Friday Shorts

Ron Kroichick writes about Augusta and has some news about changes to Pebble Beach's new look 15th, which is being tightened because, well, the guys are working out these days. He also has news that they are considering a greens reconstruction. Ed Sherman has some player reaction to the Augusta changes. They aren't too excited, especially about the new 240-yard 4th. Here's the AP story with Tiger's comments about not seeing the course play under ideal weather conditions yet. His nice way of saying, "your doing what?" John Boyette, Editor of the Augusta Chronicle sports, writes about the changes and quotes Tiger too .

"I don't quite understand it because since they changed it in 2002, we have yet to have a dry week," Woods said.

Boyette's article is accompanied by photos and quotes Tiger about Augusta, but using Tiger's web site quotes about the USGA (!?). Hey, the USGA and Augusta, they're one and the same these days anyway.

"They're (Augusta, but again, the USGA according to tigerwoods.com) trying to get us to play like it used to play, iron shots into the greens, but they fail to realize the greens are running at 12 (on the Stimpmeter) now. They used to run at, what, 7 and 8. We used to see all the old footage of guys making shoulder turns on four footers. Nowadays you just need to breathe on it and it's going to roll quite a bit.''

More shenanigans at Torrey Pines involving the local luxury hotels , city government officials and tee times. Chris Lewis takes an enjoyable look at the US Open vs. the British Open setups after listening in on an engaging chat between Dennis Paulson and Geoff Ogilvy. And finally, Golfweek's Jeff Rude says the answer at Augusta is not more length, but rough. There's a fresh idea.