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Most people know Augusta because it is the site of the
Masters Tournament, played each spring at the Augusta
National Golf Club. The tourist boom in the early years of
the 1900s brought golf to Augusta, and a number of excellent
golf courses soon sprang up.
The courses attracted many, including a young Atlantan named
Bobby Jones, who often came to town to play at what are now
the Forest Hills Golf Club and the Augusta Country Club.
Jones remembered Augusta fondly in later years when he and
friend Clifford Roberts began to plan a special "winter
course," suitable for play when most everyone else
was shivering.
Jones is said to have favored Augusta over his native
Atlanta because of its milder winters.
In 1930, he persuaded a Scottish architect named Alister
MacKenzie to design what would become Augusta National on
a 365-acre site off then-rural Washington Road.
It opened for members' play in December 1932. There was soon
talk of holding a U.S. Open at the course, but Jones and Roberts
thought it might be better to hold their own tournament.
So was born The Masters - although for years Jones avoided
calling it that.
"We realized," Roberts later wrote, "that
in order to build a tournament of stature that could survive
Bob's eventual separation from the event, it needed to be
operated in a better fashion and made more enjoyable than
any other."
Roberts, the club chairman until his death in 1977, and Jones,
the club president until he died in 1971, succeeded magnificently.
The Masters was, and still is, considered the best-run
golf tournament in the world by fans and golfers alike.
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Hole No. 1 -
Tea Olive
Tee shots can easily find trouble either in the right
bunker or in the trees to the left. Changes made before
the 2002 tournament force players who used to use a wedge
or 9-iron to take two or three more clubs on the approach.
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Hole No. 2 -
Dogwood
This second hole is a dogleg left, reachable in two by
the longest drivers. For the shorter hitters, it's one
of the more difficult drives. Many players will choose
a 3-wood to help avoid the left bunker on their first
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Hole No. 3 -
Flowering Peach
The shortest par 4 hole with a small L-shaped table-top
green that requires the utmost delicacy with the approach
shot. The tough pin position is on the left, the arm of
the "L."
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Hole No. 4 - Flowering Crabapple
A fine one-shot hole that can require a wood shot from
even the long hitters. The green is wide. A shot sent
to the wrong side of the green can leave a putt as long
as 75 or 80 feet.
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Hole No. 5 -
Magnolia
Now measuring an extra 20 yards for the 2003 tournament,
the bunkers on No. 5 were also moved right and 80 yards
forward. Players now must aim farther right off the tee,
leaving longer approaches to a green that features a large
hump in front.
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Hole No. 6 - Juniper
An elevated tee looks down on this hole with a giant hump
at the right of the green. The pin position at the top
of the hump is one of the most difficult on the course.
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Hole No. 7 -
Pampas
Trees line both sides of fairway of this hole, the tightest
on the course. A large tree between the tee and the No.
6 green creates a narrow chute for the players' first
shots. After changes made before the 2002 tournament,
players now take more than a sand wedge for their second
shot to a small, green. |
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Hole No. 8 - Yellow Jasmine
Only the longest hitters can get home in two, and they
face a tough route. Since trees block the way to the green
from the left side of the fairway, players have to flirt
with the bunker on the right in order to reach the green
in two.
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Hole No. 9 -
Carolina Cherry
Trees on the right can catch errant drives, especially
since the ground slopes to the right. On their second
shot, players have to consider the greenside bunkers.
Then, they face a green severly sloping from back to front.
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Hole No. 10 - Camelia
The fairway encourages a drawn tee shot which can kick
off the hill and produce tremendously long drives. A drive
hit too far to the right can require long second shots
off a slanted lie.
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Hole No. 11
- White Dogwood
The first of the water holes. The tee shot is through
a very long chute, but once players reach the landing
area it's wide open. More than length, the course demands
accuracy off the tee, or the second shot becomes a perilous
intro to Amen Corner.
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Hole No. 12 - Golden Bell
The shortest and maybe the deadliest of them all. The
narrow, canted green is guarded by Rae's Creek and threatens
not the easiest of shots in the little pitch across the
water after your tee shot splashed into the creek.
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Hole No. 13
- Azalea
The hole is jealously guarded by a little creek that runs
along the left side of the fairway before crossing just
in front of the green and running past it to the right.
Tee shots need to be hit long and straight just to reach
the bend of this dogleg left.
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Hole No. 14 - Chinese Fir
A fairly straight hole -- the only one on the course with
no bunkers -- with trouble on the putting surface. This
hole has one of the most difficult greens on the course,
with a large hump running across the front it -- definitely
three-putt country.
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Hole No. 15
- Fire Thorn
The hole on which Gene Sarazen made his famous double-eagle
in 1935. The landing area presents one large mound and
several smaller ones, reducing the width to only 30 yards.
A straight tee shot can allow long hitters to try to reach
the green in two.
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Hole No. 16 - Redbud
Fairway? What fairway -- it's all water. The green has
a small, back neck that protrudes left into the water.
When the pin is there, it takes a desparate golfer to
shoot for it. Also to watch out for - the bunkers to the
right of the sloping green.
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Hole No. 17
- Nandina
A large ever-growing tree, the Eisenhower Pine, stands
sentinel on the left side of the fairway. The green slopes
off toward the back, making it nearly impossible to hold
an approach carried past the center of the green.
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Hole No. 18 - Holly
This stern test requires 330 yards -- uphill -- to carry
the bunkers on the left. Players face a second shot uphill
to a green difficult to hold with a longer iron. Need
a par to win The Masters? Play hard. Need a birdie? Good
luck.
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Florida Golf's City of the Month
