This is meant for everyone, not just GCA heads, but the Fazio bit is interesting to you guys. I know a few don't agree with me about the "major champion" effect I described on another thread, but that's my story and since the brakdown of my writer colleagues has been about 50-50, I think there's some truth, but also some truth to what Faz said as well. This also appeared at PGA.com for the first part of the week. I'll have some other pieces for pga.com for each major and the Ryder Cup.
Enjoy.
http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/the_magical_mastersFrom the piece:
Money, power and elitism didn't build Augusta; courage, faith, and perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds built the club. Men who, at times, couldn't rub two nickels together built Augusta.
"Dissipation of energy, fragmentation of vision, loss of momentum and lack of follow-through are the vices of the herd," wrote British author Ian Fleming in his masterpiece, "Dr. No." Yet in the chaos and carnage the Depression wrought on other clubs - even Pine Valley, Cypress Point and Pasatiempo suffered terribly - Jones, Roberts, and MacKenzie endured and showed what vision, a singular focus on the task at hand, and hard work can achieve.
At times in its early years the course was seemingly held together with duct tape and Popsicle sticks. But Augusta National had the two most important elements for success in place: gorgeous, rolling terrain on which to build fiendishly intricate greens and holes that tempt the player into hitting unwise shots, and Roberts' wisdom to run a large-scale, modern professional sporting event by focusing on the comfort and enjoyment of the patrons.
Regarding golf architecture, Jones and Roberts were faced with a dream decision, but a difficult choice: hire Donald Ross or Alister MacKenzie. As golf writer Tom MacWood explains: "Ross was without question the most famous and prolific golf architect in America, the problem was Jones didn't want an American course." That meant the logical choice was MacKenzie, an Englishman who marketed his Scottish-sounding name with such fanfare and decoration that Parascenzo once joked you might find MacKenzie wearing "a sandwich board reading 'I AM A GENUINE SCOT!' on one side, and 'Please see me now about designing your golf course' " on the other.
MacKenzie's showmanship and the nation's love affair with Jones were two excellent draws, and the land for the golf course, an old indigo plantation-turned-Fruitland Nursery contained thousands of exotic, stately and exquisitely beautiful trees, shrubs and flora. Moreover, the choice of MacKenzie ensured that Augusta, as originally built, rejected penal architecture and the "doctrine of framing."