“A grotty place littered with strip joints and fast food outlets”
This was Peter Stone’s description of the town of Augusta in his article “Masters Apprentice” in the Fairfax newspapers during the week. It is worth a read if you missed it and he makes a good case for Aaron Baddeley winning this week.
Baddeley almost qualified for local residency of the small southern American town – in truth, a slightly grotty place littered with strip joints and fast food outlets that would be anonymous if it did not draw the world’s best golfers every year.Baddeley, now 30, recalled that first occasion at Augusta that has variously been described as “Heaven on Earth” and “The Cathedral in the Pines”. Norman had asked the teenager with whom he’d like to play a practice round, and the kid replied: “Mr Nicklaus.”
More great reading this week was Geoff Ogilvy’s views on how he would change Augusta National given the opportunity – “Geoff Ogilvy reveals his hypothetical redesign for Augusta National”. He is one of the few golfers on the planet who will actually give you his genuine thoughts when asked.
SLOW DOWN THE GREENS“An interesting experiment would be taking a foot or two off the speed of the greens. They’re the fastest greens we putt all year by two feet anyway; the only exception might be the greens at [U.S. Open venue] Oakmont. You get into situations where the best golfers in the world are hitting six-foot putts and laying them up because they don’t want them to roll off the greens. I don’t think that was the intent.”
