Byline: Joe Gordon

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This week's 68th Masters Tournament is the youngest of golf's four major championships, but it exudes an unparalleled sense of history because it's the only major conducted on the same course every year. From it's debut at Augusta National in 1934 as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament, the paradise nurtured by Grand Slam winner Bobby Jones and Augusta czar Clifford Roberts was conducive to growing a catalogue of legendary shots and performances….

Changing times

Manuel De La Torre, a former tour player who competed against Snead and the other greats of the game, and whose book "Understanding the Golf Swing" is a useful guide, traced the evolution of lower scoring through course maintenance and physical conditioning.

"I think (Snead) would compete very nicely (in the modern era)," said De La Torre, who witnessed the changes that led to the power game on display this week at Augusta National.

"When I was on the tour the courses we played in those tournaments and the courses of today, there's no comparison. Look at some of the old Shell's Wonderful World of Golf episodes. The greens that Palmer putted on were so bumpy you wonder how the ball ever got in the hole. Today the ball runs so smoothly it's no wonder the scores as are low as they are. With the condition of the bunkers they are no longer a hazard."

De La Torre recalled playing an event under conditions no modern player would tolerate. "We played the Texas Open at a course called Brackenridge Park in San Antonio. We teed off on rubber mats. And we were very happy to play. Mike Souchak shot 66 and it was hard as a rock, but he was happy to have a place to play," said De La Torre.

Souchak won there in 1955 with a record low score at Brackenridge of 17-under-par 257.