Augusta Country Club - Hill Course

The golf ground at what is now Augusta Country Club dated to the Bon Air Hotel’s nine-holer of 1897, expanded to 18 holes by 1900 when the hotel renamed the facility the Country Club of Augusta. By 1909 the membership added a second members’ course—the Hill Course—laid out by club president Dr. William H. Harison Jr. with the assistance of professional David Ogilvie. In 1926 Seth Raynor converted the Lake Course’s sand greens to grass. Donald Ross arrived the following year, 1927, while he was in town on the Forest Hills commission, and the club retained him specifically to convert the Hill Course’s sand greens to Bermudagrass, substantially reroute the front nine, and completely rebunker the layout. Ross’s hand-annotated working drawings for each hole survive in the Tufts Archives and formed the basis for construction.

The clearest documentary evidence of Ross’s intent comes from those Tufts plans: they were “original working drawings used during construction,” with Ross’s notes describing green forms, bunker positions, and tee geometry. In 2001 the club secured copies and used them as the template for a comprehensive restoration.

Ross’s 1927 work proved the last major Golden-Age revision before the Depression. The Lake Course did not survive that period, but the Hill Course (today’s Augusta Country Club course) did, carrying forward Ross’s routing adjustments and his green/bunker schemes into the post-war era.

Through the late 20th century, incremental modernizations dulled many Ross details. In 2001 Brian Silva led a full restoration keyed to the 1927 sheets: greens were rebuilt to the noted contours and footprints, lost bunkers were reinstated, fairway bunkers were returned to original upslope cuttings rather than pushed downrange, and rectangular tee complexes were rebuilt in the classic geometry shown on the drawings.

In 2017–2018 Augusta National acquired a sliver of ACC property along the boundary to facilitate lengthening ANGC’s thirteenth; ACC in turn rebuilt its own boundary holes. The club sold most of its existing ninth corridor and commissioned a replacement par-4 ninth on new ground. Contemporary reporting and club/industry summaries agree on the land transfer and the new ninth; published accounts do not consistently identify a design architect for the 2018 work, though Golf Digest credits Silva with building the new ninth as part of post-sale adjustments.

Unique design characteristics (as implemented on this course)

Ross’s 1927 plans called for what he described elsewhere as “random” fairway bunkering—hazards sprinkled to catch all lengths rather than a single distance band—and the Augusta sheets specified those pits cut into slight upslopes so they read naturally from the tee. Silva’s 2001 restoration honored that spacing and those landform tie-ins, reinstating the distributed fairway hazards rather than relocating them “for distance’s sake,” exactly as the drawings showed.

On the uphill third hole Ross laid out a diagonal chain of cross-bunkers working up the grade, a textbook example here of how he forced a carry decision on a rising fairway. The 2001 work restored that diagonal, re-establishing the intended preferred angle into the green.

Greens were a major focus of the 1927 sheets. The plans show more interior movement than the then-present surfaces had by 2001, and Silva rebuilt all 18 greens to the archived contours, recapturing perimeter cupping space and the sharper edges Ross drew. Several surfaces present pronounced fall-offs and false fronts consistent with the drawings; the short par-4 sixteenth was specified as a punchbowl and was rebuilt in that form—today the most obvious “from-the-sheet” survival of Ross’s shaping at ACC.

Bunker form at ACC is unusually specific in the record. Silva’s notes describe reviving Ross’s grass-face “coffin” bunkers—steep, stacked faces often turned perpendicular to the line of play—which give the restored holes their visual cadence. These details are not generic to Ross; they are recorded in the ACC sheets and were replicated here.

Rae’s Creek, the shared watershed with the club next door, figured strategically on the pre-2018 boundary stretch. Prior to the land transfer, ACC’s par-5 eighth played down toward the creek and the par-4 ninth ran adjacent to it near the Augusta National boundary; both holes were part of the 2018 reconfiguration. The newly built ninth bends gently to the right, replacing the lost corridor while maintaining Ross-style angles into the target.

The clearest surviving examples of Ross’s intentions at ACC remain (1) the uphill third with its restored diagonal cross-bunkering; and (2) the sixteenth, rebuilt as a punchbowl per the archived sheet. In both cases, we possess explicit plan evidence and a modern restoration that matched those instructions on the ground.

Historical significance

Within Ross’s oeuvre, Augusta Country Club mattered for two reasons. First, it represented a late-1920s Southern commission in which we have the complete “field set” of construction drawings—rare documentary clarity that allowed a high-fidelity restoration. Second, ACC sat within a unique design neighborhood: for a time the property hosted side-by-side Ross and Raynor courses, with Raynor having converted the Lake Course’s greens in 1926 before that course was ultimately abandoned. That proximity of contrasting Golden-Age schools is frequently noted in assessments of the club’s history. archive.lib.msu.eduGolf Digest ACC also figured in competitive history. Bobby Jones opened his Grand Slam season by winning the 1930 Southeastern Open at Augusta, with rounds played at ACC and Forest Hills. From 1937 through 1966 the women’s Titleholders Championship—later recognized as an LPGA major—was contested at Augusta Country Club (with a one-year revival at Pine Needles in 1972). These events tied the Ross-revised Hill Course to a prominent competitive lineage independent of its famous neighbor.

