{"id":2142,"date":"2016-04-14T11:01:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T11:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/?p=2142"},"modified":"2016-04-15T21:17:07","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T21:17:07","slug":"masters-notebook-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/golf\/equipment\/2142\/masters-notebook-2016","title":{"rendered":"Masters notebook, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"\"images\"<\/a>\n

A big congratulations to Michigan\u2019s four \u201cchampions\u201d in the Drive Chip & Putt National Finals on Sunday: Traverse City\u2019s Anika Dy (Girls 14-15); Traverse City\u2019s Kyla Layman (Girls 7-9); Jackson\u2019s Colin Norton (Boys 7-9); and Grosse Pointe\u2019s Tommy Sullivan. Although none of them finished first in their division, they all walked away as winners. Layman, however, did have a final putt on Augusta National\u2019s famed 18th green that, if she had holed it, would have earned her the top spot. She ended up third, a mere two points behind the winner. Interested juniors may register now for this season\u2019s qualifiers at www.drivechipandputt.com<\/p>\n

On Monday, golf\u2019s major organizations\u2014the Masters, R & A, PGA of America and the USGA\u2014held a press conference to announce their respective bodies would grant a one-year exemption into their major championships to golf\u2019s gold medal winner at the \u201916 Olympic Games in Rio. Though not present, the LPGA announced a similar invitation for the gold medal winner for its \u201916 Evian and \u201917 Ana Inspiration championships. As such, all nine majors (four for men and five for women) will be supporting the initiative. Masters chairman Billy Payne, the former CEO of the Atlanta Committee for \u201996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, said: \u201cWe believe our game\u2019s visibility will be dramatically elevated by the global platform that only the Olympics offer.\u201d Oddly absent and without an official statement was the PGA Tour. Isn\u2019t the Players Championship a fifth major?<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s number one player, Jason Day, was poised, humble and humorous in his Tuesday press conference. He mentioned his career path as a player. \u201cI go from a junior and amateur that is, you know, we’re playing for toasters. You’re really playing for nothing other than pride and toasters (laughter)\u2026.\u201d And then later after turning pro, Day added: \u201cEverything is based on results. You get nit\u2011picked in the media. Stats are always saying he doesn’t drive it straight enough or hit enough greens or whatever\u2026you’re thinking about getting rid of caddies and coaches and agents and sometimes wives (laughter)\u00a0\u2011\u2011 that wasn’t me, trust me\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Masters \u201cno-no\u201d is bringing a cell phone onto the course. At the 10th tee on Tuesday, fellow Frenchmen Victor Dubuisson, a Top 50 World player, and Romain Langasque, the British Amateur champion and invitee, posed together for a photo, taken by a cell phone from Dubuisson\u2019s \u201ccoach.\u201d An ever-vigilant Masters security person immediately questioned the coach about the forbidden device and was informed it belonged to Dubuisson. As such, the phone wasn\u2019t confiscated but the official promptly reported the breach to his supervisor. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Dubuisson was later visited by Inspector Clouseau, dressed in a green jacket.<\/p>\n

In his press conference, Jordan Spieth got a chuckle from the media gathering by answering how and when he wore the green jacket in the past year: \u201cSome of my favorite memories were certainly back home, having a bunch of my friends over, and just kind of having the jacket on while you’re grilling out or while you’re doing whatever, that kind of stuff (laughter).\u201d<\/p>\n

As usual, Phil Mickelson was \u201ccenter stage\u201d with the media. He revealed the club renovated the Masters champions locker room this year. \u201cAnd they spent a lot of money to make that champions locker room twice as big inside and twice as nice,\u201d said the three-time Masters champion. \u201cAnd that’s what makes this tournament so great is that every little detail is well thought through.\u201d He also mentioned the new patron tunnel under Old Berckmans Road, the free patron parking lot and the state of the art practice facility at the Masters. \u201cEvery detail is done to perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bryson<\/a>

Bryson DeChambeau<\/p><\/div>\n

U.S. Amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau generated a spate of columns after his Tuesday press conference. In it, he expounded on his use of same-length irons and wedges, all with the same lie angle, shaft and grip. By visiting the club\u2019s Trophy Room and its club display, he learned Bobby Jones played with several irons of the same length. He also shared his unique names for his un-numbered irons. For example, his 46-degree wedge is dubbed \u201cHerman Keiser\u201d for the 1946 Masters winner.<\/p>\n

Right place at the right time: On Wednesday I witnessed David Lingmerth’s ace at the Par-3 Contest on hole #7. Also joining me in the gallery was Grand Rapids & Naples resident Gregg DeWitt. Later, DeWitt witnessed another ace on the same hole by 80-years-young Gary Player (his 31st). In all, there were a record nine aces on Wednesday. Several pundits voiced tongue in cheek fear that club officials would now lengthen the Par-3 layout. Jimmy Walker won the Contest in a record-breaking 19 shots, eight-under par, with six birdies and an ace.<\/p>\n

