Billy Payne was the mastermind behind the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and while having been the head-honcho of what was an often chaotic Games is not something to brag about, actually getting the party to Atlanta in the first place was some achievement.

If the promise that he was to be the man who dragged the Masters into the 21st century has yet to be tried and tested, Payne, a 59-year-old lawyer and former Georgia Tech gridiron star, certainly appears to be a more savvy PR operator than his predecessor, Hootie Johnson.

While he insisted that there was no "suggestion box" in the exclusive clubhouse, the urbane and polished Payne has already revamped some of the tournament's qualification rules by giving places to PGA Tour winners, and it seems as if additional TV coverage of the event could also be in the offing.

However, when he was questioned on the thorny topic of Augusta's maleonly membership policy, it was business as usual. Admittedly, there was none of the language of Johnson who said he wasn't going to be pushed around by any lobby groups at the "point of a bayonet", but Payne, at this stage anyway, is not for turning.

"It's subject to the private deliberations of the members, and other than that, I'm simply not going to talk about it, " he stonewalled.

As the assembled media corps pondered Payne's commitment to the hard line on membership, a quick glance around the press conference room, which holds close to 200 people, revealed the sum total of four women . . . and two of those were stenographers.

Change, it seems, comes slow on more than one front.

The Masters prides itself on attention to detail from the price of a pimento cheese sandwich to the make of fertiliser used on the azaleas, to the speed of the greens.

However, one unexpected gremlin turned up in this year's Official Players' Guide where Tiger Woods is listed as having won 565 PGA Tour events. We know he's pretty good, butf Picture it. In the luxuriant dell that is the Augusta Par Three course, a portly figure toils up the hill towards the ninth green.

The player is not one of the ageing former champions who return annually in the name of tradition, he is relatively young, fresh-faced, yet his pot-bellied physique has more in common with the oche than the first tee.

It doesn't seem to matter that his polo shirt is blotched with perspiration as he selects a lob wedge and casually flips the ball into the hole for a birdie two.

The applause subsides, and one of the spectators wonders out loud how Darren Clarke could have put on so much weight, and how maybe it could have had something to do with the recent trauma in his personal life.

Others join in, and at the end of the conversation, there is a nodding agreement that if anyone deserves a good week, Clarke does. Problem is, the player's not Darren Clarke, it's Carl Pettersson of Sweden.

And Pettersson, a talented and refreshing antidote to the lithe, custombuilt post-Tiger Woods generation, makes Clarke look positively svelte.

Consider the following from the normally avuncular Ernie Els as an expression of what Augusta can do to a man who has won three major championships. Following his first round 78 which featured three dropped shots at the two opening holes, Els, who would later miss the cut, was asked about his poor start.

Q: Unsettling, a start like that?

A: What do you think?

Q: How disappointing is this for you?

A: You can figure that one out can't you?

Q: But we need to hear it from you.

A: Well, there you go.

Not too sure if Kenneth Ferrie possesses a nice bit of attitude, or if he's majoring in naivete.

Preparing for his first Masters, Ferrie saw a gap in the Par Three competition timesheet alongside Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player and promptly put his name down.

The following day, Ferrie was informed by an Augusta official that he had been removed from the timesheet.

"I'm disappointed. I understood it was an open draw, and Nicklaus and Player are two of my lifelong heroes. It would have been one of the highlights of the week for me."

It mightn't have been a highlight for the galleries, however. The place on the timesheet happened to be reserved for someone called Arnold Palmer.

Fuzzy Zoeller, he of the notorious remark about what Tiger Woods might serve at the Champions dinner, and a winner here at his first attempt in 1979, survived the difficult conditions to make his first cut since 1998.

Asked if the juices were flowing as he succeeded where Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia failed, the 55-year-old replied:

"At my age, I don't know if you can call them juices anymore."

"How green it is. From the napkins, to coming down Magnolia Lane, to the grass you're standing on. Green roofs, green awnings, green umbrellas, people wearing green shirts, green jackets.

How green it is. There's a lot of money involved here too. How green it is." . . .

Two-time Masters champion Tom Watson on, well, the colour green of course.