Just like every civilization which sprung from borne leaders trying to build tools in order to provide nourishment and shelter for their kin, every organization, fellowship, circles, secret societies, and high-end clubs have their founders. And just like a mighty silverback that starts a family of gorillas and passes genes through the next generation over and beyond, your well-loved seat of the Masters, Augusta National Golf Club has its own founding fathers as well. After all, who would have the inspiration to expand the golf mogul’s empire and keep the flame burning without the hard work and dedication of its founders? Anyway, Augusta National Golf Club was found by a legend on the field of golf, and you will believe that he is himself an amateur champion by the name of Bobby Jones. With the help of a shrewd New York investment banker named Clifford Roberts, they arduously designed the golf course, with the esteemed British architect Dr. Alister Mackenzie. And Jones’s popularity with the game made it the apple of the eye of golf’s champions to the Masters, starting with the inaugural event in 1934. Roberts made a big part in noting infinite details of the Tournament. With dedication, he made efforts to refine the Masters experience for competitors and patrons alike and expand the golf empire. Let’s take a hike down memory lane and get to know these pioneer Masters who started it all.
An Amateur Champion with a Lion’s Heart
Born on St. Patrick’s Day on 1902, Robert Tyre Jones Jr., nicknamed Bobby in Atlanta, Georgia is an amateur golf champion who wrapped golf around his finger in the early 1920s to 1930s. He made a record of winning 13 out of 21 championships in the course of seven years. In his lifetime, he had five US Amateur Championships, four US Open Championships, and three British Open Championships. Setting a record in 1926, he was the first man who ever won the Open Championship of the two countries in one year. As a student, Jones excelled in the academics who studied engineering at Georgia Tech with a BS degree in mechanical engineering and finished a BA in English literature at Harvard. In 1971, after tireless years of playing golf, writing books, building a historical milestone called the Masters, he went with his unfailing faith at age 69 from the spinal disease syringomyelia.
Shrewd Banker and Master Architect
Clifford Roberts was born and raised in a farm somewhere in Morning Sun, Iowa in 1894. He was a smarty pants investment banker, who made a name on Wall Street as a Partner for the Reynolds & Company. Named Chairman in Memoriam after his death in 1977, Roberts played the role of a Chairman of Augusta National from 1931 to 1976. With his supervision, the Masters had countless innovations which serve commonplace in golf today. To go easy on the gallery viewing, he shifted locations of perimeter mounds and was the pioneer to use a series of Leader Boards scattered throughout the course. He also devised a plan for displaying the cumulative score of each player – for instance, red numbers for under par, a green zero for par, and green numbers for over par. He brought the Masters closer to the hearts of fans and aficionados alike by enabling the first Masters telecast on CBS in 1956, working closely with the network thereafter. In 1948, he invited then General Dwight Eisenhower to visit Augusta National who later became a political and financial advisor t the President. A golf fan himself, Eisenhower became an active member of the Club. Now how’s that for big credentials?
These are just some of the of the milestones that the first Masters gave Augusta in order to make the course totally a worldwide sensation and the breath-taking experience of a lifetime.
