AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2006 > April > 05 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USTests should be tough
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Augusta — It has been clear for some time now that, regardless of subject matter, every Hootie Johnson press conference pretty much comes down to this: “I’m Hootie, and you’re not.”
Allow women members at Augusta National? Sure. When the time is right, and we run out of things to cook and clean.
Exorcise pimento cheese sandwiches from the grounds? Over my clogged arteries.
Ensure players’ happiness at the Masters? May we recommend the back nine at Mountasia?
Understand, there’s a tradition with the Augusta chairman being obstinate. It dates back to co-founder Clifford Roberts once saying, “As long as I’m alive, golfers will be white and caddies will be black.” (It’s believed there are now more than zero and fewer than several African-American members. This can’t be confirmed because the media guide isn’t out yet.)
In matters of diversity, Hootie and Augusta National remain behind the curve. But therein lies the difference between that and this current backlash over the club’s decision to Botox its golf course.
In this matter, Hootie’s right.
Golfers whine too much.
The greens are too fast.
The greens are too slow.
It’s hot. It’s cold. It’s windy.
SSSSSSHH! I’m playing here! (Things you want to see: Vijay Singh trying to putt in Shea Stadium.) Who put that bunker there?
Who planted those trees?
I can’t hit it over that lake!
My tummy hurts.
Players, former and current, have grumbled over course changes at Augusta National. Gee, we’re really sorry, guys. Is this getting to be a little too much like … work?
“I didn’t know that a tough golf course was supposed to be a lot of fun,” Johnson said Wednesday.
Asked if critics are wrong and he’s right, Johnson responded: “That’s a loaded question.” And he laughed, in that am-I-supposed-to-care-what-anybody-else-thinks kind of laugh.
The first tee will be moved back 15 to 20 yards. Trees were added on the left of the fairway. The fourth tee will be moved back 30 to 35 yards. The seventh, 35 to 40.
There are more changes. But you get the picture. It’s Augusta National meets Nip/Tuck. In this case, it’s not about women embracing advances in plastics as much as old men responding to advances in club technology.
This creates a problem at the Masters because the tournament is all about tradition (thereby explaining the lifespan of the pimento cheese sandwich). Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, who have won 10 Masters between them, criticized the makeover in a Golf Digest article.
“I love the place, just love everything that happens there,” Palmer said. “But now I’m not so sure. It has changed dramatically from the course I knew 50 years ago.”
Said Nicklaus: “I think they’ve ruined it from a tournament standpoint.”
Nicklaus was a little more diplomatic Wednesday. He said Augusta National’s “intentions are correct” but reiterated ways the plan was flawed.
Ernie Els said the Masters used to be “the easiest” among the four majors. “Now it’s almost certain to be the hardest.”
Tiger Woods said, “Not necessarily,” when asked if he agreed with the changes, and said something about the fourth hole losing its “cool” quotient. But recognizing that public moaning wasn’t going to sway Johnson, Woods was somewhat guarded.
“I think Hootie would probably say we’re going to have a private conversation,” he said when asked what he would say if Johnson solicited his opinion. “I’m going to leave it at that. I want to be invited back.”
Advantage, Hootie.
Charles Howell III isn’t merely one of the few who has praised the changes, he’s one of the few who gets it.
“I always love it when going to the first tee somebody says ‘Hey, go have fun today,’ ” Howell said. “That’s like saying, ‘Go shoot 62.’ Well, I’m trying. The golf course is a grind. That’s what it should be. It’s a major. It’s the Masters. That’s the way Bobby Jones would have wanted it. I don’t think he would have wanted to see guys strolling around out here, laughing and smiling and having a big time.”
Thank you.
If course changes aren’t enough, Augusta National also is considering mandating using a specific ball at the Masters. It’s their club. It’s their tournament.
“They’re entitled to their opinion,” Johnson said of critics. In doing so, he confirmed Augusta National hasn’t prohibited free speech at the Masters. Yet.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Golf, Jeff Schultz
Comments
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By Gloria Steinem
April 5, 2006 08:30 PM | Link to this
Great column Jeff!! I thought your insight on Augusta National being an elitist group of white, misogynistic, racist males was fresh and bold. Finally, someone has reached this conclusion and had the courage to speak out on it. You have given voice to a perspective that has been swept under the rug and not been written about. How come we have never heard about this lack of enlightenment until today? Seems as though we should have read 1,000,000 stories on Augusta National’s cro-magnon perspectives by now. You definately earned your pay by articulating a bold and unique perspective. You took narrow road that none of your fellow media members have taken. You truly are a bold thinker!!! Besides, where do they get off thinking they can choose thier own membership and run thier tournament and club according to thier rules? What PIGS!!
