Give your clubs a workout at Augusta National.

Augusta National doesn't look much like the course that Bobby Jones helped design.  It has been lengthened, stretched, and generally transformed, all with the intent to keep it current and challenging.  Challenging it definitely is.  In fact, Jack Nicklaus feels that only about 10 men are actually capable of winning the Master's Tournament due to the difficult nature of the course as it is.  But past presidents of the club stand by the decision that the spirit of what Bobby Jones was attempting to do when he himself made revisions has been upheld.  Bottom line is - your clubs will definitely receive a workout in Augusta, Georgia.

Marion Hollins was truly a golfer with serious skill.  She won many contests and tournaments in her day and was said to have had an impressive golf swing among both men and women.  Not only was she an accomplished golfer but she was a visionary and entrepreneur.  She invested in business deals and dreamed up an amazingly historic course, Pastiempo Estates in California.  In fact, she is perhaps loosely responsible for Bobby Jones and Allister McKenzie's collaboration on Augusta National Golf Club.  Jones and McKenzie met at her newly finished course which Allister McKenzie designed and created along with Ms. Hollins.  When Jones saw what the course architect had managed to achieve there in California he felt that McKenzie was exactly what he needed to transform the old fruit orchard into Augusta National Golf Club.

Martha Burk is a feminist by her own description who stirred a firestorm several years ago when she brought legal action against Augusta National Golf Club for their male only membership policy.  She is not a golfer.  Nor is she interested in the latest golf training aid on the market.  For her, the crusade to allow female members in the club is all about equality rather than tradition within the sport.  Her legal argument was based on the viewpoint that the success of the Masters Tournament has basically stripped away the club's private status, making it a public entity.  Since public clubs don't have the right to discriminate against any person for any reason, they would therefore have to allow female members. Augusta National is one of about twenty four all male golf clubs in the US.  Ms. Burk chose Augusta National because they are known worldwide and a win for her side would get a lot of publicity.  The courts backed the club's right to choose and her petition was rejected.  Many people, however, feel that it is only a matter of time before females are allowed to become members of the renowned club.  Perhaps Ms. Burk did help to pave the way to equality in Augusta, Georgia.

The most special thing about the Masters Tournament is that it is played on one of the most competitive golf courses in the United States.  People look forward to it all year and know that they will watch only the best in the world play there.  In fact, amateur Colt Knost can get that truth out of his mind.  Knost recently won the U.S. Amateur Public Links and has earned an amateur's spot at the 2008 Masters.  He had plans to get his PGA pro certification this September but if he does that he will have to forfeit his invitation to the tournament.  His decision weighs heavy on his mond.  He knows the honor that he has received.  Actually, everyone who has played in the tournament understands the honor that it is to be there.  It seems unlikely that Bobby Jones and Allister McKenzie knew the success that their dreams would enjoy.

It is rumored that the one of golfs early female pioneers and maker of golf clubs , Marion Hollins, was perhaps indirectly responsible for the working partnership between Bobby Jones and Allister McKenzie.  Bobby Jones came to California to play Hollins course, which McKenzie created, and once he saw what the golf course architect could do he knew he had found his match.  Jones persuaded McKenzie to come to Georgia and work his magic on the hills of the old plantation that was purchased to become the greatest golf courses in the US.  Construction on the course was begun in the winter of 1930 and was finished a year later by the winter of 1931.  It was a masterpiece between two great creators.  The Masters Tournament began in 1934 and has effectively sealed Augusta Nationals fame and place in history as a Destination for golf. 

Augusta National Golf Clubs co-founder, Bobby Jones, considered the father of modern golf, retired after he won the British Amateur on the Old Course at St. Andrews, the British Open, U.S. Open, and the U.S. Amateur and came to Augusta, GA to create his work of genius.  While Bobby Jones hasnt written golf equipment reviews or kept an internet blog on his life, that kind of natural endowment never goes out of style or decays.  Jones authored four books on golf, designed golf clubs, and earned degrees in both mechanical engineering and law.  Out of all of his awards, however, helping to create the worlds greatest golf course at Augusta was to become his magnum opus.  The success of the Masters Tournament is due as much to Bobby Jones vision as it is to Allister McKenzies skill.