—-

There are very few things in life that live up to expectations and build up. Especially in today’s world where everything from the absurd to the real McCoy is built up to unbelievable levels to get some attention in our 24 hour, short term memory, news cycle.

When something lives up to expectations, though, it’s a wonderfully pleasant surprise. Such an occurrence befell me on Monday when I had the chance to visit Augusta National Golf Course for a Monday practice round for this week’s upcoming Masters Tournament, for which I’m very grateful for the ticket from my Aunt and Uncle.

It’s a place that I am intimately familiar with, yet until Monday, I had never been there. Or at least been there in person – in my mind’s eye, I’ve played that course a hundred times. Many times over a regular golf shot, I will picture myself on the 12th tee at Augusta National striking a perfect 7-iron and landing just a few feet from the hole. The mental picture would help me focus on the shot at hand and give me a positive swing thought.

As a kid, I would dream of walking up the 18th green – hat in hand, enjoying a two shot lead and certain victory. The green jacket would soon slip over my shoulders. I imagine nearly every golfer imagines themselves in that position – even to this day – even if they’d never admit it in public.

Augusta National Golf Course is a fairy tale – a golfer’s Disney World. We know that what we’re seeing isn’t “real”, that the real world doesn’t have this kind of perfection.

But Augusta lives up to every expectation you have of the place. The silliness of it all suddenly becomes not so silly when you walk through the gates. In fact, they do have Pimento Cheese sandwiches and they do cost just $1.50 and they are wrapped in a green bag. Amen corner is stunningly beautiful and being able to take in all three holes with the turn of the head is a bit surreal – you just can’t possibly believe that this place you’ve seen a hundred times on TV really does exist. And yet there I was, taking in the wonderful sights, sounds and smells – yes smells – of Augusta National.

My favorite hole is the 13th – a short (by pro standards) par five of 510 yards. The name of the hole is Azalea and for good reason because nearly 1,500 Azaleas call this hole home. It’s a great, strategic par five. Many of my fellow students of golf course architecture would disagree with me. They will say that the 13th is a penal hole because there is a forced carry over water on the hole. Again, we’re talking about a course designed and created for the best golfers in the world. The decision to lay up or go for the green can make or break a round. There’s a legitimate shot at an eagle 3 is real, but so is a bogey 6.

While many critique the changes to the course – and the criticism is at least deserved for the absurd number of trees added to the place – once you’re there, you realize just how special this place really is. Many people who are passionate students of golf course architecture could go there and get caught up analyzing how changes have “ruined” the golf course. Not me – I could only appreciate the beauty and the ambiance. Augusta National isn’t a real golf course anyway. The perfect fairways, the unrealistic green speeds, the landscaping and a major golf tournament every year is all out of the league of every other golf course in America, so to try and critique the course for its changes is pointless.

Some of the things that really caught me by surprise were how open the course is. The openness actually leads to more intimacy, which may seem the exact opposite of what you would expect. Being able to see across the golf course is really neat, which is why I don’t particularly care for the addition of the trees on 11, 15 and several other holes. Getting to see the famous greens of Augusta up close really gives you a new appreciation for how undulating, difficult and fast they are. There’s a lot of bamboo on the course – used as a screening in many areas. I know it’s an effective screening plant, but I don’t really care for the look of it in this setting.

The golf course is set up so that a player really knows his options off the tee. The simplicity of the course makes it a rather straight forward challenge. There is no rough on the course, there are few bunkers and the greens are anything but subtle. You either execute a perfect golf shot or pay the price. The luck of the draw with a good or bad lie in the rough is eliminated. For this reason, that is why I think the Masters is a real national championship rather than the gimmicky US Open. You could make the case that the greens are a bit “gimmicky” – and certain pin positions certainly are. However, if you’re smart (and good) enough to put the ball in the correct position, a par is a very attainable score on every hole for the world’s best golfers. If you attack a pin position that’s in a tight spot, you’re gambling. Sometimes you’ll win, sometimes you’ll lose. Just remember, the odds are always in the house’s favor.

Thursday the Masters will begin for the 70th time. I’ve always looked forward to the golf tournament, but this year, I’m fortunate enough to have a wonderful new perspective on the golf course.

I wonder why that is? To keep people from discussing them? He doesn’t want anybody to steal his ideas?

There are a few places where we get to see some idea of what the routing looks like for some of these golf courses. Here is the routing for the Cliffs course in High, North Carolina. (Click for larger.)

I’ll be the first to admit that judging any golf course by a routing is unfair – we can’t see the topography, although Tiger said that he wanted the course to be walkable, which means that the topography can’t be too severe, even if the course is in the mountains.. The fairways and greens won’t look exactly like what is shown and bunkers won’t be in the same place. There may even be more or fewer bunkers on each hole.

