Reined-back ball cannot arrive soon enough to make Augusta fun again
The Masters excitement fizzled out on Sunday’s back nine not only because of Scottie Scheffler’s excellence. The challenge was too difficult to all but the world No1. The risks outweighed the rewards.
You can always tell when the course set-up – any course, that is, – has gone over the top when rounds veer towards six hours. And in this case more than. Friday’s viewing was interminable for all but the insomniacs watching in the UK. It took so long and it looked so damned difficult.
Granted, not even the green jackets can fix the weather, but it did not need to be that arduous at Augusta. Indeed, the test became almost unacceptable, as the defending champion signified in a rant. Balls were moving on the greens in the near-40mph gusts.
Again, you might think, that cannot be helped. But it can. The putting surfaces were – to use an old term that got a US commentator cast out from the booth – “bikini waxed”. Fast greens render the trial more treacherous, but also leave open the threat of winds making it unplayable. It happened at St Andrews at the 2015 Open. So why do they do it?
To protect the integrity of these cherished layouts, that is why. Modern technology has turned these gems – once full of subtleties and multiple layers that offered the talented the opportunity to be creative – into pitch and putts. Take Bryson Dechambeau in Friday’s second round. He walloped it almost 400 yards and had a flick on to the green. Good on him, it is a narrow thoroughfare and he took it on with his might (although ended up only making par). But this is not what Bobby Jones and Alister Mackenzie, the architects of this Georgia masterpiece, intended in the Thirties.
Jones once said: “I don’t see any reason for a tree on a golf course.” What he did recognise is that golf is at its best when there are options available and the answers are beautifully diverse. Those golfers with vision can work with angles and highlight that the game can be played in many ways and that holes should follow suit. But by growing the trees and introducing rough – another sin as far as Jones and Mackenzie would have been concerned – the diversity was sacrificed and the dimensions curtailed.
Yes, you will get wonder shots from the pines and there will be eagles and double bogeys on those two great par-fives – the 13th and the 15th – that will elicit Augusta roars and Augusta groans. But on
Sunday, even when the pins were generous and the gusts had died, the famous roars were few and far between. And that is what happens when the officials become so concerned with the winning score being above the 20-under mark that they engineer the examination to be little fun to play and hence not much fun to watch.
On Tuesday, Fred Ridley, the Augusta chairman, sent the club’s support to the governing bodies’ proposals to roll back the ball. In 2028, the R&A and US Golf Association intend to introduce regulations that will take up to 20 yards off the big hitters from the tee. It is not enough but it is a start.
The restrictions should be more severe and action should also be taken against the driving “woods” themselves. But the horse has not only bolted, but disappeared around the dogleg. The simplest way for the R&A and USGA to address the distance issue is to focus on the ball and tackle the equipment-makers’ legal departments on this single front.
The Masters’ intervention is crucial because the PGA Tour – which is owned by the players, who are paid by the ball-makers – has stressed its opposition. This is more infighting the professional game does not need.
They will claim that weekend hackers will be affected when the rules are altered for everyone in 2030. As if hitting it five yards shorter will be noticeable to the recreational golfer. And if it is, move the tees up. Sorted.
There are so many reasons for the reined-back ball, not least environmental concerns, as the courses get longer and more water is required and more fertiliser sprayed to ensure that the bomb-and-gauge brigade cannot completely overpower the scorecards. Yet purely from an entertainment perspective, there is only an upside to a shorter ball. Never is this more evident than at the Masters, where those of us who remember Augusta before the Tiger-proofing think of what it once was and the drama it produced.
Sunday’s last few hours verged on the boring and predictable. It was clear that Scheffler alone had the tools to deal with the back nine and get towards the ideal 12-under to 16-under range. Augusta doubtlessly found the right winner – Scheffler is in a different league. But he could have been asked to prove this by exciting, daring play, not by clinical and composed perseverance. The new ball cannot arrive soon enough.