On my ninth birthday – Saturday, April 9, 1983 – I attended The Masters Tournament. I remember the two-hour drive from Atlanta and the insalubrious field in which we parked, across the road from a Waffle House. I remember following John Mahaffey, first out for the third round and playing on his own, around all 18 holes before decamping behind the 15th green. I remember spying my first pimento cheese sandwich and wondering who would eat such a thing. I also remember the crowd at the 15th singing “Happy Birthday” to Seve Ballesteros and childishly thinking they should also be singing to me.
Thus began a lifelong obsession which continues unabated, 30 years on: items #1, #2 and #3 on my personal Bucket List involve playing Augusta National before I die. While I love The Masters for many personal, historical and horticultural reasons, architectural reasons compel me the most. The variety of different golf courses and their changeability in different seasons and weather patterns is at the heart of golf’s allure; Augusta National is far more different from, say, Muirfield than Yankee Stadium is from Fenway Park or than Wimbledon is from Roland Garros. And because Augusta National is both the best course and the most-watched course on which the world’s best golfers play every year, April is the perfect time to ponder the essential elements of great golf course architecture:
Slopes. Flat fairways, flat bunkers and flat greens are anathema to exciting golf, whereas great courses fit the terrain on which they are built and make the golfer use that terrain constructively. Consider two of the greatest shots in Masters history, Louis Oosthuizen’s double-eagle approach at the 2nd hole last year and Tiger Woods’ chip-in birdie at the 16th in 2005. Neither Oosthuizen nor Woods aimed their shots at the flag, and both balls rolled a full 15 seconds after hitting the ground before entering the hole – both at angles perpendicular to the original strikes. From the steeply banked fairways at the 10th and 13th to the tilting plateaued greens at the 3rd and 15th to the wonderful mounds on the 6th and 8th, Augusta teaches that the shortest distance between two strokes isn’t always a straight line.
Strategy. My two favorite holes in golf are the driveable par 4 and the reachable par 5: such holes, when properly matching the risks of failure with the rewards of success, tax the golfer’s temperament as much as his mechanics. Augusta National has no truly driveable par 4s, but the 13th and 15th holes are among the best par 5s in the world, and the 2nd and 8th would likely be regarded just as highly if the two nines were reversed to their original 1932 configuration. Great courses constantly challenge your decision-making and reward creative shot-making; to its immense credit, very few shots at Augusta National are straightforward.
Accessibility. Truly great courses offer challenges to the professional while remaining playable and enjoyable for the amateur. So much of modern golf course design – and redesign – involves lengthening and toughening courses to cope with modern equipment, and Augusta National is unfortunately no exception. However, from the members’ tees (near to where the Masters tees were 30 years ago), even high handicappers can plod around the course and avoid the few water hazards: no forced carry is longer than 140 yards. The greens are of course firmed and greatly quickened for The Masters, but when watching The Masters this year, see how many shots you think would be impossibly difficult for you under normal course conditions. You might be surprised.
Indeed, do yourself a favor and watch the whole tournament this year with one eye trained exclusively on the golf course itself. Watch very carefully how golfers approach a hole like the 16th to each of its four very different pin placements. Try to picture the scale of Augusta’s hills, impressive enough on television but truly wheeze-inducing in person (as I still vividly remember from my walk 30 years ago). Most of all, don’t forget that as new legends are made at Augusta National, they are largely made by Augusta National. The Masters wouldn’t be The Masters without it.