Which Golf Course Architect Designed Augusta National Golf Club?

Bobby Jones selected and hired Alister MacKenzie as the golf course architect for Augusta National Golf Club, and Jones and MacKenzie collaborated on the design: Jones would hit test shots from different spots to help MacKenzie calibrate the holes as he laid them out.

One of the biggest ways Jones assisted in MacKenzie's design was by, along with Clifford Roberts, selecting the property in Augusta, Georgia. It was a 365-acre parcel with great, up-and-down, rolling terrain. And it was covered in beautiful vegetation owing, in part, to the fact that for decades previously the land had been used as a tree and plant nursery.

MacKenzie was born in England in 1870 and worked with one of the early giants of course design, Harry Colt, on golf courses in Great Britain before emigrating to the U.S. in the early 1920s.

Augusta is one-third of MacKenzie's trifecta of masterpieces, the other two being Cypress Point Golf Club in California and Royal Melbourne Golf Club (West Course) in Australia. All three are considered among the handful of the world's very best golf courses.

Other famous golf courses designed by MacKenzie include Pasatiempo in California, Crystal Downs in Michigan and the Scarlet Course at Ohio State University. He is credited with designing more than 50 golf courses total.

MacKenzie died in 1934, the year of the first Masters.

Many other architects have made alterations in years since, beginning with Perry Maxwell in 1937. Others who've done work to Augusta National over the years include Robert Trent Jones Sr., George Cobb, Tom Fazio and Jack Nicklaus.