Augusta National Golf Club, Golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States
Augusta National Golf Club is an 18-hole golf course on 365 acres in Augusta, Georgia, designed by Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie and opened in 1932. Its fairways climb a gentle slope toward putting greens ringed by tall pines, with large irregular white sand bunkers cut into the hillside. The course measures 7,445 yards at par 72.
Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts founded the club in 1932 on the 365-acre site of a former nursery and plantation called Fruitland, later Fruitlands. Alister MacKenzie designed the course with Jones, and it opened for play that year; the first Masters was held in 1934. In 1935 the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company forced foreclosure and re-incorporation as Augusta National, Inc.
The green jacket is awarded to the Masters champion, who returns it to the club after a year; past champions may wear theirs at the club. The club admitted its first two women members, Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore, on August 20, 2012. The par-3 contest is held on a nine-hole short course beside the main course the day before the tournament.
The course is a winter club, closed from late May through mid-October, so play and visits fall outside that window. Members may bring guests, and the public cannot book a round; the annual Masters in early April is the main way outsiders see the grounds. Patrons and media may not bring laptops or phones, and violators are removed and barred from returning.
The holes carry plant names reflecting the nursery past, including Tea Olive, Pink Dogwood and Carolina Cherry. Rows of magnolias and flowering shrubs along the fairways still recall the original use of the land.
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