation of that process.

With respect to eligibility into The PLAYERS Championship for the winner of the men's Olympic golf competition, we have a different process than that of the major championships with respect to our regulations and eligibility categories and we will be initiating that process with our Policy Board and Players Advisory Council in the coming weeks.

Bones On Phil Hitting It Better Than Ever, Winning Masters Again

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The interview with Amanda Balionis, new Callaway hire talks to Phil Mickelson bagman Jim "Bones" Mackay about all things Phil, the Masters and his veto power over the boss. He also calls this a "really exciting time" for Mickelson because of his man's improved ball striking, saying he will win this event again, if not this week but one of these years.



Esteban Toledo Makes It To The Masters!

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Bryan Mullen initially wrote about this and I'm a little overdue in posting it, because Esteban Toledo is one of the great success stories in golf.

Still very competitive on the Champions Tour, Toledo had hoped to get to Augusta any way possible, and since he couldn't qualify he offered to loop for Ben Crenshaw last year.

Failing with that request, Sandy Lyle is bringing along one of his fellow competitors this week.

Tom Spousta followed up with Toledo now that he's here

“It’s unbelievable. It’s incredible. Before I die, I just wanted to experience Augusta National,” Toledo said Monday as he stood behind the Clubhouse in his caddie jumpsuit with Lyle’s bag still on his shoulders.