Change in yardage is slight but significant
As changes to Augusta National Golf Club go, those for the 73rd Masters Tournament seem few and minor, affecting just five holes.
There is one big difference.
For the first time in 28 years, the alterations have made the course play slightly shorter.
What's more, the club has the option of making it even shorter with the extension of two tee boxes.
Officially, the only scorecard change came on No. 1, which, at 445 yards, is 10 yards shorter.
It drops the course to a still-robust 7,435 yards, but is the first time the course has been shortened since 1981. That year, the course played at 6,905 yards after being at more than 7,000 yards since 1974.
Augusta National now has the option to make Nos. 7 and 15 play shorter after the extension forward of two tee boxes (10 yards on No. 7 and nine yards on No. 15).
The only other changes involved the greens on Nos. 1, 5 and 6, which were rebuilt for agronomic reasons and might yield a few new pin positions.
What does it all mean?
It means the club has made one hole shorter and has the option to make two others shorter. That wasn't possible in 2007 when inclement weather led to the winning score of 1-over-par 289. The same problem reared its head in the final round of 2008, when the average score that day was 74.667 and the winner, Trevor Immelman, closed with 75.
The change on No. 1, where 10 yards were shaved off the back of the tee, wasn't noticeable to Ben Crenshaw.
"I know they've shortened it a little bit, but I can't tell," he said. "They've still got it back so far you can get caught with a headwind."
That seemed to have happened during Monday's practice round when gusting winds of 35 mph blew patrons' hats off.
It didn't help that the players had a westerly wind -- which is in their faces on No. 1.
By midafternoon, only one player -- Spain's long-hitting Alvaro Quiros -- had driven it into the gaping fairway bunker, according to a gallery guard who had been there all day. No one flew the bunker.
According to the Augusta National yardage book, it takes a drive of 309 yards to carry the bunker on No. 1.
From the inaugural Masters in 1934 through 1998, the hole was 400 yards and players would try to fly the bunker, which is the shortest route to the pin on the dogleg right hole. It played at 410 yards from 1999 to 2001.
For the most part, that option disappeared in 2002 when the hole was lengthened to 435 yards. Twenty more yards were added in 2006.
When told the hole is 10 yards shorter now, Ernie Els sarcastically said, "Wow, now you can hit to the bunker instead of short of the bunker."
Mike Weir said the change "could make a big difference."
"It depends on the wind. If there is no wind, you can get somewhat of a look at the green," he said. "That 10 yards might be an extra 15 on the tee shot. Instead of hitting it into the hill and killing it, it might land a little higher and scoot up there a bit."
The flat area on the fairway is adjacent to the bunker. Getting your drive there makes a big difference compared to hitting the approach shot from an uphill lie below it.
"Does 10 yards matter? It will a little bit for me," Tim Clark said. "We couldn't fly to the top of the hill anymore. It was hitting the hill and stopping. I was hitting 3-irons and 5-woods and all kind of things. When I first played there eight or nine years ago, I was at least hitting 7-irons."
When the course rebuilt the fifth green after the 2008 Masters, a new front-left pin position was added.
"I played here last Friday and it was there," said Crenshaw, who isn't sure if it will be used in the tournament. "It was right on top of the hump. It's amazing."
There could also be a new pin in the front-middle of the fifth green, an area that was expanded and flattened.
A pin was there Oct. 16, the first day of the club's 2008-09 season.
"The members have played down there so I don't know with the green speed that we play compared with what the members play whether they can put it there or not," Weir said. "I was looking at it last night and it's iffy. There's a possibility, yes."
Reach David Westin at (706) 823-3224 or david.westin@augustachronicle.com.
