Masters tailor-made for Tiger

"All of the European guys who have won here, including myself, have been mid-range hitters."

But according to Faldo, whose remarks are made all the more pertinent by his growing reputation as a golf course architect, golfers like former Masters champions Jose Maria Olazabal and Bernhard Langer will be struggling right from the start.

The par four first, already one of the toughest opening holes in major championship golf, has been extended by 25 yards to 435 yards. The aim is to bring the fairway bunker on an up-slope back into play, but Faldo believes the players who drive harder off the tee will still enjoy an advantage.

He explained: "If you're playing the first now and you can't get to the top of the hill, you might be hitting a four iron semi-blind to a green which is really designed to receive six iron to nine iron shots.

"If they're going to use the same pins, then you're actually keeping the advantage with the longer hitter because he can get to the top of the hill and he'll have a six iron in. But the middle range hitters could have a really tough time."

Strange, twice a winner of the US Open, said: "Did they 'Tiger-proof' Augusta? Of course not. Look, if I have a six iron in my hands and Woods has a nine iron, I can play with him. But it is going to be more like three iron versus seven iron, and you can't beat him doing that, I don't care how good you are.

"Nobody can fault the members of Augusta National for wanting to do something. Eleven times in the past dozen Masters, the winning score has been under 280. In the preceding 53 Masters, it happened just 15 times. Ten years ago, the average driving distance on the US PGA Tour was 260 yards. Last year, it was 279.

"But you can't Tiger-proof a course just by making it longer. The only hope of doing that is to take the driver out of his hands - create a short, tight course where he'd have to lay up off a lot of the tees, and where everybody's hitting short irons into greens.

"Frankly, I wish they'd grown some rough and put more of a premium on driving accuracy. Every other major - just about every other tournament- - has serious rough. At Augusta, the premium has always been on the length of drives. Now, more than ever.

"The longer the golf course, the bigger the advantage for the long hitters. Sure, Nick Faldo won the Masters three times and Bernhard Langer and Jose Maria Olazabal twice each, and none of those guys is super-long. But now I have a tough time thinking anybody of average length can win here."

Significantly, the views of Faldo and Strange are supported by Earl Woods, father of the golfing sensation who tamed Augusta with a record 18-under-par total of 270 in 1997 and who took just two more shots to win a second Masters 12 months ago.

Woods Snr said: "It plays into his and any long-hitter's hands. Anybody who hits it long will be in their comfort zone."

Storm fears for Augusta scores
Turning a masterpiece into a monster