A Masterpiece’s Evolution

He wouldn’t recognize the place. If Dr. Alister MacKenzie were alive today and you dropped him onto the grounds of Augusta National – arguably the most famous golf course in the world and inarguably the one for which the physician-turned-architect is most known – he might guess a dozen places before realizing he was on those old Fruitland acres off Washington Road.

That works both ways. Today’s players, even those who believe they know every nook and cranny of Augusta National, wouldn’t recognize the MacKenzie version of the place, either. But thanks to photography from 1935, taken before the playing of the second Masters, we can see extraordinary differences between what MacKenzie and Bobby Jones found on the ground and what the women in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and men in the Masters will find in the next two weeks.

“The most stark and immediate difference you see is in the bunkering,” said architect and former tour player Bill Bergin, who provided GGP+ with the photographs. “If you look at those old photos of Augu...