Latest changes at National OK with Howell

The romance of the Masters Tournament will probably never be lost on Charles Howell. The naivete, however, is gone.

As an Augusta native playing in his first Masters in 2002, Howell disliked the sweeping alterations made to the course that year. His reasoning was completely selfish.

"To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed with the changes in '02 because I wanted to play the same golf course everyone else had played and I couldn't," Howell said. "I wanted to play at least one Masters on the same course that Tiger (Woods) did what he did in '97 on."

A relative veteran at age 26 preparing for his sixth season on the PGA Tour and fifth Masters in April, Howell sings a different tune about the latest batch of changes made this summer that added 155 yards to the course to make it officially 7,445 yards. He played 72 holes at Augusta National while at home for the Christmas holiday, and he came away with a very different impression.

"Now, I like these changes," Howell said. "The reason I do is because if you look at other golf courses we play, like Torrey Pines, golf courses that are 74- or 75-hundred yards are becoming fairly customary and normal. I don't think you want to play a major championship on a golf course that is not in keeping with other courses we play on tour in terms of length."

Howell hasn't had a chance to talk in detail with any other players who have seen the latest changes, but he knows not everyone will share his opinions. That is to be expected when you're dealing with one of the most beloved and recognizable golf courses on the planet.

"Any time you take a golf course and completely overhaul it, you're going to get some mixed feelings," Howell said of the evolution of his opinions. "But now I think it's fine. I really do. There isn't one thing I saw at Augusta National that I haven't seen done everywhere else."

Purists will argue that Augusta National isn't everywhere else and should be above trying to keep up with the Joneses or Woodses or whoever. Being held to a different standard is part of the unique fascination with Augusta's evolution.

"It's a change for Augusta National," Howell said, "but if you forget how the golf course used to be, it's fine. If this is your first year coming and playing the Masters, you won't think any big deal of it. The problem is that everybody has watched the Masters since they were old enough to watch TV and everybody knows that golf course better than they know any other golf course in the world."

Howell played two weeks ago under soft, fuzzy and cool conditions that make it a longer and far different golf course in late December than the one that will greet the Masters field in early April. Even so, he came away from the experience with a distinct impression of what the latest changes to the course will mean.

"The big ones that stand out are 4 and 7," Howell said. "The changes done to both 4 and 7 are going to impact the score. There's no doubt about it."

No. 4, already the hardest par 3 before it was stretched 35 additional yards, is a new experience. Where a long hitter such as Howell never hit anything more than a 5-iron and sometimes as little as a 7-iron before, he needs everything from a 4-iron to a 5-wood to reach it now. From the back of the new tee box to a back pin, Howell said it could play as long as 258 yards.

"With that green and the way the wind swirls in that corner of the golf course, playing that hole in even par over four days is going to be really good," Howell said.

The par-4 No. 7 hole used to be considered short with a variety of playing options. Howell calls the 450-yarder, which is nearly a football field longer than the one played in 1997, a "completely different golf hole."

Last year, the seventh hole for Howell was consistently nothing but a 3-wood and a wedge. Now hitting driver is compulsory and the shortest club Howell hit into the green was a 9-iron. The longest was a 6.

"Barring really firm fairways and downwind, it has completely eliminated the question, "Is it driver or 3-wood?' " Howell said.

According to Howell, the scorecard doesn't tell the whole story of the latest renovation project. Nothing has been announced, he said, of the secret 6 yards that were added to the par-5 No. 2 hole, where the tee was stretched all the way to the stone wall that shields it from the maintenance areas.

And the eye-popping new measurement for the par-4 No. 11 (505 yards) only begins to tell how much harder that hole has become.

"The shortest 11 can play is 505," Howell said, saying the yardage marker is situated at the extreme front of the tee box instead of the customary center. "I walked it to the back and it was 513, which puts it longer than No. 13."

The par-5 13th hole is officially listed as 510 yards from the middle of its tee box.

"Eleven is just a mean hole," Howell said.

While length was added to three other holes - 1, 15 and 17 - Howell said those changes don't appreciably alter how the holes are played.

The exception could be the par-5 15th, which Howell believes is a little bit easier despite an extra 25 yards. Moving the tee box 20 yards to the golfer's left, he said, reasonably recreates the old shot options before trees were added to the right side of the fairway in 1999.

"The change to 15 is interesting," Howell said. "Although it is longer, it does allow you to play a draw off the tee again. It just doesn't feel as claustrophobic back there any more."

The biggest impact of all the recent changes might be forcing many of the older champions to give up playing in the Masters much sooner than expected. The latest changes almost guarantee that Jack Nicklaus will not change his mind and return to play one more Masters on the 20th anniversary of his epic 1986 victory.

Other past champions like Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw might be forced to retire far sooner than their predecessors or risk embarrassing themselves on a course now built for younger players.

"I think it will keep a lot of guys from coming back," Howell said, lamenting the potential loss of a unique aspect of the tournament which allowed him to play in his first Masters with Gary Player.

All in all, Howell believes Augusta National is progressing the way it should in a modern world. And if they can finally play a Masters unaltered and uninterrupted by rain, Howell believes hardly anyone will notice the difference at all.

"I'd like to just play one dry," he said. "If the golf course gets as firm and fast as it can get, I don't think it's going to be that big a deal. We haven't even seen the first big changes take effect because we haven't played it firm and fast."

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.