Questions For Billy Payne

Billy Payne faces the all-star cast of softball-hurling scribblers and inkslingers for Wednesday's annual chairman Q&A. While he won't flip his lid like Hootie was prone to do, Payne should at least have to earn his pay. Oh wait, he's not paid. Well, they should still ask him a few questions beyond the expected (will you restore exempt status for PGA Tour event winners, will Arnold Palmer be the honorary starter, when are you going to 18-hole TV coverage every year, yada, yada, yada...).

Here are mine. Please feel free to add yours below in the comments section.

• The USGA claims to have proof that with today's grooves, players can spin the ball more out of the light rough than they can from fairway lies. Therefore, don't you have an obligation to remove the "second cut" if it's an advantage to approach from there?
  
  
• Will the Masters telecasts ever be the same without Bobby Clampett at Amen Corner?

• Do you feel that tree planting in spots intended as landing areas by Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie infringes upon the integrity of their design? If so, does that matter?
  

• Has Richie Ramsay officially committed to the event?
  

• Have you considered giving a percentage of tickets to overseas patrons? 

• Can you explain the strategy that club envisions behind today's 11th hole and how that is consistent with the original design?
  

• With apologies to Colbert. Hootie Johnson. Great chairman or the greatest chairman?
  

More Payne

Who didn't Billy Payne talk to leading up to this year's Masters?

First, Tim Carroll in the Wall Street Journal poses some great questions to the new chairman (thanks to reader John for the link).

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Is it fair that your predecessor, Hootie Johnson, is going to be known forever as the man who wouldn't let women into Augusta National?

MR. PAYNE: No, I don't think so. I'm thinking he's going to be remembered principally as a man who took on the very significant challenges to our wonderful golf course caused by the advances in distance that were a consequence of some advances in technology. He took some very bold steps in order to ensure that our course kept its competitive nature, notwithstanding the fact that the average driving distance since the founding of our tournament is up some 70 yards.

Notice Mr. Payne never says anything about the guys being better athletes. Get this man the talking points!

WSJ: One of the changes outside Augusta National is technology. For a long time, it was the ball. Augusta National threatened to impose a tournament ball, something that Ohio did for some of its statewide events. Lately, the USGA and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews seem to be focusing on club-face grooves. Do you feel as if you're in some sort of nuclear arms race against the ball and club makers? Is an Augusta ball still a possibility? How about Augusta clubs?

MR. PAYNE: We will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the competitiveness of our golf course against the challenges of these great and very talented players and against equipment changes which allow them to hit the ball farther and to spin the ball more. As a consequence, I think we remain diligent as we measure and look at those kinds of increases and those kinds of challenges to our course. But last year, as you recall, one of the tour's longest hitters was the winner [Phil Mickelson], and a close second was one of the tour's shortest hitters in Tim Clark. So we felt that that was demonstrative that the course was a fair challenge to players of all lengths. So, we think we got it about right now....

We are encouraged by the fact that the regulatory governing bodies, both the Tour and the USGA and R&A, are themselves looking at ways to either diminish the increases in length and/or to affect the spin of the ball. All of which has an indirect consequence of making folks not want to just hit it as far as they can whether or not it goes into the rough.

So again I ask. If the guys are spinning it more out of the rough than the fairway, as the USGA is claiming, then why not eliminate the rough?

Loved this question from Carroll:

WSJ: Another change this year is that Fred Ridley, a longtime USGA official, is setting up the golf course for the first time. In the past, Sunday hole locations have seemed to be in spots where amazing things could happen. Take the 16th hole: There were two holes-in-one in 2004 and Tiger Woods's jaw-dropping chip-in for birdie two years ago when he used the green's ridge as a backboard. The USGA seems to have different thoughts on how to set up a golf course. As viewers, can we expect to see the Sunday fireworks continue?

MR. PAYNE: It would be fair to say that the imprimatur you will see imprinted on the golf course, the final Sunday and especially on the second nine, will be as you have seen it traditionally at Augusta. We hope [the setup] will allow those fireworks that you refer to continue. Because that's what people want to see. I think that's the way the players prefer it as well.

In the LA Times, Thomas Bonk profiles Payne and offers this:

Payne said Johnson could not have done a better job.

"He is a dear friend of mine and I would rate his performance a 10. I thought he faced the issue of technology threatening our course and dealt with it decisively, properly and in the best interests of our tournament.

"Equally as important, he was much aware of the importance of Augusta National and the preservations of our traditions and its place in the game of golf."

A 10? I know, I know, he has to say this stuff.

The work on the course for this year is complete, with only minor changes, including adding to the front of the 11th and 15th tees and changing the cut line on the right side of the 11th fairway.

"Hopefully, for the duration of my turn, we would not need to resort to any substantive changes," Payne said.