Now, that being said, we can still get a feel for what the design intent will be. We have returning nines that are segregated from one another – the front nine is on the west side and the back nine is on the east side. The good news is that the course is a “core course” – there is very little housing on the course. It is mostly along holes 5-8, which you can sort of see in this picture. It looks like there might be housing along 16-18 at some point in the future, but it’s difficult to tell with any certainty. Having looked at the routing for a little while, I don’t see anything of particular note. Holes 9 and 17 look somewhat interesting, but the rest look like copies of one another. I’ll be curious to see how the greens and their surrounds turn out – will there be bold green contours in the mold of Augusta or the sand hills of Australia that Tiger has praised in the past? Will more strategic elements be included?

We found out that, even in the current economy, that property sales weren’t too shabby. They sold $40 million worth of real estate in November. With property prices starting at $500,000 and going to over $3 million, that’s a decent haul. Probably enough to cover the cost of construction, land costs and Tiger’s design fee for the course. Maybe even a road or two in the subdivision.

The golf course at Punta Brava is quite different since it’s along the Pacific Ocean. The best I could come up with for a routing is below (that Tiger’s hand in the picture…). (Click for larger version.)

This is a different animal than the Cliffs. We see some pretty dramatic holes in 4, 9, 10, 16, 17 and 18. I’m sure the view on every hole will be spectacular. The internal holes also have some interesting features, like the shared bunkers on holes 3 and 4 and again on holes 14 and 15. The biggest downside I see to this design are all of the parallel holes, but that’s a minor quibble. This is actually a course that should be pretty interesting.

I’m looking forward to seeing some of the actual construction photos from the golf courses as well as how it’s played as a finished product. Hopefully his courses will live up to his playing ability.

“My sense is that they’ve widened the fairways a little bit this year,” Mr. Crenshaw said. “But that sight” — he motioned toward the first and ninth fairways below us, both lined by the darker-green second cut — “is still a little unpalatable to my eyes.”

To Mr. Crenshaw, the second cut is unnecessary given the other many strategic challenges that Augusta poses, and given that the founding designers, Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie, chose not to grow deeper grass near the fairways. They took their design philosophy in part from the strategic but roughless St. Andrews links in Scotland.

“There’s no question that Augusta National and the other courses in the world need to do something because the equipment has got away from us,” he said, referring to the increased distance that the top players in the world are hitting the ball these days. But the second cut takes away some of the angles into the greens that strategically inclined players like to play. “There are many ways around this course. It was designed to make you think,” he said.

Ben’s being very kind and sticking to just the topic at hand with regards to what has taken away some of the angles into the greens. The club claims that the rough imposes a one-half stroke penalty. Apparently, they think that the rough is imposing that penalty and that were the rough not there, the penalty would be less.

Could they be more wrong? First, the penalty is not because of the rough – it’s because of an improper angle to the green. Second, the rough actually prevents a number of balls from finding a far more imposing penalty – having to hit from pine straw between trees.

Ah – but the club has realized this to a point and has added MORE trees because the rough isn’t, apparently, penalty enough. So the corridors are getting tighter and the rough is coming in further (from zero). And that means that founder Bobby Jones’ and architect Alister MacKenzie’s philosophy of having the course be in “the spirit of St. Andrews” gets more and more bastardized each year.

Each year we hear more and more about how dull and boring the Masters is – how the roars are gone. How the course has gone from anticipation of a charge to anticipation of a train wreck. That more trees were added or bunkers widened. That the rough is a little tighter or a little longer. With each tweak, Augusta loses a little more of itself and, by their symbiotic relationship, golf loses a little more of itself.

Below are some details on the changes.

Every hole was redesigned with new tees, fairways and greens. Square tee boxes created a more traditional look. Much of the mounding was softened, creating better sight lines for players and improved views for fans. White-faced bunkers added definition to fairways and greens. And about 200 yards were added.

Weibring turned one of the least favorite holes, No. 11, into what could be an exciting, drivable par-4. He enhanced No. 17, the popular par-3, by clearing viewing areas on both sides and around the green. A stadium feel was created with grandstands and luxury boxes framing the hole. The 18th hole is highlighted by a series of four ponds with waterfalls.

The 11th sounds intriguing – the 18th sounds boring. White faced bunkers sounds typical and not at all Texan.

Looking at player/architect D.A. Weibring’s website where he discusses the changes, we find more detail.

Every tee box, green and bunker has been redone. About 165 trees have been moved.

Other parts of the landscape have been altered for shot value and to improve views. Mounds have been softened. A new irrigation system is in place. It’s a clean, less-is-more look that should intrigue pros, members and resort guests. When fans arrive at the April 24-27 tournament, they will find open viewing areas that will bring them much closer to the action.

Removal of trees sounds great. It would be nice to know what “softening” means to mounds. I have no idea what the cliche “clean, less-is-more” has in the context of golf course design.

“You hear competitive and you hear challenging, but the word you have to hear is fun,” Weibring said. “It’s got to provide all levels of player the visual opportunities to play a shot. Do they have a bailout? Can they bounce the ball on the green? Will they remember the holes?”

