How to make Augusta more Challenging?

[mstuk]

Been away for a while nice to be back and to opine on such an interesting topic.
Regarding making Augusta harder I do not feel that lengthening the course achieves this end at all. I did not enjoy last years event, if I want to watch the best players in the world struggle to break par I watch the US Open, which I admit I do enjoy enormously. The Masters for me has always been about sublime shot making and amazing putting and it bothers me not one jot if the winner is 10 under par. I would in fact argue that this was a unique part of the character of the masters, in the same way that the toughness of the US Open sets it apart and the nature of links golf sets the Open apart from other majors. In fact I think you could argue that the PGA has recently been seen as the 4th major precisely because it lacks a uniqueness of its own since switching from the match play format many years ago.

Making courses longer only plays into the hands of the very players you are seeking to protect the course from. Make the rough 12 inches deep. Have deep-faced bunkers in and around 280 yards to catch the longer players drives as they land but not the shorter hitters. Have the bunkers grooved in the same way Jack Nicklaus does at His tournament. All these things should encourage accuracy at the expense of prodigious distance which must be a better way than just making course longer surely.

Just adressing another point made in this thread regarding the differances between US Open courses and Open courses I would suggest that the presentation of the course is the greatest differance . Pebble beach whilst being on the shore line is in no way a links course in so far as it is set up as a US target style golf course. Any of the Open courses run much firmer from tee to green and due to the unulations of the natural terrain ensure that a far grater variety of shots are needed to compete ones round.