By Betty Friedan
April 5, 2006 08:56 PM | Link to this
Here, here Gloria. So, often we get tired, repetative, recycled columns and perspectives by lazy writers who go for the easy take. Jeff really went out and got the unique angle on this one. I was assuming that we were going to the same stereotypical column that everyone else in the media has been writing for the last 5 years, but I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t see this one coming. Well done Jeff.
By Betty Friedan
April 5, 2006 08:57 PM | Link to this
Here, here Gloria. So, often we get tired, repetative, recycled columns and perspectives by lazy writers who go for the easy take. Jeff really went out and got the unique angle on this one. I was assuming that we were going to get the same stereotypical column that everyone else in the media has been writing for the last 5 years, but I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t see this one coming. Well done Jeff.
By J..Yaccarine
April 5, 2006 09:19 PM | Link to this
” Besides, where do they get off thinking they can choose thier own membership and run thier tournament and club according to thier rules”Exactly Gloria,It is THEIR Tournament and everyone can refuse to play if they wish.(or dare)What will you declare next?That they deliberately made the course longer,not to make it tougher for the Tiger Woods of the tour but Really to make too long for women.Perhaps you should picket the place this time and put your body where your mouth is.That way should be able to see the “Pigs” and the sheep(?) who support them up close.OR are you staying home and boycotting the TV station that shows the Masters? .Master=”One who has control of people and things” no matter what you think!Leave my Masres alone and take on the HIP HOP groups who label you gender as” HOES”
By Fred
April 5, 2006 09:20 PM | Link to this
Gloria,
I do respect your views on this subject, but I disagree with your thoughts on them being pigs. Calling them pigs for not allowing certain people in the club or making their own rules, is completely uncalled for. It is like you coming into my house without being invited. I only want people in my home that I invite. If the club was racist, they wouldn’t allow certain races to even play in the tournament. Past winners would have never won. This is their club, their tournament, and they can do what they darn well please. I think that this is one of the best, if not the best, tournaments around. Hootie and other members of Augusta have done everything in their right and none of it has been to be discriminatory against anyone. The members are going to do it their way. If you don’t like it, don’t watch and don’t come.
Thank you,
Fred
By Cathy Adams
April 5, 2006 09:47 PM | Link to this
Adding length to Augusta just plays into the Long Ball Hitters Game. Tiger,Ernie,VJ,Phil,etc. will still be able to reach the par 5’s on the back nine on 2. What has occurred is the shorter hitters will now have to play them as 3 shot holes. To make all golf courses tougher would be to create HAZARDOUS rough-meaning that if you miss the fairway it will be a penalty of one stroke. You must hack it back to the fairway,not be able to reach the green. Look at the driving stats of the top 5-NONE are close to the top!
By JT
April 5, 2006 10:20 PM | Link to this
Easy there guys, obviously you don’t understand the use of irony to convey a point, but I suspect Jeffrey is hip to such.
Besides, do you really think Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan (is she even still alive?) are hanging out on AJC Sports blogs?
By Tom
April 5, 2006 10:32 PM | Link to this
Interesting article…Steinem’s comments associated with this article are parasitic at best. Isn’t there a better place for feminist has beens to post? The Clifford Roberts mis-quote is resurected again like a bad chain e-mail. Yes, only the gullible forward it on.
By geechee
April 5, 2006 10:53 PM | Link to this
Glad to see you are feeling well. Great column. Jack and Arnie are the only two who aren’t afraid to speak up because they are the only two who are actually members, LOL.
By JT
April 5, 2006 11:20 PM | Link to this
Guys, Gloria Steinem and Bretty Friedan are NOT posting on the blog. It was a ghost-written joke! Come on, work with me. It was an attempt at sarcasm and ridiculous irony. I am on your side.
Schultz’s column was the same mindless drivel that the media trots out each year. It’s too easy, it requires no origional thought, and at the end of the day, it is an itch they can’t resist scratching. They write this crap so that they can feel enlightened and sophisticated with their progressive, post-modern, thinking.
What they fail to realize, because they are isolated in thier little writer’s clique of self-affirmation, is that they are out of touch with rest of the world. Ultimately, it comes down to thier resenting the fact that there is a club, with privelege that they themselves will never enjoy, and this club is so bold as refuse to bow to political, left-leaning pressure. Writers such as Schultz feel good and righteous in thier rants, but at the root of it all is envy. Also, it just p** them off that Augusta National is able to thumb thier noses at the media and feminist criticisms and the general public is perfectly okay with that. The tournament is just as popular as ever.