"Given the way the relative field competed … absent continued technological advances, it seems to me we should have it right for quite a while. I will caveat that by saying we don't take any option off the table when it comes to preserving the integrity of this course."

I like that caveat, assuming Payne recognizes that the rough and tree planting are impacting the integrity of the Jones/MacKenzie vision. 

"I believe they were necessary"

From Ron Sirak's Golf World profile of new Masters Chairman Billy Payne:

The course changes under Johnson--criticized by, among others Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, who are members and winners of a combined 10 Masters--get Payne's approval. "I believe they were necessary," he says. "This course should never be reduced to driver-pitching wedge as it was becoming." He adds, however, a rolled-back Masters ball is still possible if another distance explosion occurs.

A follow-up for Wednesday's press conference: Do you believe the "second cut" and added trees are integral to preventing the course from being reduced to a driver-wedge design?

I know, I know...he won't say. 

"The future of the tournament, and the way a new generation is introduced to the game...rests in Payne's hands."

Michael Bamberger on new Masters chairman Billy Payne:

It's a tricky thing, what Payne wants to pull off. Frank Chirkinian, the famously innovative former producer of the Masters telecast for CBS, has described the tournament as great theater on the world's most beautiful stage, with amazing characters and an unknown outcome. For years it has been delicious. Too many lay-up shots out of the rough could kill the delicate balance of brawn and touch that made the thing so special in the first place. Too much exposure could too. The Internet is many things, but grand it's not. The future of the tournament, and the way a new generation is introduced to the game, to some significant degree rests in Payne's hands. He says that making good decisions is all about having a vision, listening well and "surrounding yourself with a good team." Clifford Roberts would never have said it that way, but he would have thought it. The new guy has the same mandate that Roberts did. Billy Payne's not trying to sell a thing-except a great game, a spring golf tournament and the club that hosts it.

The War Of The Members?

A trusted Augusta insider offered this on the abrupt departure of Hootie Johnson and subsequent Billy Payne appointment:

There is a political power struggle, with two distinct factions. Hootie is on your side about equipment and Billy Payne is as well.  There is a younger more corporate group that has a different view of things. The membership knew there was a new Chairman coming but no one was sure who it would be. Hootie stepped aside so that the dwindling majority could put Billy in while they still had the power, and as you and others have picked up on, Billy is just 58 years old. He's going to be there for a while.

Hootie has tried to put pressure on the USGA to do something about the ball, and is frustrated nothing has happened, but feels he can't effect change on this issue. Billy is not in favor of today's equipment and specifically the golf ball. Augusta has been holding back in bringing out their own golf ball or their own ball spec in order to not embarrass the USGA.  But Augusta has given the USGA long enough to correct the golf ball situation to no avail. Billy will not hesitate to move ahead with their own golf ball spec, and maybe very soon. Also, it makes it easier for Billy to bring out the ball rollback without piling more criticism onto Hootie, who has dealt with a mountain of criticism already.

So if true, which side are USGAers Fred Ridley, Walter Driver and Jim Reinhardt on in this power struggle?

If the "Distance Myths" memo is our guide, perhaps they aren't on Hootie's side.

Shapiro On Commitment to Diversity (Or Lack Of)

Leonard Shapiro really hopes Augusta National takes a Woman-American member, and so do I, if nothing else so that we can move on to more important topics, like the emasculation (sorry) of the golf course.

And he writes:

Then again, nothing involving golf and women really surprises me much any more.

I mean really, the last two presidents of the U.S. Golf Association, the organization charged among other tasks with making the game accessible to the masses regardless of gender, race or religion, are both members of all-boy Augusta National. Current president Walter Driver, also belongs to Peachtree in Atlanta, a golf club that has no female or African American members, either.

And you ought to see the statement on the commitment to racial and gender diversity the Atlanta law firm, King and Spalding, he headed until last year trumpets to the public on its web site. Sadly, Driver and many other CEOs who belong to Augusta National don't practice in their private lives what their public companies preach in terms of doing all the right things.

The photo above of Walter Driver and friends was presumably not taken at Peachtree. Love that natural, at-ease body language!

Teleconference With Billy Payne

This Billy Payne thing is basically a column writer's worst nightmare. Okay, I won't complain anymore...this paragraph.

His opening remarks:

If I may, I'd like to talk first about our golf course.   There will be some changes to the course for the 2007 Masters that Mr. Johnson has already initiated, but certainly, I think you'll agree, not as significant as in the past.   They will include adding five to seven yards in front of the tees on hole Nos. 11 and 15.   The length of the tees on our other par 4s and 5s average about 20 yards.   On those two holes, it's only about 13 yards.   So these changes will make these tees consistent with the other tees on our course, and will provide us with more flexibility if the holes are playing into a substantial head wind or if the fairway conditions are soft.

