2015 Masters Discussion Thread

[luu5]

I have a couple of questions about playing at Augusta National this summer.

Friend of mine actually got a tee time to play there last summer. But unfortunately the week he was in Atlanta in July was extremely wet. Their plan was to play Atlanta Athletic Club on Saturday and Augusta on Sunday. Both courses were closed due to flooding. He was slightly annoyed, no rain check was given... He does not suggest playing there in July.

[jamo]

Friend of mine actually got a tee time to play there last summer. But unfortunately the week he was in Atlanta in July was extremely wet. Their plan was to play Atlanta Athletic Club on Saturday and Augusta on Sunday. Both courses were closed due to flooding. He was slightly annoyed, no rain check was given... He does not suggest playing there in July.

How would you get a rain check for a private course? Not to mention, I think ANGC is closed that time of year.

[Rick Martin]

Friend of mine actually got a tee time to play there last summer. But unfortunately the week he was in Atlanta in July was extremely wet. Their plan was to play Atlanta Athletic Club on Saturday and Augusta on Sunday. Both courses were closed due to flooding. He was slightly annoyed, no rain check was given... He does not suggest playing there in July.

Pretty sure your "friend" was full of it or meant Augusta Country Club.

Augusta National is usually closed during Summer Months - even to members.

[Infamous 273]

AN closes Memorial Day and reopens in mid-October.

[Gunther]

AN closes Memorial Day and reopens in mid-October.

Man, that sux. Shouldn't it be the alternate 6 months? I'm pulling my application.

[Mulligan Jeff]

Technology allowing players of lesser ability to compete ok I'll agree with that in regard to amatuers like me but not on PGA Tour stage.

[saevel25]

Technology allowing players of lesser ability to compete ok I'll agree with that in regard to amatuers like me but not on PGA Tour stage.

The fact that some PGA Tour players don't use muscleback blade irons show they get an advantage by playing a club with more game improvement technology.

PGA Tour players hit the ball pretty solid a lot, but they still mishit a ball ever so often. When they do, a bit of game improvement can help them out.

[skydog]

Pretty sure your "friend" was full of it or meant Augusta Country Club.

Augusta National is usually closed during Summer Months - even to members.

^^This. Bent grass does not like summer time in the South.

[Gunther]

^^This. Bent grass does not like summer time in the South.

Hard to maintain but plenty of Dallas courses do it, although they do have to keep the Bent pretty long in the summer and there are always stories of greens being lost.

[jbishop15]

^^This. Bent grass does not like summer time in the South.

Hard to maintain but plenty of Dallas courses do it, although they do have to keep the Bent pretty long in the summer and there are always stories of greens being lost.

It takes a lot of care to get bentgrass greens through the summer, I agree. Our course lost three or four greens a few years ago. Thankfully, we got a new groundskeeper, who is super proactive about keeping them healthy. Expensive, though.

[turtleback]

I don't buy that crap about technology allowing players of lesser ability to compete. I do agree with Gary Player on "the harder you practice the luckier you get".

Technology allowing players of lesser ability to compete ok I'll agree with that in regard to amatuers like me but not on PGA Tour stage.

Think about it for a minute.  One of Jack's greatest advantages over his rivals was they he could hit the ball unusually high with long irons.  It was said that he hit a 2-iron to a height most player were only able to hit their 9-irons.  Now either everyone was lying back then or that was a big advantage.  But now?  Everyone has hydrids or cavity backs that let them hit a shot in a way they never would before, erasing Jack's advantage.  And that is just one example.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I'm going to go with Jack's.

Are those houses in the trees between the 11th, 13th and 14th holes?  Also, between the 8th and 18th fairways.

Being able to clearly see these structures on google maps, as well as the road(s) that cut right through the middle of the course leading to them, remind me how well they isolate themselves on TV from anything except the beauty of the course itself.  They never show any pictures that let you see where they are in the world, including no crane or blimp shots that are so prevalent at all other tournaments, and they hide those maintenance roads, or whatever they are, really well too.

A lot of people do not know that originally the conception of Augusta National was a real estate development around the course.  But times were hard back when the club was starting and that never went anywhere.  Imagine what a house on an Augusta fairway would fetch today?

There is also a sharp dichotomy between membership now and membership then.  They had a hard time getting members despite fairly aggressive soliciting using Bobby Jones' name, and almost went bust, before they found their footing.

