Augusta Country Club - Hill Course

The club began as the Bon Air Golf Club, a nine-hole course owned by the Bon Air Hotel, with play by Rae's Creek from about 1897; county records register the club in 1899. By 1900, when Harry Vardon played an exhibition there, the course had 18 holes, and that year the club became the Country Club of Augusta. To ease crowding on that course, later called the Lake Course, the members built a second 18 for their own use: the Hill Course, designed by club president Dr. William Henry Harison Jr. and the club's long-serving Scottish professional David Ogilvie and opened in 1909. The club took its present name, Augusta Country Club, in 1921.

In 1926 Seth Raynor remodeled the Lake Course and converted its sand greens to grass. Donald Ross followed in 1927. According to Golf Course News, he was in Augusta to design Forest Hills when the club retained him to convert the Hill Course's sand putting surfaces to Bermudagrass. He also substantially rerouted the front nine and rebunkered the whole course, and he put new contour into the greens. His hole-by-hole working drawings, with his handwritten notes, were used during construction and survive in the Tufts Archives at Pinehurst. The sources found do not say whether Ross returned. The Lake Course did not survive the Depression, and its land became the Country Club Hills housing development, leaving the Hill Course as the club's only course.

Holes to Know

From the Jones tees (7,235 yards) the course is par 36 on each nine, 3,594 yards out and 3,641 in. There are four par 3s (the 4th, 6th, 12th and 14th), ten par 4s and four par 5s (the 5th, 8th, 11th and 15th). The round opens and closes with three par 4s, and the 9th, rebuilt in 2018, is now a 482-yard par 4 from the Jones tees and stroke index 1.

The 442-yard 3rd from the Jones tees, stroke index 3, climbs straight between tree lines. Three bunkers cross its fairway on a diagonal, stepping from short left to long right about 250 to 295 yards short of the green, and two more sit either side of the line some 25 to 30 yards short of a green with a third bunker along its left side. Ross's drawings for the hole show diagonal cross-bunkers on the climb.

The 596-yard 8th from the Jones tees is the longest hole on the course and runs straight downhill between trees. Its only fairway bunker sits on the left about 335 yards out, and Rae's Creek crosses the line 40 to 65 yards short of the green before curling up its right side. The green has no bunkers.

The 493-yard 13th from the Jones tees is the longest par 4 and stroke index 2. It starts beside a pond and runs straight, with bunkering mostly on the right and a single bunker on the left side of the green. The Fried Egg singles it out for its blind uphill tee shot, a fairway that slopes right to left, and a Redan green that feeds the ball left.

The 430-yard 16th from the Jones tees, stroke index 4, climbs to the highest point of the property. The approach is played blind over a nest of bunkers, seven of them within about 45 yards of the green, to the punchbowl green shown on Ross's drawing for the hole.

Ross's Design Here

The routing played today is largely Ross's; the Fried Egg notes a few holes that are not Ross originals, the 9th the most notable. The Fried Egg describes an L-shaped property on which the first three holes head west and the last three return across a ridge, while eleven holes play up to, around and away from a central high point that holds the 5th, 7th and 14th greens. Tee shots on the 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 13th and 17th are at least partly blind. Silva, before his restoration, called the routing "superb, but the Ross details need reviving."

Ross's drawings set out those details. Silva described a "random bunker approach" with fairway bunkers placed to come into play for every length of hitter and "cleverly cut into slight upslopes," which is why he did not move them farther out for modern distances. He later recalled "one of the greatest sets of fairway bunkers I have ever seen," many of them "perpendicular to the shot being played." The drawings also show a diagonal set of cross-bunkers on the uphill 3rd, and the aerial today shows three bunkers on a diagonal across that fairway. On the 16th the drawings call for a punchbowl green.

The greens on the drawings carried more undulation than the surfaces Silva found, and his work brought each back toward the size and contours Ross specified. In 2018 Golf Georgia's Derek Duncan described the 1st green as a quarter piece of pie with a square front-right corner and the 2nd as having a deep thumbprint depression at its front centre, with flat-bottomed, steep-faced bunkers on the early holes. The Fried Egg finds the greens enjoyable but less intricate than Ross's best.

Historical Significance

Augusta Country Club predates Augusta National by more than 30 years. Bobby Jones began his Grand Slam year of 1930 by winning the inaugural Southeastern Open, played at Augusta Country Club, by 13 strokes over Horton Smith; Ed Dudley, later Augusta National's first head professional, finished third.

From 1937 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1966 the club hosted the Titleholders Championship, a women's event whose winners included Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Babe Zaharias, Mickey Wright and Kathy Whitworth. The LPGA now counts all of its stagings as major championships.

The club has hosted the Georgia Amateur seven times, from 1921 to 2024. The 2024 championship, its first there since 1991, was won by Jake Peacock with a birdie on the 72nd hole. The bermudagrass greens installed in 2022 made the summer championship possible again. Charles Howell III learned the game at the club.

Changes Since Ross

Golf Georgia's 2018 history notes some evidence of work by Hugh Moore, probably in the 1950s, and a Bob Cupp renovation in 1983. Club historian Levi Hill remembers the 8th green on the near side of Rae's Creek; it now sits on the far bank, a move Golf Georgia attributes to Cupp. By 2000 the course was worn out.

