I remember Chi Chi being asked what his secret was to keeping in such great shape well into his senior tour career. He has just won the Northwest Classic and he said:
At the NCAA All American awards ceremony, there was a buffet style dinner served. Arnold Palmer was the guest speaker, so I got in line right behind him to see what he would put on his plate just for fun. He had the man cut him the bloodiest, rarest, thickest slab of prime rib I have ever seen.
Just some food for thought!
I am sure everyone enjoyed watching The Masters this week. It certainly was exciting with so many players in contention to win. The TV coverage was disappointing in that we didn’t get to see a lot of the action from guys that were making moves on the back nine such as Ogilvy. It would have been nice to see something other than Tiger and Rory for the most part. I wasn’t surprised at either of their results.
However, for me… and this is just my opinion, The Masters has lost it’s mystique. The reason I say this is that it was the one event that year after year would really bring out the cream of the crop… and there is a reason for this. In the past, the players were hitting lower trajectory shots in general into the greens. The greens in particular were designed to accept a specific trajectory of shot into them. #10 and #11 for instance were designed narrow but deep, and long or mid iron shots needed to hit into the front right part of the green, and then the shot shape would feed the ball into the direction of the pin placement. This is the quality of ball striking that the better players would be able to do… or to separate themselves from the rest of the field. Now because the ball is flying too far, and even coming off the irons hotter due to longer shafts, and lighter heads, the modern players are able to hit 8 iron from 170 where in the past that was a 6 or even a 5 iron. Because irons are basically stepped 4 degrees of loft between clubs, we are looking at an 8 to 12 degree difference in launch angle, and this of course affects the angle of trajectory into the green… even from the same distance. It just simply takes more skill at a course like Augusta to hit lower trajectory shots into those greens and be able to place the ball into the correct part of the green from lower launch and entry trajectories. So what we have now at The Masters is a situation where most all the guys are dropping the ball into the greens from a much more vertical trajectory and this allows them to bypass what were the more articulate elements of fine masterful ballstriking.
#12 was a much more difficult hole when guys were hitting 7 and 8 irons in with lower ball flights. Wide but shallow. It wasn’t impossible, but we would also see a lot more shots end up in the water if they just miss hit it a little bit or miss judged the distance or wind.
Both #13 and #15 were usually long iron shots or sometimes a 4 wood. If a guy really killed one on 13 and hooked it perfectly around the corner he might get at it with a 4 iron. Now it’s just standard fair for all the guys to hit it it two.
It just doesn’t have that element of treachery it once had. There was often a decision to be made to go for it or not.
Now a player only lays up if he missed his tee shot. #14 was a mid iron four par. I watched Rory play his approach from 119 yesterday. That green just has no teeth from a PW range… but when you are hitting a lower trajectory shot up the hill into that green with a 7 or even 8 iron… it just makes for a much more interesting hole, and this is how the hole was designed to be played… and this made it a great hole. I remember guys hitting 6 iron into it… even 5 sometimes. #17 is another example of a hole that was a short to mid iron approach but with a lower trajectory shot, it was very difficult to get the ball close to the hole. Now it’s just a high wedge shot or a 9 iron from back where guys would hit 7 iron, and it just does not have the dramatic effect it once did. Adam Scott on Saturday was only 98 yards out on 17, even at 440 yards. I think it’s really a shame, because to me the purpose of The Masters was to really test the shotmaking of the worlds best players on a course that was very well thought out… but now it’s just get your yardage, take it at the pin or just favor one side a bit, and done. It’s really been dumbed down. So the end result? A lot more players can win The Masters now. It’s looking more and more like a regular tour event where you see a leader board that looks like any other week on the tour. This was not the case in the past. Credit given that you still have to beat the field, but that is also the case any given week on tour. It just doesn’t reward that special quality that the great players possess with superior crafty shotmaking and even the experience factor of really learning all the nooks and crannies of the golf course because that kind of knowledge is not nearly as critical as is used to be.
I still enjoyed watching the event… but that element of treachery to me is gone in a way that it once had. Too many guys are just burning it up. Did this years champion really play equal to Hogan’s 14 under? The record books will say yes, I say no.
I am happy for Schwartzel. Played really well coming in. It was great to see so many guys right there on the back nine.
Did anyone catch the re-airing of the 1975 Masters before the coverage started today? It looked like a different game. You can really see what lag is talking about when you watch older Masters footage.
