On Woody Austin

(Photo: CA)

Woody Austin will defend his Stanford St. Jude Championship title when the tournament begins June 2.

Yet, how will he defend his comments in the Commercial Appeal?

Austin's win last year was the third of his career and first in 12 years, though he's had a litany of top 25 finishes. Yet, in the CA article, Austin comes across as bitter about how the sport has changed since Tiger Woods, other power players, technological advances and course alterations became the norm.

An excerpt:

Admiring the games of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson when he was young, Austin was fascinated by how the legendary foursome drew upon their shot-making skills to consistently win on the PGA Tour. Austin admits he's having a difficult time embracing a game today that so readily rewards power.

''The game has changed, it's entirely different,'' Austin, who will defend his title next week, said. ''The way I play this game, is old-style. I play this game from a precision standpoint. Ball-striking, controlling the golf ball, left to right, right to left, high, low, whatever.

''But the game is not about that anymore. It's about power. It's about length. At 44, not being a long hitter or a big guy to begin with, the game has changed.''

...

''Back in the day when Nicklaus, Watson, Palmer and Trevino (dominated), most of those tournaments were won by the guy who was playing the best that week,'' Austin said. ''You had to control the golf ball. If you mis-hit a golf ball back then, the golf ball went that way. If you mis-hit a golf ball now, the ball doesn't go that way anymore.

''If Tiger (Woods) or Bubba [Watson] or any of those guys mis-hit a drive back in the day, they could hit houses. Now they are 50 yards past me and wide open. Most of the golf courses today, you don't get penalized for bad play. That's why you have so many more first-time winners on Tour today.''

During the first five months of the year, the PGA Tour has produced six first-time winners -- Brian Gay, Greg Kraft, Andres Romero, Johnson Wagner, Anthony Kim and Ryuji Imada. That's nearly as many as won for the first time (seven) in all of 2007.

''You have so many younger players that play better at an early age, not because they are better players than we were at a younger age, it's just easier to play the game now,'' Austin said. ''The game is not about what it used to be about.

''When I learned the game you never swung 100 percent. Never. Back when I learned to play the game, the driver's sweet spot was that little keyhole on a wooden driver. You had to hit that spot perfect. Now you get hit a much bigger spot.''

Bitter, is he?

Or maybe, he's just being real on behalf of amateur and average players who don't feel competitive as they used to feel.

Whatever.

Every game evolves. To think that players like Woods lack precision is simply locker room material for when he returns to competitive play. But I digress.

Austin wants courses to add difficulty, which perhaps makes it easier to move up the ladderboard when everyone else is screwing up.

Yet, players screw up now. What's Austin's excuse?

*EyeNews: The lineup.
*Fox13: Phil Cannon.