Augusta's Natural Contours

[Ian Andrew]

I thought many would enjoy seeing the contours on the site with no holes. While you may be drawn to some of the more obvious parts of the routing, I don't believe many (designers or golfers) would have selected the same path. I hope for some, this may be an eye-opening exercise on routing is not as easy as you might think.

[Jerry Kluger]

I can tell you that after the storms on Wednesday walking the course yesterday was certainly a challenge without falling on one's ass.

[Ben Hollerbach]

Looking at the topo there are only a handful of places where the resulting hole became obvious to me. I do wonder then is the land truly great, or did the resulting routing utilize the land to its maximum, or both?

[Jeff_Brauer]

Ian,


Thanks for the map.


I once met a great nephew (or something like that) of Mac, who claimed to have heard via family legend that Mac never thought the routing was that good, because he was forced to use the old plantation home as clubhouse.  While I can't confirm that one (and he never showed me any written proof) I don't think of it as a great routing.  Really, the really great natural holes are 4, 6, 10, 11, (although, both have semi-blind tee shots now where you can't see the green) 12, 13, and maybe 16.  Poor natural holes at places like 14, etc.  The rest are average by my criteria.


It is hard to route a course where there are predominant broad slopes down from a corner of the property.  Obviously, about half the holes have to be uphill.  The really good ones I list above nicely cross existing valleys, rather than descend or climb hills.

[BHoover]

Maybe the routing would have been better had Bobby and Cliff actually paid Dr. Mackenzie...

[BCrosby]

Not a contour map of a site you would immediately think of as having the bones of a world top 5 golf course.

Which is a testament to MacK's artistry and his good fortune in having Bobby Jones as a client.

Bob