Any sporting event that is “close” is going to be exciting. This Masters was exciting with 6 or 8 players having a chance on the back nine. But I just don’t get the feeling these guys are walking the tightrope Augusta used to present. I just watched the 84 highlight reel, and Tom Watson was hitting 3 wood into 10. Crenshaw a 4 iron. The green is set up for that lower trajectory. Players were hitting 3 and 4 irons into 11, and 6 or 7 iron into 12. Much lower trajectory shot into a very shallow green with water short and you don’t want to be long either. Crenshaw of course won the event that year making a slew of putts on the back nine, but he actually played both 13 and 15 as a three shot par 5 laying up. It was just a good strategic move based upon his position. I mean these are par 5’s right? These holes were designed to put a certain level of doubt or question into the mind of the player from the fairway. That’s gone now. Unless the player really misses the drive right and has to pitch under the pines… they just hit a mid iron onto the green, or maybe a hybrid. Not very exciting. A 4 is just expected.
Augusta has done a fairly good job of keeping the course from getting too easy by making the greens extremely fast and adding 700 yards to the card, but I just don’t see it asking enough from the players and really putting them to the test or really testing a master golfer as it should.
I was thinking the same thing watching all four rounds of The Masters, after having watched a few classic Masters the days before. The club selections were 8-W it seemed for a lot of approach shots this weekend compared to what looked like mid-long irons in 60-90’s era. I think even Tiger in 1997 came out as this super long kid but still had longer approach shots at times than he did this weekend. It just appeared that just about everyone in the field this weekend was dropping soft-landing balls onto the greens, the only roll caused by the tough slopes (give Augusta credit to that at least) if you didn’t place ball in proper spot on green.
Amateurs who lack distance play an “old school” game and it sucks having to hit a tough screaming 5i as your 2nd shot as some bomber in your group is hitting his PW on his approach. But I at least get a satisfaction a bit when he still misses the green from there a couple times a round…
I with you there lag, the mystique has disappeared. Even the theme music is starting to suck. There is so much charm in replays of past Masters from 15 or more years ago, despite broadcasts that look amateurish compared to today. I guess it’s like watching a great foreign film made on zero budget versus a Hollywood special effects blockbuster. The former needs to have substance.
I mean I enjoyed watching the final round but because of the closeness of it, but even a close walking marathon can be good to watch. So it’s exciting because of the competition, not the golf.
Despite being Australian, I couldn’t barrack for Scott because of the broomstick. I couldn’t barrack for Day because he has four practice swings. I was hoping the last day would be Ogilvy versus McIlroy, or even Cabrera or Choi who just hit it, with Ogilvy to win of course (sorry Bom, Aguille and Styles).
Hi Lag,
Can you expand on this a little further? Are you saying that you weren’t surprised that they did relatively well (lets not forget that they were both basically in the lead or tied for it after 63 holes of their rounds) or are you saying that you weren’t surprised that they fell away or failed to move forward over the last 9. Something technical or mental catch your eye?
Just to be clear I am not raising this in the hope that it might prove an opportunity to rag on either or any player. Possibly the most impressive thing I saw all of yesterday was Rory’s post round interview. But one of the BBC commentators, Ken Brown, mentioned that the last 9 holes of a major had a way of exposing weaknesses (be they technical or mental) that regular tournament play doesn’t. And I recall your uncanny prediction of the effect of extreme pressure might have on Kenny Perry’s swing the year he lost out to Angel Cabrera. So all but the very blessed will have weakness or possibly tendencies that show themselves under severe pressure. What did you see?
Cheers, Arnie
This is really what I was trying to say… thanks Steb.
Arnie,
I think Rory almost has a great golf swing. But he is very driving with the right arm through impact with the driver which creates a big timing issue with the clubface closing so rapidly post impact. Like a lot of the guys these days, the iron swing looks a lot better than the driver swing. Because Rory hits the 4:30 line so nicely and I just love his transition, he is in a great position to strike the ball properly, but instead of using forearm rotation and a more aggressive post impact pivot, he uses right arm throw making golf much more difficult than it needs to be. What happens is that when you really get pumped up with adrenalin, you tend to drive the right arm even more or earlier, and then you have to make the compensations to time that. He started hooking the ball, and that can be a difficult thing to deal with when you are swinging that hard at it. The whole thing then putt more pressure on his putting, and he missed a couple that he hadn’t seen himself do all week… and when the greens are that fast as sloping, it’s very easy to start missing more putts. That could happen to anyone. So the way I see it, Rory will either learn what compensations he needs to make when under pressure with the driver, or learn to control his adrenalin, or learn to swing the club correctly.
