What Are the Holes Named at Augusta National?

All the holes at Augusta National Golf Club are named after flowering shrubs or trees, and/or aromatic trees or shrubs. (Here's something you might be surprised by: One-third of the holes at Augusta National were once named something else. Details on that below.)

Why? It's a nod to the heritage of the property on which Augusta National now sits. When the club's founders purchased the land, it had been a plant nursery named Fruitland Nurseries.

Each hole at Augusta National also showcases the plant after which it is named, which means that plant or shrub is planted on that hole.

The Augusta National Hole Names

Here are the names of each hole on the Augusta National golf course:

(Note: See Augusta Hole Yardages for info about the pars and yardages of each of these holes.)

Some Augusta Hole Names Have Changed

One-third of the holes at Augusta National — six of them — have changed names over the years:

• No. 1, now called Tea Olive, was originally named Cherokee Rose.
• No. 2, now Pink Dogwood, was originally called Woodbine.
• The fourth hole, now named Flowering Crab Apple, was originally called The Palm, after palm trees (a few of which remain).
• No. 7, now named Pampas, was originally Cedar.
• The famous par-3 No. 12, today named Golden Bell, was originally named Three Pines.
• The 14th hole, now called Chinese Fir, was originally named Spanish Dagger.

As with the hole names now, those that were once called something else had the plant or shrub in that old name showcased on the hole.

Why They Are Named for Plants

You already know the broad reason why Augusta Natonal Golf Club uses this naming convention: because the golf course property was once a plant nursery. But let's go a little deeper into that history.

In 1857, the Berckmans family, originally from Belgium, bought the tract of land where Augusta National Golf Club sits today. One year later, they started a plant nursery. They named it Fruitland Nurseries. But not content to grow and sell only Georgia native flora, the Berckmans began importing non-native plant species, too. In fact, Prosper Julius Alphonse Berckmans, son of the Berckmans patriarch who first purchased the land, is credited with popularizing the azalea plant in the United States, according to the Augusta Chronicle newspaper.

After Prosper Berckmans died in 1910, however, Fruitland Nurseries ceased operations.

When Augusta National founders Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones began, around 1930, scouting land on which to build their dream golf club, they found the verdant land in Augusta, Ga., where the Berckmans' Fruitland Nurseries had been.

They purchased the land for $70,000 in 1931. And one of the first people Roberts and Jones hired was Prosper Berckmans' son, Louis Alphonse Berckmans, to help position (or dig up and reposition, in some cases) the flowering plants and shrubs and trees that ultimately gave their names to the holes of Augusta National.