Brian Silva first visited about two years before his restoration, when the talk was mostly of bunkers. After superintendent Greg Burleson obtained Ross's drawings from the Tufts Archives, the club chose a full restoration. Working with Burleson and contractor Course Crafters, Silva began in July 2001: all 18 greens were rebuilt to the drawings, existing bunkers restored, lost ones reinstated in their original positions (about 40, by Golf Georgia's count), and all 18 tees rebuilt as rectangles. The course reopened in January 2002.

On August 4, 2017 the club completed a sale of land on its northwest boundary to Augusta National, which wanted room to lengthen its 13th hole and paid for new 8th and 9th holes at Augusta Country Club. Golf Georgia reported in early 2018 that Silva would return that summer to reroute the 9th into more of a dogleg with a new green up and to the left of the old one, and to fine-tune the bunkering. That year the fairways were converted to zoysia and hundreds of trees came down. The Fried Egg counts the new 9th among the few holes that are not Ross's, and notes the walk from its green back around a road to the 10th tee.

In 2022 architect Tripp Davis converted the greens from bentgrass to TifEagle Bermuda and restored the greenside bunkers and their lips.

Uncertainties

• The Hill Course's opening date: Golf Course News in 2001 and Top100 give 1909, while Golf Georgia in 2018, citing club historian Levi Hill, says around 1906. This listing follows 1909.

• Ross's date: most sources give 1927; Golf Georgia's 2024 article says 1926. This listing follows 1927.

• The Lake Course: Golf Georgia's 2018 history and the Fried Egg date its closure and sale to 1937, with the land sold to a developer around 1940; Golf Georgia's 2024 article says the property was sold in 1942.

• Wikipedia says Ross designed the 1897 Bon Air course. Golf Course News and the club's history describe that course as the hotel's, and tie Ross to the club only in 1927; this listing follows them.

Sources & Notes

1. Philip Hall, "Silva restoring Ross' Augusta CC," Golf Course News, May 2001, https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/gcnew/article/2001may19c.pdf (club chronology 1897-1927, Raynor 1926, Ross's 1927 scope and Forest Hills, Tufts working drawings, restoration plan, 3rd-hole cross-bunkers, 16th punchbowl, 1930 Southeastern Open).

2. Derek Duncan, "With Always A Finger On The Pulse," Golf Georgia, March/April 2018, https://editionduo.mydigitalpublication.com/article/With+Always+A+Finger+On+The+Pulse/3017285/477982/article.html (Harison and Ogilvie, Lake Course, Ross's green contours, Moore and Cupp, Silva's 40 bunkers, greens of the 1st and 2nd, 8th green, 16th punchbowl, 2018 plans for the 9th and zoysia).

3. Stan Awtrey, "A Classic Returns," Golf Georgia, July/August 2024, https://editionduo.mydigitalpublication.com/article/A+Classic+Returns/4800088/824891/article.html (2018 zoysia and tree removal, 2022 Tripp Davis greens and bunkers, 12th-hole pond, 14th-hole Jones marker, Titleholders, Georgia Amateur history, teaching center).

4. Will Knights, "Augusta Country Club," The Fried Egg, April 2, 2026, https://www.thefriedegg.com/courses/augusta-country-club (routing and focal point, blind tee shots, Rae's Creek on the 8th and 9th, the new 9th, the 13th, assessment of the greens).

5. LINKS Magazine, "Augusta Country Club, Georgia," https://linksmagazine.com/?p=18254 (discovery of the drawings by Greg Burleson, January 2002 reopening, Charles Howell III).

6. Augusta Country Club, club history on its home page, https://augustacountryclub.co/ (Bon Air origins, 1899 registration, name changes, guest policy).

7. Top100GolfCourses, "Augusta Country Club," https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/augusta-country-club (1909 Hill Course, Ross's 1927 scope, Silva commission).

8. Ryan Ballengee, "Augusta National to lengthen 13th hole? Club purchases land from Augusta Country Club," Golf News Net, August 9, 2017, https://thegolfnewsnet.com/ryan_ballengee/2017/08/09/augusta-national-lengthen-13th-hole-club-purchases-land-augusta-country-club-106275/ (land sale, new 8th and 9th).

9. Wikipedia, "Augusta Country Club," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_Country_Club (sale completed August 4, 2017; Augusta National paid for the new holes; the Bon Air attribution).

10. Golf Compendium, "The Time Bobby Jones Won a PGA Tour Tournament in Augusta," April 2022, https://www.golfcompendium.com/2022/04/bobby-jones-pga-tour-win-augusta.html, and Wikipedia, "Forest Hills Golf Club," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Hills_Golf_Club (1930 Southeastern Open, Ed Dudley, venue accounts differ).

11. Wikipedia, "Titleholders Championship," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titleholders_Championship (years held at the club, LPGA major status).

12. GSGA, "Jake Peacock Goes Back-To-Back At Georgia Amateur Championship!," July 2024, https://gsga.org/gsga-news/2024-jake-peacock-103rd-georgia-amateur-championship (2024 Georgia Amateur).

13. Greens Visited scorecard and course-tour aerials (USDA NAIP imagery via USGS The National Map) for hole yardages and what is on the ground today.