Small changes to a handful of holes at Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club will leave the course 10 yards smaller for next year’s Masters tournament, club chairman Billy Payne said to the AFP.
The length reduction will come at the par-4 first, which will be trimmed from 455 yards to 445. The back of the tee will be trimmed seven yards to allow more room for spectator movement between the tee and adjacent putting green. The tee marker at the hole will be moved to account for the extra shrinkage.
“As we’ve done nearly every year since the inception of the Masters, we evaluate the golf course and make refinements we think are necessary,” Payne said. “This year, only minor changes were implemented and all were made in order to provide greater flexibility in the event of adverse weather conditions, which we have experienced the last couple of years.”
The first, fifth and sixth greens were rebuilt for agronomic reasons with heating and cooling systems installed. At the par-4 seventh, trees were planted at the rear of the tee area that had been open since the 2005 removal of a storage shed. Ten yards were added to the front of the tee without changing the length of the hole from 450 yards. And at the 530-yard, par-5 15th, about nine yards were added to the front of the tee area without altering the distance of the hole and two trees were removed from the right side of the fairway.
Payne also said the club is on target with plans to open a new practice facility for the 2010 Masters.
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