Anger is rife at Augusta. Resentment seethes amid the azaleas; there is despair in the lovely pink and white dogwood trees.
These are unfamiliar emotions at the Augusta National, a place that prides itself on perfection, and it would perhaps be fair to say that the anger is both partial and muted, the despair muffled.
But perhaps for the first time since the United States Masters began in 1934, voices are being raised in protest about some aspects of this hallowed event. For the 2002 championship will be as no other.
Enormous changes have taken place that will radically affect the way the course is played and the atmosphere in which the tournament is conducted.
The course has been lengthened in a way that makes it more difficult and the knock-on effect is that several former champions, whose presence has done so much to make the Masters unique, have been stopped from competing.
Augusta has had a tradition of allowing anyone who won a green jacket to play for as long as they wished and while it may be true that some of their efforts resembled dead men walking, they are not happy about being ejected from the competition.
Doug Ford, winner in 1957 and now 79, who would have been playing in his 50th Masters, summed up his own sentiments and those of Billy Casper (1970) and Gay Brewer (1967) when he said: ?They just sent a letter. It hurt our feelings that they couldn?t pick up a phone and ask us not to play.
?We would have loved to play this year. We wouldn?t have hurt anyone and we play much faster than the young players, so we wouldn?t have been in their way.?
The dismissal of the three not only removes a long-loved element of the Masters, it sets a precedent. Will Arnold Palmer be next? He hasn?t made a cut since 1983, so why not? ?I hope I won?t have to get a letter,? he said, ?but maybe I should have had one already.?
But at least Ford, Casper and Brewer will be spared having to cope with an Augusta National that looks deceptively like the old one. Darren Clarke, for instance, is with the majority of players who estimate that it is two strokes harder than last year.
?There aren?t two holes where you can say that that?s where you?ll lose a shot,? said Clarke. ?They?ll just accrue over time.? The Irishman, as a relatively long hitter, is in favour of the changes, but there are many who wish the course had been left alone.
Mark Calcavecchia, also a long hitter, said: ?It?s an advantage to me because it?ll weed out the shorter guys, but I liked it better before.?
Hal Sutton, a shorter hitter, said: ?If I say what I think I could get into trouble. We?ve already determined who hits it long. Why not determine who hits it straight??
Zimbabwe?s Nick Price said he was ?sorry they had to change it? and Billy Mayfair added that he thought it ?wasn?t necessary. You lose a little bit of tradition?.
So what is it that they are griping about? The course changes add up to an extra 285 yards, which surely cannot make that much difference? But Augusta chairman Hootie Johnson, aided and abetted by the course architect Tom Fazio, have been fiendishly clever. It is death by a thousand cuts rather than a few wild slashes, and it starts on the first tee where the fairway bunker that once was easily carried now needs binoculars to be spotted.
The 7th is so narrow it is like playing up a drainpipe and the tee has been moved back 45 yards. Players can no longer take a two- or three-iron off the tee for safety. ?It?s a driver now,? says Nick Faldo, ?or you are hitting a six-iron into a green that?s so small it?s practically non-existent.?
To have any chance of reaching the 8th green in two, after the tee has been moved back 15 to 20 yards and to the right another 10, the player must be on the right of the fairway, but that is now blocked by a bunker that has nearly doubled in size. Can you fly the ball 305 yards? Are you sure? Then go for it.
The tee for the 9th has been moved back 30 yards, which means that players will have to play their second shots off a hanging side-hill lie, to a green that demands precise placement. And the 10th may be the only 495-yard par four in existence.
The tee has been moved back 10 yards and five to the left, making the dog-leg left even fiercer so the trees both left and right will see some business this week.
The 11th nearly matches the 10th, a 490-yard par four after the tee was moved back 35 yards and five to the right, and demands a fade off the tee, after the draw required off the previous tee.
The 13th and 8th have also been lenghthened but the 14th is probably the sleeper of all the changes. By adding 35 yards the players will no longer be able to attack the severest green on the course with a wedge.
?We want to keep the golf course current,? said Johnson, and on Sunday evening we will know whether they have succeeded.