Golf Augusta Masters, there’s a secret if the course is always perfect

At 8.30 on Sunday morning play resumed. It’s Easter day and the Masters is looking for its champion number 87. The public is preparing to experience the duel at the top between Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm, and to applaud those who try to gain positions. Because here nothing is said until the last shot. Round three had been suspended on Saturday afternoon with Augusta National’s pristine, flowery holes literally under water, hit by heavy rains for thirty hours non-stop. But when the players resume their positions where they marked the ball, the pitch is perfect.

IMPROVEMENTS

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Augusta National never ceases to amaze. Course and tournament were born for each other and have traveled together a history of continuous improvements, big and small. To adapt to the evolution of ever more performing materials, to pay maniacal attention to every detail and thus offer a unique experience to those who play and to those who earn a seat in the front row. In view of the appointment, the track will remain closed to play for six months. As Tiger Woods says, “It’s amazing how every change made to the field feels like it’s always been.” There is nothing like it on the golf planet. Dry field on Sunday morning can’t be mother nature’s work. Nor of the exorbitant number of field workers who work day and night. If the end of the tournament didn’t go long until Monday, it’s no coincidence.

VENTILATION

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It rained on the Masters 48 times out of 87 editions, 24 in the last forty-one years. 25 tournaments were delayed by rain and five ended on Monday. The last one was in 1983, when Seve Ballesteros wore the green jacket for the second time. A solution had to be found in order not to lose so much preparation work in an instant. Said done, but of course you can’t see it. However, taking a closer look, one notices the grids hidden by the reliefs next to the greens from which comes a dull hum reminiscent of the muffled one heard on an airplane. The grilles provide the necessary ventilation for an immense underground conditioning system of the grounds, greens and fairways. The system is called SubAir (produced by a company 25 kilometers from the club) and a first version was already in use in Augusta from the end of the 1990s. After a night of pouring rain a machine the size of a stove could be seen issuing a torrent of water. It was invented on site by Marsh Benson, director of field operations, and was attached to the already existing network of drainage pipes that ran under the surface of the greens. Like a great vacuum cleaner, it sucked up water and moisture from the ground.

COSTS

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The club has since equipped all greens and fairways in the driver landing areas (but also some crossings for the public), with similar permanently buried units. In reality, as they explain behind the scenes, SubAir’s purpose is not only to suck up rivers of water when needed, but to pump fresh air to the greens from below, providing the roots with an optimal environment for growth. A reverse treatment. The first green to receive it was that of the 12th hole, a nightmare for greenkeepers since the course has existed, and the improvement was immediately evident. The cost for green, installation and energy costs is just under 30,000 euros.