How the Great Depression Helped Create One of the World’s Greatest Majors

There is a very strong argument that without Augusta National’s financial struggles we wouldn’t have what many believe to be golf’s greatest major.

In 1929 Bobby Jones was already thinking about hanging up his golf clubs for good with the idea in his head of building his very own golf course - a place where he could retreat from the world.

That very same year in October, Black Thursday kicked off what would later be known as the Great Depression, a burn off which ultimately cut the U.S. GDP in half.

Despite this economic disaster Bobby Jones & Clifford Roberts believed that the downturn would be a short one. Jones would complete his historic year of 1930 with the first ever version of Golf’s Grand Slam & would retire shortly after.

Eight months later in June of 1931 Bobby Jones, Clifford Roberts and several investors closed on the Fruitland Nursery in Augusta, Georgia for $70,000  ($1,600,000 in 2024 money). Within one month of the closing, Dr. Alister Mackenzie was on the property laying out what Bobby Jones would later call his Ideal Golf Course.

Augusta National was never designed to shine within the world’s spotlight. It was supposed to act as a private sanctuary for the world’s greatest golfer. With the help of Clifford Roberts, ANGC’s goal was to sign up 1800 members, but three years deep into the Great Depression, Roberts and Jones only managed to sign up 66.

The club was in real trouble- debts piled up- Dr. Alister Mackenzie was owed $5000 for this design of ANGC and yet was paid half of that amount (not even enough to cover his expenses). The club’s financial issues had one saving grace- it effectively killed their plan to build an elaborate new southern plantation style clubhouse (see rendering below)- a plan that included demolishing the iconic clubhouse which exists today.

ANGC was on the verge of collapse but Jones and Roberts had an idea that they thought might help turn the tide. The club needed exposure and their grand plan was for ANGC to host the 1934 U.S. Open. A U.S. Open would help put Augusta National on the map and with that national exposure, a much needed influx of new members. Now here is where the story goes a bit sideways- there are unconfirmed sources that suggested that the USGA may have offered the U.S. Open in exchange for Jones pledging to play in it. To be fair to all parties, Jones denied any such quid pro quo. No matter the case their discussions stalled when it was discovered that ANGC was not a member of the USGA.

(Fun Golf History Factoid: Augusta National Golf Club is still not a USGA Member Club. One wonders if that was the original intent, or did the denial of the US Open have some long term ramifications?)

So Augusta National, in desperate need for exposure founded the Augusta National Invitational Tournament, which thanks to the advice of legendary sportswriter and early ANGC member, Grantland Rice helped the club find the right time to host one of golf’s most unique tournaments in the world - a tournament which would later be renamed, THE MASTERS.

And the club lived happily ever after…well not quite… it still went bankrupt and its debtors forced it into foreclosure. For more on that story - read next week’s SOCIETY Newsletter.

From the Golffice: The First Routing of ANGC

As I mentioned in the previous story- one month after closing on the Fruitland Nursery Property, Dr. Alister Mackenzie traveled to Georgia to evaluate the land that would become Augusta National. This is the actual design plan of Dr. Mackenzie from July 1931 which hangs in the Golffice Museum. This plan as well as other drawings were acquired from the estate of Wendell Miller, who served as the Chief Engineer over the construction of ANGC.

This 1931 course routing is very close to the course that was delivered 2 years later. You will also notice that in Mackenzie’s 1931 routing the holes are in their current order. The routing would reverse in the next iteration of the course plans in 1932.

Before Augusta National…

Do you want to learn about the pre-history of Augusta National Golf Club? Here is a wonderful podcast about what happened “Before Augusta National.”

Thank you for taking the time to read our short little history newsletter. This is week one of four straight weeks of Augusta National and Masters History.

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Yours in Golf History,

Connor T.