Controversy has taken over the US Masters in the past few weeks; to begin with we have the Masters officials lengthening of Augusta National Golf Club, making it one of the hardest courses to play in now. The organizers state that the whole point in stretching the par course from 7,290 yards to 7,445 yards is to keep up with technology advances in the players equipment.

Now the players are raising doubts whether or not the last changes on the field have gone too far too quickly. Some of us might even wonder if this change in the length just made the Augusta course too advantageous for the long hitters, this reduces the possible winners to about 10 players.

And to add up to the length of the filed controversy stress a hot and dry, weather delays have eased woes in seven of the past eight years. Monday's opening practice round for the year's first major championship came with predictions for warm and sunny weather with only a slight chance of rain on Saturday, dream conditions for making Augusta's undulating greens faster and therefore more difficult.

But at least wet greens allow approach shots to stick onto the tricky trademark putting surfaces of Augusta National. Hot and dry weather promises pavement-like putting surfaces with amazing curves and twists.

Players wise, Woods' arrival eased worries he might miss the Masters because of his fathers poor health. Now that he is at Augusta National, rivals are looking for a way to stop him from an unprecedented second back-to-back Masters title.