By hop
April 5, 2006 11:51 PM | Link to this
shultz continues his mindless comments about the masters.
jeff, in case you did not notice during visit to the masters, it is a private club and they can invite anyone they please to be a member. that is the same right you have to select anyone you desire to visit your private house.
of course you are the same yo yo who called the masters another gold course. what a pity that you can’t even differenciate between the class of golf and a run of the mill course.
i think it’s time for ajc to assigned you to cover the rome braves so you can see the difference between the major and minor leagues because you don’t seem to have a clue when it comes to golf.
By UGA 72
April 6, 2006 04:30 AM | Link to this
There are other ways to toughen up Augusta National, as Jack Nicklaus said, tighten up the fairways. There is a point where you make the tournament a circus instead of a contest. Most pro’s say there are only 12 players who can win this tournament, the rest are just fillers. There is little question that Tiger would run away and hide if not for his Father’s illness. Most of the more memorable Masters have come from intense, close fought battles. Watching someone, anyone, run away with the tournament isn’t fun or good television.
I expect Phil or Tiger to win, would love to see Davis Love win, or the ultimate fan favorite “Grip it and rip it” Big John D. Can you imagine the dinner next year if John did win.
I’d just about bet that this weekend is the lowest rated tournament ever.
By Gordon Pfeiffer
April 6, 2006 08:20 AM | Link to this
I think most of the changes are good, but I think they should add rough instead of length to make it tougher. Not U.S. Open rough, but at Augusta you have always been able to hit it almost anywhere and score. #15 needed lengthening and will now be a good risk/reward hole. The change at #7 is not good - the green isn’t designed for a 450 yard hole. And the par 3 #4 - good grief. It was already one of the toughest holes on the course and now it plays 240 yards. When Tiger has to hit a wood into a par 3 it is too long.
By ebineezer
April 6, 2006 10:04 AM | Link to this
Come on Jeff, its the Masters. Cain’t you come up with something other than the same old crap. There are no women members, BOO HOO. Is that something new that needs reporting? There are not many black members now and in the past it was all white, BOO HOO. Again, something new? More AJC doodoo. They really pay you for this?
By A Concerned Observer
April 6, 2006 10:13 AM | Link to this
It deeply saddens me that the major newspaper closest to Augusta, the AJC, allows Schultz to write anything on the hallowed tournament. Per usual, his story is simply an echo chamber of sentiment from far superior writers in other locales, replete with rhetorical questions, one-sentence paragraphs, and colloquialisms. Schultz is a member of the disturbing trend in sportswriting of hack journalists who apply the type of “gotcha” journalism that helped politics devolve into unhealthy, partisan antics, to all of our favorite pasttimes. I long for the days of quality sportswriting that consisted of tightly-written prose that captured the emotion of sports, holding those wonderful, spontaneous moments in time and allowing us to enjoy them in a way that a t.v. replay cannot. This article is just another example of a bilious, sarcastic, and poorly-researched writing that Schultz passes off as sports journalism.
By Jack
April 6, 2006 10:42 AM | Link to this
Fred got it right. Pay attention.
By Martha Burk
April 6, 2006 11:17 AM | Link to this
I just want to express my outrage that this golf tournament is allowed to exist. Why wont those white boys let me and betty and gloria join their golf course (and Jesse Jackson too!).
I mean they use the EXCUSE that its a private golf course but hey i bet they dont mind havin Willie in there to shine their damn golf shoes. Why dont they want women? We just want to be one of the guys, but nooooooo. So be that way and me and my 15 supporters will continue to make fools out… i mean protest till Hootie becomes a blowfish.
By Sgt. Schultz
April 6, 2006 11:33 AM | Link to this
People, please, lay off my modestly talented namesake.
You see, as an employee of the AJC, Schultz-head is required to toe the politically correct company line that white men in general, and wealthy white men in particular, are the cause of all of the world’s problems.
Besides, you can’t expect him to write a column every day in which he urges us to feel sorry for Tiger Woods, can you?
If Schultz-head had the courage of his convictions, he would show his disdain for Augusta National by staying far, far away.
Don’t worry, though. The NFL draft is right around the corner, so it won’t be long before Schultz-head will be back to spewing propaganda for the Falcons.
By Cynthia McKinney
April 6, 2006 06:01 PM | Link to this
I hate men, white men in particular. Jeff Scultz is a great panty-wearing, cowering, UGA hating, liberal man. Have a problem? Taste my right hook!!! I blame George W. Bush (Nazi), for Mandisa being voted off of Amerikkkan Idol. Pardon me while I have a bowel movement on this poster of Barney Fife.
P.S. If Monica Kaufman is around, tell her I need hey stylists number.
By Ray
April 6, 2006 07:02 PM | Link to this
Hey cynt.Why don’t you say whats on your mind?