Lengthy Discussion of Augusta Will Begin With First Tee Shot

The bulldozers have disappeared and all the grass is finally back in place at Augusta National, where for the third time in four years there have been some major changes.

The last part of the latest touch-up was the installation of bent grass on the seventh green, which has been slightly enlarged to allow for the possibility of a new pin placement at the right rear of the putting surface.

Oh, the seventh also has new trees on the right side of the fairway, plus it’s 40 yards longer now -- a mere 450-yard par four -- but that’s not the longest hole in the six-hole transformation that has just been completed.

That distinction belongs to the 11th hole, where the tee has been moved back 15 yards and now measures 505 yards, thus becoming the first 500-yard par-four hole on the course.

The work began in June after the club closed and has been overseen by designer Tom Fazio, who also held the same position in two recent renovations, in 2002 and 2003, that have seen the course grow from 6,985 yards to its present status of 7,445.

That’s how Augusta National will play for the 2006 Masters, as the second-longest course in major championship history, trailing only Whistling Straits, which was 7,514 yards for the 2004 PGA Championship.

As usual, the changes are going to appear as though they’ve always been there, because that’s the way Augusta National conducts its business, but there could be a small shock to the senses at the first tee.

Moved back 20 yards so that the hole measures 455 yards, the back of the tee is so close to the edge of the putting green that the crosswalk between the two areas has been effectively eliminated. To make up for it, there’s a new crosswalk where the “old” tee used to be, the one from 2001.

The club opens late next month. The critics, er, players, arrive in April.

*

Ernie Els has been sidelined since having knee surgery in July and his South African buddy, Retief Goosen, is making hay while Els is away. Goosen, whose victory last weekend at the German Masters was his third in five weeks, now trails Els, 9.18-9.08 for fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson are entrenched in the first three places.

Els won’t be playing at the World Match Play Championship this week on his home course, the Wentworth Club in Surrey, but he said he planned to offer commentary for the BBC.

Goosen pulled out of the four-player PGA Grand Slam of Golf, to be played Nov. 22 and 23 in Hawaii because it interferes with a schedule that includes defending his title Dec. 1-4 at the $4.06-million Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa. Singh replaced Goosen and will join Woods, Michael Campbell and Mickelson in Hawaii.

*

The quote of the week is from Mark Calcavecchia, who won the Canadian Open even though he shot 72 and 71 on the weekend, with a total of one birdie: “Thank God we ran out of holes.”

Calcavecchia, by the way, improved 66 places in the rankings to 67th.

*

Age game: The last three winners on the PGA Tour are Brad Faxon, 44, Olin Browne, 46, and Calcavecchia, 45.

*

Paula Creamer, the 19-year-old LPGA rookie and one of the stars in the Solheim Cup for the victorious U.S. team, faces what appears to be another difficult challenge this week when she runs up against defending champion Annika Sorenstam at the John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Broken Arrow, Okla.

Creamer’s 3-1-1 record led the U.S. team at the Solheim Cup and she set the tone on the last day with a 7-and-5 destruction of Laura Davies, but beating Sorenstam in tournament play may be a different matter.

At least Creamer has some history on her side. At the Evian Masters in July, Creamer won by eight shots. Plus, playing with Sorenstam in the third round, she shot 66 to Sorenstam’s 72.

This is the fourth of Sorenstam’s eight title defenses this year. She has won two (the Safeway International and the McDonald’s LPGA Championship) and tied for second in the other (the Corning Classic).

Sorenstam has another title defense Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at the Office Depot Championship at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. Creamer will be there too.

*

It hasn’t taken long for the U.S. side in the Ryder Cup to be compared unfavorably to what happened at the Solheim Cup. Nancy Lopez is having rose petals thrown at her feet for bringing a divergent U.S. team together as a unit and also for pulling off the most unexpected act of all -- getting her players to ride with her in a bus from Ohio to Indiana for a practice round at Crooked Stick.

Next time you see the U.S. Ryder Cup team ride in a bus somewhere to practice, take a photo of it, frame it, post it on EBay and retire.

*

Al Joyner, Rogie Vachon, Marlin McKeever, Dwight Stones, Andre Reed, Kermit Alexander and Pam Teeguarden are among the celebrities expected to play in the Eighth Orange County Bar Foundation tournament, Oct. 5 at Strawberry Farms Golf Course in Irvine. The event benefits the Shortstop Program for juvenile crime prevention. Details: (760) 632-7770.

Ernie Vossler, former PGA Tour player and later founder and chairman of Landmark Golf Company at La Quinta, has been inducted into the PGA of America’s Golf Professional Hall of Fame.

Travis Bertoni of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Jane Park of UCLA and Carolina Llano of Pepperdine are listed among Golf Digest’s top college players to watch.

The Southern California PGA is asking its more than 1,800 PGA club pros working at more than 500 facilities to stage fund-raising events Saturday and Sunday to raise funds for the American Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund. Details: (951) 845-4653.