Augusta Country Club

At one time, Augusta Country Club was perhaps the only place in the U.S. that had courses designed by Donald Ross and Seth Raynor side-by-side. The club considered the Ross course the stronger of the two--Bobby Jones played and competed here frequently in 1920s, and while building neighboring Augusta National in the early 30s--and the Raynor course was eventually sold off in the 1940s. As is often the case, the Ross course underwent many well-intended but transformative modernizations over the decades, but in 2002 archtitect Brian Silva used Ross's hole-by-hole sketches and field notes to restore as much of what had been lost as possible. He rebuilt the greens, squaring them off and following contour details, recreated Ross's grass-face coffin bunkers, stacking them and turning them perpendicular to the line of play, and even revived a very Raynor-like punchbowl green set above a field of bunkers at the short par-4 16th. The club made news in 2018 when it sold a portion of its property--most of its ninth hole--to Augusta National for what would eventually in 2023 become the new back tee for that club's famous 13th hole. Silva subsequently built Augusta Country Club a new ninth, a par 4 that now bends gently to the right. At last report the club is renovating again, this time using architect Tripp Davis to implement a new multi-year masterplan.