Wow, flexibility. I wonder if someone had to explain it to Fazio?

Also, we will be adjusting the mow line at hole No. 11 about three to five yards on the golfer's right.   This, we believe, will provide the medium-length player a wider fairway, especially at the 280- to 300-yard mark.

Also, on the 11th hole, and on the right, we will be removing the grass from under the pine trees and replacing it with pine straw.   This, too, is consistent with other parts of our course.

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, I'm very excited about today and look forward to your questions.

Here's what Billy's really thinking after sitting through plenty of press conferences: let the predictable questions begin.

Q.   Sounds like your first order of business is to make the course shorter somehow.

BILLY PAYNE:   Well, I think it gives us the flexibility, Doug, that we want, depending on the course conditions and weather conditions.

Q.   I wanted to ask you, one issue that has arisen during Hootie's tenure was the lack of female members.   Can you see that changing?

BILLY PAYNE:   Doug, I think I would answer that by saying as we've said and as you've heard many times in the past, on membership matters, all of them will be decided by our members, and we have no specific timetable to address that issue.

Well, that took all of 20 seconds.

Q.   I'm wondering if this teleconference is any indication that under your tenure as Chairman, there will be other media availabilities other than Wednesday the week of the Tournament.

BILLY PAYNE:   Well, I think I answer that specifically by saying that I certainly intend to come down there more than just Wednesday as I'm quite accustomed to the media center, made a lot of friends and feel a significant responsibility that the media continues to have all of the needs and services in order to do their job properly.

So I think you're going to see a lot more of me, and certainly have an opportunity to continue those relationships.

Q.   But does that include possible situations such as a teleconference other than the week of the Tournament?

BILLY PAYNE:   You know, I don't know.   I haven't yet taken over officially, so I haven't really thought about that.

Well, now that we got that vital topic of non-tournament week teleconferences out of the way...

Q.   Mr. Johnson mentioned the possibility in the future of adding PGA TOUR winners back to the exemption ranks.   Are there any other changes that you're going to be looking at right away?

BILLY PAYNE:   You're accurate.   We're looking at the issue of adding back PGA TOUR winners.   We're studying the issue.   We don't expect to do that by 2007.   In fact, it would actually be unfair to do so because there are golfers out there playing right now under the existing qualification standards.

So while you won't see it next year, I think it's a probability that you will see it sometime soon in the future.

Ah, the first Hootie mess he'll be mopping up.

Q.   Just wondered, you've only had a few days to think about it, but what do you regard as your greatest immediate challenge?

BILLY PAYNE:   I think I have -- I think it's safe to say that I will need to watch, to observe, I will need to learn a lot, get familiar with significantly greater detail about the operation of the Club and the Tournament than I now possess, and I've always felt that the best learning experience initially is certainly to listen and not talk.   So that's what I plan to do in the coming months.

Okay, this nonsense is just not going to fly.  How am I, as a column writer, supposed to work with humility?

Q.   A few of my questions have already been taken,

Oh you mean, like all of the predictable ones? Sorry, continue...

but can you tell me a little bit more, carrying on plans with some of the property acquisition around the golf course and plans for the practice facility and those types of things?

BILLY PAYNE:   Yes, sir, I can tell you a little bit, which will be the full extent of my knowledge at this point in time.   I am, of course, as are all of you aware, that in order to accommodate the growing support and parking needs of the Tournament, including a state-of-the-art practice facility, we have had this effort underway now for a couple of years.   It is ongoing.   We hope to have some renderings to be able to share with y'all sometime next year, so you can see for yourself what precisely the plan is.   And we continue to look for a completion date and utilization date in the 2010-2011 time frame.

We hope to have some renderings to share with y'all? No, no Billy, you need to be combative, petulant, arrogant, smug. I can't work with this!

You realize that if he keeps this stuff up, the focus will be on the Masters and the players, and not the Chairman?

That's just so wrong on so many levels, and so disrespectful to Chairman Johnson.

Q.   The idea of a Tournament ball has been floated the last couple years, Billy, what's your position on that?

BILLY PAYNE:   Well, I guess first I'll start off, Doug, by saying that I'm very encouraged that there's an ongoing dialogue among the governing bodies, USGA, the R&A, with input and participation by the PGA TOUR to look at limitation on advances in both the equipment and the ball technology.   And I remain very hopeful and encouraged that while a difficult issue, some equitable resolution will be made, which will have the effect of slowing down the distances or the gains and distances as we have observed over the last several years.

So many of our great golf courses are at risk of becoming obsolete.   And while I and we would hope that resolution would come as quickly as possible through that normal process of the governing bodies, we would not take that option off the table in the context of what lengths to which we would go to protect our own course in the future.