I do not recall whether I read that stuff in the Sampson book or the Owen book, but I found it interesting how, arguably, the most exclusive golf club in the world was scuffling for members back in the day.  Damn why didn't my grandfather join when he could, even though he spoke little English and didn't play golf - probably never even saw any golf (not a lot of golf being played back in Poland in 1900 nor the circles he traveled in once he came here to the US). What a tragic lack of foresight on his part.  LOL

[Golfingdad]

Think about it for a minute.  One of Jack's greatest advantages over his rivals was they he could hit the ball unusually high with long irons.  It was said that he hit a 2-iron to a height most player were only able to hit their 9-irons.  Now either everyone was lying back then or that was a big advantage.

Being a little bit nit-picky here but, according to a few sources on TST, it is my understanding that pretty much everybody hits ALL of their clubs to roughly the same height.  By that I mean that if you're a high ball hitter with one club, then you're a high ball hitter with all of them.  So the way that is written - at least as I understand equipment nowadays, maybe old equipment was different - is incorrect.

It should say something more like Jack was able to hit his clubs x feet higher than other players.  Jacks 2-iron and 9-iron probably went nearly the same height.  As did Lee Trevino's 2 and 9 iron.

@mvmac or @iacas is that correct?

[luu5]

Not to mention, I think ANGC is closed that time of year.

True, why did I not remember that when this came up last year.

Next time I meet him I will question him...

[iacas]

Being a little bit nit-picky here but, according to a few sources on TST, it is my understanding that pretty much everybody hits ALL of their clubs to roughly the same height.  By that I mean that if you're a high ball hitter with one club, then you're a high ball hitter with all of them.  So the way that is written - at least as I understand equipment nowadays, maybe old equipment was different - is incorrect.

That tends to be the case (excluding the driver), yes, but landing angles and so on can be different. Plus, at varying ball speeds, maybe a PGA Tour player has trouble hitting the ball high enough with longer irons. Tiger swapped out his 2I for a 5W for added height, remember.

We also don't know if this was the case in the 1970s or thereabouts. It's the case now, in the 2000s, but who knows about back in the days of balata, etc.

Plus, it was just one example. More forgiving clubs are more forgiving of slight mis-hits, which also benefit slightly poorer players while offering no benefit (or a reduced benefit) to better players.

It should say something more like Jack was able to hit his clubs x feet higher than other players.  Jacks 2-iron and 9-iron probably went nearly the same height.  As did Lee Trevino's 2 and 9 iron.

Also true.

[Rick Martin]

^^This. Bent grass does not like summer time in the South.

Very true. Used to be a member at a course @ Augusta called Jones Creek and they had bent grass and required special fans to circulate the air around the greens.....very hard to keep nice bent during summer.

[Gunther]

Very true. Used to be a member at a course @ Augusta called Jones Creek and they had bent grass and required special fans to circulate the air around the greens.....very hard to keep nice bent during summer. [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/117697/] [/URL]

Very familiar with those fans, lots in Big D.

[turtleback]

Being a little bit nit-picky here but, according to a few sources on TST, it is my understanding that pretty much everybody hits ALL of their clubs to roughly the same height.  By that I mean that if you're a high ball hitter with one club, then you're a high ball hitter with all of them.  So the way that is written - at least as I understand equipment nowadays, maybe old equipment was different - is incorrect.

It should say something more like Jack was able to hit his clubs x feet higher than other players.  Jacks 2-iron and 9-iron probably went nearly the same height.  As did Lee Trevino's 2 and 9 iron.

@mvmac or @iacas is that correct?

I think you misread what I wrote or I was unclear, because I said HE could hit his 2-iron to heights other players hit their 9-iron, not that he hit his 9-iron any particular height.  IOW, he was able to hit a 2-iron a lot higher than the other players were hitting 2-iron.  I never read anything about a specific number of feet, but then again the technology to measure that objectively and accurately wasn't around then.

But hitting high soft long irons were a trademark of Jack's and a big advantage in attacking par 5s.  And now everyone can hit those long shots very high and land soft because we have hybrids and other advances.  And Jack made HIS comments on equipment before there even were any hybrids, so if anything, the equipment advances continue to narrow the gap.

[Golfingdad]

That tends to be the case (excluding the driver), yes, but landing angles and so on can be different. Plus, at varying ball speeds, maybe a PGA Tour player has trouble hitting the ball high enough with longer irons. Tiger swapped out his 2I for a 5W for added height, remember.

We also don't know if this was the case in the 1970s or thereabouts. It's the case now, in the 2000s, but who knows about back in the days of balata, etc.

Plus, it was just one example. More forgiving clubs are more forgiving of slight mis-hits, which also benefit slightly poorer players while offering no benefit (or a reduced benefit) to better players.

Also true.

Thank you!