Contemporary reputation places ACC among Georgia’s better courses. Golf Digest’s state list has kept Augusta Country Club inside the top 20 for more than a decade (No. 13 for 2025-26), and its editorial profile emphasizes the course’s reliance on Ross’s sketches, the restored punchbowl 16th, and the rebuilt ninth after the 2018 boundary change.

Current condition / integrity

As of today, the routing and hole-by-hole architecture at ACC remain largely those restored to Ross’s drawings in 2001, with two caveats: the boundary transaction with Augusta National required the club to surrender most of the former ninth corridor (and some of the eighth environs), and a new right-bending ninth was built in response. Outside that northwest corner, the course still presents the Ross/Silva green complexes, reinstated fairway bunkers in their upslope cuttings, and the specific one-off features recorded on the 1927 sheets (e.g., the third’s diagonal hazards and the sixteenth’s punchbowl).

Since 2022 the club has engaged architect Tripp Davis on a multi-year master plan. His consulting scope—bunker renovation, tree management, turf upgrades and incremental refinements—has been framed publicly as continued stewardship rather than a re-imagining, with the Ross/Silva framework retained. (Davis himself has described the assignment as consulting to preserve the period character.) tdagolf.netGolf Digest Given the documentary chain (1927 plans; 2001 plan-based restoration; targeted 2018 reroute of one hole), a reasonable estimate is that sixteen of eighteen holes still reflect Ross’s design vocabulary as implemented from his drawings, with the rebuilt ninth being a necessary modern insertion and the eighth’s boundary context altered. That estimate derives from the scope outlined in Silva’s 2001 description and the published account of the 2018 sale/new ninth; the club has not published a formal percentage.

Uncertainties and disputed points

Two historical attributions invite caution. First, some online summaries have asserted that “Donald Ross designed” the original 1897 Bon Air course. The contemporary documentary trail used by Silva ties Ross’s Augusta work to 1927, not 1897; the Bon Air/CCA layouts pre-dated his involvement and were reworked by him decades later. (This directory therefore dates Ross’s plan and construction influence at ACC to 1927.)

Second, reports on the 2017–2018 boundary project do not consistently identify the architect of the ACC rerouting. News stories agree that Augusta National purchased land and funded reconstruction of ACC’s affected holes; Golf Digest’s profile credits Silva with building the new ninth, while other outlets simply note the change without attribution. Because no primary design announcement has been published by the club, the precise authorship of the 2018 ACC work should be treated as unconfirmed.

Sources & Notes

1.

“Silva restoring Ross’ Augusta CC,” Golf Course News, May 2001 (archival PDF). Includes Ross’s 1927 scope (greens conversion to Bermudagrass, front-nine reroute, complete rebunkering), references to Tufts Archives working drawings with Ross’s notes, restoration scope in 2001 (greens rebuilt to plans; lost bunkers reinstated; rectangular tees), diagonal cross-bunkers on No. 3, punchbowl green at No. 16, and early-course chronology (Bon Air 1897; Lake & Hill courses; 1926 Raynor greens conversion).

2. LINKS Magazine, “Augusta Country Club,” on the discovery of Ross’s 1927 ACC drawings in the Tufts Archives and the club’s use of them in restoration planning with Brian Silva.

3. Golf Digest course profile for Augusta Country Club (updated 2025-26 rankings): discusses the Ross restoration guided by hole-by-hole sketches; describes revived “coffin” bunkers and the punchbowl 16th; documents the 2018 sale of most of No. 9 to Augusta National and the construction of a new right-bending ninth; notes current consulting architect Tripp Davis and the club’s standing in Georgia rankings.

4. ESPN and Golf.com reporting on Augusta National’s 2017 land purchase from ACC to facilitate lengthening ANGC’s 13th; confirms the boundary transaction and ACC hole impacts, though not the precise design author of ACC’s replacement work.

5. Bangor Daily News (syndicated piece on the 2017 deal) providing pre-2018 details of ACC’s boundary holes (par-5 8th and par-4 9th) and their relationship to Rae’s Creek/ANGC—useful context for what was altered.

6. Augusta Museum of History, “Celebrating a Grand Tradition,” noting ACC’s role in the 1930 Southeastern Open (Jones over Horton Smith) and 1936/1938 Augusta Open shared with Forest Hills.

7. LPGA and Wikipedia entries on the Titleholders Championship, confirming that the women’s major was staged at Augusta Country Club from 1937 to 1966 (with a one-year revival at Pine Needles in 1972).

8. Donald Ross Society / Tufts Archives overview, for context on the existence and use of Ross’s original drawings in restorations such as ACC; corroborates that Tufts is the repository used by restoration teams.

Disputed/uncertain items noted in text:

• Attribution of a 1897 Ross “design” at Bon Air/CCA (unsupported by the construction record and contradicted by the 1927 plan/construction documentation).

• Specific architect of the 2018 ACC rerouting following the land sale; Golf Digest credits Silva; other reporting omits attribution.