Styrofoam trophies? Inside the Augusta area's most unpretentious club | Destination Aiken
Just up the road from Augusta National, historic Palmetto GC is a club for serious golfers that doesn't take itself too seriously. Connor Federico Picture this. You’re walking (on eggshells) through the Augusta National clubhouse, absorbing the ambiance, admiring the decor, when you spy a glass case with trophies in it.
Except they aren’t trophies. They’re Styrofoam cups, cheeky stand-ins for the real things. An exhibit of that kind would never be allowed at the home of the Masters .
But 30 minutes up the road, at a club whose roots run deeper than Augusta’s, a setup just like it stands on proud display. Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken, S. C.
, is a rarity in the game: an historic club for serious golfers that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It dates to 1892, making it the oldest 18-hole course in the American South and the second-oldest club in the same location in the United States after Chicago Golf Club. As at Augusta National, prominent names had a hand in its design.
Thomas Hitchcock got Palmetto’s layout started before Herbert Leeds (of Myopia Hunt Club fame) completed the front nine. Donald Ross is said to have pitched in on irrigation, followed by Alister MacKenzie, who helped convert the greens from sand to grass even as he worked with Bobby Jones at Augusta. Modern-day contributors include Tom Doak , Rees Jones and Gil Hanse.