Trevino: Players would shoot 'in the 50s' on old Augusta National

• By Will Gray
• Feb 21, 2013 1:55 PM ET

A winner at three of the four venues slated to host majors in 2013, Lee Trevino voiced an opinion defending recent changes made at the one place where a major eluded him – Augusta National.

"They'd be shooting in the 50s today, these guys, as long as they hit it, yeah, they'd be shooting in the 50s if they hadn't stretched Augusta out," Trevino explained in part of a wide-ranging interview with CBS Sports. "They would have had to do something with Augusta to make it extremely hard."

With only a pair of top-10 finishes in 20 career appearances at The Masters, Trevino detailed the alternative changes he envisioned had the course not undergone a series of revisions over the past 10 years to add length.

"They would have had to put the rough way up and made it really tight. And that isn't what Mr. Jones wanted," he explained. "Mr. Jones didn't want rough up there because he wanted the best player to win. And sometimes when you have deep rough, the best player doesn't win."

Having won his second U.S. Open title at Merion 42 years ago in a playoff over Jack Nicklaus, the "Merry Mex" is eager to see the event return to the Pennsylvania course this summer.

"It'll be very tight. Rough will be high ... it'll give the pros a tremendous amount of problems if they can control the water to it," said Trevino. "If it rains and softens up the golf course, these professionals today will have a good time with that course because they'll be driving the ball with 3-woods, 5-woods, you know, hybrid and whatever."

Never known to shy away from stating an opinion, Trevino was also clear in assessing the game of current world No. 2, Tiger Woods.

"I don't see how you can dispute Tiger's ball-striking right now," he noted. "Right now as far as ball-striking is concerned, I don't see how it gets any better than Tiger."

Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981, Trevino also shared the major expectations he has for Woods this season.

"I think he's going to win the Masters and the (British) Open," he added. "I'm picking him for the Open because he's not going to need a driver there and that's where he has some problems."