Recently reading a great book by Charles Price called “A Golf Story” which is a wonderful tale about the triumvirate connection of Bobby Jones, Augusta National, and the Masters.

For some reason it led me to I find this linked article from an old Links magazine that discusses the discovery of two original Alister MacKenzie sketches of the 13th and 16th hole at Augusta.  At the time of Augusta National’s opening in 1932 the current back nine was the front nine so these holes are noted as 4 and 7 respectively.  These drawings were lost to the public view for 80+ years.

What is fascinating about this is that 13 was originally to be a par 4, admittedly MacKenzie’s favorite of the original design. There were to be bunkers in front of the green between the front edge and Rae’s Creek and a fairway bunker on the right side of the driving area. These bunker features never made it to the final design. 

The 16th in this drawing was an “alternative hole” not the original mundane 150 yard par 3 hole featured when Augusta opened.  It was only changed in the late 1940’s when Robert Trent Jones came up with the new “original” design for 16 at Bobby Jones’s request. 

As it turns out Trent Jones got the notion from Bobby Jones for this configuration without Jones telling him that it was MacKenzie’s original “alternative hole” he was describing.  Only real difference was in the final design the adjacent creek to the left of the green became the pond we know today.

Ah, the secrets history eventually reveals.

Links Magazine (2010ish)

(Click to see the Links Magazine article on the Lost Drawings of Augusta National)