{"id":593732,"date":"2026-04-08T16:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/593732\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T16:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:22:12","slug":"walking-this-golf-course-is-now-a-botanists-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/593732\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking this golf course is now a botanist\u2019s dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Jack Nicklaus<\/a> says that he gets chills when he drives up Magnolia Lane at the Augusta National Golf Club, and I know exactly how he feels about the hallowed grounds where The Masters<\/a> is played every April<\/a>. Like most of the visitors to Augusta, I\u2019m here for the golf, but the tightly manicured landscape, bursting with vibrant colors resembling a Vincent Van Gogh palette, always take my breath away.\n <\/p>\n

\n If I\u2019m ever lucky enough to play it, this is a golf course where I wouldn\u2019t mind losing my ball from time to time \u2013 I\u2019d want to explore every last piece of it.\n <\/p>\n

\n Stepping away from the hustle and bustle of modern-day life and entering through the main gates just off Washington Road is like walking through the wardrobe into Narnia. Etched into the grounds of a former horticultural nursery, Augusta National has never forgotten its roots.\n <\/p>\n

\n Back in the 1930s, the founders of the club worked with Louis Alphonse Berckmans, son of the nursery\u2019s late owner, to adorn each of the 18 holes with a distinctive species and since then some 80,000 plants and 350 different varieties have been added.\n <\/p>\n

\"Dustin<\/p>\n

\n Walking the course is now a botanist\u2019s dream, almost a century in the making. If you can catch it in the air, the apricot scent of the tea olives on the opening hole is seductive, and if they\u2019re flowering, the dogwoods, peaches, crab apples, magnolias and camelias are a feast for the eyes.\n <\/p>\n

\n By the time you reach the 13th hole, where many a player\u2019s journey towards the green jacket goes off the rails, there is something to help keep everything in perspective: a breathtaking bank of some 1,600 flowering azalea shrubs splashed all the way from tee to green \u2013 it\u2019s a stunning reminder of the world\u2019s natural beauty.\n <\/p>\n

\n Photojournalist John McAfee<\/a> covered 33 Masters tournaments, but on one occasion, he was assigned to cover the Final Four<\/a> instead. In a phone call that\u2019s since become CNN Sports<\/a> lore, he rang the team at Augusta, lowered his voice to a hush in case he was overheard, and enquired, \u201cAre the azaleas pretty?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s a story that always gets a laugh, but I now feel that same attraction to the majesty of the course as he did. During my years at Augusta, I\u2019ve overheard many conversations among the patrons and found myself silently agreeing with their sentiment, \u201cI wish I could get the azaleas in my yard to look like that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n This year, I said it out loud, and a patron next to me offered a response: \u201cBecause you don\u2019t have an undersoil heating system warming the roots of your plants.\u201d Augusta National Golf Club has never spoken about how it is seemingly able to manipulate the flowering of the buds on its property, but for many \u2013 no matter how far-fetched the notion might be \u2013 some kind of botanical sorcery is assumed.\n <\/p>\n

\n Despite bearing a name that would be perfectly suited for Augusta National, Justin Rose admits that he\u2019s not much of a gardener. The three-time runner-up told CNN Sports that he\u2019s rarely home enough to take care of anything he might have planted.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt would not be the greatest looking garden if I was in full charge,\u201d he said. However, he notes he always thinks of his mom when he sees all the flowers, and he can\u2019t help noticing the beauty.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhenever I come back here, I think of her,\u201d Rose said. \u201cIt\u2019s a spectacle, right? The whole place and the whole environment and the whole week, the whole thing is a pretty, beautiful show.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\"Jordan<\/p>\n

\n At Augusta National, the patrons are walking among the legends of the game, but they\u2019re also standing in the shadows of giants.\n <\/p>\n

\n Georgia-native, 70-foot-tall Loblolly Pine Trees line many of the fairways, and an enormous oak tree stands like a beacon outside of the clubhouse. Planted in the 1850s, it\u2019s now around 170 years old and I\u2019ll often find myself gazing up into its magnificent structure with a sense of awe.\n <\/p>\n

\n Its octopus-like horizontal limbs seemingly defy gravity, although some are held up with suspension cables, and the tree is rigged with a lightning rod. The Masters wants to protect its centerpiece specimen, although three-time champion Nick Faldo once told me that he\u2019d heard they could crane in a replacement if it ever lost its balance, and the patrons would likely never notice.\n <\/p>\n

\"Caddie<\/p>\n

\n The wonderful trees and the glorious petals will always be the showstoppers at Augusta, but trained eyes will notice the tiniest of details, too. New buildings at Augusta are presented as if they\u2019ve been there for years and the flora helps create the illusion.\n <\/p>\n

\n When the new media center opened in 2017, my attention was drawn to the ivy growing around the fa\u00e7ade at the back of the building. As avid gardeners will know, ivy is a famously slow grower: It \u2018sleeps\u2019 in its first season, then it \u2018creeps\u2019 in year two and it only \u2018leaps\u2019 in its third year. But these vines were already well established on a structure that had only just opened its doors.\n <\/p>\n

\n And for much of the time at Augusta, there is only the nature to marvel at. Groups of players will pass through every 10 minutes or so, and since cell phones are prohibited, there are no distractions \u2013 nothing can spoil the view.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s the only major sporting event in the world that isn\u2019t littered with gaudy advertising panels and look-at-me branding. You won\u2019t be tempted by any sleek soda slogans at the concession stands and you certainly won\u2019t find a sponsor\u2019s car parked behind the 16th green. For much of the day, you\u2019re at one with nature\u2019s beauty.\n <\/p>\n

\n Golf is a good walk spoiled, Mark Twain was purported to have said, but surely nobody could ever say that about a day at The Masters \u2013 and especially the greenest of thumbs are guaranteed to leave Augusta National green with envy.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Nicklaus says that he gets chills when he drives up Magnolia Lane at the Augusta National Golf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-593732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}