More Master's Treasures

Today is the final day of the Master's golf tournament so a perfect time to end a 3-part series of the beautiful course. Imagine walking down the stairs (to the left) with me to see what other treasures adorn the course as I pass along some interesting facts.

This golf course sits on property were Fruitlands Nursery was formed in 1858. The nursery was in operation for over 50 years when the owner died. The land sat stagnant until 1931 when it was purchased ($70,000) by golf legend Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts to form a golf course. They acquired the assistance of the Nursery owners grandson (at age 74) for plant placement of the many remaining plants from the days of an operating nursery. More then 80,000 plants and more then 350 varieties have been added over the years!


One of the many plants brought to Georgia from other countries during the days of being a nursery may have been this bamboo. It may also be one of many varieties of bamboo that are native to Georgia. The Atlanta zoo comes to our area to harvest bamboo for their Panda bears! They will only eat a certain type and it grows here in gardens. People are kind enough to allow them to harvest for the cute little critters.
Magnolia lane, which I have already shown you, is lined with 61 magnolias that were planted before the Civil War! This beautiful tree is found throughout the course. I wonder how old these to the left are?

White is not only seen in the blooming dogwoods and azaleas but other plants adorn beautiful white blooms as well.
Here are two different examples of white found around the course. The close up is NOT of the bush above right.



Pink dogwoods were easily recognised by our eyes. I love pink dogwoods and sometime wonder why we don't see more of them in southern gardens.

We found a beautiful old evergreen (spruce?) tree near the Clubhouse at the end of Magnolia Lane.

I wonder if this tree is as old as the Magnolia trees?


New growth was apparent on the green tips.


I find the trunk interesting even after many years of pruned branches.






Bushes of blooming red Camellias were seen about as well as beautiful purple blossoms of Wisteria vines.


There is a wisteria vine located behind the Clubhouse that we could not see, as this area was off limits. It is believed to be the largest vine of its kind in the country! Oh, how I wanted to sneak behind the clubhouse for a peek!










Enlarge this picture to see the massive roots on this Wisteria.

Another grand "Deep South" tree would be the magnificent Live Oak. The Live Oak is the state tree of Georgia.

Green leaves are just starting to pop out on this oak and the trunk is filled with Resurrection Fern. I was unaware of this fern until we moved here. We have a small clump at the base of one of our Sweet Gum Trees.


This is our fern that you see to the right, as a close up example.











This is a very interesting Air Plant (like Spanish Moss) that grows on tree branches. It stays lush and green by taking nutrient and water from the tree. With lack of water, it will brown and curl up in a dormant state, appearing dead. With a spray of the hose or a rainfall, within minutes, it resurrects back to life! I wonder if my small clump, will ever be this massive. Hummmm.




I am not sure what this beautiful creamy yellow bush is but it was really an eye catcher with the vibrant green of the course to compliment it. See the close up below.


There is an interesting fact that I will share with you but did not think to snap a picture of. After all, who would snap a shot of a ever so common Privet hedge? Well, the Privet Hedge at this place was imported from France in the 1860's and is the source for most hedges of its kind in the south! Wish I had snapped a picture of it. Oh well, there is always next year!

I hope you have enjoyed my 3-part series on this beautiful Golf Course. I must leave you with one more thing that I found impressive about this place. Each and every Hole on the course is named after some type of plant or flower. The men that created this course really did appreciate the beauty of plants and flowers!

Hole 1-Tea Olive
Hole 2-Pink Dogwood
Hole 3-Flowering Peach
Hole 4-Flowering Crab Apple
Hole 5-Magnolia
Hole 6-Juniper
Hole 7-Pampas
Hole 8-Yellow Jasmine
Hole 9-Carolina Cherry
Hole 10-Camellia
Hole 11-White Dogwood
Hole 12-Golden Bell
Hole 13-Azalea
Hole 14-Chinese Fir
Hole 15-Firethorn
Hole 16-Redbud
Hole 17-Nandina
Hole 18-Holly

Even though I snapped tons of picture, many of which I have shared with
you in this 3-part series, you can see by reading the Hole names, that I am missing many More Treasures of this beautiful Golf Course. Or is it a Garden?

Master's Maintenance

I recently took you on a stroll through the world famous Augusta National Golf Course (or was it a garden?). While there, one cannot help but wonder how do they keep the grounds so beautiful for patrons to enjoy.

I was lucky enough to be able to see some of the groundskeepers on the job. As the Saint and I entered the course, we noticed these men walking around with long stick type things. They were making a sweeping motion from side to side while walking down one of the long fairway's.


Our curiosity got the best of us. As we crept closer to these men, we could see what they were doing. Can you guess?



They were sweeping the grass clipping from the freshly mowed grass. I have no idea what these tools are called but we found them to be very interesting.



We were impressed with how they did the job of spreading out the fresh clippings. Have any of you ever seen such gardening tools before? We could not decide if they were rubber, or wood but they did seem to be flexible.



We found a mowing posse as we approached Amen Corner! This was really impressive to the hoards of people like myself snapping pictures of them. I refer to them as a posse because they ran in a pack. They were moving so quickly that I could only get 4 mowers in this shot together. There were 10 mowers all together!


They mowed in a staggered sequence. The lead mower would set the stage for the other mowers to follow being a few feet to the left or right of the lead mower. It was really interesting to see how quickly and how clipping free this type mowing preformed.


The man on the gray mower was the lead mower. Notice the woman driving the red mower! That surprised us as this course is very traditional and seems to be mostly a "Mans World". We were happy to see that a woman can work right along side the men today on this traditional course.


