If only the powers at CBS had known.There’s no way the network would have aired this year’s “Jim Nantz Remembers” special before the final round of the Masters if they had known how powerfully it would illustrate how badly the members at Augusta National have screwed up the golf course. This year’s special highlighted the CBS broadcast from 1978 when Gary Player shot a final-round 64 to come from six-shots back and beat Hubert Green, Rod Funseth, and Tom Watson. The lead changes came faster than a state trooper down I-20, and Seve Ballesteros, who played with Player, was brought to tears by the South African’s back-nine charge.

The last two editions of the Masters have been about as dramatic as…well…the U.S. Open. Trevor Immelman shot 75 on Sunday this year and coasted to victory. Nothing against Trevor – he’s a great guy and a wonderful champion – but the only roars at Augusta National this year came when the beer vendors shut down.

More than week after the green jacket ceremony, the fallout continues. No less an architectural expert than two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, the game’s resident historian and someone who rarely criticizes anyone, is coming out against some of the changes.

“I’m not being hyper-critical, but if you get a little weather as you did on Sunday, it makes it really, really difficult,” Crenshaw told me. “There is so much golf course that you end up playing defensively. It’s a chore to get around there in good weather, much less when it turns bad. Now, in the club’s defense, they felt they had to do something about the distance, but the Masters has always been about drama, and the feeling that a leader is never safe.”

That ability is now gone. A medium-length hitter like Player was his prime could never shoot a 64 on Sunday today. And even somebody like Jack Nicklaus would have trouble mustering a back-nine 30 as he did in 1986.

“Someone has always had the capacity to rush up behind you,” Crenshaw said. “In Phil’s second win, the weather was good and they had some good scoring, but when you get breeze that’s not possible anymore. I’ve been a little vocal about it since it’s been stretched out, because I’ve underlined that the place needs to retain drama. That’s what it’s always been about.”