I don't know about you, but there just seems to be a different feel to his comments on this subject compared to his predecessor. Maybe it's wishful thinking, or maybe Payne has grown tired of listening to Walter and Fred's lame excuses?

Q.   Everything has pretty much been asked, but a couple of things, are we pretty much maxed out on the golf course as far as the major changes?   Are we pretty much going to see what we're going to get for a while here?

BILLY PAYNE:   Yes, sir, I think we have it just about right now.   Remaining hopeful as I do that some limitations will be placed on equipment which will diminish the game in distance.   I think we've got the golf course pretty much like we like it right now.

Okay, so we need to chip in and buy him a chainsaw and maybe he'll get the hint. But isn't it interesting how he keeps hoping for limits to be placed?

Q.   Sorry if this has been asked, but have you thought about what it's going to be like to be part of that Champion's Dinner next year?

BILLY PAYNE:   I've thought about it a lot and I've been told that I'm an invited guest and I'll have a great time.   My job is just to listen and have fun, and boy, I'm really looking forward to it.

Good lord, you actually get the feeling he respects the players and feels privileged to be in their prescense.

This has to stop!

First Payne Reviews*

A somewhat encouraging start to the Billy Payne era:

"I think we have it just about right now," the 58-year-old Georgia native added. "We remain hopeful as that some limitations will be placed on equipment that will diminish the gains in distance.

"I think we have the golf course as like it right now."

Augusta National, controversially extended by 285 yards for the 2002 U.S. Masters, was stretched to 7,445 yards for this year's tournament, making it the second longest in major championship history.

Payne said limited changes would be made for the 2007 Masters, with the tee boxes on the 11th and 15th holes lengthened by five to seven yards.

"The length of the tees on the other par-fours averages about 20 yards," he added. "Those two holes are only about 15 yards long and this will provide us with more flexibility if the holes are playing into a substantial headwind."

In the only other changes for next year, the fairway on the par-four 11th will be widened around the 280-yard mark to help medium-length hitters while grass under the newly-planted trees flanking the right of that hole will be replaced by pine straw.

That's a nice start. Of course, just leaving the grass and taking out the trees would have been even better!

And an interesting comment about equipment restrictions. It will be nice to read the transcript to read his complete remarks.

Update on 2006-05-08 20:06 by Geoff

*Doug Ferguson's AP story included this:

Payne also stuck closely to Johnson's position on the possibility of a tournament golf ball for the Masters if he felt the governing bodies were not doing enough to slow gains in distance.

"While we would hope that a resolution would come as quickly as possible through the normal process, we would not take that option off the table," Payne said. 

Interesting that he is looking for "resolution." If you read the USGA's recent press release, you might surmise that there is nothing to resolve except the issue of square grooves. 

Questions For Billy Payne

The Augusta gang has scheduled a Monday teleconference with Billy Payne, and since I'm still waiting for a Glenn Greenspan email letting me know the phone-in number, I thought I'd post a few questions. You know, just in case it never comes.

Let's get the inevitable's out of the way. Odds on which comes first?:

Is there a timetable for admitting a female member?

Will you restore the PGA Tour winner exemption?

Do you have plans to change the course this summer?

Hootie Johnson: Great Chairman, or The Greatest Chairman?

Okay, maybe the last one won't be asked in Colbertian fashion, but you know they'll be talking a lot about the great visionary that Hootie was. Expect the Augusta Chapter of the Mutual Admiration Society to overtake this teleconference.

That said, here are some questions I'd like asked with the hope of lending a little more insight into Payne and ANGC:

Are you aware that if you eliminated the second cut along with the silly Christmas trees on 1, 5, 7, 11, 14, 15, 17 and 18, that you would eliminate nearly all questions about the dreadful state of the course?

Are you aware that these simple changes would also make it more fun for the members to play the course again?

Have fellow Augusta members Walter Driver and Fred Ridley ever taken you on AirUSGA for one of those Curtis Cup/U.S. Senior Amateur/Goldman Sachs entertainment fact-finding trips to Bandon Dunes, Prairie Dunes, Cypress Point, Seminole or Pine Valley?

Do you agree with Chairman Emeritus Johnson that distance needs to be reigned in somehow?

Did you see any of the "Amen Corner Live" coverage and would you consider making it part of the broadcast on USA Network, minus the announcers who reference "Amen's Corner"?

Have you ever read Bobby Jones's Golf is My Game or Alister MacKenzie's The Spirit of St. Andrews to get a better feel for their design philosophy?

You did a lot of session work on Linda Ronstadt albums. Why do you hate America? (Apologies to Colbert again...oh wait, that's the other Billy Payne, sorry).

Readers, what would you ask?