Can you smell the azaleas?

Ah, to be at Augusta. To follow the best players in the world from tee to tee and see if they've shaken off their winter rust. To walk across the bridge over Rae's Creek, the spring sunshine on your shoulder. To cram yourself into the mass of bodies that is the gallery at 18.

Actually, that spot over the 18th may not be quite as inviting this year, Rice. Instead of floating wedge shots in there, guys will be lasering 4, 5 and 6-iron shots into the two-tiered green. Better keep your eyes open and your head down.

What are you talking about?

Oh, you haven't heard? The folks at Augusta have decided to modify the course again (this has become known as 'Tiger-proofing' in golfing circles), including adding 60 more yards and a few small beaches worth of sand to the finishing hole.

Awwww, jeez. When are these people going to learn? Lengthening the track is not going to keep the scores from going low. Wait, scratch that. Scores will go up for everyone in the field who can't hit a 320-yard fade with a three-wood. This means that those who can pound the bejesus out of the ball -- Davis Love III, Ernie "The Big Easy" Els and oh yeah, the guy for whom the changes have been made in the first place, Mr. Woods -- should have an advantage over the rest of the field.

You don't agree with wanting to make the course more of a challenge? C'mon, Rice. Today's pros are stronger, have clubs that can hit the ball farther than they can see it, then make it spin back sixteen feet and into the hole. This is merely a precaution to prevent these athletes from making a revered course look like a pitch-and-putt.

Nope. Not convinced. You mean to tell me that Augusta's greens, which have forced Jack Nicklaus into an 11 on one hole and been the cause of more three-jacks than you'll see from Happy Gilmore, aren't formidable enough? Sure, the fact that most players are hitting nine-irons and wedges into these inverted saucers, as Messirs Nantz and Venturi love to call them, makes things a bit easier. And sure, Augusta doesn't have the man-eating rough you'll see at a U.S. Open, but these holes have proven their mettle for years. Making changes now is not what the Masters is all about. It's about tradition, familiarity -- Woods and Els walking the same grounds as Hogan and Snead.

The pros have mixed feelings about the changes. Some, such as two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, aren't so sure.

"I hope it won't change the excitement of playing that golf course," Crenshaw told ESPN.com. "That's what it has always been. It's very daring. It's very tempting. I hope that never changes."

Yes, but other members of the PGA's Old Guard realize that it's all relative. Tom Watson told ESPN.com that course designer Tom Fazio told him that he wanted to "re-create the same shot values" that used to exist at Augusta, so that Woods and Els could not only walk the same grounds, but hit the same irons. Fazio and the Augusta crew have done a great job of getting the course in great shape despite the changes, and high scores through yesterday's first round have shown the results are paying off.

The scores are higher -- big deal. It's still going to come down to who can hit the shots, even if those shots are 20 yards longer, and who can make the putts on those treacherous greens. Call me a purist, but if the folks at Augusta continue to cater to those who can cream the ball (and don't look now, but a new generation of Tigers, led by 17-year-old Ty Tryon, is on the horizon), they're either going to run out of real estate or wind up on a course that looks more like the Blue Monster than the cozy 18 holes it's always been. And either way, these guys are just going to keep going lower and lower.

Let them. And let Augusta remain Augusta.