The Loop

Impact: The auteur of Augusta

Countdown to Augusta - Each Friday from now through the Masters we take a look back at impactful images from the tournament's storied history.

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"Golf is a recreation and a means for giving us health and pleasure. ... One of the reasons why I, a medical man, decided to give up medicine and take up golf architecture was my firm conviction of the extraordinary influence on the health of pleasurable excitement, especially when combined with fresh air and exercise. How frequently have I, with great difficulty, persuaded patients who were never off my doorstep to take up golf, and how rarely, if ever, have I seen them in my consulting room again."

-- Alister Mackenzie

Mackenzie was born in England in 1870 and served as a surgeon in the Boer Wars and World War I before leaving medicine and dedicating his life to golf course architecture. Mackenzie first worked with H.S Colt, designing golf courses across the British Isles. Eventually he immigrated to the United States in the early 1920s. In 1933 he partnered with Bobby Jones and together they developed Augusta National Golf Club.

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Photo: Alister Mackenzie Foundation__*