Chocolate Drops: Stasis at Augusta National?

Welcome to Augusta National Women’s Amateur week! Let’s run through some tidbits from the golf architecture industry:

→ Last Wednesday, various golf outlets reported on Rory McIlroy’s customary scouting trip to Augusta National Golf Club. Speaking at the PGA Tour’s Texas Children’s Houston Open, McIlroy offered the following insights on what’s new at the home of The Masters:

1. “There’s four greens that are new this year that they’ve redone.”

2. “The loss of a few trees is definitely noticeable” on the 16th hole after damage from Hurricane Helene in September 2024. “They’ve had to redo that green, but it’s exactly the same as what it was…. Apart from maybe a few less shadows on the green late in the day… it’s pretty much the same.”

So… not much to talk about!

The reconstruction of a few greens is an annual routine at Augusta National, and fortunately the damage from Helene seems to have been limited to a modest amount of tree removal. In recent years, the club’s offseason revisions have typically been more dramatic. Think of the overhaul of the 11th fairway and lengthening of the 15th hole in 2022, or the addition of back tees on Nos. 13 and 2 in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

Has the pace of change at Augusta National finally slowed down?

It’s possible that hurricane recovery forced the club to keep things simple this time around. But I also think ANGC’s leadership is happy with how the course has been playing in recent years. Since 2021, winning scores at The Masters have hovered between 10 and 12 under. Even as players continue to leverage technology and training to gain distance off the tee (the average drive on the PGA Tour surpassed the 300-yard mark for the first time last year), few holes at the current version of Augusta National seem especially susceptible to bomb and gouge. With a rollback of the golf ball set to take effect in 2028, the club may feel that the course is in a good spot. And — as much as I’d love to see certain aspects of the original MacKenzie/Jones design restored — I would have to agree.

→ David Zinkand will soon complete a renovation project at the Mike Strantz-designed Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. In earlier phases of his multi-year master plan, Zinkand refurbished the course’s tees and expanded its waste area to reduce turf acreage. This June, he will finish a set of changes to the Shore Course’s sand hazards. From the press release: “Each [bunker and waste area] is receiving new drainage and capillary flow liners. Concurrently, new sand is being laid in formal bunkers, while existing bunker sand is screened and placed within the waste areas. Some strategically imperative hazards have also been repositioned, frequently toward the line of play, to encourage decision making on the tee and advance the course’s challenge relative to modern play and equipment.”

The Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. (Photo: Monterey Peninsula Country Club)

Many of Strantz’s designs from the late 1990s and early 2000s will come due for renovations soon. My guess is that most of these courses will lean toward restoration rather than redesign, as Strantz’s architecture has aged well and continues to garner a great deal of admiration.

→ Escalante Golf has acquired Canyata, an extremely private club in Marshall, Illinois, founded by local businessman Jerry Forsythe. Patronized primarily by Forsythe’s family and friends, Canyata has nonetheless performed quite well — oddly well, I’d say — in Golf Digest’s top-100 ranking. Escalante’s involvement suggests that the club plans to open its doors a bit wider.

Aerial view of Canyata. (Photo: Patrick Koenig)

→ Golf Course Architecture has an informative look at Florida’s Kinsale Golf Club, a new Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner design inspired by C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor’s architecture.

→ Tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, I’m recording a Designing Golf episode with Alister MacKenzie historian/archivist Josh Pettit about MacKenzie’s activities in the early 1930s. I’ve long been fascinated by this period in the Good Doctor’s career. Between the opening of Pasatiempo (and the onset of the Depression) in late 1929 and his untimely death in January 1934, MacKenzie tried a lot of out-of-the-box stuff: ambitious municipal projects at Sharp Park and Bayside, an experiment in reversible golf at El Boquerón, and of course an eccentric tribute to the Old Course on a hilly, forested property in Georgia.

Have any questions for Josh about MacKenzie’s wild 1930s? Put them below and I’ll try to work them in.