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home business is big, one that has existed in some capacity since the mid- 1970s, when Augusta National and the Chamber of Commerce got together to figure out how they were going to house all the people interested in coming to watch Bobby Jones’ small gathering of friends. It has become a rather large gathering since, to the point where one agency, Jane Fuhrmann’s Tournament Housing & Events LLC, has more than 2 000 properties in its system as options for Masters renters. Fuhrmann knows the area and its golf history as well as anyone. The former director of the Masters Housing Bureau began her business in 1998. Fuhrmann works with clients from all over the world, including many of the premier players, their families and support staff, as well as corporate clients who pay big bucks for the best homes. Despite being run strictly for Masters week, it is a full- time business. Fuhrmann’s service entails much more than just setting up dinner and a car service to get guests to and from the course. She brings in all-new linens for each home, and the owners essentially begin prepping the home in January, including everything from pressure washing to planting new flowers to bringing in pine straw. Once Fuhrmann received a call from a player’s agent who notified her that the player’s plane was arriving early, and the player was coming with his family. Fuhrmann raced over to the home the player had rented to bring a baby crib, only to find out that the crib didn’t fit through the doorway of the baby’s room. She went next door and asked a gentleman doing landscaping for another home to help Fuhrmann deconstruct the bed, then re-assembled it in the baby’s room just as the player and his family walked through the front door. Emergencies happen. One year a player locked himself out of his rental home at the end of the tournament. Fuhrmann sent some of her staff over to get him back in so that he could pack and catch his plane, only for his man- agement team to lock themselves out of a different home at the same time, prov- ing Rae’s Creek is not the only hazard that needs to be navigated in Augusta. Another year, a South African player had a severe tooth infection, but find- ing a dentist was proving difficult with all the locals out of town for the week. Fuhrmann knew a dentist who was a
When you turn left into River Ridge Drive off Washington Road, then make another left into Brookwood Drive, you’ll find yourself in an Augusta neighbourhood called National Hills. It consists mostly of one-level brick homes until you reach the corner of Brookwood and Smith Creek Road, where past a wall of towering pines sits a beautiful, renovated home that looks nothing like the others around it. Kathie Williams bought the prop- erty in December 2021 and fixed it up with rentals in mind, a nine-month, $250 000 process that has been well worth the wait come April, and the April after that, and the April after that. “When I tell people where it is, they’re like ‘ Oh ,’ ” Williams says, “but then they see it and the location.” Williams’ property is about 800 metres from Augusta National Golf Club, which hosts a certain tournament that welcomes one week of chaos that keeps the town afloat for the other 51. YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD BEFORE that some Augusta residents pay off their mortgages with money they get for renting their homes during Mas- ters week, that they all make a run for it when the world’s best golfers come to town, bailing for Disney World with the kids or Myrtle Beach or St Simons Island, that spring break at every school in the area revolves around Masters week, that most of the actual residents can’t even be bothered with what is the most well-known golf tournament in the world happening right in their backyard. All of this is true. The town doubles in size, and those folks need a place to stay. The Augusta hotel business certainly booms during Masters week, but the town doesn’t have enough of them to lodge everybody. The Masters rental-
family friend, so she picked up the play- er and told the dentist she had someone that needed some attention (no word if the infection had anything to do with pimento-cheese sandwiches). Fuhrmann breaks the homes into three categories: “host” homes, “dinner” homes and “sleeper” homes. The host homes, which can go for anywhere between $30 000 and $70 000, is where all the guests convene at night, typically for a corporation, and usually come with Masters badges. Fuhrmann builds the “sleeper” homes around the host home so that guests don’t have to schlep all the way across town after an evening of entertainment. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that one corporation could rent out three homes in proximity to one another, one used strictly for gathering in the evening (a host home) and the others for resting heads at night (a sleeper home). The dinner homes, which go for significantly less than hosts and sleepers, are usually reserved for smaller groups of 10 to 12 guests and receive much less wear and tear. Players are not averse to renting multiple homes, either. Rory McIlroy
74 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
MARCH/APRIL 2024
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