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.