We are not sure why the tennis balls are hanging down from the roof. Our guess is they represent the middle of the mower to the drivers.

These mowers were so impressive that the Augusta Chronicle published a picture in yesterdays paper of all 10 mowers in a row while mowing. I was not so lucky to catch such a shot so I am using the picture from the newspaper. The caption says the grass type is bentgrass which is a slicker surface then other varieties.

Back at Amen corner we found another strange contraption on the green. We are not sure if this was clipping the grass, raking the grass or what. The strange thing was, the machine was moving from side to side as the man operated it! I was thinking that motion might make me a bit dizzy! Have any of you ever seen such a contraption? The Saint and I both were mesmerised at this toy.


We spotted these copper colored things on a few pine trees in one area. You can see a second one on the tree in the background. Enlarge to see if you can get any clues as to why these were on the trees. We guessed that they are a band aide of sorts to freshly pruned branches. They had a bad storm last year that took a few trees down so this could be a "patch" to missing branches compliments of Mother Nature. What do you think?



Over all the place was immaculate to the eye.

The Saint and I were trying our best to find flaws. We found two flaws. One being shown to the right of the dead patch of grass. We saw a few spots such as this one.

The other thing we spotted was right in the middle of one of the fairways. It looked as those some weeds had started to sprout! Guess not even the Masters Golf Course can escape those pesky weeds!

You can see the off colored weeds in this shot. Notice how spectators are allowed to walk on the fairways. I was shocked at that as we expected to be forced to walk on walkways only. We were pleasantly surprised to be able to walk all over the course. The only thing off limits is the Tee-off Boxes, Greens and some fairways.

I would love to know how much it cost to maintain this beautiful place! I would also love to able to be part of the maintenance crew. They must take great pride in their work. What say you? Any of you like to work beside me on the course?

I wish I knew more about the maintenance but at least we were able to see a bit of it first hand...

The Masters; Golf course or Garden?

The Saint and I (Skeeter) have lived in the Augusta, Georgia area for 8 years this month. We have never seen, much less set foot on the famous Augusta National Golf course until this past Monday. Tickets to the event are very difficult to get. As locals, we were able to apply in a lottery of sorts and we were lucky enough to acquire a couple of tickets!


Not many people get the privilege to drive down Magnolia lane to the front doors of the Club house. Magnolia lane is lined on both sides by beautiful old Magnolia trees that have been around for many years! I can only imagine the feeling inside of people such as Tiger Woods as they drive down this beautiful lane...


Not being invited to play in the tournament, we did not walk nor drive down Magnolia lane. Instead we wound our way down a pathway that gave peeks of the course through the beautiful blooming azaleas. Soon we were on the course.





So here we are, the Saint and I posing in front of a beautiful grouping of azaleas. I must say the azaleas were my favorites on the course. But what are azaleas without colors of white or green? Such colors come from dogwood and magnolia trees.




The white of the dogwood trees and the green of the grass made the azalea colors really pop. I love this picture even though a sleeping (dead looking) tree is amongst the grouping. It was an overcast day so with no sun, the pictures are not as vibrant.




The azaleas around town have been blooming much earlier then they are supposed to, and I was shocked to see the same on the course. I have heard rumors that the grounds keepers have ways of keeping the bloom time on track for final tournament day being this Sunday. But apparently the stories of underground water temp controls, ice packed below each bush, etc are not true. The azaleas are at their peak blooming as of two days ago. Look at the pink blooms laying on the ground. (below)

Look at the Orange azalea! I have never seen one this color before. Have any of you? The color caught my eye and I made a bee-line across the course to check them out.

Enlarge this close up shot to see the yellow colors within. I am not sure if this is an azalea but it appears to be. It has an awesome bloom.


What an idea, orange and pink working together.

Here you see two different types of Japanese maples nestled between a Magnolia and Azaleas.
Enlarge this shot below to see 3 maples total in the far off view. I find it interesting how they placed 3 different types of Japanese maples in a grouping. One is light red, one is deep red while the third one is green. How clever!



How many different colors of azaleas do you see?

Here is one of the cottages along the course. Not sure who stays in these but look at the next picture below to see the view from the porches.



What do y'all think? Could you handle waking up to that view each morning? I think so!



In this shot below of the Par 3 course, you can see Wisteria climbing up tree's. It has past its prime and is starting to fade it's purple color. Maybe if you enlarge the picture, the Wisteria will be more easily seen.



Rolling hills of green with the spring colors in the back ground. Is this place a golf course or a garden? I only wish it had been a sunny day to really capture the beauty better through pictures.






This really is a golf course. See the white sand traps (bunkers) below the garden?







I like this shot at the left. It shows the Masters yellow flag (pin) on a green with the bunkers behind as well as the beautiful spring colors. See how the white frames the azaleas...






What would a walk through the Masters be without a picture of Amen Corner? (Below) Dubbed so by a Sports Illustrated writer. Notice that when you enlarge this picture that the azaleas are not blooming. Mystery for me.





Azaleas are the dominant blooming flower on the course, but there are other things that I will share with you another time...





Hope you have enjoyed your little stroll through the Masters. I worked up a hunger so there I sit indulging in one of the world famous Pimento Cheese sandwiches at the end of a long walk! Hey, a Southern tradition and a must for Masters visitors around the globe!

If you would like to see more of the course, tune in to the final day of the tournament on Sunday. Yeah, I know who cares about golf right, well don't tune in to watch the golf but to enjoy the scenery instead. I know we do each year!