The story
Early planning
Augusta National (originally, during planning stages, Augusta-National) was founded in 1932 by Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts on the 365-acre (148 ha) site of a former nursery and antebellum plantation called Fruitland (later Fruitlands). Jones sought to create a world-class winter golf course in his native state of Georgia. During the first decade of the club's existence, membership was low and finances were short due to the Great Depression and the relatively remote location of Augusta, forcing the duo to scrap future plans for a "ladies' course", squash and tennis courts, and various estates. Roberts later said that had they known how long the Depression would last, they would not have proceeded.
Other names considered for the club were American-International Golf Club, Georgia-National Golf Club (the early leading choice), the International Golf Club of Augusta, and Southern National Golf Club.
Construction of the golf course, designed by Alister MacKenzie, began in February 1932 and was finished quickly: Bermuda grass was planted in late May and mowed for the first time on June 10. Jones played the course in August and was happy with the quality. Moreover, construction had come in at its planned $100,000 budget. MacKenzie was assisted by Marion Hollins.
The club also hired Olmsted Brothers to design a new, future clubhouse and a planned subdivision, initially envisioned to comprise a third of the land and from which lots would be sold to members for winter homes. Numbered lots were advertised along the street and access roads were built. (The firm also advised against the course's now-famous plant-themed holes.) Twenty sites were planned, with acreage reserved for more; however, only three lots were sold to a single club member, W. Montgomery Harison, upon which Harison built a large mansion. (The parcel was eventually purchased by Augusta member Julian Roberts and sold back to the club; the house was torn down.)
Roberts attempted to attract members by sending out thousands of invitation letters with a note from Jones. The Augusta Chronicle published an editorial praising the new club. After a year, just 66 members had joined. Others withdrew later due to financial difficulties. A large percentage of new members were New Yorkers, attracted by either Jones or Grantland Rice, who often promoted Augusta National in his column "The Sportlight". Even after Roberts and Jones created a cheaper membership option, new applicants were few and far between. MacKenzie, too, was owed at least $3,000 at the end of 1932, but the club had no extra money; he ultimately died before ever seeing the completed course.
An official opening took place in January 1933. Roberts and Rice arranged for a private train car to come to Augusta from New York City and play golf with Jones and Francis Ouimet. The weekend was ruined by cold, rainy weather and only one guest joined the club, Frank Willard, as a favor to Roberts. That March, the club reported a debt of $31,000.
First Masters tournaments
The Masters was first held in 1934 in an attempt to attract crowds and players. Roberts persuaded Jones, then retired, to return to play in the tournament. Jones was initially against the name Masters. At that point in time, Augusta National had just 76 members (instead of a planned 1,800, including many international members), paying annual dues of $60/year.
The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, Augusta's main creditor, forced a foreclosure of the club and re-incorporation as Augusta National, Inc. in 1935. The bank realized its best chance of recouping its debt was to ensure the club stayed afloat through the depression.
Read the full text
Olmsted Brothers's work was advertised during the first two Masters Tournaments, and they were billed as one of "three eminent designers" of the course, alongside Jones and MacKenzie. It worked with Augusta National on their unsuccessful subdivision project for a decade.
Roberts also envisioned an on-site golf hall of fame, inspired by the then-two-year-old National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum; the idea never progressed. In 1939, he sent all Augusta National members a letter imploring them to invite new people to join the club, resulting in membership breaking 100 people for the first time. The Masters, too, was finally operating on a profit. Around this time, club members led by Bartlett Arkell donated $50,000 for the clubhouse to be renovated.
World War II
When World War II broke out, the club at first tried to carry on as normal. In 1942, the club built a putting green and practice range at Camp Gordon for soldiers in training, and some competitors in the 1942 Masters Tournament held an exhibition at the base as well. Augusta National closed on October 1, 1942 as the country took a total war posture. Many club members assumed ANGC would never re-open.
To assist the war effort, cattle and turkeys were raised on the Augusta National grounds. The club also gifted a turkey to each of its members for Christmas in 1943. The turkeys turned a profit, but the cattle resulted in a net loss for the club, and left the course damaged. (Local boys would swim in Rae's Creek and chase the cows across the property.) In 1944, German prisoners of war held at Camp Gordon were forced to restore the grounds, and they also built a wooden bridge over Rae's Creek that stood until the mid-1950s.
Post-war growth and Eisenhower
After World War II, club member Edward J. Barber lent Augusta $100,000 and informed Roberts he would leave the club money in his will. More people joined following the end of the war, and ANGC reached 130 members. This influx of money allowed the club to build residential suites, a pro shop, a dining room, and other amenities. Magnolia Lane was paved in 1947.
Another more modest subdivision called De Soto Trail was planned on the land that now is the Par 3 Course in the late 1940s. ANGC offered the land for sale to local real estate companies; none placed a bid. Local developers during the early 1950s would still not return calls from Roberts.
Its first club professional was Ed Dudley, who served in the role until 1957; Dudley was one of the top tournament professionals of his era, with 15 wins on the PGA Tour.
