The golfers considered the greenies to be meanies Saturday at the Masters Tournament.

Stewart Cink (second from left) and Shingo Katayama (second from right) wait to tee off on the member tee at No. 4 during the third round. (Annette M. Drowlette/Staff)

Augusta National Golf Club played as hard as it has in 50 years in Saturday's third round. Yet the men in the green jackets cut the players some slack at one of their golf course's toughest holes, the par-3 No. 4.

The hole played from the members' tee, more than 60 yards closer than the 240-yard Masters tee.

Thank goodness, Robert Karlsson said.

"If that tee had been back, we'd probably still be there right now," said Karlsson, who still made bogey.

Using the forward tee made the hole playable, but not easier. Saturday's scoring average, 3.47, was higher than that of the first two rounds. From the back tee, the players averaged 3.41 shots at the hole in the first round, 3.42 in the second.

The shorter shot allowed the Masters' competition committee to position the pin in a tougher spot. The cup was located in the right corner of the kidney-shaped green, guarded by the front bunker and just four feet from the right edge.

The forward tee was used because of the forecast of a strong headwind, which made club selection difficult. The tournament leader, Stuart Appleby, nearly aced the hole with a 4-iron but admitted he would have been "over the green and into a bush" had the wind died with his ball in flight.

Other players to go at the flag used shorter irons, and many of them came up just that - short. David Toms left a 6-iron shot in the front bunker. Trevor Immelman and John Rollins, both using mid-irons, missed short and right and had to chip or pitch onto the green.

Augusta National has moved the No. 4 tee a handful of times since the first Masters in 1934. The original tournament tee measured 190 yards.

A new tee was built for the 1948 Masters, that one measuring 220 yards. The players hit from there for 33 years before the tee was moved forward to 205 yards in 1981.

Advances in club and ball technology in the 1990s changed how Masters participants played the hole. Bobby Jones' original intent, according to Augusta National's Golf Course Changes and Improvements, was for the fourth to be "played with a long iron or even a fairway club."

Players were using mid-irons from the 205-yard tee, though, so the club built the 240-yard tee before the 2006 tournament.

Players griped about it. That's what made Saturday's decision to use the members' tee so refreshing, Toms said.

"It's a lot better hole," Toms said. "Any other day, you're smashing it with a wood, hoping to get lucky. Today, you could actually play it."

Saturday was not the first time the forward tee has been used in the Masters. The members' tee is used for one round just about every year, said gallery guard Ron Watts.

"They try to give them something different," Watts said. "It makes this hole fun."

For those in the galleries at least.

Reach Adam Van Brimmer at (404) 589-8424.