J.D. CubanBilly Payne during the Green Jacket ceremony at the 2011 Masters.Comfortable and at peace. That was how Masters chairman Billy Payne appeared to Golf World Editor-in-Chief Jaime Diaz on Tuesday when the two met in Payne’s office for a sit-down interview at Augusta National Golf Club, a day prior to Payne’s announcement that he was retiring as club chairman, effective in October.
“I had never spoken to the chairman one-on-one like that,” Diaz said. “You know, I was a little trepidatious about how formal it might be, or if in any way it was going to be stiff, and it wasn’t. It was just the opposite. For whatever reason, I felt very comfortable immediately. And I think that’s one of his gifts.”
On this week’s Golf Digest Podcast, Diaz discusses his conversation and the story he subsequently wrote for the website in which he assesses Payne’s time at Augusta. Given the number of things achieved in Payne’s 11-plus years, Diaz comes to the conclusion that his was the most influentia..

Andrew Redington(Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)To combat the increasing player distances in golf, courses are being stretched to dimensions that mirror national parks. Par 3s are not immune to this expansion, evidenced in Oakmont's 8th hole reaching 300 yards at the 2016 U.S. Open.
Which is absurd; a hole can still have plenty of bark without tape-measuring yardage. The 12th at Augusta National, Troon's Postage Stamp, the 7th at Pebble back this up. Keeping that in mind, the Euro Tour took this sentiment to the extreme.
For this week's Made in Denmark event, the 16th hole at Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort weighs in at a whopping…86 yards, a figure usually seen at a pitch-n-putt track. While we're proponents of keeping par 3s at reasonable distances, this is too generous for players of such high caliber.
As you can imagine, the field is going to town on this advantageous arena, with two aces already recorded in the early proceedings:
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