In 1948, Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife Mamie were personally invited to Augusta by Roberts. Eisenhower took a liking to the club, becoming a member, and hired Roberts as his executor and financial advisor; Roberts had a house (Eisenhower Cabin) constructed for Eisenhower on the grounds. During his presidency, Eisenhower visited Augusta National 29 times.
In 1953, Augusta constructed a fence around the property, largely to ensure the safety of Eisenhower.
A new par-3 course designed by George Cobb and Roberts and was built in 1958, and the annual Par 3 Contest was first held in 1960.
Augusta National, Inc. v. Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. Co. (1976)
The Moss Creek Women's Invitational was first announced in 1976 as the "Ladies Masters". After ANGC complained, the LPGA changed the name to the "Women's International", but tournament sponsor Northwestern Mutual continued to pursue the name. Northwestern asked Augusta whether it could license the name Masters, offered its own compromise title (the "Moss Creek Ladies Masters"), and briefly attempted to trademark the term Ladies Masters. LPGA commissioner Ray Volpe called Augusta's objection "ridiculous" and said they would "never give up the Masters name now. It isn't copyrighted, trademarked, or registered." The court ruled in favor of Augusta National, finding that the usage of the term Masters diluted Augusta's trademark.
Late 20th century
In the fall of 1990, during Tropical Storm Marco, Amen Corner was damaged, especially hole 11 (White Dogwood), which "floated off the golf course" after Rae's Creek overflowed. Also damaged were the Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson Bridges, a retention dam, the scoreboard on the left side of White Dogwood, and a city sewer line. Augusta National rebuilt the greens based on a 1982 survey and photographs, re-paving an abandoned maintenance road to reach the affected area. The repaired holes re-opened to club members in November 1990; the course was fully restored for the 1991 Masters Tournament.
During early planning stages for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games in 1992, Billy Payne (who would become ANGC chairman 15 years later) and the ACOG wanted a golf event to be held at Augusta. The club, under chairman Jackson T. Stephens, agreed, as did IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, and an announcement was held at the club in October 1992. However, IOC board member Anita DeFrantz, a Black woman, objected to the idea due to Augusta National's ban on women members and its single Black member. The Atlanta City Council also was opposed. Payne announced the plan would not proceed in January 1993.
Controversies in the 1990s and 2000s
The club's strict rules and membership policy have long attracted criticism. On the first episode of HBO's Real Sports in 1995, Frank Deford called ANGC "the last dictatorship in sport" and "the American Singapore".
Augusta invited and accepted its first Black member, television executive Ron Townsend, in 1990 after Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club, an all-white golf club in Alabama, refused membership to African-Americans.
Martha Burk
Augusta National and its then-chairman Hootie Johnson are widely known for their disagreement, beginning in 2002, with Martha Burk, then chair of the Washington-based National Council of Women's Organizations; the dispute arose over Augusta National's refusal to admit female members to the club. Burk said she found out about the club's policies in a USA Today column published April 11, 2002. She then wrote a private letter to Johnson, saying that hosting the Masters Tournament at a male-only club constituted sexism. Johnson characterized Burk's approach as "offensive and coercive". The club hired a consulting firm, which ran a survey and found that "Augusta National's membership policies were not topmost on the list of women's concerns"; the poll was called "unethical" by Burk. Responding to efforts to link the issue to sexism and civil rights, Johnson maintained that the issue had to do with the rights of any private club:
Our membership is single gender just as many other organizations and clubs all across America. These would include Junior Leagues, sororities, fraternities, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and countless others. And we all have a moral and legal right to organize our clubs the way we wish.
Burk, whose childhood nickname was also Hootie, claimed to have been "called a man hater, anti-family, lesbian, all the usual things." Johnson was portrayed as a Senator Claghorn type—"a blustery defender of all things Southern".
Following the discord, two club members resigned: Thomas H. Wyman, a former CEO of CBS, and John Snow, when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve as Secretary of the Treasury. Pressure on corporate sponsors led the club to broadcast the 2003 and 2004 tournaments without commercials. The controversy was discussed by the International Olympic Committee when re-examining whether golf meets Olympic criteria of a "sport practiced without discrimination with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play". Augusta National extended membership to Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore on August 20, 2012.
Expansion
A new two-story press building opened for the 2017 tournament in the northwest corner of the property, featuring a restaurant called Bartlett Lounge. The new building replaced an old press center near the first tee that had been in use since 1990; that space was repurposed with an expanded concessions area. The next year, in 2018, Augusta National doubled the size of its Masters Golf Shop.
Youth and women's initiatives
Augusta National partnered with the USGA and the PGA of America to establish Drive, Chip and Putt (DCP), a youth golf skills competition which was first held in 2014.
In 2018, chairman Fred Ridley announced that the club would establish, together with Champions Retreat Golf Club, the Augusta National Women's Amateur (ANWA) in 2019, a 54-hole event for the world's top amateur players.
The Patch
ANGC, together with First Tee and Augusta Technical College, renovated Augusta Municipal Golf Course (known as "The Patch") in the early 2020s. The course, re-designed by Tom Fazio and Beau Welling, also includes a new 9-hole course called The Loop, designed by Tiger Woods.
From Wikipedia’s article on Augusta National Golf Club, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4