Tiger will skip on dinner, but not project
Augusta National announces partnerships with Woods; Hurricane can't stop Masters
Masters chairman Fred Ridley delivered a special Monday presser (Joe Toth/ANGC)
Tiger Woods couldn’t make it to Augusta on Monday to announce a partnership with Augusta National Golf Club to create a municipal short course as well as a new TGR Foundation Learning Lab. So you can pretty much count out the five-time Masters champion showing up for Scottie Scheffler’s dinner for his green-jacketed peers on Tuesday night.
During a special Masters-week Monday press conference by club chairman Fred Ridley that focused on two new community initiatives with Woods, the 49-year-old recovering from surgery in March to repair a torn Achilles tendon taped a brief message while wearing his green jacket about how honored he is to be team up with ANGC for two legacy projects in the hometown of the Masters Tournament.
“What an honor to be here and to have this moment to be able to be part of Augusta National but just in a different way,” Woods said on the video. “To have the ability to be able to design something that’s going to impact the community, something that I truly believe in, in education and STEAM and giving back to the underserved, and to be able to do this with Augusta National, what an honor.”
Before the 2023 Masters, Ridley announced plans to enhance the Augusta Municipal Golf Course that has served the local golf community for nearly a century. On Monday, Woods joined a project that has grown significantly beyond upgrading a course known fondly as “the Patch.”
Woods and his TGR Design team will build a new nine-hole short course on the corner of the combined property where The First Tee Augusta practice facility currently is situated. The short course will be named The Loop at the Patch, a name that pays tribute to the Augusta National caddies (a.k.a. loopers) who grew up playing the Patch, which fostered the professional career of players such as Jim Dent.
“With the schedule completion a year from now, this nine-hole par-3 course will be great fun and serve all golfers, ranging from those being introduced to the game to the most avid players,” said Ridley.
In addition, Woods’ TGR Foundation will partner with ANGC to create a fourth TGR Learning Lab in Augusta to deliver STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) to the more than 23,000 students in Augusta-Richmond County public schools.
The concept of his design team creating the short course, as he has done with The Hay short course at Pebble Beach, took shape quickly last year and grew into the larger idea of partnering with ANGC to create a fourth TGR Learning Lab in Augusta to go along with the original in Anaheim, California, a newly opened one at Cobb Creek in Philadelphia and another one being built in Los Angeles.
“We also recognize the importance of deepening Tiger’s legacy in Augusta and with the Masters, and this we felt was an enduring way that we could be forever connected with Tiger and all he’s done at the Masters and now all that he’s going to be doing in this community,” Ridley said.
“There are 27 Richmond County schools within a 10-mile radius of the proposed location of the lab that together can serve more than 23,000 students from the school system,” Ridley said. “Students at the lab will have access to The Loop to learn the game of golf as well as the values of the game that will positively influence them throughout their lives.”
Ridley released a course map for the Patch redevelopment as well as a new course logo depicting a head of cabbage atop a golf tee. “We are leaning into the nickname the Patch, as the course was fondly referred to by local golfers,” Ridley said.
Augusta Municipal was first built in 1928 by Scotland native David Ogilvie, who more famously designed Augusta’s original 18-hole Hill Course for Augusta Country Club in 1908. Ogilvie’s ACC course – which sits above Augusta National’s Amen Corner – was redesigned by Donald Ross in 1927 and later renovated by Brian Silva. Augusta National first opened in 1933 after being co-designed by Alister MacKenzie and club co-founder Bobby Jones.
Meanwhile, the Patch evolved on a meager budget without any big-name course designers clambering to put their name and imprint on it. It came by its nickname honestly, originating from the late Red Douglas, who ran the course for decades and grew a vegetable garden left of the par-3 10th hole at the end of the Daniel Field runaway. Folks started calling it “The Cabbage Patch.” The nickname suited a golf course with its share of weeds covering the rest of the acreage as well in its many leaner years.
Once Augusta National and its coffers took an interest in the Patch, the tenor changed around the muni that helped hone the game of caddies and homegrown pros like Jim Dent. In 2023, Ridley announced a “joint partnership” between ANGC, Augusta Municipal Golf Course, Aiken Technical College and the First Tee of Augusta “to usher in a new era for public golf in our city” that he hopes “will be a model for other communities.”
It took nearly two years for the renovation project to get started, with the Patch finally closing Dec. 29 for a comprehensive year-long “transformative overhaul” that broke ground on New Year’s Day. It is expected to reopen before the 2026 Masters next April.
A new Jim Dent Way entrance will be moved to the opposite corner of the property that is bracketed on two sides by runways at Daniel Field Airport. A brand-new clubhouse and outdoor pavilion will be built in the northeast corner near where The First Tee currently resides, along with a driving range and expansive practice areas for local schools and the general public. The completely new 18-hole routing – which Ridley said could extend to roughly 6,800 yards – will incorporate the existing corridors of 11 of the original holes that hug closest to the airport.
“We know once this project is complete, it will strengthen this nearly 100-year-old public golf facility while keeping it affordable,” Ridley said. “This preservation will uplift those who have loved playing here while fostering opportunities for others to come enjoy the game.”
In 2023, Ridley originally outlined a three-component partnership plan in 2023. Augusta Tech will relocate its golf course management program and create educational opportunities aligned with the First Tee to train and develop the next generation of golf’s workforce.
Despite the ambitious scope of the project. Ridley also promised that costs will remain reasonable despite the enhancements.
“I can promise you that the word ‘affordability’ will continue to be the watchword,” Ridley said. “We realize that this is an asset for the community and everyone in the community, and we have every intention and we will – I commit to you that we will continue to have it be an affordable place for people to play golf.”
Storm can’t keep Masters from being ready
The images you’ll see on television when the Masters begins on Thursday will provide the same comfort as usual as a long, cold winter releases its grip toward spring. Augusta National Golf Club will look as pristine and perfect as always as it heralds the start of another major championship season.
What you won’t see are the scars that inside the gates of Augusta National are invisible but outside the hallowed grounds are still very much on display seven months after the region was ravaged by a deadly storm that killed 31 people in the Augusta area — some asleep in their own beds when during the cover of darkness an estimated third of the tree canopy came crashing down across the region.
In the wee hours of Sept. 27, the remnants of Hurricane Helene stormed through the southeastern United States on a violent 500-mile trek from Florida’s “Big Bend” up through the mountains of the western Carolinas.