The roars have been consistently thunderous. They echo off the walls of interview rooms and laptop keyboards and water coolers around the world.

The thrill is gone, say the roars. The course is too hard. The Masters Tournament has been neutered.

Those roars that have rocked the pines and defined the Masters have been just a memory in recent years. They've been silenced in a perfect storm of foul weather and tough conditions.

That's certainly the prevailing impression everyone has of the modern Masters.

"The roars, I think, would be the significant thing that would be missing," said Greg Norman, who hasn't played the Masters since 2002. "I would be interested to see whether the decibel level is as loud as what it was back in those days."

Certainly the last two years have been quiet by Augusta National standards. Just as certainly, the last two years have been an aberration. The record-setting cold that defined the 2007 Masters and the Sunday gales that blew up the best-laid plans in 2008 should not be even considered in the equation.

"I think it's a bit of an overreaction," said defending champion Trevor Immelman, who was 11-under par before the murderous Sunday weather intervened.

Truth is, we all tend to romanticize the Masters to the point that we believe the mythology. We trust perceptions over realities.

We all start to believe that every Masters was as dramatic as 1986. We start to think that every champion charged to the green jacket with a back-nine 30.

We would, of course, be wrong. Jack Nicklaus in 1986 and Gary Player in 1978 were the only Masters champions to surge to victory with closing 30s. The next best finishing performance was Phil Mickelson, whose 31 in 2004 shut up the last chorus of thrill-is-gone naysayers.

The truth is, a total of six guys have shot better than 33 coming in to win. Twenty-two Masters winners failed to break par of 36 on the back nine Sunday, including 39s and 40s from Nicklaus (1972), Seve Ballesteros (1980), Player (1961) and Craig Stadler (1982).

The last winner to make an eagle on Sunday? Jose Maria Olazabal in 1994.

The only guy since 1990 to win the Masters from outside the last pairing? Zach Johnson in 2007.

Our romantic brains simply believe otherwise.

"I remember in my days playing, if somebody came into the back nine at Augusta probably six or seven or eight shots behind the lead they'd feel like they could win it," Norman said. "That was a great feeling. ... I think it's going to be a lot more difficult the way the golf course is now for those type of low numbers -- the 30s and the 29s -- to be thrown out there. And again, this depends on how they set up the golf course."

The Masters hasn't changed its philosophy of course setup. They want the pins to be accessible on Sunday. They want guys to makes eagles and birdies and doubles. They want the same electricity we all want.

That was illustrated in 2004, when ideal conditions and setup created the thunderous atmosphere we've all come to expect. With eagles on par-3s, par-4s and par-5s, the roars rolled nonstop through the hills.

Yes, the course is harder than it used to be. Yes, some of the best scoring holes have leaned a little too much toward risk rather than reward.

But no, the course has not killed the fireworks. As Tiger Woods said Tuesday, "It's funner in a different way."

"You don't go out there looking to shoot superlow rounds because they are not out there anymore, especially with these conditions that we have the last two years," Woods said. "If it calms down, I'm sure you can probably shoot one of those good numbers. But there's going to be a different way of doing it."

That's really the story of Augusta for the past 75 years. There have been different ways of doing it and different ways of creating drama. The Masters may indeed begin on the back nine on Sunday, but it's not always the Nicklaus script. Sometimes the wind and the weather sucks the life out of it. Most of the time it doesn't.

So while the critics have been howling louder than the wind the past two practice days, Sunday is expected to be very different.

"The forecast for this weekend is supposed to be great, and I would expect guys to start really firing at some pins and making some nice putts, and we'll hear those roars come back," said Immelman.

Maybe we should all shut up and listen.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.