Masters in bloom: More than azaleas and dogwood make up golf’s most beautiful garden
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Azaleas and dogwoods are as synonymous with the Masters as Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, which is a little unfair — not to the other 55 Masters champions, but to the other 350 species of flora that make Augusta National a golf course unlike any other. The par-3 16th is famous for Woods hitting that pitch that made a U-turn at the top of the slope, hung on the edge of the cup and dropped during his 2005 victory.
No eyes were on the beautiful Redbud shrub with its vibrant pink blooms. The par-3 12th hole is associated with its name on the scorecard, “Golden Bell,” a yellow bloom native to Asia. Ask just about any player at the Masters if they’ve ever seen a Golden Bell and it’s doubtful.
It blooms in late winter. The Masters is golf’s rite of spring. “I’ve played the 12th enough.
I’m sure I’ve seen one somewhere,” Rory McIlroy said. Pebble Beach is the felicitous meeting of land and sea. Augusta National is the greatest garden in golf, because that’s what it was before Bobby Jones went looking for land to build his golf course and found the 365-acre Fruitland Nurseries.
“Perfect! And to think this ground has been lying here all these years waiting for someone to come along and lay a golf course on it,” Jones said when he first laid eyes on the property. He took out an option for $70,000.
Continue to the original source for the full article.