The reason, says Jack Nicklaus, is technology.
Actually, Nicklaus never said the Masters was a fraud, AugustaNational was obsolete or golf is dying.
But the game they're playing here barely resembles the one theywere playing 60 years ago when Gene Sarazen's 4-wood on the 15th holethe final day disappeared into the hole for the double eagle thatbeat Craig Wood and won him the tournament.
Monday afternoon, a 19-year-old freshman named Tiger Woods hita drive and a 9-iron to within four feet on the very same 15th holethat measures the very same 500 yards it did when they began playingthis tournament in 1934. Thursday, with the course playing muchlonger because of rain, Woods hit driver, 8-iron over the green at15.
The game and the players have changed. The course hasn't.Nobody wants it to. But history is so important here. Comparingpast champions to current champions and the shots they had to hit towin is part of the charm of the place.
Which is why the Masters is a fraud. It's a wonderful fraud,marvelously staged, smartly run and impeccably conducted. To besure, it is the best golf tournament in the world. But it is a fraudbecause the people who run it increasingly have been forced to makethe greens faster and more severe in an effort to keep the scoresfrom getting too low.
Because the rough on this golf course is almost non-existentand the length is, for the world's best players, an undaunting 6,925yards, Augusta National is becoming obsolete. In its defense,Augusta National is not alone.
"Maybe they should grow some rough around here," said NickPrice, the No. 1 player in the world. But that's not really it atall.
Nicklaus remembers course architects at several PGA venuesmoving fairway bunkers farther from the tee because too many of hisdrives were clearing them on the fly. Today's players, he says, areclearing those bunkers on the fly.
Good golf courses all over the world are under siege fromgraphite, boron and titanium. There are hand-milled putters,space-age wedges, oversized heads and juiced balls.
"We've gone too far in technology," said Nicklaus, who won thefirst of his six Masters titles in 1963 and the last in 1986."You're probably going to see them shooting in the 50s regularly ifthat continues."
This is nothing new from Nicklaus. For years he has beenadvocating a restricted-flight golf ball that would be engineered tocut distance back 10 percent. But these are not the bitterfulminations of a 55-year-old former champion who can't play anymore."I'm hitting the ball further than I was then," said Nicklaus, whohas resorted to a driver with a titanium head just to keep up.
It's just that Nicklaus played a practice round here last weekwith Vijay Singh that blew his mind. Singh came into this tournamentranked fourth on the PGA Tour's driving-distance list at 279.3 yardsper pop.
"He hit the ball in places I couldn't believe," Nicklaus said.
On the 555-yard second, Singh hit a drive and a 7-iron to thegreen. On the 435-yard fifth, he hit driver, pitching wedge. On the535-yard eighth, Singh hit driver, 3-iron onto the green. At the485-yard 10th, he hit driver, pitching wedge. At the 455-yard 11th,it was driver, pitching wedge. And it was driver, pitching wedgeagain at the uphill 405-yard 18th.
"I mean, even in my longest days I didn't do that," Nicklaussaid.
During his Wednesday practice round, Lee Janzen, nowhere nearas long as Singh, also hit driver and wedge to the 10th green. "I'venever been down that far," Janzen said.
In Nicklaus' longest days, Masters founder Bobby Jones saidNicklaus played a game with which he was not familiar. Now there aredozens of players on tour hitting the ball distances which Nicklausis not familiar with. And golf courses such as Augusta National areincreasingly pressed to defend themselves against this onslaught.
"The policy of the club has always been that we'd rather seebirdies than bogeys," Masters chairman Jackson Stephens said. "Thatpleases the golfer and it pleases the fans."
Actually, it pleases the golfers much more. Knowledgable golffans often enjoy watching the best players in the world test theirwills and skills under conditions the weekend golfer would findimpossible.
Two weekends ago, Corey Pavin shot a six-under-par 66 in thefirst round of the Players Championship. Janzen won the tournamentat five-under. High winds and a course doctored to ensure highscores made for riveting drama on the final day.
But that sort of thing is becoming the exception rather thanthe rule, and that's what's eating Nicklaus. And, even though theywon't admit it, Masters officials are put off by this, too.
When the weather forecast called for rain Thursday, theyresponded by selecting more than a dozen nasty pin placements for theopening round. "Hellacious," was the word Scott Hoch used todescribe them.
Last year it didn't rain here, and two-time Masters championBernhard Langer labeled the greens "Mickey Mouse" because they wereso firm and fast. But Masters officials had little other choice.
Scotland's Colin Montgomerie, Europe's leading money-winner in1993 and 1994, fooled himself his first three years here. He thoughtAugusta National would be more difficult than it really was. "Lastyear I played defensive," he said. He missed the cut. "This year,"Montgomerie added, "I'd rather go out attacking."
When the rains came Thursday, 15 players scored in the 60s.Friday, 36 players, three more than Thursday, played their rounds inunder par. The 36-hole cut number of 145 tied for the lowest inMasters history.
Rain had a lot to do with this. It kept the greens fromgetting slippery dangerous. To be sure, the green complexes atAugusta are unique. Former Masters chairman Hord Hardin once saidthe competition committee, if it wanted, could make the greens sofast, "we would have to furnish ice skates on the first tee."
An overwhelming majority of golf courses around the countrycan't do the same. They are mostly defenseless against the pros.And this is why most par 5s these days have become little more thanlong, or even medium, par 4s.
Don't expect changes any time soon.
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