Tiger on the other hand… I’ll probably be the last guy to write him off. He could have won and I was not surprised to see
him charging up the board and into a tie for the lead. He has the experience, knows the course and the greens and obviously knows how to win and make things happen when he really needs to. I could see him starting to play golf and not “golf swing” as he seemed to be doing earlier in the week. But as usual, his driver cost him, ended his charge with a poor tee shot and he does the same thing Rory does with the driver, just that Tiger usually blocks it right from fear of hooking it. He could have won the tournament and I think he would have if all the players were required to hit lower trajectory shots into the greens as the course is designed. Tiger’s iron play is still better than most… and I know he has the ability to knock the ball down and shape it better than most also when needed.
Hard to beat a guy who is holing out from the fairway, and chipping in from all the way across the green. Sometimes things
just go your way more than the other guys… and it was fun to see that kind of magic in the final round.
But I miss the greater risk - reward element that Augusta always had, the requirement for exquisite shot making, and the more sophisticated strategic decisions the players used to face. It’s just anybody’s tournament to win now… it just doesn’t reward that extra quality that I know some of the guys have.
Thanks for the insight Lag, very interesting stuff.
Can somebody explain to me, why they are not growing proper rough at Augusta? What they call rough some people have to play as a fairway.
At the Sky Telecast the showed a bit of old footage when Claude Harmon won (as Butch Harmon is a commentator on sky) - back then he was standing in the midst of cabbage knee high hitting a shot - nowadays its just a manicured course - why is that?
Traditionally Augusta did not have rough at all…only if you were way off into the azaleas or other natural brush… Alister MacKenzie was not a fan of rough… I know from reading his works. He believed it slowed down play and that if the golf course was designed properly it was not necessary. He despised the idea of players having to look for their ball in the rough.
Augusta started adding some rough a few years back to try to toughen it up some so that the players would have to put the ball in the fairway to hold the greens… but it’s not working because with the modern grooves and textured or milled faces it makes little difference unless the rough is really high which it is not at Augusta.
No rough in many ways is more difficult around the greens if the greens are crowned such as the classic tracks down in Australia. If you missed a green down there, your ball would often roll 20 yards down a slope leaving a challenging chip that wonderfully left you OPTIONS!!! such a lob it up from often a tight lie or hit a classic little bump and run up the hill that the new generation of players have little experience on how to play.
The problem with Augusta… and I know Bobby Jone would be furious at what has happened to his golf course! … is that the redesigners have forgotten the ulitimate premise of Aususta… TRAJECTORY!!!
Everywhere you look, the greens are designed to accept a specific trajectory of the approach shot. Long iron par fours all have deep greens. But the 5 pars (13 and 15) have SHALLOWER greens to add the element of RISK AND REWARD!!!
The 8th offers a narrower deeper green to accept a run up entry… variety. #2 a bit of both.
Shallow depth greens are set up for the shorter holes, or a short par 3 like 12, or the back nine par 5’s with water in front.
These greens were VERY CAREFULLY THOUGHT OUT to accept the correct shot… a long iron or fairway wood into 13 or 15…
just enough room to land lower trajectory approach that is played with excellence. NOT 6 IRON!!!
#12 is interesting because if you look at old films from the 60’s or before, the green was right down low just a foot or two above Rae’s Creek. Guys would hit 6 irons into this hole… and a 6 iron is going to arrive at the green with a lower trajectory.
You had to be very precise with your distance control and trajectory. It was never meant to be HIT A HIGH 9 IRON!!!
When Nicklaus won by 9 in 1965 breaking Hogan’s record of 14 under, Bobby Jones was there of course and made the comment:
What Jones was saying is that Nicklaus was playing a higher trajectory game than what anyone had seen before. The statistics showed that Jack did not dominate Palmer and Player on the par 5’s or even the par 4’s but he actually beat them by 9 on the par 3’s. So it was not long after that a change was made to #12, and they raised the green up to shallow out the trajectory of the approach shot. This is how Jones thought about things. TRAJECTORY!
