Augusta: Everything You Need To Know In Preparation For Golf's Biggest Major
A Brief History of Augusta
The biggest week in golf is here.
Every April, everything comes back to Augusta National Golf Club. Same course. Same tournament. Nothing else in golf compares.
Where it started
Augusta was founded in 1932 by Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts.
Jones, the legendary amateur champion, helped design the course alongside British architect Alister MacKenzie. His presence in the game also drew the best players in the world to the tournament from the very beginning. Jones wanted the course to be playable but still challenging. Not overly harsh, but smart. You can get away with a lot off the tee, but the closer you get to the hole, the more precise you have to be.
Roberts, an investment banker, oversaw nearly everything else. The structure of the tournament, the presentation, the details that make Augusta feel the way it does. Much of the Masters experience still traces back to him.
The land used to be a plant nursery, which is why the course looks the way it does. You’ll hear a lot about azaleas, especially this week, they’re everywhere and timed to bloom right around the tournament. Magnolias too, lining Magnolia Lane as you enter.
How the tournament came to be
The first tournament was in 1934. It wasn’t even called The Masters yet, it was the Augusta National Invitation Tournament.
Now it’s The Masters Tournament, the first major of the year. Not the oldest (that’s The Open Championship) but definitely the one people look forward to most.
It’s also the only major that never moves. Always the same course, which is part of what makes it so good to watch. You start to recognize everything.
What makes it different
Augusta keeps things tight.
- Small field. Invitation only.
- They call fans “patrons.”
- Scoreboards are still done by hand.
- And then there’s the food, which people love:
- Pimento cheese sandwiches
- Egg salad sandwiches
- BBQ sandwiches
- Peach ice cream sandwiches
- Beer, wine, and the Azalea cocktail
Nothing is overpriced. It’s all simple, classic, and part of the experience.
A quick note on women at Augusta
For a long time, Augusta National Golf Club didn’t have any women members.
That changed in 2012 when Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore were admitted.
Rice is a former U.S. Secretary of State and one of the most prominent women in American politics. Moore is a billionaire investor and one of the most influential figures in finance and philanthropy.
In the years that followed, other high-profile women were reported to join, including Ginni Rometty, who led IBM through a major period of transformation and became one of the few women to run a company of that scale.
This was a small shift, but a meaningful one. The kind that doesn’t change everything overnight, but signals where things are going.
A few things people always forget
- Every hole is named after a plant or tree
- Caddies wear white jumpsuits, and always have
- No phones allowed for patrons
- The Par 3 Contest the day before is one of the best parts of the week
The Masters is one of the few things in sport that hasn’t tried to become something else. Same course. Same standards. That’s what makes it so good, and why every April, everyone comes back to Augusta.