Wednesday at the Chairman\u2019s Press Conference: Billy Payne held his cards close to the vest and made no announcements about any specific hole changes including the much-rumored lengthening of the 13th hole. Instead, he said: \u201cWe have made no decision whatsoever\u2026Plans are underway\u2026and that is one of many holes we now have under consideration.\u201d Later, he mentioned the 4th and 5th holes are also under study given that Old Berckmans Road is now under club control. \u201cCertainly, that creates options which heretofore did not exist\u2026\u201d And lengthening or realignment of certain holes is only one option. More room on the property may allow for better freedom of movement and corridors for patrons and players alike.<\/p>\n

Although Payne didn\u2019t take it off the table as an option, modifying the game\u2019s formal equipment rules\u2014e.g. an official golf ball\u2014is not a likely scenario at the Masters. \u201cWe would only resort to equipment [rule modifications] as the last resort because\u2026the governing bodies in golf deal with that very effectively.\u201d Actually, the governing bodies have allowed equipment\u2014ball, shaft and clubhead\u2014to outpace the dimensions of the game and to negatively impact championship courses such as Augusta National with expensive lengthening for elite players. Major League Baseball, in contrast, has carefully regulated its equipment\u2014bat and ball\u2014so that it\u2019s storied venues and time-honored dimensions have been preserved.<\/p>\n

Another item from the Chairman\u2019s Press Conference: When asked if the Masters might look at expanding the field in the future, Payne answered, \u201cUnlike certainly any other major what limits the number of participants here is the number of daylight hours.\u201d True enough but why then doesn\u2019t the Masters move up its Sunday teetimes so as to allow for more daylight in the event of a sudden death playoff? As much as I admire all that the Masters does for its patrons and players, it\u2019s been narrowly dodging a Monday finish by a suspended playoff due to darkness. Instead, officials continue to schedule the final Sunday grouping at 2:45 pm. (Note: The final pairing on Sunday holed out at approximately 7:15 pm EST, lending only a brief window for a playoff.) Why not move up teetimes by at least 30 minutes? Given the Masters\u2019 global television audience, let alone the sizable inconveniences of a Monday finish, it\u2019s the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

As predicted by local weather forecasters, it began raining in Augusta on Thursday morning at 3 am and doused the course. But the rain subsided by the time tournament gates opened at 8 am. With Sub-Air vacuums embedded below all 18 greens, controlling the moisture on the putting surfaces wasn\u2019t an issue. The major factor was the northwest wind which usually correlates to higher scoring as it means longer play at three of the four par-fives. In 2007, such winds resulted in Zach Johnson laying up on all of the par-fives in two, yet still carding 11-under on them, and winning the Masters with a one-over par 289 total. (Note: After Saturday\u2019s round, Larry Mize was quoted as saying he never recalled three straight days of northwest winds at the Masters.)<\/p>\n

Saddest quote from Thursday\u2019s round was from Ernie Els who fell victim again to the putting yips, including an embarrassing six-putt on the first hole for a nine. \u201cIt’s unexplainable. A lot of people have stopped playing the game\u2026I couldn’t get the putter back. I was standing there, I’ve got a 3\u2011footer, I’ve made thousands of 3\u2011footers and I just couldn’t take it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was Tom Watson\u2019s final Masters as a competitor. The two-time Masters champion ended a 43-year run (134 rounds) at the tournament, ninth on the career ranking for player starts. He last made the cut in 2010. Opening with an impressive even-par 72, Watson missed the cut by two shots after a six-over par 78. In his own Masters tradition, he left an egg salad sandwich on the 13th tee in honor of his long-time caddie, Bruce Edwards, who finally succumbed to ALS disease on April 4, 2004 while Watson was on the course at the Masters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

photo courtesy of the USGA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A big congratulations to Michigan\u2019s four \u201cchampions\u201d in the Drive Chip & Putt National Finals on Sunday: Traverse City\u2019s Anika… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":2156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,976045,9,3,17,7],"tags":[4242,159,5838,1036836,1175,1036820,83,1003821,2832,709,2862,1003823,1036821,1003824,503,1006488],"class_list":["post-2142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instruction","category-tournament","category-golf","category-equipment","category-courses-and-travel","category-personalities","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-augusta-national","tag-billy-payne","tag-pga-tour","tag-tom-watson","tag-golf","tag-usga","tag-bruce-edwards","tag-terry-moore","tag-zach-johnson","tag-michigan-golf","tag-golfs-gold-medal-winners","tag-masters","tag-rio-olympics","tag-pga-of-america","tag-victor-dubuisson"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2016\/04\/masters-logo-green.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2142"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2145,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions\/2145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}