The course was formerly a
plant nursery, and each hole on the course is named after the tree or shrub with which it has become associated. Several of the holes on the first nine have been renamed, as well as hole#11. Hole1, Tea Olive, was called Cherokee Rose at first, and no.2, Pink Dogwood, was Woodbine. The fourth hole, Flowering Peach, was once known as Palm, and hole7, Pampas, was called Cedar. Hole11, White Dogwood, first was simply called Dogwood; hole12, Golden Bell, was called Three Pines before its eponymous three pine trees died; and Hole14, Chinese Fir, was originally called Spanish Dagger. Rather than more prominent tee markers, ANGC uses cut hickory logs. The course's greens are meticulously maintained to provide a fast and hard golfing surface. The
bunkers are filled not with traditional sand but with granulated
quartz (known as "Spruce Pine sand" and SP55 The golf course architecture website GolfClubAtlas.com has said, "Augusta National has gone through more changes since its inception than any of the world's twenty or so greatest courses. To call it a MacKenzie course is false advertising as his features are essentially long gone and his routing is all that is left." The authors of the site also add that MacKenzie and Jones were heavily influenced by the
Old Course at StAndrews, and intended that the ground game be central to the course. Almost from Augusta's opening, Roberts sought to make changes to minimize the ground game, and effectively got free rein to do so because MacKenzie died shortly after the course's opening and Jones went into inactivity due to World WarII and then
a crippling illness. The authors add that "[w]ith the ground game gone, the course was especially vulnerable to changes in technology, and this brought on a slew of changes from at least 15 different 'architects'." Golf Course Histories has an aerial comparison of the course's architectural changes between 1938 and 2013. Among the changes to the course were several made by architect
Perry Maxwell in 1937, including an alteration involving the current 10thhole. When Augusta National originally opened for play in January 1933, the opening hole (now the10th) was a relatively benign par4 that played just in excess of 400yards. From an elevated tee, the hole required little more than a short iron or wedge for the approach. Maxwell moved the green in 1937 to its present location—on top of the hill, about 50yards back from the old site—and transformed it into the toughest hole in Masters Tournament history.
Ben Crenshaw referred to Maxwell's work on the 10thhole as "one of the great strokes in golf architecture". For the 1999 tournament, a short rough was instated around the fairways. Referred to as the "second cut",
Amen Corner The second shot at the11th, all of the12th, and the first two shots at the 13thhole at Augusta are nicknamed "Amen Corner". This term was first used in print by author
Herbert Warren Wind In a
Golf Digest article in April 1984, 26years later, Wind told about its origin. He said he wanted a catchy phrase like baseball's "
hot-corner" or American football's "
coffin-corner" to explain where some of the most exciting golf had taken place (the
Palmer-Venturi rules issue at twelve, over an embedded ball ruling and how it was handled, in particular). Thus "Amen Corner" was born. He said it came from the title of a jazz record he had heard in the mid-1930s by a group led by
Chicago's
Mezz Mezzrow,
Shouting in that Amen Corner. In a
Golf Digest article in April 2008, writer Bill Fields offered new information about the origin of the name. He wrote that Richard Moore, a golf and jazz historian from
South Carolina, tried to purchase a copy of the old Mezzrow 78RPM disc for an "Amen Corner" exhibit he was putting together for his Golf Museum at
Ahmic Lake, Ontario. After extensive research, Moore found that the record never existed. As Moore put it, Wind, himself a jazz buff, must have "unfortunately bogeyed his mind, 26years later". While at Yale, he was no doubt familiar with, and meant all along, the popular version of the song (with the correct title, "Shoutin' in that Amen Corner" written by Andy Razaf), which was recorded by the
Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, vocal by Mildred Bailey (Brunswick label No.6655) in 1935. Moore told Fields that, being a great admirer of Wind's work over the years, he was reluctant, for months, to come forth with his discovery that contradicted Wind's memory. Moore's discovery was first reported in
Golf World magazine in 2007, before Fields' longer article in
Golf Digest in 2008. In 1958,
Arnold Palmer outlasted
Ken Venturi to win the tournament with heroic escapes at Amen Corner. Amen Corner also played host to Masters moments such as
Byron Nelson's birdie-eagle at 12 and 13 in 1937, and
Sam Snead's water save at 12 in 1949 that sparked him to victory. On the less positive side,
Jordan Spieth's quadruple bogey on 12 during Sunday's final round in 2016 cost him his 2-stroke lead and ultimately the championship.
"The Big Oak Tree" "The Big Oak Tree" is on the golf course side of the clubhouse and was planted in the 1850s.
Eisenhower Tree Also known as the "Eisenhower Pine", a
loblolly pine was located on the 17thhole, about from the Masters tee.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, an Augusta National member, hit the tree so many times that, at a 1956 club meeting, he proposed that it be cut down. Not wanting to offend the president, the club's chairman,
Clifford Roberts, immediately adjourned the meeting rather than reject the request. In February 2014, the Eisenhower Tree was removed after suffering extensive damage during an ice storm.
Ike's Pond During a visit to Augusta National, then-General Eisenhower returned from a walk through the woods on the eastern part of the grounds and informed Clifford Roberts that he had found a perfect place to build a dam if the club would like a
fish pond. Ike's Pond was built for Eisenhower to fish in and named after him; the dam is located just where Eisenhower said it should be. Roberts died of suicide next to Ike's Pond on September29, 1977.
Rae's Creek Rae's Creek cuts across the southeastern corner of the Augusta National property. Rae's Creek runs in front of the No.12 green, has a tributary evident at the No.13 tee, and flows at the back of the No.11 green. This is the lowest point in elevation of the course. The Hogan and Nelson Bridges cross the creek after the 12th and 13thtee boxes, respectively. The creek was named after former property owner John Rae, who died in 1789. It was Rae's house which was the farthest fortress up the Savannah River from Fort Augusta. The house kept residents safe during Indian attacks when the fort was out of reach.
Sarazen Bridge The Sarazen Bridge was the first feature to be named for a player. It is a flat stone footbridge covering the dam to the left of the pond in front of the 15th green, the scene of
Gene Sarazen's "
shot heard round the world" in the 1935 Masters Tournament. There is a plaque on the bridge that reads ==Facilities and grounds==