When was the Augusta National Golf Club founded? Exploring all about the host of The Masters

For golf fans, spring starts not with the change of the weather but with the ceremonial tee shots down Magnolia Lane. Few, though, know that the verdant fairways of Augusta National were once an ailing nursery and that the Masters Tournament was conceived out of necessity, not splendor.

The story of the course began in 1931, when Bobby Jones, riding high after achieving golf’s only Grand Slam, set out to find a site for the course of his dreams. What he encountered in Augusta, Georgia — a former indigo plantation that had become a botanical nursery — fascinated him.

“It seemed that this land had just been sitting here — it could have been for a hundred years — just waiting for someone to put a golf course on top of it,” Jones later wrote in his book Golf Is My Game.

With the investment banker Clifford Roberts and the legendary architect Alister MacKenzie, he converted the land into the Augusta National Golf Club, which opened officially in December 1932.

Jones imagined a layout that could test the best while still being playable for the average player. MacKenzie’s design, with generous fairways and a little rough, was interested in natural contours, not artificial hazards — a philosophy that remains in place to this day. Unfortunately, their vision came at a cost, and the club faced financial difficulties during the Great Depression. The club’s membership lagged behind, and MacKenzie died early in 1934, having never seen the course’s influence.

With the club teetering on the brink, Roberts and Jones introduced the Augusta National Invitation Tournament in 1934, wagering that Jones’ fame would lure players and fans. The gamble paid off. By 1939, it had received a new name — The Masters — and an indelible spot in golf history.

From Gene Sarazen’s Shot Heard ‘Round the World in 1935 to Tiger Woods’s record-breaking debut in 1997, the Augusta National is more than just a golf course. It’s a living monument to tradition, triumph, and the indelible vision of two men who thought the land could become something unforgettable.

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All about the first tournament played at the Augusta National Golf Club

Before we heard about green jackets, Amen Corner, and Tiger’s roars, the legendary Masters Tournament began as merely the Augusta National Invitation Tournament, with its first play on March 22, 1934. It was conceived by Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts, the founders of Augusta National Golf Club, who wanted to stage an event that would be a testament to their dream for golf’s future — on a layout designed to showcase both strategy and beauty.

The first tournament was a statement of purpose, coming just over a year after Augusta National opened in 1933. But it wasn’t known as The Masters just yet — Jones considered that name too egotistical, so for its first five years, the tournament went by a humbler title.

Horton Smith was only 25, a young star in the making when he made history by winning the first of those tournaments by a single stroke over Craig Wood. Smith birdied the 17th to go ahead, clinching the victory and the start of a tradition. The $1,500 winner’s prize was only possible because club members chipped in to raise it, a reflection of the financial hardships of those early days.

Interestingly, the course was reversed in 1934 compared to how it’s played today — the back nine played as the front nine, and the reverse. The final stretch, becoming the dramatic crescendo fans know and love today, didn’t happen until 1935 when the current routing was adopted.

This humble affair, which was dreamed up by Bobby Jones and contested on a course used at one time for grazing cattle, would one day emerge as golf’s most respected major — the Masters.