Major championship golf courses in Georgia are on steroids.

Tiger Woods hit a good drive on the 18th hole Tuesday at the PGA Championship and reached for a 3-iron to hit his second shot.

Nothing unusual there, except for the fact there was no wind - and it was a par 4.

Woods rarely hits anything more than a 6-iron on par 4s.

Kerplunk!

The ball drifted too right, catching the water that fronts the green and wraps around the side on the 490-yard hole, the longest par 4 in PGA Championship history.

He wasn't alone.

Mark O'Meara, Adam Scott and Notah Begay played the practice round with him at Atlanta Athletic Club. All four hit into the water, twice each.

"Both of them landed about pin-high," Woods shrugged. "If I would have hit in on line, it would have been all right."

The Highlands Course at the Atlanta Athletic Club is about 200 yards longer than it was when it last held a major championship. Jerry Pate's 5-iron to 2 feet on the 18th hole in the 1976 U.S. Open is one of golf's most memorable shots.

Pate is playing again this week by special invitation, and one can only guess that if he hits a 5-iron on the 18th this year, it will be his third shot.

"I'll be happy to hit any iron into the green," Pate said. "I'll probably go looking for a 4-wood or a 5-wood."

Five of the par 4s are at least 450 yards. Pate recalls hitting driver and wedge into No. 8 when he won in 1976. Now the hole plays 463 yards.

That's nothing compared to what's going on about two hours away at a little place called Augusta National Golf Club.

Men in green jackets are supervising a renovation project that will add nearly 300 yards to the course for next year's Masters. The biggest change is at No. 18, which will be 60 yards longer and will add a few trees next to the bunkers down the left side.

"I think they might have stretched it a bit too much," Woods said. "I can understand them wanting to make the golf course harder. That's fine. But do it incrementally."

The changes at Atlanta Athletic Club and Augusta National - and a bunch of other top courses - are a response to a changing game.

Space-age metals are used in drivers. Balls are flying farther than ever. Lawn mowers make fairways roll like carpet in the lobby of a five-star hotel. Players are better athletes. Some are trained to swing a club before they can read and write.

Not everyone can hit 300-yard drives, though. And that's why Hal Sutton and David Duval are among those who say the size of the field in some majors can be misleading.

"They took the field size from 150 to 25," Sutton said of the PGA. "There's only 25 people in this tournament that can win it."

Duval was sizing up the changes to Augusta National and said they played right into the hands of him, Woods, Phil Mickelson - and not many others.

"All that did was reduce the players who can win from 90 to 10," he said.

Just four weeks ago, golf's oldest championship was played on one of the shortest courses on the British Open rotation.

Royal Lytham & St. Annes more than held its own.

Duval's winning score was 10-under par. Lytham added some length, but more importantly it added some bunkers, which along with the wind is the best defense on links courses. That brought more players into the field, players who could hit it a mile (Duval) and those whose drives were closer to a furlong (Pierre Fulke).

But is that the answer? Was that fair?

Woods and others never hit driver more than about four times a round at Royal Lytham. That also was the case at Southern Hills, where fast, bending fairways meant hitting irons off even 450-yard holes to keep it in play.

"You can't penalize a guy who's got power and accuracy," O'Meara said.

If Atlanta Athletic Club is set up to reward only the big hitters, that's not such a bad thing. Woods has an advantage by hitting the ball a long way. So did Jack Nicklaus. The driver is the hardest club, and some players happen to hit it exceptionally well.

"You don't get to do what you do best," Davis Love III said, referring to courses set up to take the driver out of play.

The result, however, is two different games.

The big hitters thrive on courses where length is a clear advantage. The others stand a better chance when the game is all about position.

The one constant is the shortest stick in the bag.

"You still have to putt well," O'Meara said. "Any major always comes down to that."

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