Augusta National: The Good, Bad & Ugly

April 10, 2013 | By Greg D'Andrea | 3 Comments

"The — The Masters (by Torrey Wiley via Flickr | CC BY 2.0)

Augusta National Golf Club. The very name conjures up emotions deep within us. For some, those emotions might excite and inspire; while for others, they might sicken and disgust.

The Good
Augusta National is perhaps the epitome of golf courses. Despite not being in the birthplace of the game, the course is as symbolic as St. Andrews…perhaps more. We golfers daydream of walking its fairways; of turning Amen Corner; of being immersed in a golfer’s total paradise.

Of course, the club hosts The Masters every April – a tournament rich in history. Marking the start of the golf season for many, The Masters sends us images of Augusta in full spring bloom – lush green grass and floral (mainly magnolias and azaleas) bursting full of color. It’s no wonder there’s a huge marketing push surrounding the tournament – golfers of all levels yearn to go out and play after viewing just a few minutes of the action. Surely the golf industry as a whole benefits through the publicity of such an inspiringly beautiful course.

The Bad
Make no mistake, the course really is in pretty good shape. But Augusta groundskeepers are working with smoke and mirrors too. For example, the course spent half a million on an underground vacuum system that removes excess water. And according to a post here, Augusta National…

“…reportedly dyes ponds blue or black to hide algae bloom, spray paints grass to make it look more green in years when the newly planted ryegrass isn’t flourishing and even refrigerates, or warms, the azaleas so that they’ll be in perfect bloom for the second weekend in April. Rumors have it that this year [referring to 2012] Hollywood set designers have been brought in to Augusta to hide damage caused by the lawn chemical weed killer Imprelis that was found last year to kill trees as a side effect.”

Due to this addiction of perfect grooming (which apparently involves some degree of deception), we have something called the “Augusta Effect.” The notion that every course should strive to be as impeccably maintained as Augusta National – and anything less is less than perfect. This notion has led to other courses overseeding to keep greener longer; led to more pesticide use within the industry; and ultimately led to courses going belly-up – all in an effort to meet the expectations of average hacks everywhere, who have come to expect conditions like those they view on TV.

The Ugly
Unlike the cradle of golf in Scotland, Augusta is no Mecca – You will not find golfers on a pilgrimage to these links like they flock to St. Andrews. This is, of course, because we are not allowed to play there. Augusta National Golf Club, hallowed as it may be, also represents everything that is wrong with golf. It is the very root of negative golf stereotypes: closed-doored, sexist and filthy rich.

Sure, the club recently allowed its first female members, but that gesture made for good PR more than anything else. So the USGA and PGA Tour are faced with a conundrum: On the one hand, Augusta National helps stoke the golf economy every spring. But on the other hand, the club flies in the face of what the governing bodies of golf want to do – which is to grow the game beyond the average white male. They want to reach more women and minorities. They want to reach more inner-city youth. But should Augusta really be their poster child? That’s a tough sell.

For years I believed Augusta National Golf Club represented everything a golf course should be: Lush, beautiful and steeped in tradition – It really did make me want to go out and play. To be sure, seeing images of the course this week will inspire me once again. But over the years, I’ve come to realize the industry is using the Augusta legacy as a marketing tool – a facade, which exists mainly to excite the imagination.

Nowadays my inspiration doesn’t come from Augusta, but rather from the beginning of a new golf season – the excitement of getting out there and playing again after a long, cold winter and the thought of hanging out with good friends while enjoying the game we love. And, I guess, the possibility of finally hitting that elusive hole-in-one.

So my advice to you is to enjoy the tournament; the competition; the phenomenal golf. But take all the pomp and circumstance with a grain of salt. After all – most of us golf in the real world; not in fantasy land.

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Male-Only Golf Clubs: Sexist Bastards or Constitutional Right?

September 30, 2009 | By Greg D'Andrea | 20 Comments

(photo by — Have golf courses like Augusta National been hiding behind the constitution for too long? (*photo by Roger Sayles / CC BY-ND 2.0)*

I wrote in a blog post the other day that golf is a “gentleman’s game.” My reference was rather tongue-in-cheek, but for some courses this is a literal truth. One would think men-only golf courses are in contradiction to what the USGA wants the game to become, yet it’s hard to squash the constitutional rights of a privatized club. I’m clearly not the first to discuss this topic (most prominent in recent memory being the continuing controversy between Hootie and Martha), but I thought I’d give the fire a stoking.

“We aren’t closed-door, wives and girlfriends can come out and have lunch. Really, the only thing they [women] can’t do is play the golf course.” – PGA professional Scott Walter (Bear Creek Golf Club, Denver Colorado).

Funny, I thought it used to be the only thing women couldn’t do in the United States was vote, and we amended the Constitution to change that about 90 years ago.

Bear Creek is one of about a dozen clubs in the U.S. that don’t allow women to play golf there. Others, such as Augusta National, don’t allow women members, while many more make it hard or undesirable for women to join (should note that while there are no women members at Augusta, a woman may be “invited” to play the course – especially a woman of notoriety, such as an LPGA player).

A course that is off-limits to women (both as members and players) is Southern Dunes in Phoenix, which has been the subject of a couple articles – one from travelgolf.com contributor Chris Baldwin. A few years ago, Mr. Baldwin had the opportunity to play Southern Dunes and subsequently penned the article “Defending the Undefendable: Men-Only Golf Clubs.” In the assessment of his experience there, Mr. Baldwin relegated the membership to “a bunch of golf nerds, through and through.”

Wrote Mr. Baldwin: “Let them be nerds! Women have their gyms where no men are allowed in to gawk at them in their stretch Spandex. They have Oprah. And any single or stay-at-home dad can tell you how open those playground clubs really are. Why can’t a bunch of golf nerds have their own club?” I find it amusing that just because these guys are a bunch of nerds, we should overlook the fact that women can’t play their course. And what nerds are members there? Here’s a few: Former NFL defensive tackle Dan Saleaumua, former Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer and former Mets catcher Todd Hundley. Yep, those guys epitomize the word “nerd” in my book!

Mr. Baldwin suggests that while clearly a stereotype, women may actually induce a slower pace-of-play on the course. Too funny. He should read this related post at Real Women Golf. (I should note that Mr. Baldwin ultimately said he would never join a men-only club, claiming the guys there seem to take their golf game too seriously for his liking).

But here’s the thing; Imagine you were on a quest to play Golf Digest’s Top 100 courses (which has been accomplished multiple times by various men). If you are a woman, you can’t do it. Is that fair? Up until the 1990’s, if you were an African American man you couldn’t play the top 100 either (and you may still be discouraged at some clubs today). That’s just sad. Meanwhile, the USGA is concerned the sport is not attracting enough minorities and women. Hello?

To play devil’s advocate for a second, this is a free country and private clubs should be able to exclude whoever they want, right? That got me wondering if there were any women-only golf clubs out there. Turns out there is one in North America…but it’s not in the United States. In Canada, there’s The Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto – and it’s nearly 10-years older than Augusta National! But even these ladies have softened a bit, as they now allow a limited number of men to become “guest card holders.”

As a public golf course connoisseur, it’s hard for me to imagine excluding anyone from playing on any course – if you know the etiquette of the game, I say tee-off. But I also understand the appeal of private memberships – I mean, your dues are paying for some type of exclusivity, right? But does that really have to exclude a gender? If you want male camaraderie, why can’t your foursome be men-only? Or does it really kill the afternoon to see a group of women playing a few fairways over?

Augusta National: The Good, Bad & Ugly

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