I think Weibring meant bounce the ball on TO the green. Weibring was very critical of Pete Dye’s design at Whistling Straits with regards to the ground game, so it will be interesting to see if the TPC actually does allow for the ability to play a ground attack.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said an agreement between the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation, the nonprofit group that runs the Wyndham, and the Nisshin Corp., which owns Forest Oaks, is expected to be announced in February.

The sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations, said time is rapidly becoming an issue in the deal with this year’s tournament eight months away (Aug. 14-17). The sources say that, because of Sedgefield’s image and proximity to Greensboro and Winston-Salem, tournament officials think they can sell significantly more corporate sponsorships to companies than they have at Forest Oaks.

While it’s not set in stone, the story did mention that an outside contender for the tournament is the remodeled Pete Dye course called The Cardinal.

Either location will make for an interesting venue, although Forest Oaks was certainly not a bad course.

“I’m concerned about some of the ways the ball has plugged in bunkers,” said Roger Warren, president of Kiawah Island Golf Resort. “I do think it’s important that on a shot like that, the penalty they’re incurring right now, I think, doesn’t reflect what Pete Dye had designed for. So we’re going to look at what we can do to make sure those balls at least become playable.”

The other changes may be to the grass.

Warren said the fairways might be converted to the paspalum grass that is on the greens. Organizers used the grass on the practice range and the first fairway.

Such a conversion would close the course, which averages about 20,000 rounds a year at $320 or so each, to complete. Warren thinks it’s worth it to get ready for the PGA Championship.

It’d be interesting to know what grass is currently on the fairways and why a change might be made.

And a little teaser to the 8,000 yard tournament golf course perhaps?

With driving distances seemingly always increasing, who knows how far PGA TOUR players will be hitting it in 2012? Could The Ocean Course crack 8,000 yards?

“We play very long golf courses for PGA Championships,” Steranka said.

There was some discussion of reversing the nines – which might be interesting only from the standpoint that the front 9 appears to be more interesting and entertaining than the back 9.

“If you flipped the nines, you’ve got a short par 3, a short par 4, another short par 4 and a good risk-reward par 5. That could be pretty exciting,” Arron Oberholser said last week at the BMW Championship, where he failed to qualify for the Tour Championship.

The front nine was also the site of Tiger’s 28 on Friday. (Although, Zack Johnson shot 29 on the back in route to his incredible 60 on Saturday.) Of course, there is some reason that the front nine is likely more interesting and entertaining than the back nine.

Designer Rees Jones, who did the makeover at East Lake in 1994, cringed at the idea. “Please don’t do that,” Jones said. “I just souped up that back nine.”

“Souped up” is code from Jones for “made more boring” – as in added length, added or deepened bunkers, planted trees, added water. In any event, the wet conditions brought on by both rain and less than ideal green conditions (which turned out to be blown WAY out of proportion) resulted in conditions that allowed the golfers to fire darts all week.

Here’s Tiger’s take on ending on a Par 3.

“I’ve never been a big fan of the last hole being a par 3,” Tiger Woods said. “I think you should have to hit more shots to determine a champion than just one shot. I think you should have to play two or three shots to get to a flag, not just one shot.”

Hmmm… the champion has likely hit between 250 and 290 shots over fours days to determine the outcome of a tournament. The champion, unless he hits a hole-in-one will also have to hit at least two shots, including a putt, on a par 3.

The most extensive work will be on the greens. Often criticized for being too spongy, they will be completely redone. Each green also will have a SubAir system, which will suck the moisture from the green in wet conditions. The result should be much firmer and faster greens.

“Obviously, it’s going to become more challenging,” said Trevor Immelman, who won the last Western Open. “Once you put in the SubAir system, you really can control the firmness of the turf. It’s going to improve the golf course and improve the event.”

The other major changes call for a pond to be built on the right side of the seventh fairway. The intention also is to have the water come more into play around the eighth green. And if you didn’t think the par-4 18th hole was hard enough, Jones said the new green will be shifted closer to the pond.

The fairways bunkers also will be repositioned to accommodate today’s power hitters.

“With the fairway bunkering, we’re establishing the locations so they match the original intent of the hole,” Muirhead said.

“I like what they’ve done,” said Aaron Oberholser, who tied for second. “I think they could do even more.”

That is exactly the plan.

“Some of the holes, you look at them and half the hole has been changed. That side has, but this side doesn’t have the same look,” Waugh said. “The course plays differently, more strategically because of Gil’s work.”

Faxon designed the Bay Course in Mattapoisett, Mass., and now is working with another native Rhode Islander, Stan Abrams, on a project in Wells, Maine — the private, Maine National Country Club.

Whereas Faxon worked with Hanse in making significant changes to TPC Boston, he’s teaming with award-winning golf course architect Brad Booth on the Maine National design.

“We feel we’ve created a design that will complement the outstanding terrain, and we can’t wait to see it come alive,” Faxon said. “We believe the golf experience (at Maine National) could be something exceptionally distinctive.”