The Augusta National is heaven to many Catholic golfers. And the Augusta National is richer than God! When NOW tried to close them down for chauvinism instead of putting their Master's sponsors in an awkward position, the National itself sponsored the tournament on CBS itself and when they have sponsors they limit commercials. Tell that to the Super Bowl!
The National, as we Augustans call it, purchased a heavily traveled city road next to the course and a complete neighborhood and several businesses and shopping centers around the National. Homes that would have cost $200,000 were purchased for $1.2 to 2.0 million, quite a profit for the sellers. All the homes, an entire large neighborhood were torn down to make way for this:
Augusta National’s fifth hole has long been considered a prime target for renovations. Club and tournament chairman Fred Ridley didn’t specify any changes in his news conference this year, but said the club intends to “maintain the design philosophy” that course architects Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie devised.
“And with the shot values that they thought were important, we have done what we felt was appropriate through the years to maintain that philosophy,” Ridley said.
A number of existing trees and plants will be saved, according to the plans, and a retaining wall will be built around the new tee box area.
.jpg)
The National, as we Augustans call it, purchased a heavily traveled city road next to the course and a complete neighborhood and several businesses and shopping centers around the National. Homes that would have cost $200,000 were purchased for $1.2 to 2.0 million, quite a profit for the sellers. All the homes, an entire large neighborhood were torn down to make way for this:
Work begins on Augusta National border
More than 600 new plants to be installed
By John Boyette Sports Editor
Work along Augusta National Golf Club’s western edge of its course has started, and plans call for an extensive landscaping program in addition to changes to the fifth hole.
According to site plans that were revised April 6 with the Augusta Planning and Development Department, more than 600 new trees, plants and bushes will be planted in the area. New storm sewer pipe is being installed as well. Bulldozers and other heavy equipment went into action about a week after the 2018 Masters Tournament ended. The work is along Old Berckmans Road, which has been closed to through traffic since 2015. According to preliminary site plans filed Jan. 30, and labeled “#5 Renovations,” the tee box for tournament play on the 455-yard, par-4 hole would be pushed back across Old Berckmans Road. The new tee would alleviate congestion at the fourth green and current fifth tee, which are just a few yards apart.
Augusta National has not announced any changes to the fifth hole. According to the preliminary plans, filed by Augusta firm Cranston Engineering Group P.C., a total of 23.1 acres would be affected.
The approximate start date for the project is listed as May 1, and the approximate end date is Nov. 1. Augusta National closes each year in late May and reopens in October, and typically no work on the course is done until it closes for the season.
Augusta National’s fifth hole has long been considered a prime target for renovations. Club and tournament chairman Fred Ridley didn’t specify any changes in his news conference this year, but said the club intends to “maintain the design philosophy” that course architects Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie devised.
“And with the shot values that they thought were important, we have done what we felt was appropriate through the years to maintain that philosophy,” Ridley said.
The buffer between the course and the area used for parking will be improved aesthetically. According to a plant schedule listed in the revised plans, several different types of trees and plants will be added. They include 19 mega hardwoods, eight mega pines, 13 hardwoods and 77 pine trees. Nearly 200 bushes will be planted, along with 83 holly plants and 77 tea olive plants.
A number of existing trees and plants will be saved, according to the plans, and a retaining wall will be built around the new tee box area.
Bulldozers and other heavy equipment went into action along Augusta National Golf Club’s western edge of its course about a week after the 2018 Masters Tournament ended. [MICHAEL HOLAHAN/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE]
23 comments:
I have some suggestions for making golf an athletic event...50 yard dash to each tee. Whoever wins goes first.
Hurdles down side of fairway. Each golfer must run them before thy can hit. Winner gets to move ball to spot of his choice.
Golfers have to box one two-minute round against each other on every green to putt. Winner gets to move ball half the present distance closer to hole. If there is a knockout, that golfer is eliminated from play.
If there is a tie at the end of the round, the golfers must face a major league pitcher. If you strike out, you lose.
On the 18th green, each golfer must break through a defensive line in order to putt. If he can't do it, he is eliminated.
Now, I'd actually watch that!
To my knowledge, Augusta National still does not have any Jewish members and finally, in the post-Iiger age, finally has an African-American member or two. These were not errors of omission for more than a century, they were enforced policies. Racism & anti-Semitism are both sins. Augusta National is not a paradise for any Catholic I know.
Wonder if the National will eventually buy everything up to I-20? Or even take in the National Hills neighborhood between Washington Road and the CSX rail line that connects Augusta with Spartanburg? I suppose if they could, the National would get Washington Road closed---it ain't exactly a scenic drive on that road from I-20 to the club.
As for Anonymous at 231, the longtime chairman of the club, Clifford Roberts (he was chairman 1934-1976), reportedly was an atheist and supporter of Planned Parenthood..and do you have a list of the members? How do you know there are not any Jewish members?
It is a private club. It is normal for people to want to associate with their own kind. So, go wring your hands and cry your eyes out.
Clifford Robertson also committed suicide on the golf course.
Yes he did (the suicide)...apparently he was married three or four times too. Some story said the New York Times had to call the National when he committed suicide, unable to find much public material for his obituary.
They did a nice job relocating Berckmans Road a few years ago, though it must look odd to see all that vacant land along it the rest of the year. Maybe next they will get the apartments on the hill on Berckmans that border Raes Creek, then that would give the Club control of all land bordering Berckmans and Raes Creek over to near the "other" club", of course the country club. Speaking of which, Roberts never cared for the National being called a "country club" (suggesting swimming pools, tennis and debutante balls)---instead the National is a "GOLF club!" I'm sure the distinction was understood...
"It is normal for people to want to associate with their own kind."
