2015 Masters: Wait, cows once grazed by the clubhouse at Augusta?
Golfers were replaced by cattle in the early 1940s at Augusta National. The reason is a good one.
By
Kyle Porter
•
1 min read
As Masters fervor ramps up to another level over the next four weeks, one fun way to get pumped for the event is through historic photos and videos.
I've been tasked to dig up historic photos to stir said fervor. In doing so, I came across the one you see at the top of your screen. The one with the cattle where the 9th green should be.
"What in the world?" I thought.
I started digging and came across this great line John Steinbreder posed two years ago on Masters.com.
"Gazing across an immaculate Augusta National bustling with patrons and players during Masters Week, it is hard to imagine that 70 years ago these verdant fairways were the humble grazing lands of turkeys and cows."
Buy why?
"The celebrated Alister Mackenzie-designed layout at Augusta National had been transformed from a golf Mecca to a simple, working farm."
During World War II, the newly-formed club decided to turn itself into a farm for two reasons.
First, cows and turkeys were bought and put on the property to generate revenue.
Nobody was playing golf during this time because of the war. This is hard to believe given the current state of the club, but each member was asked to give $100 so the land could be kept. The animals were supplementing that revenue.
Also, Bobby Jones thought they would keep the grass in good shape. Instead, the cattle started eating azaleas and bark off the trees and...yeah...it went badly.
After the war, the course was in need of much work because of the damage the cattle did to it. Another factoid I didn't know was how that work came about.
"Much of that work was done over a six-month period by 42 German prisoners of war who had been sent to nearby Camp Gordon after their capture. Many of them had once toiled on an engineering crew in Rommel’s Afrika Corps."
Fascinating stuff. And now you know why there's a photo of cattle next to the Augusta National clubhouse.
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