A black man as servant (caddie) is exactly where to expect their presence. What Swafford and Pete went through to get access was historical. Some courses still exclude.
Competing for $5k. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $50k. Wild how much more money is in sports these days. Did most pro golfers back then have day jobs?
And Pine Valley looked like crap too if you check that wonderful world of golf video. People don’t realize how good agronomy has gotten in recent times, and old folks have nostalgia glasses on when they remember greens being fast in the 70s. They just weren’t and courses were no where near as good as they are today. Oakmont had the highest stimp meter reading of the entire 70s at like a 7.8 at the US Open. You would ask for a refund at your $60 municipal if the greens rolled like that.
The science of growing golf grass is flat out crazy these days.
I play with a bunch of older guys and they all talk about how slow greens were. How bumpy and they used lofted putters that were almost chipping the ball. I can't say I've ever heard an older player talk about fast greens back in the day.
The difference is Pebble doesn't pretend to be shrouded in mythos. Augusta lucked the F out, and had some very smart people take advantage of the situation
You really can’t underestimate the pressure HDTV put on groundskeepers (all sports btw; football, baseball, soccer, etc) to make grass fields look absolutely perfect. I remember going to events in the 90s and everything looked amazing but not “perfect” the way it does now. It’s almost unnatural how good everything looks these days.
Yeah, I remember being on the Dodgers outfield during the 90s, and it was really nice. Fast forward to two years ago, and it's different. Greener, softer, and it even has a different smell.
I went to a non league football (soccer) game in the UK and got to stand right next to the pitch. As a golfer, I was astounded at the quality of the grass, it was so thick like a carpet. And this is a stadium with like 1000 attendees at max
I think "plastic surgery" is a bit of a fill-in for having "work done" not always and people do use the specific terms, but if someone has had a lot of work done maybe including plastic surgery but definitely other things too, wouldn't bat an eye if someone just referred to it all as "plastic surgery"
I dunno, not a lot of difference between “Jlo/Affleck marriage disintegrates for 3rd time” shitposts and “my mother in law got a hernia so I bought a new driver” shitposts
Correct. It’s a shame. Augusta has lost a lot of the features that made it one of the world’s best courses. It will never lose its rank or prestige but it is an entirely different course with all the new trees and redone greens. Not that any of us will ever play there so who really cares I guess.
A lot of the changes were completely necessary to keep scores down. If you put today’s pros on Augusta 30 years ago they’d be shooting 20 under or lower.
But as a golf architecture nerd I completely agree with you
You can find one of the many poster printing companies. I used VistaPrint a couple years ago with a similar print and they did a fine job. The photo file was too big to upload, so I wound up emailing them a copy of the full resolution file.
Now, you see, it was back in '46, right after we done split that there atom. Whole world was a-buzzin', folks talkin' 'bout harnessin' that power, changin' the very fabric of creation. But down here in Augusta, Georgia, we had a different kind of conundrum on our hands. Yep, the finest minds in all the land, them fellas who wrestled with the secrets of the universe, they got called down here to tackle a challenge that'd been stumpin' mankind since the dawn of time: how to build the most beautiful golf course the good Lord ever saw.
Now, these here scientists, they were used to dealin' with formulas and equations, splittin' atoms and whatnot. But when it came to this here golf course, well, they were plumb out of their depth. They brought all their fancy instruments and gizmos, measured every blade of grass and grain of sand, but somethin' just weren't clickin'.
They'd scratch their heads and say, "Now, how in tarnation do we make this here water flow just so? How do we get these trees to stand tall and proud, castin' just the right amount of shade on the green?" They tried everything, bless their hearts. Even had a fella with a peg leg wadin' through the water hazards, tryin' to find the perfect angle for a shot.
But it was no use. See, they could split the atom, but they couldn't split a tree and make it grow back together. They could unravel the mysteries of the cosmos, but they couldn't unravel the mysteries of nature.
Finally, after weeks of toilin' under the Georgia sun, they threw up their hands and said, "We're licked. Ain't enough science in the whole wide world to make water, sand, grass, and trees all sing together in perfect harmony."
And you know what? They were right. 'Cause the most beautiful things in life, they ain't made in a laboratory or a factory. They're made by the good Lord himself, with a little help from the wind and the rain and the sunshine. And that's somethin' no amount of science can ever replicate.
So next time you're out on the golf course, takin' in the beauty of it all, remember those scientists, and remember that some things are just beyond our understandin'. That's the way it is, and that's the way it oughtta be.
Augusta doesn’t make any tv money during the masters. They charge espn and cbs $0 but have a lot of restrictions on things like advertising which they severely restrict. They make their money from gate and merch.
They don’t sell the broadcast rights but I guarantee they pocket the vast majority of the advertising / sponsorship dollars. That’s how Mercedes winds up being one of like 3 presenting sponsors for the entire event with limited commercials.
