Augusta National's Latest Effort Shows a Different Way the Game Is Reaching More People
via Usta
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The contrast between Augusta National's exclusivity and this new community project is the core hook, but this phrasing is confusing.
Augusta Municipal Golf Course has been part of the city since 1928. Locals never needed the full name. It has always just been “The Patch.” By 2023, it was still there, just worn down and easy to overlook. Augusta National Golf Club and its partners stepped in to keep it alive and open to the same community that built it.
"We know once this project is complete, it will strengthen this nearly 100-year-old public golf facility while keeping it affordable," Ridley said. "This preservation will uplift those who have loved playing here while fostering opportunities for others to come enjoy the game."
Tom Fazio and Beau Welling rebuilt the 18-hole course around what was already there, keeping 11 original corridors and adding five tee options to widen how it can be played. Nearby, Tiger Woods and his TGR Design team created The Loop, a fast, forgiving nine-hole course built for beginners.
Doors will be opening on April 15, a week after the 2026 Masters. Fazio had the planning buttoned up by fall 2025, and he's been sitting with this ever since.
The course shut down in December 2024 for construction, months after Hurricane Helene tore through Georgia and knocked down trees across the property. By the time Tom Fazio’s team arrived, much of the clearing was already done.
What followed was a full rebuild, grass, drainage, irrigation, without changing the ground it sat on.
A Short Course, a Learning Lab, and a Legacy That Augusta National Never Forgot
A TGR Learning Lab is also coming to Augusta. Tiger Woods’s foundation plans to run free STEAM classes there for local students. Opening is targeted for 2028.
"This is a transformational opportunity to empower the next generation," Woods said, "and deliver meaningful educational programming and access to fun and affordable golf."
Augusta Technical College is moving its golf course management program onto the property. Students learn inside a real working course rather than a classroom.
The history matters. The Patch was where Augusta’s Black golfers played when others refused them. Jim Dent learned the game here before caddying at Augusta National, and now both the entrance and The Loop carry his legacy.
April 15 is coming, and for plenty of people in Augusta, it won't feel like an opening. It will feel more like a homecoming.
Read more at Daily Club Golf!
Written by
Sneha Abraham
Edited by
Pulkit Prabhav