Augusta on My Mind

I'm struggling to control my excitement at what's sure to be a rousing finish to the Texas Valero Open, but gazing longingly at the dates circled on my calendar the second week of April.

Shackelford has been on a roll, so we'll lean heavily on his work:

• Mitch Laurance - Mitch, with whom I'm not familiar, has a podcast called Golf Connections, and you can find his interview with Shack here, talking all things Augusta.  Lots of interesting discussions of how the course has changed over time, and there's a twinge of schadenfreude in learning that Shack hasn't ever played the course.

The opening and closing bump music is Billy Mac's Augusta, Sweet Augusta, which we first noted in conjunction with Shack's Augusta-themed playlist.  It's worth a listen, and I'm pretty sure it's the only song lyric that mentions Alister MacKenzie.  

Laurance mentions this interactive map of Augusta, featuring side-by-side images of each of the holes, guaranteed to have golf architecture geeks holed up in dark rooms for weeks:   

Shack did throw out one little barb about trying to further raise the IQ of Golf Channel commentary, which might make his next Morning Drive appearance a tad awkward.

• State of the Game -  I've been remiss in not mentioning this previously, but Shack participates in a regular podcast called State of the Game, typically moderated by Rod Morri and including Mike Clayton, who is best known as Geoff Ogilvy's design partner.  Be forewarned, stay away if you're averse to Australian accents.  The real reason I've not mentioned it previously is that I'm three episodes behind, including one with Mark Broadie as their guest.  In any event, feel free to listen to their Augusta preview podcast at Shack's site, or they can be downloaded from iTunes.  Their guest is Gil Capps, author of the newly -released The Magnificent Masters: Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Tom Weiskopf, and the 1975 Cliffhanger at Augusta, which your humble blogger considers the greatest Masters ever.  Give them a listen, though I've yet to.

• All Things Scott - Imagine my disappointment to learn he was talking about Adam.... In this Local Knowledge post, Shackelford links to all sorts of writings on the defending champion.  Dive into as much as you want, as Scott remains a very appealing personality, though still something of an underachiever.

• Shredded, Not Shredded - Justin Rose set off alarms when, in a Golf Magazine interview, he said this:

Justin Rose said he’s been hearing reports of “shredded” and dead-looking trees at Augusta National, which will host the Masters in two weeks.

“Peter Hanson went a couple days ago,” said Rose, who was scheduled for a wheels-up time of 8:15 a.m. Thursday for an early look at the course. ”He said you won’t recognize it. He said the ice storm has shredded all the leaves from all the trees. He said from the eleventh hole you could see all the way to the clubhouse. Apparently all the trees look dead. It’s a bit of a shame.”

Fortunately, after his own visit, he had this more positive reaction: 

After playing a round at Augusta National with Matthew Fitzpatrick on Thursday, Justin Rose said that rumors that the course would be unrecognizable were greatly exaggerated: ”I didn't see any of that myself,” he said. “It was playing up to tournament speed. The only thing I noticed was that the azaleas hadn't popped yet, but they have ways of controlling those things around here, and I’m sure they will do that during tournament week.”

OK, I guess I'll watch after all.  And yes, Justin, the azaleas are timed to the hour.