MASTERS PREVIEW
1933-1946 Augusta’s original architect, Alister MacKenzie, believed that good design should strive to be indistinguishable from nature, and he intended for his courses to blend into their surround- ings. This was easier done in the sand and dunes of links designs – or the dunes of Cypress Point, or the sand- belt of Melbourne. The hard clay soils of Georgia, however, did not lend to the kind of eroded-edge bunker style that might seem indigenous in nature. Nevertheless, MacKenzie attempted to make his bunkers at Augusta National appear haphazard and not artificial, and he had them built with irregular lobes, tongues, capes and scribbled edges. They were also relatively shallow and flush to the grades beneath them since deeper bunkers in the poor-drain- ing clay soils would quickly fill up with
water during storms. MacKenzie’s filigreed edging at Augusta National faded through the lean Depression years of the 1930s due to the economics of maintenance, course alterations and lack of his over- sight (he died in 1934). Perry Maxwell, MacKenzie’s former partner who be- While the founders always intended to show off the property’s wide range of trees, shrubs and flowering plants, the bunkers were not originally meant to be so perfect.
UNINTENDED The rugged bunker edge at the new 16th hole in 1949 would make many contemporary designers smile. gan making architectural changes in 1937 by building new greens and bun- kers, was known for a naturalistic style of his own in original designs, but the new hazards he built at holes like seven, nine and 10 didn’t have the same ornate shapes and edging of MacKenzie’s. Augusta National closed temporarily during World War Two, and the Masters was suspended from 1943 through 1945. During this time the holes went fallow (the property was used to graze live- stock as a revenue source), and when it reopened, considerable work was needed to repair the course. The details of whatever remained of MacKenzie’s bunker concepts were largely erased.
66 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
MARCH/APRIL 2025
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