Winner: John Rahm (-12) over both Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka at (-8)
Just in case you just arrived from another planet, let me tell you that it’s Masters week again.
Will Scottie defend? Will Rory complete the career Slam? Will a LIV golfer win? Will Jim Nantz take sappiness new heights? (“And that will live on as a putt for the ages” “Jim, it was just a one-footer for a bogey.”)
Will Tiger make the cut, and if he does, will he be granted the use of a cart to finish the final two rounds because after the first two he can barely walk?
Answers: No, no, no, yes, yes, and no but yes.
How can you not watch?
Oh, yes. Here’s the recently revealed real story of why Gary McCord got bounced from the Masters announcing team.
Gosh, I love this tournament. So do lots of other people.
The Masters seems to be a religious experience for so many golf fans. I really don’t know why that is, though I can guess.
Of all the majors championships, this is the only one played on the same course year after year. As such, it has become so familiar that I’ll bet you can close your eye and think “6” and an accurate image of the sixth hole comes immediately to mind. Same for all the other holes. Could you do that for TPC Sawgrass, which you have also seen every year for years?
And, it is no doubt the most beautiful course we see on TV all year. These things make it special.
It does have tradition, created by its ties to Bobby Jones.
All of this makes many people put it at number 1 in the ranking of the four majors.
(As for the beauty thing, though, here’s a photograph of Augusta National in the summer.)
But is it the greatest major? Well… It’s not the championship of anything, but rather a high-class invitational. It has the smallest and some observers would say the weakest field.
Two former champions with nine Masters titles between them offered a different opinion last week, though. Both Jack Nickluas and Gary Player rank it fourth among the four modern majors.
Nicklaus because “it’s not meant to be ahead of those others” and “I’d put the Masters No. 1 as far to play in and enjoy doing that kind of stuff. But as far as importance of the game, and being American, the U.S. Open is No. 1.”
Player said, “It’s the youngest of the majors. The others are steeped in tradition and history… . Nothing comes to the top without time.”
And then Player said, “If it wasn’t [sic] for the players, [Augusta] would just be another golf course in Georgia.”
Them’s fightin’ words, Gary.
The course membership, desperately trying to keep its course relevant, has Augusta National playing to 7,545 yards this year. The major change is the 13th hole, which was lengthened by 35 yards from last year thanks to the purchase of land several years ago from the neighboring Augusta Country Club.
It got to be so that if you didn’t get a 4 on this hole you had lost a stroke to the field. This year, a 5 will be a good score, and you might see more than a few 7’s.
Here are the current hole yardages compared to the original 1933 yardages.
Front:
1933: 400-525-350-190-435-180-340-500-420
2023: 445-575-350-240-495-180-450-570-460
Back:
1933: 430-415-150-480-425-485-145-400-420 — 6,690
2023: 495-520-155-545-440-550-170-440-465 — 7,545
Now here’s a real treat for you. In 1959, Sports Illustrated published an article by Bobby Jones on the golf course. Following about a 1,000-word essay on the course, each hole is presented with an attractive schematic drawing and Jones’s description of how the hole should be played.
You will read how Augusta was designed to be played, until it had to be defended from the modern long ball beginning with Tiger Woods over twenty years ago.
How to find that article in just a moment.
Where’s what it says about the thirteenth, then playing at 475 yards:
“We call 13 a par 5 because under certain conditions of wind and ground few players will risk trying for the green with a second shot. In my opinion this 13th hole is one of the finest holes for competitive play I have ever seen. The player is first tempted to dare the creek on his tee shot by playing in close to the corner, because if he attains this position he not only shortened the hole but obtained a more level lie for this second shot. Driving out to the right not only increases the length of the second but encounters an annoying sidehill lie.
“Whatever position may be reached with the tee shot, the second shot as well entails a momentous decision whether or not to try for the green. With the pin far back on the right, under normal weather conditions this is a very good eagle hole, because the contours of the green tend to run the second shot close. The danger is that the ball will follow the creek, and the most difficult pin locations are along this creek in the forward part of the green.
“Several tournaments have been won or lost here, even though the decision may not have been obvious at the time.”
We’ll see if the added yardage makes that much of a difference.
Update: It did. Lots of players laid up with their second shot to pitch on with their third.
To get to the article from the linked page, click the GALLERY button on the lower left and scroll using the arrow button on the right until you get to page 44 of 104 (extreme lower left).
Please have fun with this 54-year-old magazine. Other highlights are:
Jimmy Jemail’s HOT BOX on page 8.
The Triumph TR-3 advertisement on page 14 (only $2675).
Page 56 shows a picture of Ted Williams and rookie Pumpsie Green, the first Black player for the Boston Red Sox, the last team the major leagues to integrate.
Chapter 2 of Tommy Armour’s new book, “A Round of Golf With Tommy Armour” starts on page 79.
And articles on horse racing, yachting, bridge, and trout fishing. SI was a very upper-class East Coast magazine back then.
The Masters was a different tournament back then, too.