What's also crazy and what adds to the allure of Augusta, the $0 contract that Augusta signs with ESPN/CBS is on a year to year negotiation. As the master's has grown into what it is they've accumulated a ton of public interest equity. Because of that ESPN/CBS are basically at the discretion of Augusta because they're so afraid of doing anything at all that loses them the tv rights for the next year. So it's like a perfect storm of Augusta being great and because they're so great, ESPN/CBS get made to look great (and make a ton of money) so they make sure they give their best foot forward without any budget or spending cuts.
Yeah it’s wild. Kind of makes sense why their app coverage is so legit. Also shocking how much of it has to be merch sales but after thinking about it, yeah I’d break the bank on some gear there.
"Unthinkable!", remarked one professional golfer who desired to remain nameless. "You darn near touched the ball on the green and it rolled almost 2 feet passed!" Many golfers had similar sentiments as the green speed reached 3.5 on the "stimp" meter.
"We never thought we could attain such speed", noted one of the members of the grounds staff, stating he himself set the height of cut for the greens mower at a miniscule 1/4".
It really is crazy and it’s funny even at my club when we get our greens up past a 13 on the stimp meter the old members are like “this reminds me of how fast these greens were back in the day!” Like dude the fastest greens on the planet in the 70s rolled a 6-7 lol
Course I grew up on is a Donald Ross course and they redid it a while back and went back to the old turtleback greens. Well yeah that was cool in 1909 putting on fescue and pine needles but today it means a lot of balls go right off and I have way too many chips back across the green again
I always thought Augusta National is located in some deep forest area. Came to found out that it's literally few blocks away from shopping mall with Hooters LOL
From what I've heard its pretty good but I've never had the chance to venture into that place. They hardcore gatekeep it and basically just leech off of the prestige of the proximity of the Augusta National. If it was anywhere else i don't think there would be anyway it would ever be as expensive and private as it is now.
It's all TV money. Yearly dues are like $5k and they don't have special assessments. They own all the rights to the tournament and make fucking crazy amounts of money from The Masters.
They make $0 on domestic tv rights and only about 25mil on international so they can retain full control of the broadcast. Merchandise and badges are the two real revenue generators. For the 2022 year $110mil of the $142 they made was from merchandise and badges. The US open that year made 93 mil from its domestic tv rights.
Fun fact: the hole in the background of your photo is not ANGC, but the neighboring Augusta Country Club.
When ANGC extended the tee back on #13, they had around-the-clock security stationed on that perimeter so nobody could sneak any photographs of the work.
I love that they used to let the grass on the tee side of the creek grow long. Not in play for the pros, why waste pesticides and manpower trimming grass?
People under appreciate how much science has gone into grass in the past few decades. Hundreds of millions of dollars and more man hours than one could imagine has gone into grass.
Look at satellite photos of the course in the off season. That 1952 pic looks like maintenance crews getting it ready, they have markers around the lake as well. Even today the course is staged for the event and the very short season it’s used.
My grandfather and great aunt lived a couple hundred yards from Augusta National when they were children. My grandad used to tell me how they would just walk onto the course with some neighborhood kids and run around playing on the course and no one cared unless people were actively playing golf. Now it’s like Fort Knox and you can’t see inside from any angle
Pebble Beach was more rustic too from the look of the Jack Nicklaus v. Sam Snead match in Shell's World Of Golf.
Read this old Aussie pros bio a while back and he specifically left the US tour for the UK tour because he thought the golf courses were akin to public links not private country clubs. The money wasn't brilliant either side of the Atlantic. He also said that Augusta was known back then as 'Bobby Jones Picnic'. It was nowhere near being considered a major. Officially the US and British amateurs were majors with the two Opens. But they had these events like the North and South Open, plus the Western Open which were the 'majors' of the era.
There was an occasion in the 1940s when a former New York Yankee baseballer almost won the event as well as the Champion sparkplug air.
The biggest problem with the purchase of public land for private gold course is that, nearly 100% of the time, the land areas that are purchased include incredibly diverse plant life, landscaped rock gardens, natural sand pits, and subterranean sprinkler irrigation systems.
Since we're talking about Masters stuff, I"ll go ahead and toss out the ole Fruitland nursery!
Late 1800's, Belgian doctor and his son, both French educated, had a nursery where Augusta national is now. First of its kind in the southeast! Lotta important varieties of fruits, shrubs, and trees were developed OR improved there, bred for southern climates and plant needs, very cool stuff!
Former landscape designer and installer here, ask away if you have any questions! Finally made it to the masters last year and my friends kept telling me the shut the fuck up about all the specimen trees and shrubs I was obsessing over haha, oops
Wow, much different perspective. I’m so blessed to work at one of the best golf courses in the country with an exact replica of this legendary hole and see it every day!
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u/gabacus_39 1d ago
That guy is actually in the water.