Augusta Ready for Big Finish

The Masters begins today at Augusta National, which must have been puny before because it’s certainly buff now. Actually, the place did look sort of weak last year when Tiger Woods played the 18th hole Sunday with a driver and sand wedge.

It sounded almost like dance step ... driver, sand wedge, 15-foot birdie putt ... cha, cha, cha. But it was hardly music to the ears of the guys in the green jackets. It’s true that the Augusta National honchos already had announced they were going to make the course tougher days before Woods made it look puny, but you can be sure that the ease with which Woods handled the 18th made their resolve even stronger.

Hootie Johnson, chairman of Augusta National, said he feels good about the 18th hole. In fact, he used the words “real good,” so you know he means business.

“A three-wood and a pitching wedge won’t do for a finishing hole,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I think most everyone agrees that the hole was weak for a finishing hole in a [major] championship.

“Some folks, if they are leading by one, they are going to be damn glad to get a par, and that’s OK.”

And so the 18th is now 60 yards longer, up to 465 yards, and might become the new signature hole at the old course.

Greg Norman says it will soon be one of the best last holes in the world.

“It will work its way up there being one of the great finishing holes,” he said. “You know, when you see a guy hitting a sand wedge to the 18th hole of a major championship, it doesn’t do anything for you. It doesn’t do anything for the game, [but] it wasn’t just one guy last year, it was a lot of guys doing it.”

Norman was referring to Woods, of course, the undisputed leader in long-ball-hitting at the Masters and its defending champion.

As usual, Woods is the player to beat in the 89-player field, although there is a slight difference of opinion. It’s probably just a game of shift-the-pressure. Norman says Phil Mickelson is the guy and Mickelson says Woods is the guy and Woods says he’s just one of the guys.

Mickelson was pretty direct in his comments.

“The player to look at is the No. 1 player in the world, Tiger,” Mickelson said. “And given his length and accuracy and distance control, he’s going to be the guy to beat.”

All Woods will allow is that hitting the ball a long way isn’t going to hurt anyone who can do it.

“It helps to have distance off the tee, but you’ve got to be accurate,” he said. “You know, the golf course definitely favors a guy that hits the ball a little farther, but you have to hit the ball straight too. You can’t just bomb it away with the intent that with any drive you make birdie or par like you used to in the past.”

It rained Tuesday night and sprinkled during the day Wednesday, which slowed down the greens, much to the chagrin of the tournament committee. On Sunday and Monday, the committee had them the way they liked them, which is faster than a pace car. But rain also softens the fairways and cuts down on the amount of roll the players are going to get from their drives, thus making the course play longer.

Now, whom does that condition favor?

Woods, of course, or players with the advantage of distance off the tee.

It’s Woods’ opinion that the changes made to the course weren’t really necessary for 2002.

Nearly 300 yards were added and nine holes were altered, some by enlarging or moving bunkers, relocating tees and regrading fairways.

“I don’t think they were as necessary right now, but I understand where they are coming from,” he said. “The guys are getting longer and they don’t want to see the winning score being--well, I won with 18 under [in 1997] and they don’t want to see it that low. They would rather see it in single digits.”

Woods plays the first two rounds with Bubba Dickerson, the U.S. Amateur champion, and Toshi Izawa of Japan. Izawa had consecutive aces in Wednesday’s par-three contest, thus guaranteeing that he has used up all his luck for the tournament.

Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Jose Maria Olazabal, Retief Goosen and David Duval, to name a few, have drawn attention as possible contenders for Woods’ title. Of those, only Singh in 2000 and Olazabal in 1994 and 1999 have won here before.

Duval says he likes the changes to the course, although he wasn’t sure he would.

“The way they were done, the way that they have really settled in, they just seem to fit and flow so well,” he said. “I wasn’t as overwhelmed as I thought I might have been. It seemed very natural to me, kind of like they had been there for quite some time.”

John Daly, one of the longest hitters, believes players won’t be able to put as much spin on the ball because they’re hitting longer clubs into the green. That could be an advantage, Daly said.

“If I could just get the putter going a little bit,” he said.

Daly said the changes have increased the difficulty of Augusta National, mainly because players who are so accurate with wedges will be hitting seven-irons or eight-irons much more often.

Said Daly: “I think it’s a great test of golf. It’s a lot harder than it has been in the past and I think that’s probably good for me.”

And the new 18th, the one that makes Johnson smile, might be the hardest of them all. For the record, Woods says he will hit an eight-iron into the green. That’s after he keeps the ball from going right off the tee and into the trees ... and avoids the yawning bunker on the left ... and before he tries for the new pin position on the right, just over that bunker ... and before he putts the ball on a slippery green.

Nobody said winning the Masters should be easy.