Athletes on tour amazing to Tiger

It was perhaps inevitable, but golfers at the Masters Tournament are playing a game even Tiger Woods is not familiar with.

"They are doing things no one has ever seen on tour before," Woods said of the newest breed of players, who are turning heads the way he did in the 1990s.

Woods predicted as much years ago when classic courses around the world started stretching their perimeters to curb the effects of the power that Woods and modern technology brought. As he helped popularize the game and make it more lucrative, it was a lure for more athletic players to join him on the fairways.

It's safe to say that 15 years into his career, his new peer group doesn't look a lot like Craig Stadler or Tim Herron anymore. The Walruses and Lumpys are becoming endangered species on the PGA Tour.

Longer, leaner and more athletic men such as Dustin Johnson, Gary Woodland, Jhonattan Vegas and Alvaro Quiros are playing golf instead of other sports they would be just as well-suited to excel in.

"I always thought this was a pretty good sport, but growing up, that wasn't the case," Woods said. "It wasn't a cool sport to play. But I think that having more other athletes play the game, like a Michael Jordan play the game and expose it that way, has made kids think that this is a pretty cool sport to play. They try and they are hooked, too, and they love the challenge of it.

"I think that is pretty neat to see the game change. The game has gotten taller and it has gotten bigger. Guys are much more athletic and faster."

About a quarter of this year's Masters field are 6-foot-2 or taller, with 6-5 Robert Karlsson topping the field. Some, including 6-4 Dustin Johnson, can dunk basketballs (he could palm one and dunk in seventh grade). Woodland was an all-state baseball player in high school and played college basketball at Division II Washburn College in Kansas before deciding to focus on golf. Vegas was a promising baseball player as a kid in Venezuela before succumbing to the golf bug.

Despite his prodigious power and sleek physique, Quiros says he would never be mistaken for a rugby player in Spain: "Oh no, I am far too fragile."

All of them make Woods, who was 67th in driving distance on tour going into the Masters, seem like a modest hitter these days.

"I'm certainly not one of the longest, there's no doubt," he said. "But I can still move it out there. I'm not one of the shortest yet. I have another gear in there where I can add 15, 20 (yards). It's still there. But some of these longer guys, they are there at the 15, 20, and then they have another gear. The sport has changed. Guys are bigger and faster and can certainly move it."

Woods got a taste of his own medicine a couple weeks ago at Bay Hill when he was paired with Johnson and Woodland -- who both average longer than 300 yards this season on tour. He spoke of that experience the way everyone used to talk about playing with him.

"It's no problem for me hitting over 300 yards, but there are guys who flight it 320," Woods said. "I thought Dustin was long, and I've played a number of times with him, but Dustin, he's got nothing on Gary. When Gary steps on it ... it's like, 'Whoa, are you kidding me?' His ball is flat; when you think it should be coming down it, it just continues to fly."

Woods was most impressed by one shot on the 16th hole at Bay Hill when Woodland's drive failed to carry the lip of a bunker 335 yards from the tee.

"He's all bent out of shape that he couldn't carry it and he said, 'I've lost the ability to carry 340 now,' " Woods said. "Like, sorry, I had never seen that shot. That's the new game. That's what I've said all along: These guys who have played other sports, these guys are both really good basketball players and they both have been able to dunk, and they both have been able to play hoop. And then they decide to play golf instead. So it's neat to see these guys transition into our sport with their power."

The folks at Augusta National were keen enough to check out the new breed, grouping Woodland, Quiros and Vegas together for the first two rounds.

"It was easy to club off each other," Woodland said.

These bombers aren't buying that Woods can't keep up.

"He's not short at all," Vegas said. "There are only a few guys who can hit it past him."

Though 5-9 Rory McIlroy is leading the field, it's more likely that a 6-4 player such as Quiros will be in the mix in the future than people like 5-4 Ian Woosnam.

"Looking at (6-foot-3) Tom Weiskopf, back in the day, he was a giant," Woods said. "Now, every guy is 63, 64. It's a different ball game."

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 orscott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.