John Hawkins - On the Money About Augusta

How did this idiot manage to start an article by pointing out that Billy Payne is not one to publicly embarrass his (elder) predecessor – THEN – he (Hawkins) proves that he isn’t capable of learning a lesson that he just put down on…ummm…pixels.

“Parkland-themed soapbox”…“overruling the brilliance of Bobby Jones”…“Jones vision was compromised”…yada yada yada.

MORON !! According to this line of reasoning (term used very lightly) – Augusta National had never undergone any changes since Bobby Jones laid the course out.

LAMEBRANE !! Didn’t your mother ever teach you to respect your elders ? How dare you go after Hootie Johnson like that ?

Augusta National is a living, breathing golf course. It has undergone changes since day one. Bobby Jones made adjustments to his and McKenzie’s original design. It was adjusted slightly until the days of Jack Nicklaus when HUGE changes were made. Why ? Because of his length. Then the bermuda greens were dug up to put in bent grass – a grass that those greens were never intended to support because of the undulations.

Then came square grooves, oversized drivers, graphite shafts, bigger and stronger players. Then came Tiger Woods – two years into his professional career – he laid waste to the field and the course – adjustments had to be made.

Hootie Johnson NEVER sat down with paper and pencil to dictate the changes made over the last 12 years. Hootie Johnson was NOT the architect.

Never once did Hootie Johnson stand up in front of the media to say that HE was making changes. The CLUB made the changes and let the media know what they were going to do.

Were all those changes good ? No – of course not. The CLUB hired an architect to make the changes – to TRY some things to make the course a challenge to the modern golfer. Were those changes are not written in stone, never to be adjusted again ? Again – no.

Idiots like Hawkins should be ashamed of themselves for the way they treated Hootie Johnson – like he was some mentally retarded hick who had no business as ANGC chairman – especially if he dared to go against any of the politically correct media’s wishes.

Hawkins the Great didn’t mention that the years after the biggest changes, Augusta had stretches of bizarre weather – huge rains, high winds, colder than normal temperatures… All things that affect how a golf course plays.

Augusta National WILL continue to adjust under Billy Payne and every chairman who follows him – but berating Hootie Johnson is way out of line – and Hawkins should know better.

I have realized that there are two camps on golf course design – people who feel that legendary courses should only be changed in ways reflective of the original design and those who feel that a course should evolve with the changes to the game. I’m in the first camp, you’re in the second.

I despise the changes that Hootie authorized on behalf of the club and did with Tom Fazio. I know that Fazio designs in a style that is somewhat like MacKenzie/Jones around the greens – lots of collection/chipping areas, etc. – but his changes took away so much of what made ANGC great. He took away options, he took away more risk-taking, and he replaced it with prescription, length, and ridiculous rough that does nothing but make the course look bad. Trees, really? That’s not ANGC.

I think Hootie made some big mistakes in that regard. I feel that he did what he did (with the club’s backing) in response to technology. I think that was the wrong approach, particularly on 7, 8, 10, and 11. With groove changes coming, I am hopeful that Payne can back things down some.

As for what Hawk wrote, I think he is very empassioned about this course. Who isn’t? I don’t think he has disdain for Hootie as a person. I think he has disdain for what has become of ANGC and the Masters in the past two years. He did acknowledge in his piece that weather certainly had something to do with the events of the past two years.

To prove any kind of personal bias against Hootie, I would have to see other work from Hawk to know.

the point is that Hootie did not make the changes. The club hired Fazio – Fazio layed out his ideas and the club agreed to give them a try.

If you truly believe what you said – you HAVE to back up to the original 6400 yard layout with taller grass in the fairways and heavy bermuda on the greens.

I don’t fault Hawkins for writing that trite piece of cliche – but the WAY he said it was way out of line. Hootie Johnson is a fine man who has accomplished more in his lifetime than someone like Hawkins will ever dream of doing. You don’t need anything else from Hawkins to see the arrogant disdain he has for Johnson. Like so many other members of the media – he files Hootie away as some hick who doesn’t have the brains to be chairman of a place like ANGC – which means that the rest of the membership who elected him have to be even lower on the food chain than Hootie.

Sorry RB – this tone of this article is shameful and someone like Hawkins should know better. I don’t care what else he has written about Johnson – THIS article was wrong.

…so you’re assuming that they just went out and willy-nilly made changes without laying them out or going through any of the traditional protocols ?

Ummm – “trying” is an active verb. You have to have something in place to TRY it. You can’t TRY something on a piece of paper.

Fazio brought his suggestions (renderings – drawings – topographical maps – etc etc etc) and showed them to the club. They decided that they were good ideas and told Fazio to make the changes. Only THEN can you get the final vote on how well those changes would work. For the most part the changes didn’t get a lot of high marks – at least in the elitist media who weren’t seeing what THEY wanted to see and the truth of history be damned. The changes went against traditions. Thankfully, the membership isn’t as stuck in the mud of tradition that these media twits like to think they are.

Changes had to be made. These guys were hitting 7/8/9 irons into par 5’s. They don’t have unlimited land to work with inside the fences – so they had to come up with something other than yardage to toughen the course and make these guys work a little more.

Augusta National wasn’t designed to have short irons hit into par 5’s – but it WAS designed to hold a fairway wood or long iron into those par 5’s. Bent grass on the greens made that impossible.

Take your pick – when technology and better golfers make one of the greatest golf courses on the planet obsolete, you either have to make whatever changes necessary to challenge these guys – or your course becomes a joke.

there’s only one dictionary that I know of where you got to add your own definition if you don’t find one you like – and that’s the dictionary of Slang Terms.

We agree that Augusta National is a cathedral that should be taken VERY good care of – especially where changes are concerned. My point is that the course was just as dramatically changed when Nicklaus tore the place up the first time – but people like Hawkins ignore that. The course was dramatically changed in ‘79 when the traditional bermuda grass on the greens was removed for bent – again – people like Hawkins don’t consider that to be important, when in fact, changing the grass on the greens without changing the undulations did more to affect the play than anything Fazio did – but you couldn’t see it on TV.

When you say that Augusta National should never be changed – but sound like the course was built in 1996 when Tiger Woods came on the scene – then your perspective is off.

…what WAS the original point of the course ? It was built to fulfill a dream of Bobby Jones. After that, he wanted to have a tournament for his friends. Then it grew and grew and grew.