We have all heard stories about Hogan practicing hitting balls over a line of trees so he could work on his trajectory control, because golf used to INCLUDE this element into the game big time The MASTERFUL players were able to control their trajectory AND the ability to curve the ball into the greens and this COMBINATION of skill (trajectory and shape) is what separated the good from THE MASTER! and we DON’T have this anymore in American golf.
Therefore, The Masters is not doing what is is supposed to do… which is to set a stage for the worlds premiere shot makers to work the ball correctly around this once amazing golf course that has been dumbed down into a just another bomb and gouge tour stop.
Jones is spinning like a top.
Whether you like Augusta or not, including it’s controversial past with Cliff Roberts, prejudice, bigotry, his covered up suicide on the grounds of Aususta and other dark secrets… the golf course itself was an absolute masterpiece of architecture… and proved itself year after year after year… without coincidence that the worlds top elite players would be found battling it out on the Sunday back nine. Those days are long gone.
Thanks for the explanation.
So what about 15. As they realize that nowadays the players come in with a much higher trajectory, why wouldnt they shave the banks in front and at the back so that everything that doesnt hit the green goes wet? It seemed almost impossible this year to put a ball in the water, unless you mishit it that bad and were way short.
I remember i think 2 years ago - our German #1, who cant even make the cut at Augusta 
, he hit it a bit long on 15 and it rolled all the way back into the water behind the green. Up til then i didnt even realize they had water back there.
But now they seem to have gone all soft on the players, which is sad.
BTW. what did you guys think about the “sticky” fringes the players had to deal with?
The problem is that the people running the game are just basically ignorant of the more articulate merits of the game.
I don’t necessarily blame them personally, I just think they don’t know. Ignorant.
They are only thinking in terms of how to make golf easier… how can THEY themselves get the club on that little ball and propel it down the fairway like the pros used to.
Instead of club designers like Ben Hogan, or Toney Penna a multiple tour event winner…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toney_Penna
You get Karsten Solheim and others who are thinking like hackers, not champion players.
The USGA is obviously run by hackers. You might have Palmer as a puppet face for the organization, but clearly he is not in charge over there. You used to have Sandy Tatum… a fine amateur champion player, now you have some guy mumbling around about rules infractions with high speed TV cameras, completely missing the point of their responsibility to the game.
The Masters was once overseen by Bobby Jones… the greatest of the hickory age and obviously knew exactly how Augusta should be presented to the top players in the world to weed out the weak and or average.
I agree, the “Tradition” of The Masters should be about the golf part, not what color the jacket is or which cabin the awards ceremony is in. I have films of them presenting the jacket right on the outside grounds of the club, and although some believe 1965 was the first year they had the award ceremony in Butler Cabin, I have a film from 1969 when Knudson tied for 2nd watching Archer get the jacket put on outside on the practice green just below the scoreboard on 18. Butler Cabin has little to do with Masters tradition. Casper again being presented outside not in Butler Cabin. Coody in 71 also presented outside as was Jack in 72, Aaron in 73. Bobby Jones died in 1971. Jones never saw an award being presented in Butler cabin. So much for that so called tradition.
In fact when Casper won in 1970, it was a proper 18 hole playoff. NOT the sudden death version that came into being much later into the 1970’s.
Thank goodness they broke away from tradition of “in house” black caddies only.
Or not honoring a tour event winner’s invitation (Charlie Sifford LA Open) because he was “of color”.
Trajectory/distance
golf.com/golf/special/articl … -4,00.html
Good article here by Dan Jenkins recounting Johnny Miller’s front nine 30 on Saturday of the 1975 Masters. He reports the irons Miller hit on many of the holes, which is good for comparison to what many of the pros hit now. For instance, on #6 Miller hit a 5i, compared to Tiger’s 8i this year…
sbnation.com/golf/2011/4/10/ … -golf-club
Also, in the 1986 Masters Nicklaus says he hit a 5i “as good as I can hit it” on the 16th. This year many were hitting 8i. I realize teh od lofts were different, but it seems there is a big difference.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jle1G5l-qsU[/youtube]
Excellently worded post.
I know a couple of the R and A equipment committee and they are like rabbits in headlights when questioned about the direction of the game vis a vis the equipment issue…so much for the sharp minds…
These are bright guys but these positions are usually stepping stones and career enhancers so they are not likely to cause a stir by speaking up with original thinking.
As I said to Lag a couple of days ago, all majors should be played on links courses like Portrush, RCD, Carnoustie, Sandwich etc…where the real challenges of golf are properly rewarded.