Johnson, the club chairman, and his pals can stretch their golf course 'til it screams, and it looks as though they will. They have little choice. One of these days, alas, we're going to wake up and realize it's not the track Bobby Jones routed through the old nursery. So what, you say. They can talk on their cell phones.
Tradition is about more than nostalgia.
Stretching the great courses to accommodate longer balls might sound reasonable, if expensive, until we ask ourselves what the members are going to do there. For most us, those new, improved balls just travel 10 yards farther into the woods. They won't allow the Augusta National members to remain only as far behind the pros as they are now. Their course isn't going to be much fun any more, and that's a high price to pay so the ball manufacturers can keeping selling us something pricier and better - on the one drive in nine we hit straight.