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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Today’s Long Hitters Have Changed The Way Famed Masters Hole Plays

John Nelson Associated Press

In 40 years at the Masters, the course hasn’t changed much, but the players have. Every time Ken Venturi looks at fabled No. 13, he is reminded of that fact.

“To me, it is still the greatest par-5 under 500 yards in the world,” Venturi said. “The only thing that’s ruined the hole is these players are getting so long.”

Venturi is back at his favorite Masters hole for CBS this weekend, broadcasting from both the 13th and the 18th. Unlike the old days, however, more players will be attacking the 485-yard 13th, rather than laying up.

“We used to hit 3 and 4 woods into that green. These guys now just belt it so far they’re hitting medium irons,” Venturi said. “I remember somebody once asking me if I ever hit an 8- or 9-iron into 13. I said, ‘Millions of times. Except it was my third shot.”’

The 13th, a dog-leg left with a creek running down the left side and in front of the green, marks the final leg of Augusta’s fabled Amen Corner. It has undergone several minor changes over the years. The creek in front of the green has been changed, now more resembling the old trickle of its long past, and the gallery has been banned from behind the green.

“When I was playing, we could reach the green in two, but we were going in there so hot with a 3-wood and the greens were so hard, you couldn’t afford to go right at it because there was water in back where the 16th hole is,” Venturi said.

“One year, I think it was the last year he won it, Gary Player hit one in there, it took one big hop and somebody from the gallery jumped up and batted it right back onto the green. He wound up with a 4, but he could have made 3. I think it was a good move to get the gallery out of there.”

Out takes

Picture blunt and brash Matt Millen broadcasting World League Football games alongside the erudite, continental Nick Halling, Britain’s answer to Pat Summerall.

“It’s sort of like Jethro Bodine meets the Queen of England,” Millen said, not suggesting, of course, that Halling and the Queen have any more in common than their citizenship.

Beginning today, Fox’s cable network fX will televise 10 weeks of World League games on Saturdays and Sundays. The Millen-Halling team will make its debut Sunday when the Scottish Claymores meet the London Monarchs.

Fox had to go halfway around the world to do it, but it looks like they finally found Millen some class.

“They’ll have to go farther than halfway around the world to do that,” Millen said. “This’ll be interesting.”

Mykelti Williamson, who played Forrest Gump’s shrimp-loving sidekick Bubba, is Negro Leagues legend Josh Gibson in the new HBO Pictures presentation, “Soul of the Matter.” He steals the show, and it’s a show worth stealing.

It makes its debut tonight with Blair Underwood as Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo as Satchel Paige and Edward Herrmann as Branch Rickey. Despite some minor revisionist history, it’s a delightfully funny, poignant look at the old Negro Leagues and the breaking of the color barrier in the major leagues.

Some of the movie’s best moments involve Williamson’s portrayal of a dying Gibson and the racially charged confrontations at a black vs. white all-star game after Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Paige was late to the all-star game, but insisted on pitching anyway.

“But you ain’t warmed up,” the manager complains.

“I ain’t never cooled off,” Paige replies.