Augusta National

Augusta National Golf Club is one of Earth's most exclusive clubs and the layout was designed by perhaps the world’s greatest golfer, who teamed up with maybe the world’s greatest architect. Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie were the perfect duo to lay down the consummate golf course.

Welcome to Walt’s World

“The Augusta National is the epitome of the type of course which appeals most keenly to the American taste, the meadowland course.” Wrote Robert Trent Jones in The Complete Golfer. “From tee to green there is nothing but closely cropped green turf. These broad expanses of fairway, punctuated with pines and dotted with flashes of white sand, give Augusta a clean, sprightly appearance. The Jones conception, incarnate in Augusta, was that the course should be a true test of championship golf, but, more than that, that it should be a pleasure for all classes of golfer to play.”

“The Augusta National keeps up with the times. Almost every year, upon the conclusion of the Masters Tournament, and after things have been mulled over, changes are made in one or two holes to increase their playing value. Undoubtedly the two most thorough overhaulings took place on the 11th and the 16th, and my work in developing these two holes has been my loving contribution to Augusta’s greatness. Over a period of years these two holes have been transformed from the easiest par four and the easiest par three on the course to perhaps the most difficult.”

Robert Trent Jones was not the only architect to subtly contribute to the development of Augusta National. Perry Maxwell, George Cobb, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio all shaped the course over the years to fulfil the wish of Bobby Jones for Augusta to remain “eminently playable from the regular tees for the medium and high handicap golfer while simultaneously presenting a stiff examination from the back tees for the low handicap or scratch golfer.”

Magnolia Lane, Rae’s Creek, Eisenhower Tree, colourful azalea, dogwood and redbud, Amen Corner, wickedly fast greens and, of course, the Green Jacket, are all synonymous with the Augusta National. The Masters is the only Major to be played every year on the same course and consequently anyone even remotely interested in golf becomes familiar with the course thanks to extensive TV coverage.

A Green Jacket can await or be denied – Augusta’s closing hole

Many millions of people may feel they know the course, but only the lucky few have been fortunate enough to actually play it. If you have somehow managed to befriend a member and take divots out of Augusta’s immaculate fairways, did the course meet your expectations?

Fergal O'Leary gets the invite to play Augusta National... The Dream.

Champions Dinner – select the menu and pay the tab

Behind the architectural curtain - 2018 Masters

Augusta’s par three party – 2018 Masters

Green never to be seen - Augusta's greatest jacketless golfers