"their own kind"
Warsaw ghetto, much? Now, don't get upset! It was "normal" for the Jews to want to associate with their own kind. The Nazis were just helping them be normal!
Why doesn't anyone know this???
Anon @ 5:30, What in the Hell does that have to do with anything? And, I believe Augusta does have Jewish members.
Gene, bigotry is not normal nor is it Catholic. There are plenty of churches where the standards of the segregated golf club are acceptable but ours is not one if them. So put on your white hood and cry your eyes out.
Preferring to associate with your own kind is not bigotry, it is normal behavior. It does not imply racism or jingoism.
While we’re defending 30-year-old rape charges, anyone have any thoughts on the US House Speaker firing their Catholic chaplain at the request of conservative evangelicals?
Hello? Anyone??
Heh, heh, heh:
***Late Thursday afternoon, North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker, a Southern Baptist pastor, touched the nerve directly when he said that he was looking for somebody “who has a little age, that has adult children, that kind of can connect with the bulk of the body here, Republicans and Democrats who are going through, back home, the wife, the family.”***
That doesn’t sound like religious bias at all, does it?
:)
Gene, we are not called to be “normal,” but to be better than normal,
And Jesus asked, “ Which of these three men was his neighbor!”
"Your own kind" is every human made in the image and likeness of God. Due to the corruption of sin, we separate people by race, by economic status, by education levels, by whether or not they vote like us, etc.
This is not "normal.". It is as unnatural as it gets. It is the brokenness for which Jesus died and rose.
Anon, Jesus, himself, acknowledged the differences in race and social class and many of His actions were done in spite of these differences. This is theology. I am talking everyday life for the average person. Certainly, we reach out to those of other races, etc. as Christians called to do so. But, in our daily lives, people generally prefer to associate with their own kind. Again, there is nothging racist, un=Christian, or bigoted about this. Otherwise, since you are so self-righteous about it, why are you not living in Nigeria, New Guinea, or Tibet where you could live daily among those unlike you?
"Anon, Jesus, himself, acknowledged the differences in race and social class and many of His actions were done in spite of these differences."
"...in SPITE of these differences." There's the difference. You want to act BASED ON the differences.
"This is theology." No it's not. It is no more "theology" than St. Paul sending the slave Onesimus home to his master. This is not a "theology" of slavery, as if that were something acceptable and supported by Divine revelation.
As to where I live, you might as well ask why, instead of being Caucasian, I am not African American or Asian. Silly, meaningless question meant to deflect from your own 1) BAD exegesis and 2) racist/bigoted attitude.
To lighten things a tad, I'll riff a bit on Gener's suggestions:
I live in upstate New York (the sane part of the state), not too far from the Adirondacks. After the 1980s Winter Olympics, immortalized by Al Michaels' "Do you believe in miracles?", there was some talk of turning the Lake Placid Olympic venue into a prison. This led some of us to speculate on how the two uses could be combined by giving pardons to prisoners completing an innovative athletic event. The two I can recall after all these years were "obstacle luge" and the "90 meter bobsled jump".
We now return to our regularly scheduled program: Debating the moral standing of the Augusta National Golf Club and its members.
Anon, you miss the point entirely. But, to reiterate, I generally choose to associate with my own race and social group. That does not mean I hate the others. I have no need or desire to seek out other cultural venues in order to prove I am not racist, as do many libs. I do not care for Third World culture, or Indian culture, or black culture. There is no cultural basis for me to actively seek out associations with those groups. Random or incidental contact with them is fine on a day-to-day basis but, beyond that, I am not interested. I prefer Western Caucasian culture and feel no need to apologize for it or feel guilty for being white and a member of the race and nation that has risen to the top of the international food chain and given us most of the modern scientific, technological, literary, artistic, and sociological benefits and advances that we enjoy. I also like Donald Trump. Bye, now.
"I prefer Western Caucasian culture and feel no need to apologize for it or feel guilty for being white and a member of the race and nation that has risen to the top of the international food chain and given us most of the modern scientific, technological, literary, artistic, and sociological benefits and advances that we enjoy."
The false assumption is that Western Caucasian culture has accomplished such things on its own. Science, technology, literature, art, and sociology all existed and developed long before the rise of Western Caucasian culture.
The Chinese were sailing/trading in the Indian Ocean from the late 2nd century BC and reached as far as Morocco by 1154.
Al-Razi (865-920), a medical scientist from near Tehran, identified fever as part of the body's natural defenses and described the symptoms and pathology of smallpox and measles.
Your math is all accomplished with Arabic numerals.
The Standard of Ur is a wooden box inlaid with shells and lapis lazuli. The Indus Valley Civilization did beautiful sculptures in stone and bronze.
The Nio Guardian statues date from 1203 in Japan.
Among the first to practice "modern" medicine - examination, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis - were the Egyptians of 1600 BC.
I am grateful for the advances made in the milieu of Western Caucasian culture, but I do not think that these advances indicate the superiority of our culture as you seem to.
Bye, now.
Latino/hispanics have Catholic mass in their own language with cultural accommodations
of varying degrees according to where it is celebrated.
They for the most part, tend to associate with those within their own group.
There is the hope and the expectation out there that they will eventually blend in with society as a whole.
In the meantime it is what it is. Problem?
Also, the advance of Western civilization began its ascent with the Greeks and Romans who were Caucasians. Nothing else, no other civilizations, starting from their contributions and developments and moving on forward in time with further European developments, compares.
Are you comparing 19th century advances with 2nd century advances? Or 11th century? Or 15th century?
Isn't that more than a little Apples and Oranges?
Apples and Oranges? No. Just reflecting on the totality of Western Civilization from the early Greeks up to our own time.
Anonymous 10:22 - Cool.
Post a Comment