The "Augusta Effect" Masters Communique

Augusta National Hole #13

THE “AUGUSTA EFFECT” Where can you find a place where no grass blade is out of place, where vibrant azaleas are in full bloom, and where birds perfectly chirp each day? Augusta National … home of The Masters and host to the greatest major championship each year. Augusta National never fails to provide the best golfers in the world with arguably the best playing conditions they will ever encounter. Each year during The Masters weekend, golf course superintendents throughout the world deal with what is known in the golf course maintenance industry as the “Augusta Effect.” The maintenance team at Augusta National has set the standard extremely high with pristine conditions, beautiful landscaping and the fastest greens the most elite players will experience all year. As members from a variety of golf clubs watched The Masters this past weekend, they may have thought, “Why isn’t my club as beautiful as Augusta?” In this communique, we have highlighted some of the “hows” and “whys” Augusta National playing conditions are near perfect every year.

1. GOOD HELP IS HARD TO FIND During the season, Augusta has 50+ team members. During The Masters, with the help of volunteers, this number exceeds 150! In addition, Augusta receives hundreds of resumes each year from young aspiring superintendents from all over the country wanting to be a part of the Augusta National experience.

Tiger Woods on a green at Augusta. In the background, 18 mowers cutting a fairway.

A small army of maintenance workers perform storm cleanup at The Masters.

Over 22 maintenance team members rake a bunker on #10.

That would be the entire team at The National and Loch Lloyd!

2. NO CARTS ALLOWED Augusta National is an all-walking golf club that provides caddies for their members and guests. The lack of carts offers a high-level explanation of why very few blemishes can be observed throughout the property.

3. MAINTENANCE BUDGET Augusta National differentiates itself from other clubs by receiving millions of dollars from multiple sponsors which includes a television contract with CBS. This is quite different from your typical operating club which relies on membership revenue, guest fees and outside events to generate operational budgets.

4. GREENS HYDRONIC SYSTEMS Instead of relying on Mother Nature for perfect growing conditions on your greens, you become Mother Nature. Augusta National did just that through the installation of a greens Hydronics system.

The illustration above shows what the Hydronics system looks like under a green.

The greens at Augusta utilize this system to control year-round soil temperatures. The Hydronics turf temperature control technology provides heating or cooling to maintain ideal root zone temperatures by pumping warm or cool fluid into hoses that lie in the soil beneath the green.

Augusta National in the Summer Sunshades ready to be placed over the practice green and #18 green

#18 fairway bunker covered with a tarp

5. CLOSED IN THE SUMMER (MAY-OCTOBER) After The Masters concludes in April, the golf course closes sometime in May and reopens in October.

This closure time in the summer allows the maintenance team to focus on keeping the greens as healthy as possible without any endured stress from golfers or daily maintenance.

FUN FACTS:  Once the golf course closes in May, they purposely kill all the beautiful over-seeded ryegrass that was just played on during The Masters so the Bermuda underneath can be as healthy as possible.  90% of the greens have sunshade tents installed over them to keep them cool.  75% of the bunkers have tarps installed over the sand to keep them clean and the other 25% will be redone with new liners and sand. This process rotates so each bunker is being rebuilt every four years.

THE “AUGUSTA EFFECT” Your Golf Course Maintenance Team is always excited when Masters week arrives in April. We hope this “behind-the-scenes” glimpse of Augusta National answers some of your questions regarding the conditions at The Masters and how they produce such an immaculate course each and every year.

Every day your Golf Course Maintenance Team strives for continued improvement and works toward creating an experience that you and your guests will thoroughly enjoy. We are confident that with warmer temperatures forecasted in the next 10 days, our golf courses will quickly break through winter dormancy. We look forward to seeing you all on the course as we continue our quest to achieve Augusta National conditions.

The National Holes #5 & #6

Loch Lloyd Hole #18